Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

[Federate]

Re: Iranian president on charm offensive in Baku

at least he's neutral on karabakh....

In a way, by asking for the conflict to be solved only peacefully, he is slightly pro-Armenian as well Why "at least" though? Anything else about Ahmadinejad you have in mind?

[Federate]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

According to Regnum, Ahmadinejad skirted Azerbaijani journalists’ persistent questions about Iran’s close political and economic ties with Christian Armenia an their compatibility with international Muslim solidarity championed by Tehran. “I’m not going to say what you want to hear from me,” the Russian news agency quoted him as saying.

The Islamic Republic has signed up to Azerbaijani-drafted resolutions by Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) accusing Armenia of unleashing aggression against Azerbaijan. It most recently did so at a September meeting in New York of the foreign ministers of OIC member states.

Nevertheless, that has not kept Tehran from developing a warm rapport with Yerevan. The two neighboring states plan to cement it further with more joint multimillion-dollar commercial projects to be launched soon. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for their speedy implementation.

Azerbaijani politicians and pundits have long accused the Iranian leadership of hypocrisy. The Azerbaijani government, however, has avoided echoing such accusations or publicly demanding that Iran join in Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s long-running economic blockade of Armenia.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/2224032.html

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan: Baku Backtracks in Ukrainian Organ Transplant Investigation
December 3, 2010 - 3:02pm, by Shahin Abbasov
Azerbaijan Ukraine Organ Trade
After an initial denial, officials in Azerbaijan have confirmed that a hospital in Baku is under investigation for performing improper organ culling and transplant operations.

On November 24, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and General Prosecutor’s Office issued a joint statement about an investigation into 10 kidney transplants performed by the Azerbaijan International University Medical Center.

Unidentified Medical Center employees have been charged with causing “grave consequences as a result of an abuse of power,” a criminal offense. The “consequences” have not been specified.

In the aftermath of the revelation, the Ministry of Health has withdrawn AIU Medical Center’s license to offer medical services, the statement added.

Azerbaijan International University is a private higher education institution in Baku that is headed by businessman Elshad Abdullayev, an active member of the governing Yeni Azerbaijan Party.

The surgeries involved 10 Ukrainian citizens, who provided kidneys “for citizens of other countries” for a top rate of $10,000. The practice is legal in Azerbaijan, provided the surgeries are registered and authorized in advance by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health, and provided the hospital and surgeon in question have a license to perform such operations. The joint Interior Ministry/Prosecutor’s statement asserted that the 10 procedures under investigation allegedly “were not registered in the proper way.”

The Ministry of Health is the only state body that monitors the activities of government-run and private hospitals and medical clinics, and conducts on-site inspections.

The AIU Medical Center could not be reached for comment; phones at the hospital went unanswered this week.

Two opposition newspapers, Yeni Musavat and Azadlig, reported on November 27 that Abdullayev, the head of Azerbaijan International University, had departed Azerbaijan for Dubai. The reports could not be independently confirmed, however. EurasiaNet.org could not reach Abdullayev via his cell phone, or through his office at Azerbaijan International University.

News of the scandal first came to light in August, when Ukraine’s Interior Ministry announced that it had arrested in Kyiv four Ukrainian organ transplant surgeons and an Israeli citizen. The suspects were alleged to have been engaged in recruiting Ukrainian donors for organ transplants. The donors were allegedly taken to hospitals in Azerbaijan and Ecuador, where the surgeries were performed, Yuriy Kucher, chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s Anti-Trafficking Department, said during an August news conference.

A few weeks after Kucher met journalists in Kyiv, the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor’s Office denied “media speculation” that Ukrainian transplant surgeries were taking place in Azerbaijan. “An investigation did not reveal such facts,” the prosecutor’s office asserted in an August 15 statement.

Three months later, however, the prosecutor’s office backtracked to confirm the information in connection with AIU’s Medical Center. It did not explain why it had earlier denied reports that implicated Azerbaijan.

An Azerbaijani Interior Ministry source, who did not want to be named, told EurasiaNet.org that Ukrainian investigators, led by Kucher, had visited Baku between late October and early November. While in Azerbaijan, Kucher had provided Azerbaijani investigators with documents that were said to prove that illegal transplant surgeries had taken place in Baku. The General Prosecutor’s Office in Baku now maintains that the investigation targets only Azerbaijani International University.

So far, news of the organ transplant investigation has been overshadowed for most Azerbaijanis by media coverage of the November parliamentary elections, as well as the recent WikiLeaks disclosures and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit in Kazakhstan.

This past summer, the Ministry of Education revoked Azerbaijan International University’s license to enroll students for having allegedly violated “the government’s rules on student enrolment.” The Ministry of Education said that the university was illegally enrolling students who had not taken a standardized entrance exam.

Editor's note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based in Baku. He is also a board member of the Open Society Foundation-Azerbaijan.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62501

sad story, hopefully this part isnt true
Black transplantation in Azerbaijan and the fate of the Armenian hostages
In the late summer of this year in Ukraine, a scandal erupted over the case of black transplant: three doctors were arrested on behalf of the Institute Shalimov. According to the police, the arrested were engaged in illegal transplantation of kidneys and other human organs for wealthy citizens of Israel, Europe and Asia. Ukraine's prosecutor's office also reported that the operations of illicit removal of kidneys from the citizens of CIS countries held in Azerbaijan and Venezuela.

The reaction of the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan to this message was instantaneous. August 15 at the site of this organization, it was reported data refuting Ukrainian colleagues. Publish in recent days in some mass media about medical institutions in Azerbaijan, which allegedly carried out "black Transplantation of human organs is not true ... As a result of preliminary investigations on the territory of the republic and the city of Baku on the facts of illegal transplantation of human organs is not revealed." Meanwhile, it continued to unwind, it involved more and more professionals from different countries, was called more names of doctors and medical institutions, coupled with a black transplant, or rather, if you call a spade a spade, killing some people to save the lives of others. It also emerged that voluntary and involuntary donors were brought to Azerbaijan from Moldova, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine ...

The Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan has continued to deny all of this presence in Azerbaijan hospitals in which operations were carried out by transplantation of human organs. Finally, under pressure from law enforcement agencies of several states Baku Prosecutor General of Ukraine has allowed staff to come to Azerbaijan to investigate the allegations. And almost immediately after that followed the joint statement of Attorney General and Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, which recognized the implementation of this republic of illegal and criminal transactions. The joint statement indicated that "high officials of the medical center, in force at the International University of Azerbaijan, abusing his official powers, flagrantly violates the requirements of the law of Azerbaijan Republic" On transplantation of human organs and (or) tissues, without obtaining a special license to perform surgical operations in the transplantation of human organs and tissues in the medical establishment ... not holding appropriate registration, they took large sums of money for each transaction. According to the court, during a search of medical centers have been discovered and taken medical records of donors and recipients, which were carried out transplant operations. "

Will not go into details of how the Azerbaijani Pinkerton managed within days to disclose the crime, whose presence they are also denied for months. Today it is not important. Just stating that Azerbaijan, along with the role of the world's leading state for transit of drugs from Central Asia to Russia and Europe, is also one of the centers of other crimes against humanity. Otherwise qualified criminal transplantation of human organs simply fail. In the crime was involved a large group of doctors, but, according to an Israeli site, most of the operations carried out in Azerbaijan.

In early August, the head of the Department of Internal Affairs of Ukraine the fight against cybercrime and trafficking in persons (DBKTL) Yuri Kucher said at a press conference on the Ukrainian Interior Ministry collected evidence. "Through the announcements on the Internet offered to citizens to sell a kidney for ten thousand dollars. And for kidney transplantation from customers were taken from 100 to 200 thousand dollars. The surgeons were obtained from 15 to 20 thousand dollars. Most of the operations carried out in clinics in Azerbaijan, several transplant was performed in Ecuador and Ukraine. Total 'black transplant "managed to earn about $ 40 million.

All of the above, however, relates to the prerogative of the law enforcement agencies, including the Ukraine and Israel. We can only hope that the investigation will be completed and banditstvuyuschie doctors and their senior patrons will be punished according to merit. Meanwhile, we are practically assured in a criminal case of criminal cartels of doctors from Azerbaijan and Ukraine may emerge and the echo of the Artsakh war.

In mid-June 1992 23 infantry divisions and 86 Airborne Division of the CIS, with the support of the armed forces of Azerbaijan seized Shahumyan region of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. As a result of this aggression area has undergone ethnic cleansing: the fifteen thousandth the Armenian population of the district was forced to flee to escape the shelling and imminent death. However, in the form of surprise attacks and the lack of sufficient forces to defend the area, 495 residents of Shahumyan district did not have time to flee the fighting and were taken prisoner. As far as is known, then the Azerbaijani side has returned only a few dozen people, and the fate of about 450 people remained unaccounted for.

Given the fact that the Azerbaijani side is always readily exchanged the bodies of dead Armenians captured Askerov, we have no reason to believe the missing people Shahumyan region, and were taken hostage hundreds of residents of other regions of NKR dead. Azeris are generally traded in their these people were selling their parents or family captured soldiers as a "material" for the exchange. This is indicated by the fact that the Treasury relatives or exchanged for captured Azerbaijani soldier NKR citizens mostly lived in tolerable conditions, although held in Azerbaijan in slavery. They were told that they had heard about the presence of Armenian hostages in other families and villages.

It is symptomatic that after the Moscow meeting of the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, where the parties have agreed to exchange prisoners and the dead, Azerbaijan suddenly recognized the presence of his Armenian hostages Arthur Badalian, missing half a year ago. There is no doubt the number of Armenian hostages in Azerbaijan is still large. Anyway, until recently, there were many. Likewise, there is no doubt that a certain number of Armenian hostages were used by Azerbaijan as involuntary donors to supply the criminal clan of human organs.

We are confident that the competent authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the Republic of Armenia should apply to the relevant international organizations, including the European Union and Interpol, with the requirement to connect to the investigation of the crime of seizing and selling of human organs. The Armenian states is sufficient reason to believe that our citizens are subjected to Azerbaijan forced organ harvesting.

Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan

[Federate]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

BP well blows in Azerbaijan says Wikileaks leaked cable

The British energy giant was lucky it managed to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which led to two fields being shut and output being dramatically cut, according to the cables released by website WikiLeaks.

The news came as the United States filed a lawsuit against BP and eight other companies for billions of dollars damages over the devastating Gulf oil spill, the worst in US history.

In the Azerbaijan incident, BP suffered the blowout in September 2008, as well as the gas leak which the firm acknowledged at the time, according to the cables, revealed in Britain's Guardian newspaper.

"Due to the blowout of a gas-injection well there was 'a lot of mud' on the platform, which BP would analyse to help find the cause of the blowout and the gas leak," said one of the US dispatches.

Another cable revealed that the company had a narrow escape after the gas did not catch fire.

"Given the explosive potential, BP was quite fortunate to have been able to evacuate everyone safely and to prevent any gas ignition," said the cable.

"[BP's then head of Azerbaijan, Bill] Schrader said although the story hadn't caught the press's attention, it had the full focus of the [government of Azerbaijan], which was losing '40-50 million dollars each day'."

The leak and blowout happened at the huge Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field in the Caspian Sea, just one of BP's operations in Azerbaijan, where it has a dominant position in the energy market.

It occurred on the Central Azeri platform, and the first signs of a problem were detected when bubbles appeared in the waters around the site, said one cable.

"Shortly thereafter, a related gas-injection well for Central Azeri had a blowout, expelling water, mud and gas," said the dispatch.

BP declined to comment on the incident, the Guardian reported. It told the paper that BP "enjoys the continued support and goodwill of the government and the people of Azerbaijan".

Details of the blowout emerged in cables that are part of a cache of around 250,000 US diplomatic dispatches, which were leaked to whistleblower website WikiLeaks and are being slowly released.

The Azerbaijan leak happened around 20 months before the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which sent nearly five million barrels of oil gushing into the sea.

The blast killed 11 workers, and the resulting torrent of oil fouled the environmentally fragile Gulf coasts for three months before it was capped.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/bp-well-blows-in-azerbaijan-says-wikileaks-leaked-cable/story-e6frf7jx-1225972136724

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan Moves to Dump Russian Last-Name Endings
January 10, 2011 - 12:17pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Tamada Tales Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is moving forward with a curious social experiment. The government may soon order most of its citizens to change their last names and to pick first names for their children from a government-compiled list. The project, first announced last year, is meant to erase the influence of Azerbaijan’s erstwhile overseer, Russia, and to help Azerbaijan go back to its national roots.

Parliament is expected soon to discuss a bill that would replace Russian last name endings such as “-ov/-ova” with Azeri-style endings such as “-lie,” “-oglu,” “-gil,” or “-soy.” Upwards of 80 percent of Azerbaijani last names end with “-ov/-ova," “-ev/eva," according to the National Academy of Sciences.

Nizami Jafarov, head of the parliamentary committee on cultural affairs, told Zerkalo newspaper that ethnic minorities would be exempt from this requirement. Jafarov said that those who do not wish to change their last names will have to take their case to court.

The bill also proposes to impose limits on the first names that can be given to babies. Names from aggressor countries, ergo Armenia, will be outright banned, while Azerbaijani parents will be advised against giving their children names that sound funny in foreign languages.

One key question, though, appears to remain unanswered -- whether or not Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, plans to set the example for change himself.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62680

[Mos]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Similar to Tajikistan where Russian endings were dropped (by initiative of president) in favour of Tajik/Persian endings.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

There is turmoil in Azerbaijan now:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.voskanapat.info/&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1

1.) Iranians are pissed off that Aliyev proclaimed himself the leader of all Azeris.
2.) The leader of the islamic party of Azerbaijan, Movshum Samedov, was pissed off because Aliyev placed Christmas trees all over Azerbaijan during Muharram, the day of mourning. Samedov, during a meeting of there parliament, criticized Aliyev for the celebration, from the destruction of the mosque in Baku and more recently for the banning of headscarves in school. He called Aliyev Yazeed ibn Mu'awiya, the guy who ordered the death of Mohammed's grandson and he said Azerbaijan is being run by Zionists.
3.) Samedov was arrested recently for "resisting arrest" and terrorist training.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.voskanapat.info/&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Assyrians call UN to influence Baku

The United Nations should create a favorable atmosphere for problems of national minorities in Azerbaijan and other countries to be solved, representative of the Assyrian community of Armenia Razmik Khosroev told a news conference.

He noted that the Assyrian community spread all over the world faces the problem of preservation of their cultural heritage, and countries with a great number of Assyrian refugees face the danger of interethnic clashes.

Khosroev said that an Assyrian community of 6,000 people lived in Azerbaijan before the Karabakh war, but most of the Assyrians emigrated to Russia and other countries.

“Out of the 6,000, 2.5 thousand Assyrians currently live in Russia, mostly in the Krasnodar region. In most cases, local residents don’t understand the peculiarities of the Assyrian culture which can also trigger serious clashes,” Khosroev said.

He called on to create a favorable atmosphere for Assyrians to return to their former places of residence.

According to him, the Assyrian community did not undergo direct pressure by the Azerbaijani authorities but the xenophobia during the Karabakh war made Assyrians emigrate from Azerbaijan leaving their whole property.


TODAY, 15:30

Aysor.am

[Mos]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

This is rather funny I must say...

Azeri Parliament at odds with whole world

February 01, 2011 | 16:18

By Ivan Gharibyan

The spring session of the Azerbaijani Parliament opened in Baku on February 1. Many of the Azeri MPs were unanimously indignant at the entire world for not being "sympathetic" to the "oppressed" Azerbaijani people. A representative of the ruling party, New Azerbaijan, was particularly enthusiastic, which proved the show was stage-managed by the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan.

Vice-Speaker Ziyafet Askerov is indignant at the OSCE and other international agencies occasionally recalling political prisoners in Azerbaijan. "How long will some of the embassies act as agents in Azerbaijan?" he asked indignantly. Following the logic of Ilham Aliyev`s closest associate, no side has the right to interfere in Azerbaijan`s domestic affairs though the "Baku khanate" is proud of being a Council of Europe member.

Askerov`s claims were echoed by another top-ranking official of the Aliyev clan, Siyavush Novruzov. He was severely critical of the OSCE report on the latest parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan (how dared they not to point out progress!), as well as of the Public Chamber formed by the opposition forces and NGOs.

Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov too interfered in the fits of hysteria over the statements on a serious terrorist threat in Azerbaijan issued by the United States and Great Britain. According to him, none of the international agencies has stated anything in Azerbaijan`s favor.

Full of boyish enthusiasm, the Azeri MPs decided to deliver a "crushing blow" on Iran - they have a grudge against their neighbor as well. The MP Azai Ghuliyev was severely critical of Iran`s "interference" in Azerbaijan`s domestic affairs in the form of the "laying of an oil pipeline from Tabriz to Armenia, overt support and patronage shown to the occupant-country."

The MPs Zahid Oruj and Fazail Aghamaly were also critical of Iran. The former called on Azerbaijani citizens not to visit Iran, while the latter claimed the Islamic regime is pursuing an anti-Azerbaijani policy. "Drug smuggling, destructive programs and support for Armenia are manifestation of Iran`s hostile policy. I propose that Azerbaijan raise the issue of protection of Azerbaijanis` rights in Iran before the international community," he said.

Well, a "good" start to the Parliament`s spring session - no one, except for Turkey, understands this "ancient" people, do they?

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan: US Terrorism Alert Prompts Criticism in Baku
February 3, 2011 - 1:50pm, by Shahin Abbasov
Azerbaijan US Azerbaijani Politics Geopolitics Terrorism
Amid ongoing protests in Egypt, a US State Department warning about a terrorist threat “against American interests” in Azerbaijan has placed the government in Baku in an awkward situation. Senior members of the governing Yeni Azerbaijan Party have criticized the US action, while law enforcement agencies have questioned the basis for the alert.

The January 29 alert, distributed by the US Embassy in Baku, said there was a “potential for attacks in Azerbaijan, including against American interests,” and urged American citizens “to be vigilant … in public places associated with the Western community.” Without elaborating, the embassy alert stated that the warning was “based on terrorist threat information.”

Azerbaijan, a predominantly Shi’a Muslim country with a weak opposition, does not seem to be at high risk for a bout of unrest. Even so, with the ongoing protests in Egypt generating a steady buzz among Azerbaijanis in Baku, officials are eager to maintain the prevailing sense of stability. A recent directive, for example, instructed government employees to avoid any type of action that could rile citizens, EurasiaNet.org has learned.

Against this backdrop, YAP Deputy Executive Secretary Mubariz Gurbanly, speaking during a February 1 session of parliament, called on legislators to demand that the US Embassy disclose the reasons for issuing its security alert. “Such information creates fear and tension among both foreign and Azerbaijani citizens,” news agencies quoted Gurbanly as saying. “I think the alert is false.”

Stressing that “the situation in Azerbaijan is calm and stable,” YAP Deputy Chairman Ali Akhmadov echoed Gurbanly’s call for clarification.

So far, parliament has not officially sought an explanation for the distribution of the US alert. The US Embassy in Baku also has not publicly provided any additional information concerning the warning.

The ongoing US silence on the issue means that it cannot be determined whether the information prompting the alert was provided by the Azerbaijani government, or came from another source. But one former Ministry of National Security official underlines that whatever the US embassy knows, the Azerbaijani security services most likely know as well.

Washington “usually” shares with Baku information about potential terrorism threats related to Azerbaijan, said Arastun Orujlu, now director of Baku’s non-governmental East-West Research Center. “The US embassy would never issue such an alert if they did not have the relevant intelligence information,” he added.

Orujlu contended that the risk of terrorism in Azerbaijan has increased recently. “The Muslim world is now being shaken by revolutions and international religious terrorist networks could make provocations in order to fuel the tensions further,” he said.

The embassy warning was issued just weeks after the arrests of members of the banned Islamic Party of Azerbaijan, whose leader, Movsum Samadov, called for the overthrow of President Ilham Aliyev’s government. A senior Iranian cleric subsequently denounced the arrests, prompting Azerbaijani officials to complain about “Iranian interference in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs.”

There is no way at this time to determine whether the US terrorist warning has any connection to those arrests.

It is not the first time that the US government has issued a terrorism alert for Azerbaijan. In October of 2007 the American and British embassies, as well as BP-Azerbaijan and the Norwegian energy company Statoil, closed their Baku offices for three days after a similar security notice was issued.

At the time, Azerbaijani law-enforcement agencies also denied the existence of any threat. But a few weeks after a visit by then-Central Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael Hayden, an army officer who had deserted his post with guns and other armaments was arrested on terrorism charges. The officer, along with two other individuals, was sentenced to prison in 2008 for allegedly planning to attack the American, British and Israeli embassies in Baku.

This time, Azerbaijani security officials are likewise steadfastly denying the existence of a terrorism threat. Ministry of National Security spokesperson Arif Babayev told EurasiaNet.org that “preventive measures are being taken to avoid any threats.” Interior Ministry spokesperson Orkhan Mansurzade similarly commented to Turan news agency that the police are “securely protecting” all embassies and sites of “state importance.”

Whether or not the Azerbaijani security officials know more than they are saying, a former foreign policy advisor to the late president Heydar Aliyev, political analyst Vafa Guluzade, expressed the belief that the US embassy would not have issued an alert unless it was based on “real intelligence information.”

“It’s difficult to say what kind of information they obtained and if the Azerbaijani security services have it, too, or not,” said Guluzade. “There is no country in the world which is fully insured against possible terrorist attacks.”

Editor's note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance reporter based in Baku and a board member of the Open Society Assistance Foundation – Azerbaijan.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62821