Azerbaijan, Baku, 7 April / corr. Trend I. Alizade/ Isgandar Hamidov, the chairman of oppositional National-Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (NDPA) and former interior minister, has announced that he is leaving policy. "I have resigned from the post of Party Chairman and decided to leave the policy as well," Hamidov said to Trend on 7 April.
The meeting of Political Council of NDPA was held on 5 April where he announced his resignation from the post of party chairman. The Political Council has accepted his resignation.
"Recently, I have shrunk into my shell and have turned to religion. The parties claiming themselves to be leading parties are cheating citizens and immorality dominates in the policy, all these forced me to make up my mind for leaving the policy. I have been constantly thinking about it lately," said Hamidov.
The former minister said that he wants to leave the policy, and write a book about the processes taking place in Azerbaijani policy in recent times and about the period during which he was in the prison. "I will live in a village where I will communicate only with a small number of people. I will write a book with the help of a journalist after all the material is ready," said Hamidov.
"There are forces in NDPA strong enough to run the party. Party is still operating. At present, Oktay Khalil is running the party. A meeting will be held to elect a new chairman," he said.
NDPA plans to hold its meeting and an Organizational Committee has been set up for this purpose. The Committee is ruled by Oktay Khalilov, the Deputy Head of party.
According to Hamidov, yet no one has expressed his wish to become the chairman.
The Boz Gurd (Grey Wolf) party was established in 1993. In 1994, it was registered at the Justice Ministry. In 1995, the Supreme Court annulled the registration because of the name of the party. In order to solve the problem, the party was renamed to the National and Democratic Party of Azerbaijan at its second meeting held in 1999. The chairman of party Isgandar Hamidov, the former interior minister, has been in prison from 1995 to 2004 and was released in 2004 by the pardon decree of the President.
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