Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on appointing Jeyhun Bayramov as country’s new foreign minister. Under another presidential order, Elmar Mammadyarov has been relieved of duty as Azerbaijan’s foreign minister. Jeyhun Bayramov had previously served as Azerbaijan’s education minister, per Asbarez & Real TV.
President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev accuses Mammadyarov of not being present during times of skirmishes along with stressing his inability to work against Armenian policy and affairs. Mammadyarov has held the post of Foreign Minister since 2004.
This was the result of Aliyev scapegoating and blaming his foreign minister yesterday during a briefing where he praised the demonstrators for their support of the army and warned the Popular Front Party of provocations. He mentioned the Popular Front Party members are worse than Armenians, since Armenians are at least openly enemies of Azerbaijan, according to Aliyev.
Aliyev announced that out of the tens of thousands who rallied against Armenia two days ago, only 150 Azeris have asked to volunteer for the armed forces. 60 hail from Tovuz, which is the region where Azerbaijan began its hostilities over the weekend.
After the Azerbaijani forces suffered grave losses when they brazenly attempted to breach the border with Armenia beginning Sunday, President Ilham Aliyev trashed his own foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov during a cabinet meeting Wednesday.
Reports of tensions between Aliyev and the foreign ministry have been circulating for weeks, with Turan news agency reporting last week that Azerbaijan’s National Security Service raided the foreign ministry and arrested top officials on charges of embezzlement as part of a larger “corruption” investigation.
Turan reported Wednesday that Aliyev was at a loss when Mammadyarov did not show up to a cabinet meeting.
“I could not find him, he was not at his office,” Aliyev told his cabinet on Wednesday, and openly expressed his dissatisfaction with Mammadyarov’s performance, accusing him of being irresponsible.
According to Turan, Aliyev then asked Prime Minister Ali Asadov to brief the cabinet on a conversation he had with the foreign minister.
Asadov said that Mamedyarov was at home at 3 p.m. “I asked him why are you at home? You have to be in the office and follow the instructions of the president,” the prime minister said adding that Mammadyarov told him he was working from home.
Aliyev, according to Turan, was also angry with the fact that Mamedyarov had allegedly discussed cooperating with Armenia on to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
“What kind of cooperation can we talk about with Armenia?” Aliyev told his cabinet, according to Turan.
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