Kerimli: 2009 was a lost year for Azerbaijan from democracy progress perspective

The year of 2009, same as its predecessors, was lost from the viewpoint of democratization and people's prosperity growth. This was stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Ali Kerimli, leader of the Party of the National Front of Azerbaijan (PNFA), in his comments on 2009 totals.

On the negative side, he named, first of all, the adoption at the referendum on March 17 of the amendment to the Constitution that now allows one and the same person to be elected as President an unlimited number of times.

When characterizing the passed municipal elections, Mr Kerimli treated them as the first event when the authorities did not even try to imitate democracy. "There was no competition whatsoever at these elections," he said.

Touching on the foreign policy of Azerbaijan, Kerimli mentioned the impairment of the international positions of his country.

"We lived through quite unpleasant moments in relations with the brotherly Turkey because of the Turkish-Armenian Protocols and absence of arrangements on gas issues. By the end of the year, the Baku-US and Baku-EU relations got aggravated after adoption by the US Congress of the decision to help Nagorno-Karabakh and by the European Parliament - of the critical resolution on the situation with the freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. It means that Azerbaijan is more and more away from the international centres of democracy," said Mr Kerimli.

From the point of view of human rights, the year was hard. The problem of political prisoners not only remained unsettled, but, on the contrary, young bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade got added to the list. The country also saw, in the opinion of Kerimli, further restriction of political pluralism, the freedom of the press and self-expression, which further consolidated the Azerbaijani image as of the authoritarian state.

There were problems in the national economy. "Under the influence of the global crisis, the previous statements about the economic prosperity of Azerbaijan blew up as a soap bubble. Foreign trade dropped three-fold. Taxes have been collected only by 60 percent; the revenue side of the state budget has an 18-percent under-cast. The building sector is frozen; while the banking sector and the sphere of services face heavy problems. The country is completely dependent on the Oil Fund. The current rapid spending of the Oil Fund foretells very serious problems to Azerbaijan already in the very near future," Mr Kerimli has noted.

In the opinion of Aidyn Mirzazade, a member of the Political Board of the party in power "Eni Azerbaijan", 2009 was the continuation of Azerbaijan's successes. The country has quitted the global financial crisis with minimum losses. The inflation rate was only 2 percent, and the GDP has increased by 7 percent.