Chairman of the Milli Majlis Murtuz Alasgarov announced that the session had been convoked at the request of 59 deputies.

The Chairman let the deputies know the only issue on the agenda is giving consent to the appointment to the post of Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic, and that the Milli Majlis has received a letter of the President of Azerbaijan Republic, His Excellency, Mr. Heydar Aliyev in this regard. ‘Under paragraph 4, article 109 of the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic, I bring up for your discussion the question of appointment of Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev as Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Republic’, this letter was signed by President Heydar Aliyev on August 2, 2003, the Murtuz Alasgarov said.

With the agenda approved, the Chairman provided the deputies with the information on the candidate’s activity. He said:

As is known, for the period of his activity as the Milli Majlis deputy, Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev had implemented large-scale works. First of all, I want to say that along with his extensive activity as the first vice-president of the State Oil Company and president of the National Olympic Committee, Ilham Aliyev has done much work as a leader of Milli Majlis delegation to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

I want specially stress that for the past years, due to Ilham Aliyev’s activity, the delegation of Azerbaijan has achieved great successes during debates over Nagorno Garabakh. The Delegation members distributed over 30 documents in the Council of Europe concerning return of the captives and hostages, cultivation of narcotics there and spending its revenue for terrorist purposes, destruction of the historical and cultural monuments in Nagorno Garabakh.

Due to these documents and at Ilham Aliyev’s initiative, the Council of Europe acknowledged that Armenia carries out aggressive policy against Azerbaijan and named Armenia as an aggressor-state. All these are results of Ilham Aliyev’s fruitful activities; I consider that above-mentioned in the whole as well as Ilham Aliyev’s activities in other fields deserve approval. I would like to underline our recent success in the field of sport under leadership of the National Olympic Committee. There is hardly a kind of sports not developing in the country. Olympic complexes have been constructed and launched in regions of the country, in some regions this work is in process.

As First Vice President of the State Oil Company (SOCAR) Ilham Aliyev shows activities on realization of Heydar Aliyev’s oil strategy. These activities brought him prestige on behalf of people of Azerbaijan. Our people, the whole nation, young generation feel deep drawn to Ilham Aliyev. Me, myself support his appointment as Prime Minister with all my heart and greet this offer.

Today, permanent commission of Milli Majlis for legal policy and state establishment held a session with the participation of 10 members. The commission voted for this offer, i.e. expressed its attitude towards support of Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev’s appointment as Prime Minister. The session followed by debates and speeches of the Milli Majlis members.