New Azerbaijan Party
Encyclopedia
The New Azerbaijan Party (Yeni Azərbaycan Partiyası, YAP) is the ruling political party
Political party
A 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 Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , 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...

. It was formed on 18 December 1992 by the former President of Azerbaijan
President of Azerbaijan
The country of Azerbaijan is a presidential republic, with the President of Azerbaijan as the head of state, and the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan as head of government...

 Heydar Aliyev
Heydar Aliyev
Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev , also spelled as Heidar Aliev, Geidar Aliev, Haydar Aliyev, Geydar Aliyev was the third President of Azerbaijan for the New Azerbaijan Party from June 1993 to October 2003, when his son Ilham Aliyev succeeded him.From 1969 till 1982, Aliyev was also the leader of Soviet...

, who led it until his retirement and death in 2003. It is now led by his son, Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Aliyev
Ilham 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...

, who succeeded his father as the party leader and as President of Azerbaijan since 2003.

The party's stated ideologies are lawfulness
Rule of law
The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...

, secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

, and Azerbaijani nationalism
Azerbaijani nationalism
Azerbaijani nationalism was relatively slow to develop under the communists. "Rather than imagining themselves as part of a continuous national tradition, like the Georgians and Armenians, the Muslims of Transcaucasia saw themselves as part of the larger Muslim world, the umma." After the end of...

. It wants to build a "social-oriented
Social market economy
The social market economy is the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It is based on the economic philosophy of Ordoliberalism from the Freiburg School...

" economy, and lists civil solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...

 and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

 as the basis of its ideology. The founder of the party, Heydar Aliyev, was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

 until July 1991.

At the elections (5 November 2000 and 7 January 2001), the party won 62.3% of the popular vote and 75 out of 125 seats. Its candidate Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Aliyev
Ilham 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...

 was reported by the government to have won 80% of the popular vote in the 2003 presidential elections
Azerbaijan presidential election, 2003
A presidential election was held in Azerbaijan on October 15, 2003. As expected, Ilham Aliyev, son of the outgoing president, Heydar Aliyev, was easily elected in an election which international observers held not to be free or fair....

, which faced criticism of vote-rigging from groups such as Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

. At the 2005 parliamentary elections, it won 62 out of 125 seats. At the 2010 parliamentary elections
Azerbaijani parliamentary election, 2010
A parliamentary election was held in Azerbaijan on 7 November 2010.-Candidates:The registration of candidates ends October 15 when the campaign period ends...

, it won 72 out of 125 seats. Presently, New Azerbaijan Party has 518 thousand members.

The main contention between the ruling New Azerbaijan Party and the opposition can actually be seen as a power struggle between the old Soviet elite, which still controls Azerbaijan, and the new intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...

that has long-opposed Soviet institutions.

Further reading


External links

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