The Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP; , ) is a

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

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

, founded in 1989 by

Abulfaz Elchibey Abulfaz Gadirgulu oghlu Aliyev (24 June 1938 – 22 August 2000), commonly known as Abulfaz Elchibey, was a Pan-Turkist Azerbaijani nationalist, politician and Soviet dissident who was the first and only democratically elected President in pos ...

. Since Elchibey was ousted from power in the 1993 military coup, the party has been one of the main opposition parties to the authoritarian regimes of presidents

Heydar Aliyev Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev (10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was an Azerbaijani politician who was a Soviet party boss in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1969 to 1982, and the third president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to ...

and his son

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005. The son and second child of former Aze ...

. The party formed in 1989 as an anti-Soviet political movement. The party pushed for Azerbaijani independence from the Soviet Union. The party staged mass protests against the Soviet regime. After Azerbaijan attained independence from the Soviet Union, Popular Front pressured the communist old guard that controlled newly independent Azerbaijan to establish a parliament and allow free elections. The party pressured

Ayaz Mutallibov Ayaz Niyazi oghlu Mutallibov (12 May 1938 – 27 March 2022) was an Azerbaijani politician who served as the first president of Azerbaijan. He was the last leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, and first President of Azerbaijan from 18 May 1990 until 6 M ...

, Azerbaijan's first president to implement democratic reforms and forced him out of power in 1992 when he tried to cancel the 1992 presidential election in a

self-coup A self-coup, also called an autocoup () or coup from the top, is a form of coup d'état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power illegally through the actions of themselves or their supporters. The le ...

. Popular Front leader Abulfaz Elchibey was elected in the 1992 election. The party's policies emphasized democracy, rule of law, and secularism, as well as respect for human rights, religious rights and ethnic minorities. In the aftermath of the 1993 coup where Elchibey was ousted from power, the party has been blocked from participating in several elections, and prominent individuals associated with the party have been repressed by Azerbaijan governments ruled by

and his son

. The party has also boycotted several elections, citing an unbalanced playing field and repression by the incumbent government.

History

Popular Front of Azerbaijan

The founding congress of the party was held in July 1989. 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 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. 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 (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

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. Intellectuals associated with the party questioned the official Soviet narrative of the Soviet takeover of Azerbaijan in 1920. In 1992,

, the leader of PFA, won the

1992 Azerbaijani presidential election Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 7 June 1992.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I'', p357 The elections were the first in Azerbaijan in more than seventy years no ...

. 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 The manat (ISO 4217, ISO code: AZN; Currency symbol, sign: ₼; abbreviation: m) is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 ''gapiks''. The first iteration of the currency emerged in the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and its succ ...

. In April 1993, the Russian (formerly Soviet) army was withdrawn from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan became the first

republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

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

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

After Elchibey's death in 2000, the party split into two wings, the ''reform'' wing led by

Ali Kerimli Ali Karimli () born Ali Amirhuseyn oglu Karimov () (born 28 April 1965) is an Azerbaijani politician and the head of the reformist wing of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP). Biography Karimli was born in the Saatly District of southeas ...

and the ''classical'' wing led by Mirmahmud Miralioglu. 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 a vote international observers deemed not to be fr ...

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 Conservative parties in Azerbaijan Nationalist parties in Azerbaijan Liberal conservative parties Liberal parties in Azerbaijan Political parties established in 1992 Political parties in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Popular fronts in the Soviet Union