The Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP; az, Azərbaycan Xalq Cəbhəsi Partiyası, ) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

, founded in 1992 by

Abulfaz Elchibey Abulfaz Elchibey ( az, Əbülfəz Elçibəy; 24 June 1938, in Nakhchivan – 22 August 2000, in Ankara) was an Azerbaijani political figure and a former Soviet dissident. His real name was Abulfaz Gadirgulu oghlu Aliyev (Azerbaijani: ''Əbülf� ...

. After Elchibey's death in 2000, the party split into two wings, the ''reform'' wing led by Ali Kerimli and the ''classical'' wing led by Mirmahmud Miralioglu. During the

parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, from 5 November 2000 - 7 January 2001, the APFP won 11.0% of the popular vote and 6 out of 125 seats in the

National Assembly of Azerbaijan The National Assembly ( az, Milli Məclis), also transliterated as Milli Mejlis, is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms ...

. Its candidate Gudrat Hasanguliyev won 0.4% of the popular vote in the 2003 presidential elections. At the parliamentary

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

of 6 November 2005, APF joined the

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving one ...

( az, Azadlıq) block but won only one seat.

History

Popular Front of Azerbaijan

The Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA) was an organization established on July 16, 1988 in

that united several informal public organizations into one, working towards independence from the Soviet Union. PFA came to unite several informal public organizations which were established in the 1980s to struggle for the independence of Azerbaijan from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. In 1987, Ali Karimli, a law school student, became the founder and leader of one of these informal organizations - "Yurd" ("Homeland") - that inspired and led thousands of students to the main square of

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

city to protest against the Soviet Union. As a result, a large-scale campaign of public demonstrations and meetings swept across Azerbaijan. Later, the movement was suppressed by the special forces of the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Despite this fact, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan was established and Yurd became an integral part of this movement. In 1992,

, the leader of PFA, won the 1992 Azerbaijani presidential election. A period of political, social, and economic reforms followed. The laws on political parties, freedom of press, education, and others were adopted. The country chose a pro-western, liberal economic course and established the national currency, the Azerbaijani manat. In April 1993, the Russian (formerly Soviet) army was withdrawn from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan became the first

republic A republic () is a " state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

in the former USSR, which achieved a full and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops. General

Heydar Aliyev Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev ( az, Һејдәр Әлирза оғлу Әлијев, italic=no, Heydər Əlirza oğlu Əliyev, ; , ; 10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani politician who served as the third president of Azer ...

captured power in 1993 following the 1993 Azerbaijani coup d'état and the Subsequent vote of confidence referendum on

's presidency. Elchibey was forced to leave the capital city.

Transformation to political party

Considering the dramatic and challenging situation facing PFA following the coup, Ali Karimli took the initiative by leading and protecting the organization from the attacks of the new regime from 1993 until 1997 and restoring its political power. In 1995, with the proposal of Ali Karimli and as a result of internal party discussions, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan was reorganized from a social-political movement into a political party. In the same year, the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) managed to take seats in Parliament, and Ali Kerimli became a leader of the parliamentary party fraction. In 2000, after the death of PFPA Chairman Elchibey, Ali Karimli was elected Chairman of the Party. In the 2000 parliament elections, PFPA retook seats, and Ali Karimli was elected the leader of the opposition faction in parliament. The

2003 Azerbaijani presidential election Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 15 October 2003. As expected, Ilham Aliyev, son of the outgoing president, Heydar Aliyev, was officially elected with an overwhelming majority in an election which international observers held no ...

in Azerbaijan fell short of international norms and standards. They were followed by another wave of repressions against the opposition. Consequently, PFPA first suggested and then proclaimed the unification of opposition as the surest means to free and fair elections. On 18 March 2005 Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) signed an agreement with other opposition parties to establish a united opposition bloc – "Freedom" - for participation in the parliamentary elections in November 2005.

References

External links

Official Party Website
{{Authority control 1992 establishments in Azerbaijan Azerbaijani democracy movements Azerbaijani nationalism Nationalist parties in Azerbaijan Conservative parties in Azerbaijan Liberal conservative parties Liberal parties in Azerbaijan Nationalist parties in Asia Nationalist parties in Europe Political parties established in 1992 Political parties in Azerbaijan Popular fronts in the Soviet Union