Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

[Eddo211]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

kunem etra lava vor he utters the name armenians and homosexuals in the same sentence

Shant is gonna make him a homosexual if he utters those words together......I would take him seriously

To add koonem ess eshere chenmanoom inchen groom.

[Artsakh]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Mr. Erdogan must have forgotten that the founder of the modern Turkish Republic--ATATURK--who is worshipped as a god by Turks, WAS A HOMOSEXUAL.

Mr. Erdogan, what that essentially means is that the republic that you lead was founded by a person WHO LOVED TAKING PENIS UP HIS ANUS, AND WHO LOVED PENIS IN HIS MOUTH.

Dear Turks, ATATURK, the person who you worship as a God, LOVED TAKING PENIS UP HIS ANUS, AND WHO LOVED PENIS IN HIS MOUTH. THIS IS WHO YOU WORSHIP. THIS IS WHO MR. ERDOGAN IS ATTEMPTING TO DEFAME.

---------------------

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 28 2007

BRUSSELS, MARCH 28, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. The Ministry of
Education of Belgian state of Valon published a book, in which the
founder of modern Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal - Ataturk, is
numbered among the most important and the most prominent homosexuals
in the history.
According to the Zaman Turkish newspaper, the book under the title
"Fight Against Homophobia," which consists of 144 pages, was given
out to pupils of pre-school and secondary colleges of the state of
Valon. On book's page 105 Ataturk is numbered among the most famous
homosexuals in the world history.

According to the book, Alexander of Macedon, Leonardo da Vinci,
Goethe, as well as the Pope John Paul III were also homosexuals.

Marriage of homosexuals is permitted in Belgium.

[londontsi]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-06-07/local-news/Malta-shell-company-helps-Azerbaijan-s-ruling-family-gain-millions-at-country-s-expense-6736136878

Malta shell company helps Azerbaijan’s ruling family gain millions at country’s expense


A Malta-based shell company is linked to financial transactions which likely saw Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family amass hundreds of millions of euro at the expense of the country he leads and its citizens.

FA Invest (Malta), whose registered address is in the Cornerstone Complex in Mosta, has apparently taken over a 6.5 per cent stake in Azerbaijani telecoms company Azercell, while the Azerbaijani government transferred its own stake at highly discounted prices to a company which appears to be indirectly controlled by the Aliyev family.

Mr Aliyev presides over a country widely deemed to be one of the world's most corrupt regimes, and he and his family - his wife Mehriban, his daughters Leyla and Arzu and his teenage son Heydar - are perceived to treat state assets as if they were their own personal property.

While the President is constitutionally prohibited from owning businesses and has an annual salary of around €200,000, the Washington Post had found out in 2010 that his son - who was just 11 at the time - had acquired nine waterfront mansions in Dubai worth $44 million.

Months-long investigation unearths Malta link

The Malta link is one of many findings resulting from a months-long investigation carried out by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Swedish Television's programme "Uppdrag Granskning" (Mission Investigate) and the Swedish News Agency TT into Azerbaijani telecoms company Azercell, which is majority owned by Swedish-Finnish company TeliaSonera.

The story, ultimately, is based on the work of Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova, an OCCRP member who was arrested last December on apparently trumped-up charges.

Their examination of countless business records, annual reports and internal documents uncovered a scheme to transfer Azercell shares into the hands of a "local partner" with numerous links to the Aliyevs, while TeliaSonera and its partners played down what was happening and often made misleading public statements. The Swedish company was actually found to have acted against its interest by allowing the deal to go through.

The rise of Azercell

Azercell was originally established in 1996 as a joint venture between the Azerbaijani government and Turkish company Türkcell, with the former owning a 51 per cent stake. Türkcell soon brought in a new partner, Istanbul-based company Cenay Insaat, which was viewed favourably by the Azerbaijani government.

A holding company called Azertel was called, and Türkcell moved its stake in Azercell into this new company. Azertel subsequently increased its stake in Azercell to 64.3 per cent.

In 2000, Türkcell merged Azertel and most of its international holdings with assets from Finnish telecom operator Sonera, which merged with Swedish operator Telia two years later. TeliaSonera thus gained overall control over Azercell.

Azercell proved to be highly successful, providing a significant contribution to the Azerbaijani state's budget through taxes. But as its profits grew, the Aliyev family turned their sights on it, and the state's share was quietly shifted to companies linked to them.

According to a shareholders' agreement, should any privatisation occur, the Azerbaijani government was required to first offer its shares to TeliaSonera, and in 2004, the company aimed to increase its indirect ownership in Azercell to 75 per cent, granting it full management control.

Negotiations with the government and with Cenay Insaat began, with TeliaSonera seemingly desperate to close the deal as quickly as possible since the company's value was increasing rapidly.

The Aliyevs dip their fingers

But in September 2004, without any explanation, the Azerbaijani government insisted that TeliaSonera could not privatise Azercell by itself, stating that Cenay Insaat and a new government-approved local partner would be involved.

TeliaSonera would be required to waive its right to buy the government share and even agree to finance Cenay Insaat and the new local partner with a $100 million loan, which would be repaid through the dividends the new partners would earn through Azercell.

In return, the local partner guaranteed that it would receive all the necessary licences and regulatory approvals, and that the government would pass laws liberalising the telecom industry - an assurance that could only be made by the government itself or someone closely linked to it.

TeliaSonera wanted to maintain corporate control and appoint all board members, but the local partner wanted more management control, and as the Swedish-Finnish company resisted, the Azerbaijani government retaliated.

Suddenly, Azercell found itself under pressure from regulators, and tax authorities started carrying out an extensive audit of its operations. Such pressure on foreign companies is hardly unusual in corrupt regimes, and is often used to force them to pay kickbacks.

But a new development occurred in the spring of 2005, through the emergence of a new local partner which put privatisation back on the agenda.

This time round, Azercell's shares were to be shifted to a company designed to appear to be linked to Cenay Insaat, but was in fact very different.

Two of Cenay Insaat's founders established a new company with a very similar name, Cenay Iletisim, and asked TeliaSonera to approve the transfer of half of Cenay Insaat's shares, equivalent to 6.5 per cent of Azercell, to the new company.

When the transfer of shares was approved, TeliaSonera was informed that Cenay Iletisim was controlled by the Cenay Group, but only a month later, Cenay sold its interest - worth some $26-45.5 million - to two newly-established Panamanian shell companies for just $6.5 million.

Such ownership structures are typical for the Aliyev family as it amasses huge wealth off the country's assets: most of the family's offshore companies are registered in Panama through registration agent Morgan y Morgan.

Asked why Cenay would give up half its share for so little, Cenay Group's Ugur Uzpeder told the OCCCRP that "it is better to sell for us. To work in Azerbaijan is quite hard, we have other investments there. For example, we have the pipeline, pipe factory there. We couldn't succeed with that, because it is a very hard market."

He said that he could not say anything more when asked if Cenay were forced to sell.

TeliaSonera strong-armed into benefiting first family

And at the end of 2005, TeliaSonera was asked to approve a deal where Cenay Iletisim would take over the government's stake in Azercell for $180 million - although they were worth some $785 million at the time - even though the government legally had to privatise its share to its holding company.

Faced with no other choice - its holding company's CEO had said, during a board meeting, that not approving the deal would be very much destructive for the company - TeliaSonera ended up approving the deal which saw Cenay Iletisim's stake in Azercell increase to 42 per cent, while TeliaSonera's own stake fell to 51 per cent.

Adding insult to injury, TeliaSonera was expected to loan Cenay Iletisim the money it needed to buy the shares from the government, and also had to agree to give Cenay Iletisim the right to sell its stake back at a fair value in the future.

It effectively committed itself to an $873 million liability to Cenay Iletisim, a transfer of wealth potentially rising to $1 billion when dividends from TeliaSonera to the company are considered.

But internal documents reveal that the Azerbaijani government did not even receive the $180 million it sold its shares for, as the government requested that at least half of that amount would be paid through a three-party arrangement with government voucher holders. The voucher system, through which Azerbaijani citizens had been entitled to voucher coupons to benefit from the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, was riddled with corruption, and evidence presented in a US bribery trial suggests that two-thirds were owned by 28 shell companies owned by Azerbaijani government officials, possibly including the Aliyevs.

While Azercell initially expected to receive permission to use the newest technology at the time - a 3G licence - this was not forthcoming. As it happens, one of its competitors is owned by President Aliyev's two daughters through a Panamanian offshore registration agency.

The licence only appeared in late 2011, and only in the wake of another round of shady deals.

In November 2011, Azercell's results for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2011 were approved, but no dividends were distributed. However, the board met again the following month and changed its mind about distributing dividends.

But as it happens, Cenay Insaat did not receive its 6.5 per cent share of the dividends: these instead went to a Malta-based company, FA Invest Malta, which had only been registered in 27 October, 2011.

FA Invest was represented by a certain Hamzayev Rashad Firidunoglu, whose name is coincidentally identical to one of the President's personal security guards, who received the "For service to the motherland" medal from President Aliyev in 2010.

Only after FA Invest's entry into the scene did Azercell receive its long-awaited 3G licence. A 4G licence soon followed.

Maltese company linked to Aliyevs' Panamanian registration agency

Investigations carried out by The Malta Independent on Sunday show that FA Invest Malta is owned by two companies.

One of them is Panama-based Stella International Services, which appears to be linked to the Aliyev family: it is based in the Morgan y Morgan offices in Panama City.

The other is Trident Trust Company (Malta) Ltd, whose directors are Maltese citizen Nissim Ohayon - who is also the company secretary of FA Invest Malta - Mark Wilson LeTissier from Guernsey, and David Hermanus Bester from the Isle of Man.

Trident Trust's shares are owned by TTG (Malta) Ltd, which is based in the same Mosta office, but TTG Malta's own shares are controlled by Binder Investments Limited, which is based in the British Virgin Islands.

[Mher]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

lol this is going just about as badly as everyone thought it would

The pitched battle over the European Games

The European Games kicks off in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, on Friday. It's the first Olympic-style sporting festival for the continent - but a hashtag first used by organisers and originally meant to celebrate the games has been turned on its head by human rights campaigners.

#Baku2015 has been tweeted nearly 100,000 times in the last month. It was initially used back in 2012 after the European Olympic Committees launched the new tournament and named Baku as the first host city.

But in recent days, amidst athlete interviews and pictures of Baku's new stadium, a significant number of the most repeated messages are from activists and groups such as Human Rights Watch, PEN and Amnesty International. They're using the tag to detail something very different: the arrests of journalists and the arbitrary detention of activists.

"Ask your leaders to take action to release political prisoners," tweeted the International Federation for Human Rights (known by its French acronym FIDH) along with pictures contrasting the shiny main stadium - named the Olympic Stadium - with a man apparently being led away by police:

Other hashtags including #EuropeanGames and #RealBaku have been tweeted thousands of times by activists, who have also shared cartoons and statistics about political prisoners and jailed journalists.

BBC Trending asked the Azeri government for comment on several of these accusations, including the widely retweeted complaint from Amnesty International that its monitors were not allowed in the country in advance of the start of the games. "It would be best this visit is postponed, not cancelled, to a later date after the European Games," we were told in a statement from the Azerbaijani embassy in London - and they haven't yet responded on other issues.

Online, government supporters seemed pretty vocal - and co-ordinated - in their attempts to wrest the hashtag back to a discussion about sport. At several points in the run-up to the games, pro-government messages hit Twitter from multiple accounts at roughly the same time:

Arzu Geybulla, an independent Azeri journalist based in Istanbul, says this pattern is consistent with the way politics works online in the country. The youth branch of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party deploys a number of young people online who call themselves journalists, she says - but actually spread party messages.

The New Azerbaijan Party has been in power for more than two decades - current president Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father in 2003. The government has been criticised by the EU, US, and rights organisations for detaining political prisoners, widespread corruption and election fraud. Human Rights Watch says Azerbaijan "is experiencing one of its worst human rights crises in over two decades since its independence" and that the government is in the midst of a "relentless and systematic crackdown" against its critics - a view supported by the UN.

In April, the European Olympic Committees said in a statement: "It is not the EOC's place to challenge or pass judgment on the legal or political processes of a sovereign nation and, like all sports organisations, we must operate within existing political contexts."

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33081088

[Mher]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Netherlands Pulls Out Of Hosting 2nd European Games In 2019



June 10, the Netherlands announced its official decision not to host the second edition of the European Games.

In a statement by the Dutch government, the organizers-to-be said the costs of the games were too high.

The Dutch also questioned the importance of these games given European Championships that already include athletes competing in such categories as swimming and athletics.

The European Olympic Committee said they were disappointed with this decision accusing the Dutch of "lack of vision".

EOC President Patrick Hickey ensured the Committee would find a good replacement.

First European Games begin June 12 in the capital of Baku.

http://www.azadliq.mobi/a/27064451.html

[londontsi]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Look at this plonker carrying the torch.
Rather than giving the honour to a deserving athlete he runs the torch himself.
I correct myself, I wouldn't call it running.
Rather moves as if he has a d.lido stuck up his as.s.

.

[Eddo211]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

I wouldn't touch that torch after they are done with it......either way, small turn up by people and unprofessional conduct by runners and it seemed like they didn't know what to do.
Embracing.

[londontsi]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

ARAS AGALAROV DIVORCE EMIN AGALAROV AND LEYLA ALIYEVA

http://www.vesti.az/news/253125

The well-known Russian businessman Aras Agalarov in an interview vedomosti.ru deplored the fact that the marriage has broken up his son Emin Agalarov and daughter Leyla Aliyeva, the President of Azerbaijan, reports Vesti.Az .

"I'm sorry that it happened. They are both very good, positive people. Apparently, something did not happen. They kept a very good relationship, raising children together ", - said Aras Agalarov.

He also noted that his son - Emin Agalarov very well composed music career.

"In Russia, he still managed to, I think. Recently, he received awards of leading Russian music awards. Now he stepped pop operations abroad ", - said A. Agalarov.

[Joseph]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/azerbaijans-dependence-on-oil-prices-is-bad-for-the-governme#.agEl21kbk

[londontsi]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Aliyev awards his wife the order named after his father

http://www.contact.az/docs/2015/Politics/062900121573en.htm

Aliyev awards his wife the order named after his father
2015 June 29 ( Monday ) 16:32:01

President Ilham Aliyev awarded his wife Mehriban Aliyeva the Order named after his father, Heydar Aliyev.

She was awarded for the fruitful development activities in the sphere of culture, education, health and sports, promotion of Azerbaijani culture in the world, and for great contribution in organizing the first European Games, the decree said. -02D-

.