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Armenian Leader Backs Re-Election Bid Of Azerbaijan's Aliev

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  • Armenian Leader Backs Re-Election Bid Of Azerbaijan's Aliev

    ARMENIAN LEADER BACKS RE-ELECTION BID OF AZERBAIJAN'S ALIEV

    Transitions Online, Czech Rep.

    Aug 20 2013

    A rally for Azerbaijani opposition presidential candidate Rustam
    Ibragimbekov 18 August drew about 3,000 people, even though Baku
    city officials ordered it to be held 10 kilometers (six miles) from
    downtown, according to AFP.

    Demonstrators called for a free and fair process at the 9 October
    election, which incumbent Ilham Aliev is expected to win easily.

    Several participants were detained by police.

    In early August the National Council of Democratic Forces, an
    opposition coalition, nominated Ibragimbekov, an Oscar-winning
    screenwriter. He fled abroad earlier this year. Ralliers on Sunday
    urged the authorities to enable his return to Azerbaijan to participate
    in the election, Caucasian Knot reports. Ibragimbekov has said he fears
    being arrested on charges of tax evasion if he returns home and he is
    still waiting for the Russian bureaucracy to cancel his citizenship
    in that country - he is a dual Russian-Azerbaijani national - in
    order to legally contest the presidency, Radio Free Europe reported
    earlier this month.

    Aliev is drawing support from an unexpected direction - the leader of
    Armenia, which remains technically in a state of war with Azerbaijan
    over the Nagorno-Karabakh region captured by Armenian forces in the
    early 1990s. Aliev's re-election would represent the best hope to
    resolve the conflict, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in a
    statement cited by Radio Free Europe.

    Sargsyan said Aliev has the best chance of overcoming "Armenia-phobia"
    in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani officials have mooted a military solution to
    the conflict if the slow-moving, internationally moderated negotiations
    fail to bear fruit, RFE writes.

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