Azerbaijan

Criminal Justice System

The criminal justice system in Azerbaijan includes two centralized executive agencies: the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Justice oversees the judicial system. The Office of the Prokuratura (Prosecutor) General is responsible for ensuring that investigative agencies and court proceedings are in compliance with the constitution. The Ministry of Internal Affairs oversees the law enforcement agencies. The militia is the major police force in Azerbaijan. It is a single system, which is incorporated into the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Minister of Internal Affairs appoints the heads of regional militia departments. The heads of city and district militia departments are appointed by the heads of regional militia departments. The militia consists of several subdivisions, including criminal division (detectives), public safety, transportation militia, traffic patrol, and special forces. Under the Law on Militia, the militia's major tasks are providing personal security for citizens, protecting their rights and freedoms, preventing and combating crime, maintaining public order, uncovering and investigating crime, arresting offenders, maintaining safety on the roads, protecting public and private property, and executing criminal sentences and administrative penalties.

Policing in the Soviet Era

The country was under the control of the Soviet Union for 71 years, between 1920 and 1991, and the police in Azerbaijan, like many other state agencies, still reflect the organizational and functional characteristics of the Soviet system of policing. Even though Azerbaijan is working toward adopting or revising all its institutions in order to comply with the needs of a democratic society, it is still important to address the Soviet legacy to better analyze policing in post-Soviet Azerbaijan.

The militia in the former Soviet Union was a standardized police organization, which existed in a vast territory that extended from East Germany to the Pacific Ocean. It was developed in Moscow and exported throughout the socialist societies. The Ministry of Interior Academy in Moscow trained personnel from all over what was then the Soviet Union. The militia was the primary law enforcement body responsible for social and economic order during more than 70 years of Soviet rule. The [Page 955]relationship between the militia and the political structure in the Soviet Union remained much closer than in democratic societies, allowing the Communist Party to direct the militia to suppress political opposition. This close relationship harmed the militia deeply. By the end of the Soviet Union, the organization had entirely lost credibility with the public. Many members left the organization at the end of the 1980s leaving the police without the qualified, experienced personnel needed to fulfill increasingly difficult duties. Despite the final efforts to democratize during the perestroika years, the Soviet militia remained as an authoritarian police force.

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