The
Azerbaijan Communist Party is a
political partyA political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
. AKP was set up in 1993 by Ramiz Ahmadov ( March 6, 1939 - September 10, 2007 ) and registered by the Justice Ministry in 1994.
Ideology
AKP maintains close contacts with the
Communist Party of the Russian FederationThe Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
and wants reunification with
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
while still being patriotic. In one occasion Ahmadov stated:
we are Narimanovists, followers of the national, cultural and economic ideas of Nariman Narimanov.http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/050901Jamestown.shtml
Nariman NarimanovNarimanov Nariman Karbalayi Najaf oglu was an Azerbaijani revolutionary, writer, publicist, politician and statesman. In 1920, Narimanov headed the Soviet government of Azerbaijan, the Provisional Military-Revolutionary Committee , replacing Mirza Davud Huseynov, then he was the Chairman of the...
was a moderately nationalist and leftist Azeri leader of the 1920s, and is viewed in retrospect as a forerunner of "
national communismThe term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....
."
AKP often criticizes US politics in the region. In 2004 after the US State Department told that US was not planning to impose sanctions on Nagorno Karabakh separatists, Ahmadov said that the Americans underhandedly supported the
ArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n interests and that Washington was not interested in the settlement of the conflict. He also added that the great powers are making use of the
Karabakh conflictThe Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
for their own interests.
AKP was strongly against the Azeri participation into the
Iraq war and it often expressed solidarity to
Palestinian peopleThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
, to
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and also to "socialist
MoldovaMoldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
".
Leaders
On September 10, 2007, party chief Ramiz Ahmadov died after a long illness. His body was sent for burial in his native
QubaQuba is a rayon in northeastern Azerbaijan. The capital is located on the Kudyal River at 41.37°N, 48.50°E....
. From 2000 to 2005 Ahmadov had been a member of the
National Assembly of AzerbaijanThe National Assembly , also transliterated as Milli Majlis is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies and 25 were members elected by proportional...
.
The charmain is now Rauf Gurbanov who obtained the leadership of the party after a long dispute with Rustam Shahsuvarov.
Results
The party claims that it has 60.000 members.
AKP publishes
Azerbaijan Hagigaty.
At the
parliamentary election of 5 November 2000 and 7 January 2001Parliamentary elections were held in Azerbaijan on 5 November 2000, although a re-run had to be held in 11 constituencies on 7 Januarh 2001 due to "massive irregularities". The result was a victory for the New Azerbaijan Party, which won 75 of the 125 seats....
, the party won 6.3 % of the popular vote and 2 out of 125 seats.
At the
parliamentary elections of 6 November 2005The 2005 Azerbaijan parliamentary election was held on November 6. It pitted candidates of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party against opposition led by the Azadlıq bloc of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, the Equality Party and Azerbaijan Democratic Party. The polling stations closed 19:00...
won no seats, but the chairman Ramiz Ahmadov was not running due to health problems.
At the municipal election of 17 December 2004, the party did very well and it elected 128 members to the local municipalities.
At the
presidential electionA presidential election was held in Azerbaijan on 15 October 2008. Ilham Aliyev of the New Azerbaijan Party was re-elected with 87% of the votes, according to official results...
that will be held in Azerbaijan on 15 October 2008, AKP decided to support the candidate from the
Yeni AzerbaijanThe New Azerbaijan Party is the ruling political party in Azerbaijan. It was formed on 18 December 1992 by the former President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, who led it until his retirement and death in 2003...
ruling party, current president of Azerbaijan
Ilham AliyevIlham Heydar oglu Aliyev is the President of Azerbaijan since 2003. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party and the head of the National Olympic Committee...
http://www.today.az/news/politics/48023.html http://www.today.az/news/politics/47610.html.
AKP is part of the
Union of Communist Parties — Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Union of Communist Parties Communist Party of the Soviet Union is a group of communist parties in the former Soviet Union established in 1993, comprising:*Communist Party of the Russian Federation*Communist Party of Ukraine*Communist Party of Belarus*Communist Party of...
External links