Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

[Artashes]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

That country and especially its leadership remind me of a movie called Idiocracy.

Funny movie . Baboonieve fits in that movie easily .
Unfortunately , the USA conduct is all too similar to idiocracy (the movie).
Monsanto for your lawn or cool aid ? George bush/xxxx Cheney or cheech & chong ?
When everyone's opinion is more important than the facts , it's pick whichever "truth" suits you in the good ole USA .

[Mher]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan: Who’s to Blame for Deadly Blaze in Baku?
May 20, 2015 - 7:15am, by Giorgi Lomsadze Tamada Tales Azerbaijan

What a incredibly ironic and accurate metaphor for that entire country and its ruling system
Being far too busy beautifying the cosmetic facade of the building with extravagant distractions instead of ensuring the stability of the fundamental basics of the building. You can replace building with country and you have Azerbaijan

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan: Dollarization Trend Gains Momentum
June 3, 2015 - 2:23pm, by Nargiz Rashid Azerbaijan Business

The economy of energy-rich state of Azerbaijan appears to be heading rapidly toward dollarization, but does it have the dollars to meet popular demand?

Hit by low oil prices and regional fallout from Western sanctions against Russia, Azerbaijan’s national currency, the manat was devalued back in February, losing 33.5 percent of its value against the dollar and 30 percent against the euro. Rather than regain ground amid a halting recovery of oil prices (from under $50 to just over $63 for Brent blend, an international benchmark), Azerbaijanis seem to keep losing faith in the manat, and are buying dollars as they seek a safe financial haven.

Dollars now account for 70 percent of the country’s more than $19.27 billion (over 18.5 billion manats) in bank deposits, the highest rate in a decade, according to Central Bank data. In 2014, by contrast, the rate was 50.4 percent.

Commercial banks prefer giving loans in dollars rather than in manats, and real estate sales, a key cash generator once denominated in manats, now occur mostly in dollars. “Since we have more dollars, we prefer giving loans in dollars,” Ali Dashdemirov, marketing director for Bank Respublika, one of Azerbaijan’s largest private banks, said of the loan trend.

In essence, commented economist Gubad Ibadoglu, director of Baku’s non-governmental Economic Research Center, “people have lost trust in the national currency.”

Moving away from a national currency means that private banks, along with the Central Bank, according to the International Monetary Fund, need a “larger-than-normal volume of international reserves, or to arrange external lines of credit.”

Right now, it is not plain that such volumes exist in Azerbaijan.

In data published on June 3, the Central Bank put its dollar reserves for May at just over $8.43 billion, an increase of less than a percent from April. The rise, though miniscule, appears to be the first since February, when, after agggressive intervention to support the manat, reserves stood at about $11 billion.

Massive state spending for this month’s European Games – an Olympics-style event that kicks off on June 12 – has provided added pressure on the country’s dollar reserves, experts say.

Central Bank Deputy Chairperson Alim Quliyev acknowledged to the APA news agency on April 24 that the Central Bank is “doing some work related to dollarization,” but did not elaborate.

The Bank did not respond to a request from EurasiaNet.org for more information. Government officials could not be reached for comment.

Measures, however, are needed, underlined Ibadoglu. “If this process continues, the reserves of the Central Bank may run low, banks will have even more of a manat shortage,” he predicted. “All of this will accelerate the manat’s devaluation,”

Some Azerbaijanis are calling for an end to loans denominated in foreign currencies. One state-run financial institution is taking a different approach: in late May, police arrested scores of entrepreneurs for non-payment of dollar-denominated loans from the International Bank of Azerbaijan, local outlets reported.

Two high-profile individuals – Haci Nehramli, overseer of the futuristic Khazar Islands project, and Nizami Piryev, owner of a methanol factory – were released pending trial after making partial payments, Azerbaijani news outlets stated.

Restoring confidence in the manat could prove a tall order for Azerbaijani officials. A resident of the central Azerbaijani city of Ganja reflected popular sentiment when he said he is intent on selling his one-bedroom apartment in the capital, Baku, in dollars because “the next devaluation might happen any day.”

At Bank Standard, the minimum annual interest rate for a manat-denominated loan stands at 34 percent, compared with a slightly less hefty 25-percent rate for dollar loans. Such loans are only approved if a client can offer real estate or gold as a security, bankers say.

One potential vehicle for driving a revival of confidence in the manat, the real estate market, remains sluggish. The Central Bank reported that in April this year real estate transactions decreased by 27.6 percent compared with April 2014, with transactions valued at roughly 920.1 million manats ($875.5 million).

“Now, the real estate market is almost dead,” commented Baku residential real estate agent Ramiz Rzayev. “Both buyers and sellers are waiting. They want to see if something will change in the economy after the European Games. Everybody is afraid to take a step forward.”

Editor's note: Nargiz Rashid is the pseudonym of a freelancer reporter focusing on Azerbaijan.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73716

[Haykakan]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan: Dollarization Trend Gains Momentum
June 3, 2015 - 2:23pm, by Nargiz Rashid Azerbaijan Business

The economy of energy-rich state of Azerbaijan appears to be heading rapidly toward dollarization, but does it have the dollars to meet popular demand?

Hit by low oil prices and regional fallout from Western sanctions against Russia, Azerbaijan’s national currency, the manat was devalued back in February, losing 33.5 percent of its value against the dollar and 30 percent against the euro. Rather than regain ground amid a halting recovery of oil prices (from under $50 to just over $63 for Brent blend, an international benchmark), Azerbaijanis seem to keep losing faith in the manat, and are buying dollars as they seek a safe financial haven.

Dollars now account for 70 percent of the country’s more than $19.27 billion (over 18.5 billion manats) in bank deposits, the highest rate in a decade, according to Central Bank data. In 2014, by contrast, the rate was 50.4 percent.

Commercial banks prefer giving loans in dollars rather than in manats, and real estate sales, a key cash generator once denominated in manats, now occur mostly in dollars. “Since we have more dollars, we prefer giving loans in dollars,” Ali Dashdemirov, marketing director for Bank Respublika, one of Azerbaijan’s largest private banks, said of the loan trend.

In essence, commented economist Gubad Ibadoglu, director of Baku’s non-governmental Economic Research Center, “people have lost trust in the national currency.”

Moving away from a national currency means that private banks, along with the Central Bank, according to the International Monetary Fund, need a “larger-than-normal volume of international reserves, or to arrange external lines of credit.”

Right now, it is not plain that such volumes exist in Azerbaijan.

In data published on June 3, the Central Bank put its dollar reserves for May at just over $8.43 billion, an increase of less than a percent from April. The rise, though miniscule, appears to be the first since February, when, after agggressive intervention to support the manat, reserves stood at about $11 billion.

Massive state spending for this month’s European Games – an Olympics-style event that kicks off on June 12 – has provided added pressure on the country’s dollar reserves, experts say.

Central Bank Deputy Chairperson Alim Quliyev acknowledged to the APA news agency on April 24 that the Central Bank is “doing some work related to dollarization,” but did not elaborate.

The Bank did not respond to a request from EurasiaNet.org for more information. Government officials could not be reached for comment.

Measures, however, are needed, underlined Ibadoglu. “If this process continues, the reserves of the Central Bank may run low, banks will have even more of a manat shortage,” he predicted. “All of this will accelerate the manat’s devaluation,”

Some Azerbaijanis are calling for an end to loans denominated in foreign currencies. One state-run financial institution is taking a different approach: in late May, police arrested scores of entrepreneurs for non-payment of dollar-denominated loans from the International Bank of Azerbaijan, local outlets reported.

Two high-profile individuals – Haci Nehramli, overseer of the futuristic Khazar Islands project, and Nizami Piryev, owner of a methanol factory – were released pending trial after making partial payments, Azerbaijani news outlets stated.

Restoring confidence in the manat could prove a tall order for Azerbaijani officials. A resident of the central Azerbaijani city of Ganja reflected popular sentiment when he said he is intent on selling his one-bedroom apartment in the capital, Baku, in dollars because “the next devaluation might happen any day.”

At Bank Standard, the minimum annual interest rate for a manat-denominated loan stands at 34 percent, compared with a slightly less hefty 25-percent rate for dollar loans. Such loans are only approved if a client can offer real estate or gold as a security, bankers say.

One potential vehicle for driving a revival of confidence in the manat, the real estate market, remains sluggish. The Central Bank reported that in April this year real estate transactions decreased by 27.6 percent compared with April 2014, with transactions valued at roughly 920.1 million manats ($875.5 million).

“Now, the real estate market is almost dead,” commented Baku residential real estate agent Ramiz Rzayev. “Both buyers and sellers are waiting. They want to see if something will change in the economy after the European Games. Everybody is afraid to take a step forward.”

Editor's note: Nargiz Rashid is the pseudonym of a freelancer reporter focusing on Azerbaijan.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73716

This is how hyperinflation happens. If hyperinflation sets in we could see big changes in this country perhaps even a restart of war.

[Shant03]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

This is how hyperinflation happens. If hyperinflation sets in we could see big changes in this country perhaps even a restart of war.

Exactly what I was thinking.. i've been keeping a close eye on them to see if this is the direction they would go and was worried about the same outcome, war.

[Artashes]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Exactly what I was thinking.. i've been keeping a close eye on them to see if this is the direction they would go and was worried about the same outcome, war.

Yes, regretfully with this group to the east, more hostility is not unreasonable to expect.
I see Burjuin's latestest posts of tanks and heavy movement (to strategic placement ?) I I think ...
To the east is erratic and based in the coursest turkic fundamental .
This rudimentary (and false) premise that they stole the land and now it is actually theirs --- cannot --- be let go by them or they have no premise for being there other than as invaders (murderous).
They are not going to change.
Look at their conduct ... safarov etc.
Look at there verbal declarations in the last 1,2,3,4 weeks , etc.
---- they are not going to change ----
A shame for all.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Azerbaijan Orders OSCE to Close Baku Office

The OSCE’s project coordinator in Baku, Alexis Chahtahtinsky, whose contract expired days before Azeri authorities ordered the offices of the OSCE closed. (Photo: RFE/RL)

BAKU (RFE/RL)—The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says Azerbaijan has given it one month to halt its operations in the country and that Baku provided “no explanation” for the decision.

OSCE spokesman Shiv Sharma told RFE/RL on June 5 that Azerbaijani authorities this week “informed us of their intentions of closing the office” of its project coordinator in Baku and that the 57-member security organization is “now assessing our options.”
The move comes amid heightened criticism of Azerbaijan’s record on civil society and media freedoms by Western officials and international human rights watchdogs.

Rights groups say Baku has escalated its efforts to muzzle government opponents since Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was reelected for a third term in 2013.

The Vienna-based OSCE has been a prominent voice among those critics.

In November, its media freedoms representative, Dunja Mijatovic, said that “practically all independent media representatives and media NGOs” in Azerbaijan “have been purposefully persecuted under various, often unfounded and disturbing charges.”

Azerbaijan has bristled at Western criticism of its human rights record, saying such censure lacks objectivity.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, which notified the OSCE that Baku was terminating an agreement allowing the organization to operate in the country, had not commented publicly on the situation as of June 5, RFE/RL reported.

Azerbaijan’s human rights record has also faced increasing international scrutiny in the run-up to the European Games, an Olympics-style event limited to athletes from Europe that is set to open on June 12.

Status Downgrade
EU lawmakers last month called on Azerbaijan to release individuals widely seen as political prisoners ahead of the games and urged European leaders to skip the event’s opening ceremony in Baku, RFE/RL reports.

The OSCE office in Baku was downgraded to the office of a “project coordinator,” reportedly at Azerbaijan’s request, in January 2014.

The downgrade of the mission came at the request of the Azerbaijani government, which cited the country’s “significant progress” since the OSCE office in Baku was opened in 1999.

Khadija Ismayilova, a journalist and contributor to RFE/RL currently jailed in Azerbaijan on a series of charges that have been internationally condemned as politically motivated, testified before U.S. lawmakers in November that the downgrade had led to a halt of “most” of the OSCE office’s projects “related to media and combating corruption.”

Among other duties, the OSCE coordinator had been tasked with “implementing OSCE principles and commitments” and “maintaining contacts” with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local authorities, universities, and research institutions.

NGOs have been among the numerous targets of a crackdown by Azerbaijani authorities, including groups promoting free-media efforts in Azerbaijan.

In April, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, said “human rights defenders are harassed through restrictive NGO legislation and selectively targeted with criminal prosecutions on charges that defy credibility.”

RFE/RL last month closed its Baku bureau after Azeri authorities sealed the office shut last December in connection with the government-led campaign against foreign organizations. RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, however, continues to operate on digital and satellite platforms.

RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic said on May 22 that the Azerbaijani authorities had acted “illegally and arbitrarily.”

Azerbaijani ‘Masters’
Azerbaijan’s move to close the OSCE office comes just days after the contract of the organization’s project coordinator in Baku, France’s Alexis Chahtahtinsky, expired.

Novruz Mammadov, the deputy head of Aliyev’s administration and director of its Foreign Relations Department, suggested on Twitter on June 1 that Chahtahtinsky was relieved of his duties because of U.S. objections to the French diplomat’s public appearance with Aliyev.

Mammadov appeared to be referring to a July 2014 statement by Daniel Baer, the U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE, in which he criticized Chahtahtinsky for being photographed with Aliyev and Azerbaijan’s foreign minister but not “with civil society.”

“While consultation with the host government is certainly an important part of your work, you work for all of us, and you work for the principles that underlie this organization. Your masters are not the government of Azerbaijan,” Baer said, addressing Chahtahtinsky in the statement.

Baer did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

But France’s ambassador to the OSCE, Maxime Lefebvre, told RFE/RL that the decision not to renew Chahtahtinsky’s contract was not linked to politics or OSCE-Azerbaijani ties, but rather to “internal management problems.”

Lefebvre said the OSCE “would like Azerbaijan to remain committed” to the organization and “would like the mission to continue its work.”

He added that it would be regrettable if the decision to close the Baku office was confirmed, “because we think it’s important that we keep a field presence of the OSCE in Azerbaijan and that we maintain good relations between Azerbaijan as a participating state with the OSCE.”

http://asbarez.com/136607/azerbaijan-orders-osce-to-close-baku-office/

[Artashes]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Journalists, Armenians, and homosexuals are allies in sedition against turcs.
Spoken by the pres (ring leader) of turcy in this last week.
The monkeys have and are repetedly trying to expand the OSCE Minsk group to include turcy & Germany.
These baboons and their west ken are just so sharp.
Some really smart hominoids.

[Shant03]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

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

[Artashes]

Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs

Journalists, Armenians, and homosexuals are allies in sedition against turcs.
Spoken by the pres (ring leader) of turcy in this last week.
The monkeys have and are repetedly trying to expand the OSCE Minsk group to include turcy & Germany.
These baboons and their west ken are just so sharp.
Some really smart hominoids.

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

English grammar is not my best subject.
Having said that ...
Journalists, Armenians, homosexuals in the sentence spoke by erdogay are adjectives or descriptors of each other.
The lead jerk turc is describing "journalists" as negatively as his puny brain can come up with. His use of Armenian and homosexual to discribe "journalists" is common turc speach.
As is well known, to call someone Armenian in turc encampment is to insult. Same with homo...
These utterances are made --- on the world stage --- by the top hominoid
We simply don't have enough money to replicate or show the world how idiotic the turc mentality is.
The world community of journalists has not missed these comments, nor the world community at large.
Between their (turc) actions and words, they are digging themselves deeper & deeper hole.
The facts the journalist report don't suit the lieing turc. So the turc labels them (journalists) as derogatory as they can think of.
This is not going unnoticed.
We need to amplify this and bring it front center and keep it there.
Give the turc all the hanging rope they want to hang themselves with.