Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

[Vrej1915]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Awkward Moment: Journalist Waylays Azerbaijan's First Lady In Paris
By Claire Bigg
September 09, 2015

http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-aliyeva-journalist-paris-awkward-khadija-yunus/27235583.html

Azerbaijan's first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva, enjoyed a warm welcome from French officials during her high-profile visit to Paris last week, including a tete-a-tete with President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace.

A new investigative report, however, reveals that a team of French journalists gave a significantly frostier reception to Aliyeva, whose husband has ruled the oil-rich Caucasus nation with an iron fist since succeeding his dying father in the job a decade ago.

The program, Cash Investigation, broadcast on French national television on September 7, shows its reporter, Elise Lucet, approaching the first lady as she opens a photo exhibition held at a city hall in the heart of Paris and titled Azerbaijan, Land Of Tolerance.

"Is your country really a land of tolerance for you?" the reporter asks.

"Yes, of course," answers Aliyeva, looking slightly alarmed.

The journalist then points out that Azerbaijan, a country with one of the world's worst human rights records, has "many political prisoners in jail."

"How can you say that? It's not true," Aliyeva responds as she tries to inch away, advising the journalist to go and "get correct information."

Unfazed, the reporter asks the first lady to comment on the cases of rights advocate Leyla Yunus and journalist Khadija Ismayilova, two leading critics of Aliyev's regime recently jailed amid an international outcry.

Aliyeva is seen turning her back without answering, while her security guards push the journalist away and order her to "be silent."

"We are in France," the reporter responds, adding that "journalists can ask questions in France."

As the inauguration festivities continue, Aliyeva eventually retreats into an office.

WATCH: Elise Lucet Challenges Mehriban Aliyeva

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2242&v=-AnuPrxQ3b8

The exhibition was organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, run by Aliyeva and named after current Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's late father, who ruled the Caucasus country for a decade before his death in 2003.

In August, a court in Baku sentenced Leyla Yunus to 8 1/2 years in jail on charges of fraud, tax evasion, and illegal business activities in a trial widely regarded as retaliation for her human rights work.

Her ailing husband Arif, 60, was sentenced to seven years on charges of fraud.

Ismayilova, a contributor to RFE/RL, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison on strikingly similar charges.

[Haykakan]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

BBC MONITORING ABANDONS AZERBAIJAN

19:45, 17 September, 2015

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. BBC Monitoring ceases its activities
in Azerbaijan and will be relocated in Tbilisi within the upcoming
6 months.

"Armenpress" reports that "Sputnik-Azerbaijan" informs about this,
citing its private source.

BBC Monitoring office in Baku refuses to comment on the information.

BBC Russian Service headquarter in London refrained from comments.

BBC Monitoring has operated in Azerbaijan for more than 15 years.

During those years various projects were implemented, including
publication of sharp analytical materials

[Haykakan]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

98 DEGREES AND RISING? AZERBAIJAN'S MILITARY EXPANSION AND THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Registan
Sept 17 2015

by Suzanne Rothman on 9/16/2015 ·

The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh is the epicenter of one of
the world's deadliest ethnic conflicts, one that has been considered
"frozen" since the belligerents, Armenia and Azerbaijan, signed a
ceasefire agreement in 1994. In reality, however, border skirmishes
resulting in casualties on both sides are abundant and the mutual
hostility remains intense on the grassroots level. Thus, while not
an ongoing war, the conflict over Karabakh is simmering and not frozen.

In fact, lately there have even been indications that Azerbaijan is
preparing to settle the conflict using military force.

Azerbaijan's increasing military expenditure, which has reached
nearly 5 billion dollars in 2015, is only one cause for alarm. In
recent months the Azerbaijani government has instructed the nation's
hospitals to be prepared for war, while its military has been
conducting extensive drills using tanks and aircrafts. Azerbaijani
media outlets report on military exercises and arms expenditure almost
exclusively in the context of the Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijani
officials speaking to the media and in public forums have stated the
country's interest in returning Karabakh to its control, even at the
cost of war. Recently, for example, Azerbaijan's Defense Minister,
Col. Gen. Zakir Hasanov, told members of the armed forces, "for
more than 20 years, our lands have been under occupation, and peace
talks have not produced any results. The enemy must unequivocally
understand that we will never reconcile with the occupation of our
lands," suggesting that the land of fire may be on the brink of war.[1]

Azerbaijan's desire to return Karabakh and the other territories to its
control is nothing new. With a deadlocked peace process, a diplomatic
solution has long been out of reach. Therefore, the question is why
is Azerbaijan conducting war-simulating drills and preparing the rear
for war now? What explains the timing of this perceived escalation? Is
this simply posturing, or has something truly changed on the ground?

Analyzing the current economic conditions in Azerbaijan, this article
argues that the mutual and deep-seated hostility and even the military
expansion are not an indication of an imminent war. The authoritarian
government of Azerbaijan is capitalizing on the national sentiment
about the conflict to divert attention away from its human rights
abuses, which were brought under international scrutiny during the
recent European Games and the trials of prominent activist

Set Ablaze: Grassroots Sensibilities in the Land of Fire

In Azerbaijan, visceral responses to the ongoing conflict and
war trauma pervade almost every aspect of everyday life, including
seemingly casual situations. For example, during a conversation club
talk about the definition of happiness, a student of mine rose to
his feet and said, "teacher, how can we be happy when Armenia is
occupying our land?" When an art gallery in Salyan (a town south of
Baku) had a painting competition, the majority of entrants chose to
depict scenes from the war. The image below, which captures some of
these paintings, shows military conflict and scenes from the Xocali
(pronounced kho-ja-li) massacre, in which at least 161 Azerbaijani
civilians were killed by the Armenian armed forces.

Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan
continue to suffer as a consequence of the war. Despite the fact
that some twenty years have passed since the armistice was signed,
many IDPs have yet to be permanently settled and suffer social
marginalization.[2] The ongoing IDP problem is a living reminder of
the aching wound that is the conflict over Karabakh, thus inflaming
the Azerbaijani street.

A Brief Review of Azerbaijan's Economy

The Land of Fire's economy is heavily reliant on the export of energy
resources. Oil and gas comprise 95% of Azerbaijan's exports, which
account for 70% of the country's income, leaving Azerbaijan highly
vulnerable to the drop in oil earlier this year. The loss in revenue
is estimated to have shaved off approximately 18% of Azerbaijan's
GDP,[3] and cost Azerbaijan jobs with British Petroleum trimming 8%
of its workforce in the country.

Skilled workers in the oil sector will find it difficult to obtain
employment in their field since the market has shrunk. They will
therefore either have to remain unemployed, get training for some
other kind of skilled labor, or accept an unskilled position with
lower pay. Depending on how steep it is, the job loss may also cause
a slowdown in the country's economic growth due to lower consumption
spending.

It is important to note, however, that Azerbaijan's foreign reserves
and low debt level have largely shielded the country from major
shocks.[4] That being said, the government's financial planning was
based on an estimate of $90 per barrel, a far cry from the actual
price of oil (hovering between $45-$60 per barrel). With further
plunges forecasted, and no signs of diversification, Azerbaijan's
economy is not out of the woods.

The Price of War

In light of global and regional economic conditions, what would a war
with Armenia actually cost Azerbaijan? A comprehensive analysis of
this important question is beyond the scope of this article; however,
the following points illustrate the potential economic impact of an
escalation between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

As noted, Azerbaijan has already invested nearly 5 billion dollars
(almost 18% of the national budget) in its military expansion. To
sustain a full-fledged war, Azerbaijan would have to commit additional
funds for the purchase of arms and maintenance of the troops, not to
mention cover the costs of any damage to infrastructure and medical
expenses that will undoubtedly arise in a war situation. With the
price of oil projected to remain low and perhaps even fall further,
the increase in expenditure would present a serious challenge to
Azerbaijan's budget planners and policymakers. Furthermore, it would
slow down the country's economic growth thus lowering the overall
standard of living.

Extending over 1,768 kilometers (over 1000 miles), the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline is among the world's most important
energy transportation systems. Capable of carrying up to 1.2 million
barrels of oil per day, the pipeline is of great financial importance
both to Azerbaijan and other actors in the region like the Turkmens
and Kazakhs whom use the pipeline to transport their oil, and of
course Georgia and Turkey, through which it passes. In addition to
the economic benefits it confers, the BTC provides the region with
geopolitical independence from its former master, Russia. As Frederick
Starr put it, "the alternative was to leave this vital export in
the sole hands of the successor to the USSR, the Russian Republic,
and its state-controlled monopoly, Transneft. In the post-imperial
era, when many Russian politicians still dreamed of reviving their
country's dominion in the Caspian basin, this would be an invitation
to mischief."[5]

Such critical infrastructure would be a prime target for any actor in
an armed conflict with Azerbaijan. The proximity between Azerbaijan and
Armenia is such that there is little strategic depth and the distance
between the latter and the BTC can be covered in a day or two. Thus,
Armenia could easily mount an attack on one of Azerbaijan's most
critical resources. In fact, Armenia has simulated precisely such an
attack in its military exercises in the past, indicating that an attack
on the BTC is likely should war erupt. Azerbaijan's heavy dependence
on oil, especially in the context of the losses it experienced due
to the declining price per barrel, makes an assault against the BTC
economically crippling. Even if the BTC itself were impregnable, a war
would disrupt Azerbaijan's ability to supply energy to its partners,
which in itself would cause economic upheaval.

Finally, since the signing of the nuclear deal with Iran earlier
this year, Azerbaijan has been looking southwards at the Islamic
Republic for business opportunities. Aspiring to be a main energy
supplier for Europe, Azerbaijan has been negotiating with Iran before
the deal was even signed, hoping to export Iranian energy through
its pipelines, too. Such a venture would not only be lucrative,
but would also bolster Azerbaijan's strategic importance. A war
with Armenia would make the environment far too risky for Iran to
invest in and therefore would spell the end of any hope for a joint
Iranian-Azerbaijani energy venture.

Conclusions

The economic costs discussed do not even begin to cover the
immeasurable human suffering that would result from a full-fledged
war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. They do, however, show that
pragmatically speaking the Azerbaijani regime has little incentive
to go beyond saber-rattling to a full-scale armed conflict. So why
is the Aliyev government sending out war signals now? With the opaque
nature of the Azerbaijani government, its rationale can be difficult
to fully analyze. It is probable that the reasoning in complex and
comprised of many factors. That said, one thing has changed recently:
the European Games, hosted in Baku this summer, exposed the regime's
human rights abuses. These sporting events were meant to showcase a
Baku brimming with opulent hotels and brand new buildings as a beacon
of Azerbaijan's meteoric economic development. The glistening Flame
Towers did not, however, obscure the Aliyev government's corruption
and oppressive practices, and instead put them in the spotlight. The
timing of this international interest and coverage could not have
been worse, since the authorities had arrested prominent activists
Leyla and Arif Yunus, as well as journalist Khadija Islmayilova who
is known for reporting on the regime's corruption. Leyla and Arif
Yunus have since been tried and sentenced (to 8 and 7 years in prison,
respectively). On September 1, 2015, Ismayilova was sentenced to 7.5
years in prison, for what are widely considered trumped-up charges
and following politically motivated prosecution.[6]

The international condemnation of the Azerbaijani regime's practices,
which has intensified in recent months, can help explain the heightened
belligerent rhetoric and posturing over the Karabakh conflict. While it
would be obtuse to dismiss these escalatory acts as a mere smokescreen,
the domestic political impetus in this case is strong. The Azerbaijani
government is shifting the its citizens' focus from problems at home
to the ever-unifying conflict with Armenia, which imbues jingoism
and negates all discussion about human rights issues. Furthermore,
in light of Azerbaijan's importance as an alternative energy supplier
to Russia, its authorities no doubt hope the international community
will also focus on the prospect of conflict (and its implications
for the energy market) rather than democratization issues.

However, even if Azerbaijan indeed has no real intention of provoking
an escalation in the foreseeable future, the conflict ought not
to be dismissed as "frozen". The rage about the conflict at the
grassroots level is fervent and very real, and with the government
bellicosity the simmering may boil over and create an expectation for
the authorities to actually use force to recapture Karabakh and the
surrounding regions lost in the early 90s. This expectation, in turn,
may back the Azerbaijani government into a corner and force it into
action. Saber-rattling, therefore, for whatever its true intentions
may be, is not to be taken lightly.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan makes a mockery of justice as couple sentenced in political show trial

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/14/azerbaijan-makes-a-mockery-of-justice-as-couple-sentenced-in-political-show-trial

Friday 14 August 2015

The court of grave crimes in Baku found leading Azeri activists, 59-year-old Leyla Yunus and her 60-year-old husband, Arif, guilty of swindling and tax evasion yesterday, and sentenced them to eight and seven-and-a-half years in prison respectively. I was in that courtroom as the verdict was read, and when the judge announced the sentence my first thought was that this was actually a death sentence. They are so ill and frail, several years in prison will surely kill them.

I remember Leyla Yunus from numerous international conferences – a handsome, middle-aged woman with a proud bearing. The woman sitting in the glass cage not far from me was a shadow of her former self, emaciated, worn out, her face pale and yellow. I could not see her husband as Arif Yunus was unable to sit up. He spent that 90 minutes that the verdict was being read out lying on a bench in the glass case, with his head cradled on his wife’s lap.

'Azerbaijan is turning into a dictatorship – we shouldn't fall for its caviar diplomacy'
Souhayr Belhassen
Read more
The crowded courtroom was growing increasing stifling as the air-conditioner could not cope with mid-August heat. Leyla Yunus was fanning her husband, leaning close to him, whispering to him. It was clear she was paying no attention to the proceedings and was completely focused on her husband, who had collapsed twice during closing arguments.

When the verdict and sentence were finally delivered, she called to me: “Arif is in a very bad condition. His health has deteriorated so, he doesn’t even understand what’s happening.”

Arif Yunus suffers from hypertension and recently had two strokes. Leyla Yunus has diabetes and hepatitis C. The health of both Yunuses has gravely deteriorated over the year they’ve already spent in custody.

I wasn’t there to witness Arif Yunus collapsing in the courtroom. The guards would not let me in when the hearing started yesterday morning – just like they wouldn’t let in the media, observers from local and international rights groups and French and Norwegian diplomats who showed up bright and early and crowded by the doors of the court building.

By the time I was admitted the judge was droning on about “unregistered” grants, unpaid taxes, forged signatures, misappropropriated and embezzled funds of foreign donors, and property purchased abroad, allegedly with that money.

The word “Armenia” and “trips to Armenia” were mentioned repeatedly. The Yunuses are also being investigated for high treason and spying in the interests of Armenia, and could be tried separately on those charges.


Together a lifetime, Azerbaijan couple now separated in jail
Read more
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a seven-year war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily ethnic Armenian-populated autonomous enclave in Azerbaijan. Despite a 1994 ceasefire, the conflict has not yet reached a political solution. The references to Armenia do not seem accidental – it appears that the authorities aim to demonise the Yunuses by portraying them not only as swindlers but also as enemies of the nation. No wonder that Leyla Yunus, in her last statement, described the proceedings as reminiscent of Soviet repression.

It is clear why no journalists were allowed in the courtroom and officials were so adamant that diplomats and international observers had to give up their cellphones and cameras.

The officials did not want the public to see how sick and broken those supposed enemies were, and how much of a mockery of justice the trial was.

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No one who saw the couple in their glass cage could help but be shocked by their condition. And could not help but see them as victims of the political manipulation of justice - independent activists punished for their work.

They also appear to have been punished for bringing the international community’s attention to the plight of dozens of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, where over the past three years the government has been relentlessly harassing, intimidating, and throwing behind bars leading human rights defenders, opposition politicians, journalists, and bloggers.

No matter what technical and legalistic pretexts the authorities are now using to lock up and destroy the Yunuses, one glance into that courtroom leaves you with no shadow of a doubt – this is a political trial and the supposed perpetrators are in fact victims of a vicious repression campaign against independent critics.

Tanya Lokshina is the Russia programme director for Human Rights Watch

[Mher]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

BONO from U2 sends personal VIDEO message to President Aliyev

good to know there's at least one artist that has some dignity left. It seems the more f***ed a dictator, the more celebrities line up to get down on their knees for him.

[londontsi]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

BONO from U2 sends personal VIDEO message to President Aliyev

[Haykakan]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

This is more of a external affair but I did not want to start another thread.

WHY US PRESIDENT CANDIDATE TRUMP RECEIVED $2.5 MILLION FROM NOTORIOUS AZERBAIJANI OLIGARCH?

19:09 31/07/2015 Â" POLITICS

Luxury hotels bearing Donald Trump's name grace some of the world's
ritziest locations, including New York, Waikiki, and Rio. There is
one outlier: the Trump Hotel and Tower in Baku. Trump's partner in
the venture is Anar Mammadov, a 34-year-old billionaire playboy whose
father serves as Azerbaijan's transportation minister, Russ Choma
writes for the nonprofit news website Mother Jones.

The author points that Mammadov's wealth has resulted in part from
his father's political connections. Meanwhile, Mammadov has mounted a
campaign to rehabilitate Azerbaijan's kleptocratic image in the West
by courting some of Washington's most powerful politicians.

"Fueled by billions of dollars reaped from the country's oil and gas
fields, Baku has transformed over the last decade into a city of
flamboyant excess and garish architecture. The latest addition to
the glittering skyline is the Trump Tower, a 33-floor luxury hotel
in the shape of a sail," the author writes. He notes that the hotel's
opening moved from June to the end of the year.

Bearing Trump's name, the hotel in Baku was constructed and is owned
by a company called Garant, which is controlled by Anar Mammadov. But
Trump received at least $2.5 million for lending his name and expertise
to the project.

Mammadov's father, Zia Mammadov, is widely considered a powerful and
influential official in president Ilham Aliyev's government and is
rumored "to be worth" more than $1 billion.

Referring to the article of the Foreign Policy titled "The Corleones
of the Caspian," the author writes that Mammadov's other companies
have received over $1 billion in highway construction contracts, and
the firm owns many of Baku's buses and taxis. Mammadov also owned a
majority stake in the bank that processed all of the taxi cab fares
and the company that provided insurance to all the cabs.

Mammadov heads the Azerbaijan American Alliance, which is one of
the three main conduits by which the country sought to lobby the
US government in order to burnish its image in the West. A South
Caucasus expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Tom de Waal said there is a phenomenon of the children of oligarchs
acting as lobbyists abroad. In 2014, the alliance spent more than $2.8
million lobbying Congress and State Department to improve US-Azerbaijan
relations. Over the first half of 2015, the group has spent at least
$500,000 trying to influence US lawmakers and officials. Mammadov's
Facebook page is full of photos of the businessman posing with other
politicians, including House Speaker John Boehner.

Choma also highlights that like Trump, Mammadov is a colorful figure.

Educated in London, he serves as the head of his country's golf
federation. Mammadov's personal life has been a heavily covered
topic in Azerbaijani opposition newspapers, which in 2010 published
reports that Mammadov had been expelled from Dubai following a raucous
dinner party with friends. Azerbaijani media outlets also reported
that Mammadov had paid a local restaurant more than $1 million to
slaughter a bear kept there and serve kebabs from the meat.

In 2010, international press monitoring organization Reporters Without
Borders reported that journalists for Azerbaijani papers Yeni Musavat
and Milli Yol were attacked and beaten while trying to take photos
of luxury villas owned by members of the Mammadov clan.

The American billionaire Donald Trump, who made a statement in June
about his intention to run for the US president, has taken a commanding
lead over the Republican candidates. On July 30, BBC reported that
a five-day online poll carried out by Reuters and Ipsos found that
Trump gets the support of 25 percent of the voters, which gave him
a double-digit advantage over nearest his rival Jeb Bush. The former
Florida governor and brother of the ex-president George Bush got only
12 per cent. Meanwhile, in June, when Trump announced his participation
in the presidential race, only 2 per cent of the voters were ready
to vote for him. "Political analysts predict that Republican voters
will sooner or later get disappointed in Trump, and then he can run
as an independent candidate," BBC says.

Related: OCCRP: Nine five-star hotels connected with Aliyevs brought
over $10 million during European Games OCCRP: Ilham Aliyev's London
mansion costs more than $25 million while he gets US$ 230,000 per year

http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2015/07/31/azerbaijan-usa-trump/

[Tsov]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

“The Scapegoat to the East:” How Baku exploits Karabakh issue
Published on 04 July 2015 - By Naomi Anderson

“Business,” “Society,” “Politics,” are normal headings for news sites and news reports. On the front pages of many Azerbaijani, news websites there is a category unlike the others, “Armenian Aggression.” On the home page of Azernews, nestled between “Business” and “Travel” is the heading “Armenian Aggression.” News.az dedicates a section of its home page to news from Karabakh, while Azertac has a special page for the “Days of Sorrow,” which commemorate the bloodiest days of the Nagorno-Karabakh war. The conflict with Armenia over the region known as Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, and to this day is unresolved, though officially in a ceasefire. Twenty-seven years after the conflict began and 21 years after the ceasefire agreement, an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has grown up listening to constant rhetoric of Armenian aggression. Nowhere in the mainstream Azerbaijani news sources is it mentioned that before the outbreak of this conflict, Azerbaijanis and Armenians lived peaceful as neighbors in this region. This has turned Armenia into a permanent scapegoat for the Azerbaijani government. As noted in the EurasiaNet article, “Azerbaijan: Falling Economy, Rising Karabakh War Risk,” when the political situation becomes unstable, a sudden outbreak of violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh region distracts Azerbaijanis from the corruption in their own government. This is not to say that Armenia is on the right side of the conflict, but that the conflict is used internally to consolidate control. The image of an external enemy is politically expedient for the government - the same tactic used by many other authoritarian regimes to perpetuate power. Perhaps the current Azerbaijani government has problems, but they all must unite against their enemy to the east. As the media perpetuates this constant stream of overblown stories from Nagorno-Karabakh, such as the recently posted article “Armenia continues hydro terror against Azerbaijan,” Armenia remains an easy scapegoat. It is easy enough to deflect critical internal attention away from the Azerbaijani government by bombarding the populace with news of terror from the east. The perpetual focus on the conflict is not limited to news reports, as the “Days of Sorrow,” are marked in the daily life of Azerbaijanis. On the day of the Khojaly massacre, February 26, there are slideshows and videos played in schools and universities. These videos do not just outline and describe the tragedy, but go so far as to display gruesome pictures of the mangled bodies of the victims. Azerbaijani children and teenagers see photos of dead children, accompanied by bolded text blaming Armenians for the tragedy. This kind of thinking is endemic of one of the problems with the conflict, one of the propagations of the government-controlled media, i.e. the de-contextualization of the war, which engenders the thinking that above all else, above government corruption and human rights violations, the greatest evil in this world is Armenia. There is no question that events like the Khojaly massacre are tragic, and the violence is deplorable. However, the presentation of Armenians as constant aggressors leaves the door open for the Azerbaijani government to point their finger to the east when they begin to feel pressure from their people. It is an issue that almost all Azerbaijanis can get behind, a rallying cry against the common enemy, the people who stole their land and massacred their people. It is this biased, one-sided view of history, which allows the Azerbaijani government and the government-controlled media to continue to use Armenia as a scapegoat whenever they need to. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is complex, with no clear end in sight, exacerbated by the propaganda used to sidetrack investigations into the government’s corruption. In one instance, the government slipped up and revealed not only their desperation to be seen in a positive light by Europe, but also the cracks in their portrait of Armenia as a country of aggressors. The Azerbaijani government paid for the flights of foreign athletes and coaches, as well as for their hotel rooms, during the European Games in Baku. The government paid for all the athletes, including those coming from Armenia. This created confusion and consternation among Azerbaijanis, and showed the shallowness of the claims of Armenia’s evil. If Armenians are the constant aggressors, why would the government pay for them to come compete in Baku? While suspicions may be growing that the problems at home are more serious than their neighbors to the east, it is almost impossible for Azerbaijanis to forget almost thirty years of anti-Armenian propaganda. If pressure on the Aliyev family continues to increase, as Azerbaijanis have been growing more and more upset about the negative side-effects of the European Games, such as a recent fire and the cost of transporting the athletes, it is all too likely that they may attempt to turn everyone’s attention to the familiar enemy, whose crimes are updated and refreshed daily on Azerbaijani news pages.

https://www.meydan.tv/en/site/authors/6778/%E2%80%9CThe-Scapegoat-to-the-East%E2%80%9D-How-Baku-exploits-Karabakh-issue.htm

[Shant03]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

I'd hit it.


edit: oh xxxx someone gave me a star??

[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-

.