Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 March/ Trend corr S. Ilhamgizi/ The holding of two separate meetings of the World Azerbaijani's Congress can lead to the further splits within the organization. Sabir Rustamkhanli and Gholamreza Tabrizi, each claiming to be WAC chairmen, said to Trend that the activities of the other one are illegitimate
Last year at the WAC congress, Gholamreza Sabri Tabrizi was elected the Chair of the organization. In several months, the former Chair Javad Derakhti and his supporters protested against the activities of Tabrizi and decided to hold a special meeting of the WAC the same year in February. Tabrizi and his supporters decided to meet in Brussels at the European Parliament on 20-22 June. The WAC was supposed to merge with the Democratic WAC, which separated in 2003. On 4 March, the WAC administration held a meeting including 11 of the 17 administration members. At the meeting, it was decided to dismiss Tabrizi and appoint Rustamkhanli the Chair of the organization, as well as to hold the WAC meeting in April.
Rustamkhanli told Trend that he had agreed for chairmanship in order to prevent the WAC from further splitting. In case of the administration had refused the proposal, WAC would have split into several sections. If Tabrizi avoids participation in the April meeting, and will hold a meeting in June, he will be the only one to pass to the Democratic WAC, Rustamkhanli said.
"Gholamreza Tabrizi has been left lonely now. His unilateral decisions and disagreements with others' opinions resulted in the current situation in WAC. We have decided to hold a congress in April to eliminate splits within the organization," Rustamkhanli said.
Talks will be held with Tabrizi on prevention of holding two separate meetings of WAC, he said.
The meetings by Rustamkhanli and his supporters will be illegitimate and he is getting prepared for the meeting to be held in June, Gholamreza Tabrizi said to Trend on 10 March. "By giving consent to the chairmanship in WAC Sabir Rustamkhanli made a grave strategic mistake. His consent led to the splits in WAC. I am sorry that such a wise person took advice of some group. Because during my 8-month term as a chairman I got to know these men," Tebrizi said.
Tabrizi denied the statements about his being left alone and said that on 9 March he held an online meeting of WAC activists with the participation of five Board members. Some 150 activists of WAC said that they support Tabrizi's chairmanship and do not consider the other person to be legitimate.
Tabrizi also said that he will be nominated for the chairmanship in congress to be held in June. The congress will unite two WAC into a unified organization. "The opposite side can take part in the June congress to be held in Brussels. If they want to hold their own meeting let them do that, the meeting of five or six persons can not be considered to be legitimate anyway," Tabrizi said.