By order of Minister Eldar Makhmudov several employees of the Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security were dismissed. According to a source, the dismissal is conditioned by the Armenian nationality of one of the parents or close relatives of these people. When commenting on the information, head of the department for public relations of the Ministry of National Security Arif Babayev said, "We live in Azerbaijan, that is why we can not have people of Armenian origin on service." To note, such kind of cleansing has been carried out for the first time in the MNS. Former Minister Namik Abbasov admitted in one of his interviews that people of Armenian origin work in the system but he is not going to dismiss them, 525 Azeri newspaper reported.