Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

[retro]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Interview with Azerbaijani comedian Aliyev!

[Mher]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Interview with Azerbaijani comedian Aliyev!

wow monkey knows English! I didn't know that, lol he already surpassed all expectations I had of him.
But seriously, this entire "conflict" is nothing but a smoke screen, for if stops talking about it for 5 seconds, people might wonder, why don't we have basic roads outside of Baku, why are so many people starving while Baku is becoming a poor man's Paris.


While in Armenia this past summer, I met an American girl who had volunteered in multiple countries, including the 3 s. caucus states. She was saying how in Azerbaijan she had been told by a local how a road in central Baku had been repaved 3 times in past year, while almost the entire Western and Northwestern Azerbaijan was connected by dirt roads.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Ադրբեջանում ձերբակալել են պաշտպանության նախկին նախարարին
20 Մարտի 2013 - 10:08

Երեքշաբթի օրը Ադրբեջանում ձերբակալվել է պաշտպանության նախկին նախարար Ռագիմ Գազիևը, գրում է contact.az-ը:
Գազիևը եղբայրը՝ Ռահաբ Գազիևը, պատմել է, որ երեկ իր եղբայրը պատրաստվում էր գնալ «Ազադլիգ» ռադիոկայան՝ երեկոյան հաղորդմանը մասնակցելու համար: Սակայն ճանապարհին նրան ձերբակալել են ներքին գործերի նախարարության աշխատակիցներ ներկայացած անձիք:

Հարազատներին չի հաղորդվում Գազիևի գտնվելու վայրը:

Թե ինչում է մեղադրվում Ադրբեջանի պաշտպանության նախկին նախարարը, դեռևս հայտնի չէ:

Contact.az-ը նշում է, որ մի քանի օր առաջ Գազիևը բաց նամակ էր գրել երկրի նախագահ Իլհամ Ալիևին, որում սուր քննադատության էր ենթարկել նրա վարած քաղաքականությունը:

Գազիևը Ադրբեջանի Պնախարար է եղել 1992-93 թվականներին:1993-ին նա ձերբակալվել է՝ մեղադրվելով Շուշին հայերին հանձնելու մեջ: Նա դատապարտվել էր մահապատժի, սակայն հետագայում այն փոխարինվել է ցմահ ազատազրկմամբ: 2005 թվականին նա համաներմամբ ազատ էր արձակվել:


HayNews.am

[retro]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

wow monkey knows English! I didn't know that, lol he already surpassed all expectations I had of him.
But seriously, this entire "conflict" is nothing but a smoke screen, for if stops talking about it for 5 seconds, people might wonder, why don't we have basic roads outside of Baku, why are so many people starving while Baku is becoming a poor man's Paris.


While in Armenia this past summer, I met an American girl who had volunteered in multiple countries, including the 3 s. caucus states. She was saying how in Azerbaijan she had been told by a local how a road in central Baku had been repaved 3 times in past year, while almost the entire Western and Northwestern Azerbaijan was connected by dirt roads.

Lack of political reform in Azerbaijan is a problem and while Baku is a important gas corridor. Aliyev is such an obvious tyrant that he's an embarrassment. Who knows maybe next he will declare himself the Shah of Azerbaijan.

Aliyev can piss and moan as much as he likes. However an agreement with Armenia won't favour Azerbaijan and I very much doubt that they can risk another war.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Report: Turkmenistan Attacks Azerbaijan In Caspian, Aliyev Asks Help From Russia
April 9, 2013 - 11:42am, by Joshua Kucera The Bug Pit Azerbaijan Russia Turkmenistan Turkmenistan News Brief
Azerbaijan has asked Russia to relocate some of its Caspian Fleet to Baku after Turkmenistan's naval forces fired on some of Azerbaijan's offshore oil drilling facilities. That's according to Russian website OSTKRAFT, and while the chances of this being accurate are probably pretty small, it's too intriguing a rumor to not pass on. According to OSTKRAFT's story:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has appealed to the leadership of Russia to move part of its Caspian Fleet from Astrakhan and Makhachkala to Baku.

The goal of such military assistance would be the defense of offshore oil drilling facilities in the Caspian Sea territorial waters of Azerbaijan. The immediate cause for the appeal of the government of Azerbaijan to Moscow, according to an OSTKRAFT source, is the damage to Azerbaijan's offshore oil refining infrastructure in shooting by the naval forces of Turkmenistan on the Caspian. The Russian reply is not known.

Given the vagueness of the sourcing, it's best to treat this report with a high degree of skepticism. And it seems unlikely that Aliyev would make such a dramatic request to Russia -- in the long term he's more worried about Russia than about Turkmenistan. And inviting the Russians to base themselves in Baku would make it very hard later to get them out.

Still, the nascent naval forces of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have clashed in the past and we didn't hear about it until long after the fact (and probably still wouldn't have, if not for WikiLeaks). And Baku has shown that it prefers not to publicize news of its own weakness in the Caspian. So is there at least a kernel of truth to this somewhere, perhaps some sort of naval clash between the two countries? We'll have to wait for more information.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66803

[Vrej1915]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan: Davos Forum Turns into Snoozefest
April 9, 2013 -
, by Shahin Abbasov


Eurovision did it with pop music, and the hope was that the World Economic Forum would do it with entrepreneurial spirit. But, in the end, what the Azerbaijani government had hoped would be another high-profile, image-enhancing event fell far short of expectations.

The international business leaders and various multi-millionaires who usually flock to the Forum’s annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland, were noticeable in their absence at the April 7-8 Baku event, which was designed to discuss the future of the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Andrei Kostin, the chief executive officer of Russia’s VTB Bank, was just about the only prominent foreign business baron to attend.

“Not any noticeable decisions, no business deals, no star names. I would say the forum went generally unnoticed,” commented Natik Jafarly, head of the Society of Economic Bloggers, a local non-governmental organization.

Azerbaijani executives were also in short supply among the few hundred registered participants. Many of those on hand were from operations dependant on good ties with the government. The chief executive officer of one large Azerbaijani holding company, who asked not to be named, told EurasiaNet.org that he had learned about the event less than a week before its start, and had had no luck finding out the list of participants in advance. “My bosses told me I have to attend,” he said. “The only thing I managed to do is to give my business cards to a few people.”

The regional government presence was also subdued. Turkey sent its energy minister, Tamer Yıldız, while Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan dispatched a few deputy prime ministers. Georgia and Russia settled for their ambassadors to Baku, though Moscow added Peter Sannikov, vice-president of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

News coverage was limited primarily to state-friendly Azerbaijani outlets. Even the presence of Great Britain’s Prince Andrew, Duke of York, a friend of President Ilham Aliyev, failed to generate much international buzz.

But that didn’t change the talking points. The World Economic Forum (WEF) had agreed to come to Baku after a Davos meeting this January between President Aliyev and Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the organization. Details of the event financing – registration fees were not charged – are not known. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reportedly issued letters of invitation for all who required visas.

At the April 7 opening, Schwab hit points pleasing to Baku, telling participants that Azerbaijan “embodies great opportunities … for most indicators and directions,” and demonstrates the advantages of “using natural wealth for economic diversification;” notably, in promoting “the financial and construction sector, as well as information technologies.”

That assertion might come as a surprise to many Baku watchers. Although officials have attributed the country’s 2012 economic growth of just over 2 percent to the non-oil sector, energy accounted for 80 percent of Azerbaijan’s foreign direct investment of $5.4 billion in 2012, according to government data.

Schwab argued that the South Caucasus and Central Asia have considerable potential for long-term economic success, and that if everyone can work together – with some help from the World Economic Forum – the region would benefit still further.

President Aliyev was ready with the examples; he praised as “very important for the region” the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway with allies Georgia and Turkey, slotted for opening in 2014, and Azerbaijan’s Trans-Anatolian Pipeline project with Turkey.

But other, more controversial issues also critical to the region’s economic development – democratization, rule of law, media rights, civil rights, and migration – were not addressed publicly at the gathering.

Nor was mention made of an April 3 report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that President Aliyev and his family members allegedly own offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands – a topic so far ignored by the government.

The event did not even attract a lone protester – topless or otherwise.

Emin Huseynov, one of the organizers of the “Sing for Democracy” protests that took place during last year’s Eurovision contest, told EurasiaNet.org that the Baku meeting’s low international profile meant “it did not make sense to organize a campaign regarding it.”

Economist Zorhab Ismayil, head of the non-governmental “Support for a Free Economy” think-tank, said the WEF’s “dialogue” in Baku failed to grab the international limelight since foreign entrepreneurs and government officials “understand” that it is an image-making event “and do not want to participate.”

In an appearance that further underlined the event’s PR mission, the president’s elder daughter, 27-year-old Leyla Aliyeva, who allegedly holds sizable interests in Azerbaijan’s aviation, telecommunications and mining sectors, delivered a 40-minute speech on campaigns by her International Dialogue for Environmental Action to address global environmental problems. Before the start of the event, she also inaugurated a government-funded mobile library.

The only business deal formally concluded during the Baku forum was an agreement that spoke little to the economic diversification praised by Schwab -- a memorandum between Norway’s Statoil and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic about development of offshore gas fields estimated to contain 300 billion cubic meters of gas.

Editor's note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance reporter based in Baku

[Mher]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Anti-Azerbaijani protest held in Turkey’s Sakarya

“The wave of anti-Azerbaijani protests reaches Turkey,” reads the title of an article published on Arannews.ir.

An anti-Azerbaijani protest was held in the Turkish city of Sakarya. The protesters slammed Azerbaijan’s anti-Islamic policy, demanding that the Azerbaijani authorities release leader of Islamic Party of Azerbaijan Mohsen Samadov and the other jailed religious figures, says the article.

According to the Iranian website, the protesters shouted slogans such as “Hijab is banned, shame on Ilham Aliyev” and “Samadov should be released.”

http://panorama.am/en/society/2013/04/10/action/

[TomServo]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

That's not anti-Azerbaijani.

[Haykakan]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Imagine if there is sime truth to this. One minute the Azeris kick out Russia ie Gabala - and the next minute they beg Russia for help lol.

Report: Turkmenistan Attacks Azerbaijan In Caspian, Aliyev Asks Help From Russia
April 9, 2013 - 11:42am, by Joshua Kucera The Bug Pit Azerbaijan Russia Turkmenistan Turkmenistan News Brief
Azerbaijan has asked Russia to relocate some of its Caspian Fleet to Baku after Turkmenistan's naval forces fired on some of Azerbaijan's offshore oil drilling facilities. That's according to Russian website OSTKRAFT, and while the chances of this being accurate are probably pretty small, it's too intriguing a rumor to not pass on. According to OSTKRAFT's story:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has appealed to the leadership of Russia to move part of its Caspian Fleet from Astrakhan and Makhachkala to Baku.



Still, the nascent naval forces of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have clashed in the past and we didn't hear about it until long after the fact (and probably still wouldn't have, if not for WikiLeaks). And Baku has shown that it prefers not to publicize news of its own weakness in the Caspian. So is there at least a kernel of truth to this somewhere, perhaps some sort of naval clash between the two countries? We'll have to wait for more information.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66803

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Imagine if there is sime truth to this. One minute the Azeris kick out Russia ie Gabala - and the next minute they beg Russia for help lol.

i doubt its true because i havent read anything else about it since that article.