Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Ilhamgizi / The calling of a meeting of two groups of the Azerbaijani Communist Party (ACP) caused a split in the party.
Ramiz Ahmadov chaired the left opposition of ACP from 1993 to 22 September 2007. Activists of the party divided into supporters of the deputy chairman of the party, Rauf Gurbanov, and supporters of Rustam Shahsuvarov, after the death of the former MP Ahmadov.
Shahsuvarov and his supporters are accusing Gurbanov with the creation of groups and the instigation of conflicts among activists of the party. In such a way Gurbanov wants to illegally gain leadership of the party.
Gurbanov says that he is the first deputy chairman of the party. Shahsuvarov's supporters are trying to remove him from the deputy chairman position, Gurbanov said.
Gurbanov was dismissed from his position during the last plenum of the ACP. It was decided that they would hold a meeting on 14 October to nominate the candidate Shahsuvarov for post of chairman of the party. Gurbanov's supporters left the meeting room and held their own meeting in front of the headquarters of the party. The participants of the meeting made a decision to establish the Organizational Committee for dismissal of the Central Executive Committee of the party, as well as to call the next meeting. Gurbanov was elected chairman of the Committee.
Gurbanov's supporters consider the plenum illegal, Gulnisa Masomova, a member of the Central Executive Committee, said. Thirty-seven supporters of Gurbanov left the plenum and 30 people attended the meeting of the Organizational committee.
The plenum unites 70 people, only 63 attended the last meeting. Six of them supported Gurbanov. The other 57 demanded to eject Gurbanov from the party, Shahsuvarov said.
The ACP has 5,000 supporters. The ACP considers itself the successor of the Great October Socialistic Revolution Communist Party established in 1903. The party was restored after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1993.