Azerbaijani Popular Front Party
아제르바이잔 인민전선당
An Azerbaijani political organisation that grew out of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, founded in July 1989, and became a party in 1995. It led the national liberation movement for independence from the Soviet Union and democratisation, and its chairman Abulfaz Elchibey was elected president in 1992. After Elchibey was ousted in the 1993 coup it became one of the main opposition parties to the governments of Heydar Aliyev and Ilham Aliyev.
In depth
According to the Azerbaijani-language source the idea of a popular front came from the Baltic region. In summer 1988 intellectuals gathered in the Baku Scientists' Club formed an initiative group modelled on the Baltic popular fronts, and at the founding conference on 16 July 1989 Elchibey was elected chairman. The Popular Front was registered by a decision of the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR on 5 October 1989. According to the English-language source it united several informal organisations of the 1980s, staged mass protests and in 1989 initiated a rail blockade of Armenia.
According to the English-language source the Popular Front pressured Ayaz Mutallibov, Azerbaijan's first president after independence, out of power in 1992, and Elchibey won the presidential election that year. Under his government laws on political parties and freedom of the press were adopted and the national currency, the manat, was introduced, and Russian troops withdrew in April 1993. According to the Azerbaijani-language source, after the Ganja revolt of 4 June 1993 Elchibey left the capital for his native village of Kalaki, and presidential powers passed to Heydar Aliyev.
Because public organisations were not allowed to run in the 1995 parliamentary election, the "reformers", who came from the Yurd group, pushed for conversion into a party: at a congress on 25 May 1995 the Popular Front became the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party, registered by the Ministry of Justice on 1 September. In that year's election the party won 9.6 percent of the proportional vote. Within the party the "reformers" led by Ali Karimli clashed with the "classics", and after Elchibey died in Ankara in July 2000 the party split de facto in two.
In 2000–2001 the two wings held separate congresses and elected their own chairmen, Karimli being elected chairman in 2001. The English-language source says that since the 1993 coup the party has been blocked from or boycotted several elections and that people associated with it have been repressed by the governments of Heydar and Ilham Aliyev. According to the Azerbaijani-language source the party has worked without a headquarters since losing its building in 2006, and in July 2023 the Ministry of Justice gave a negative reply concerning its registration.