In an order released on Friday, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev called early parliamentary elections for September 1, this was a widely anticipated decision that isn't expected to significantly alter the composition of the parliament, according to Reuters.
After winning a hasty presidential election in February, Aliyev, who has been in office since 2003, is expected to gain a new majority in the oil-rich nation that has been courted by the West, Russia, and Turkey. Currently, his New Azerbaijan Party owns 69 of 125 members in the departing parliament.
The parliament's opposition lawmakers support Aliyev, but opponents outside the legislature claim they have been persecuted following the arrests of several independent journalists and political activists before this year's presidential election, which Aliyev won with 92% of the vote.
Charges for what they claimed were politically motivated offences, such as smuggling, were brought against some of those in custody. The arrests were not political, according to the officials.
Baku claimed that the previously separatist province of Nagorno-Karabakh was led by illegitimate ethnic Armenian leaders, but Aliyev has praised the success of a September lightning offensive.
After nearly all of the over 100,000 ethnic Armenians in the area left, Baku is currently reconstructing the area to resettle Azerbaijanis there.
Azerbaijan is home to Western energy companies like BP. It is a signatory to the "OPEC+" agreement, which limits output to maintain global prices. This agreement is between the OPEC oil producers' group and other significant exporters like Russia.
