Azernews.Az

BAKU - An Azerbaijani political party said Tuesday it was negotiating with another major party cooperation in the November parliamentary elections, signaling a threat of collapse for Azadlig, the country’s main opposition bloc.
Nuraddin Mammadli, deputy chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), told the press earlier that PFPA leadership had passed the decision to cooperate with Musavat last week and subsequently launched talks.
Following Mammadli’s statement, the leaders of the Azerbaijan Liberal Party (ALP) and Civil and Development Party (CDP), which are part of Azadlig, along with PFPA, said the bloc would be shut down.
ALP chair Lala Shovkat said PFPA’s decision did not come as a surprise.
"I said that if such a bloc is set up, the Azadlig bloc would be automatically invalidated," Shovkat said. "I have repeatedly told Ali Karimli [PFPA chairman] that ALP can never accept a union with Musavat. It’s because Musavat has burned all the bridges."
The ALP leader noted that the bloc’s staying afloat with two parties was impossible.
CDP chairman Ali Aliyev said PFPA’s decision was unexpected. "Our political relations with PFPA cannot be maintained after this. In the coming days the bloc will be formally revoked."
Amid tensions within the Azadlig bloc, PFPA deputy chairman Mammadli told AssA-Irada that he had made an error in his previous statement. He said that no decision on cooperation with Musavat had been passed at the PFPA meeting.
"Proposals to that end were voiced at that meeting, but, since I left before it ended, I was not aware that the decision actually never passed," said Mammadli.
Fuad Gahramanly, another PFPA deputy chairman, confirmed that the party had not adopted such a decision. Gahramanly said PFPA deems any cooperation outside the Azadlig bloc as unacceptable. But he added that many in the party leadership support nominating a single candidate for the November 7 parliamentary elections and holding public protests jointly with Musavat, which PFPA has recently staged on its own.
The Azadlig bloc was established shortly before the 2005 parliamentary elections.*