Azerbaijan to assume chairmanship of CIS Council of Interior Ministers

 Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan will chair the CIS Council of Interior Ministers in the order of rotation. Transfer of chairmanship powers by Armenia to Russia has no legal grounds, a source in the Bureau for Coordination of the Fight against Organized Crime and Other Dangerous Crimes in the CIS told RIA Novosti, Monday.

The news agency reports that earlier on Monday the Armenian Police addressed a message to the participants in the session of the Council to be held in Baku on September 6-8 expressing protest against Hungary's extradition of Ramil Safarov, who killed his Armenian colleague in Budapest in 2004, and his further pardoning in Azerbaijan. The Armenian Police refused to attend the session. The Police Head of Armenia transferred his powers of the Council Chairman to the Russian Interior Minister.

"The Regulations of the CIS Council of Interior Ministers says the Council is coordinated by rotating chairmanship in the alphabetical order. Thus, rotating chairmanship must be undertaken by Azerbaijan after Armenia," the source told RIA Novosti. "Transfer of chairmanship is possible only at the session of the Council. No other format is possible. Therefore, the decision of the Armenian Police head to transfer his powers to the Russian Interior Minister does not
meet the Council's Regulations and will hardly have any legal consequences," the source reported. In case the Armenian Police representatives are absent at the session, Director of the Bureau for Coordination of the Fight against Organized Crime and Other Dangerous Crimes in the CIS, Police Colonel General  Nikolay Ovchinnikov will probably report on the Council's activity.