Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan’s ruling party has dismissed reports claiming that the Georgian government plans to incite riots in an effort to stage a coup in the neighboring country, its deputy head has said.

The reports claimed that Tbilisi intends to stage riots in Azerbaijan jointly with the US embassy in Baku. Azerbaijani media alleged that US Ambassador Matthew Bryza had a meeting with Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili and National Security Council Secretary Giga Bokeria in Tbilisi during which they allegedly discussed a plan to topple President Ilham Aliyev.

"I find it hard to believe that the Georgian government would seek to take any actions aiming to cause tension in Azerbaijan and would be involved in someone else’s bid to make this happen," YAP deputy chairman Ali Ahmadov told the press last Friday. "But in any case, these reports have been circulated, and it is necessary to scrutinize them and clarify to what extent they are true."

Ahmadov noted, however, that some outside forces are indeed trying to disrupt stability in Azerbaijan.

"In my opinion, since the Azerbaijani government and state are based on quite a strong footing, someone’s bid to breach stability in the country does not appear real," the YAP official said. "It is possible that certain forces or groups either in Azerbaijan or in neighboring countries could join these attempts and cooperate. But I would like to say that quite a sincere relationship has been established between the Azerbaijani government and Georgian official circles."

Presidential aide Ali Hasanov said "subversive forces" were to blame for the reports concerning the Georgian government’s alleged plan to stage riots in Azerbaijan and were seeking to tarnish relations between the two countries.

"The strategic relationship between allied Azerbaijan and Georgia are a geo-strategic factor in the relations between the East and West," he added.

Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia Heydar Jemal claimed earlier that stage was being set in Georgia to carry out a coup in neighboring Azerbaijan, and that National Security Council Secretary Bokeria was allegedly responsible for these preparations.

"The Georgian leadership is vigorously forging a military alliance with Armenia aimed against Azerbaijan," Jemal maintained. "Georgia is acting as an executor of the plan here, i.e. the Georgians are fulfilling someone else’s will. I also have to note that the [Azerbaijani] opposition is aware of this plan."

Georgia’s opposition Labor Party echoed the reports concerning the alleged US-Georgian coup plan. Secretary general of the party, Iosif Shatberashvili, was quoted by Russia’s Regnum news agency as saying last week that President Mikheil Saakashvili’s team is masterminding an "orange" revolution in Azerbaijan jointly with US Ambassador in Baku Matthew Bryza. Shatberashvili claimed that this plan is in the spotlight of foreign media, and Bryza’s recent appointment as the US envoy to Azerbaijan confirms the allegations about the plan to overthrow the Azerbaijani government.

The Labor Party called on President Ilham Aliyev "to immediately oust the mastermind of revolutions, adventurer Matthew Bryza, who has staged quite a few political explosions in the Caucasus". Bryza’s ouster, the party said, would allow the Azerbaijani leader to prevent from destabilizing the situation in the country and the whole region.

The Labor Party also called on US Congress not to approve as Azerbaijan envoy Bryza, who is to step down by the end of 2011 if he is not endorsed by the legislature.

The US embassy in Baku has dismissed the claims. Its spokesman, Keith Bean, told the Baku-based Turan news agency that the allegations that Ambassador Bryza and President Saakashvili are masterminding an orange revolution are "absurd".

"Jemal and Shatberashvili’s pro-Russian views are common knowledge, and this is grounds to say that the source of their information is based in Moscow," Bean said.