Ilgar Velizade: Committees of opposition National Council have neither resources, nor structures

Earlier this week, the Azerbaijani opposition coalition "National Council of Democratic Forces" conducted its session, which established eight committees and elected their chairmen. Among them were a member of the party "Musavat" Gubad Ibadoglu, representative of the Liberal Party Eldar Aliyev, director of Turan news agency Mehman Aliyev, a renowned historian Jamil Gasanli, and a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Council of Europe Gultakin Hajibayli. Vestnik Kavkaza asked the head of the club of political scientists "South Caucasus", Ilgar Velizade, to evaluate the political weight of the elected chairpersons, and the prospects of the National Council in general.

Velizade first noted that the composition of the commissions formed by the National Council consists of true professionals and, indeed, some of them are people who have a certain weight and influence in society. "At the same time, we're talking about commissions as working bodies of some existing structures. It is not clear how they will work in practice, because it requires resources, certain schemes," the analyst said.

While the Commissions consist of interesting people, Velizade said, it is difficult to say how they will manifest themselves in specific areas. In addition to the lack of resources, the lack of basic structural units on which the Commission must rely will also have a negative effect. "So, whatever they say, whatever they do, is to some extent quite arbitrary. It's hard to imagine how it would work in practice. Unfortunately, to date, I have no such understanding," the expert admitted, adding that today the National Council declared goals too abstract and big with too few specifics, and no visible enforcement mechanisms.