Ganja Mayor dismissed after attempt on him and residents' protests

The President of Azerbaijan has dismissed Elmar Veliev from the post of the Mayor of Ganja, the second largest city of the country, where protests against the Mayor led to clashes with the police and human casualties.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 3, an attempt was made on Elmar Veliev, the Ganja Mayor (the head of the city administration). Law enforcers treated the attempt on Veliev as a terror act. The suspect, a 35-year-old native of Ganja, Yunis Safarov, was detained.

Today, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has signed an order to release Elmar Veliev from the post of the head of the executive power of Ganja; however, the reasons for Veliev's removal from his post are not specified in the order, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The order to dismiss Veliev is at least five years late, said Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, the head of the Institute of Public Policy. "Was it really difficult to listen to the complaints coming from Ganja about Veliev's rudeness, insulting people, his disdainful attitude to the problems of population?" Gadjiev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Niyazi Bairamov, a member of the ruling "Eni Azerbaijan" Party, who for the last six years has been heading Mingachevir, the large energy and industrial city of Azerbaijan, has been appointed the new Ganja Mayor.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 28, 2018 at 09:20 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.