Elite police force to keep order in Azerbaijan's regions

The Rapid Reaction Regiment was used to disperse unsanctioned opposition rallies in Baku during the 2005 parliamentary election campaign. In August, Interior Minister Ramil Usubov issued instructions to place the unit, which to date has operated only in Baku, under his ministry’s authority. Based on the order, the regiment will also include a new Special Purpose Police Detachment to ensure public order.

The pro-opposition press has presented the decision as part of an ongoing power struggle between Usubov and Baku Police Chief Maharram Aliyev. In recent weeks, Usubov has been under attack from rivals within the government.

Officially, however, a need for centralization of special-purpose police operations is the reason cited for the transfer, according to Interior Ministry spokesperson Ehsan Zahidov. "The Rapid Reaction Regiment, as part of the police, must take measures on establishing public order, fighting against crimes, terrorism and criminal groups not only in Baku, but also throughout the country," Zahidov told the APA news agency.

An anonymous source within the Interior Ministry, however, told EurasiaNet that the regiment will include regional sub-divisions "in the near future" to crack down on any public disturbance outside of the capital. Usubov told reporters on October 3 that the measure is a "natural" step for "establishing a more professional and operational regiment."

Some observers, however, say that the regiment was transferred to the Interior Ministry with an eye on keeping social tensions in Azerbaijan's regions in check during the run-up to the 2008 presidential elections. Opposition activities in the regions have largely withered away since Azerbaijan's November 2005 parliamentary vote, but social and economic disparities between the agriculturally oriented regions and oil-rich Baku are considerable and growing.

Human rights activist Eldar Zeynalov believes that the reason for the regiment's transfer goes beyond mere "disagreements between two generals," he said in reference to Usubov and Baku Police Chief Aliyev. "Any changes in military and law-enforcement armed units arouse suspicions," he said, noting that "if the regiment dispersed militants in 2005, we cannot ensure that it will operate in a different way in 2008."

When President Ilham Aliyev visited the Absheron District in mid-September, police reportedly detained about 60 people who tried to complain about everyday problems, the pro-opposition Turan news agency reported. A duty officer at the Absheron District police department, however, denied the report about the arrests.

Official statistics on regional living conditions are scarce. The Ministry of Economic Development estimated that 40 percent of Azerbaijan's 8.4 million population lived below the poverty line in 2005. Some 80 percent of rural households receive remittances from friends and relatives abroad that help them make ends meet, according to the government's 2005 Household Survey Data. The United Nations World Food Programme has estimated that food supplies are uncertain for between 400,000 and 600,000 residents of the country's rural regions, which contain just over 4.8 percent of the population.

Eldar Namazov, a political analyst and former advisor to the late President Heidar Aliyev, argues that if the government does not take steps to address social and economic problems in the regions "expressions of dissatisfaction will increase… before the elections."

"There is no necessity to cite Kyrgyzstan [where a 2005 popular uprising following rigged parliamentary elections toppled the government] as an example," Namazov continued. "In 1993 the people of Azerbaijan started to express their distrust in the government of [late President] Abulfaz Elchibey in Ganja, not in Baku, and he was replaced by Heidar Aliyev. History can be repeated, and it is not ruled out that in 2008 we can see a repetition of those events." EURASIANET