APRIL 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku sentenced yet another human rights lawyer to prison on various charges including tax evasion, media reported. Intiqam Aliyev received a 7-1/2 year prison sentence. His supporters say the offences are false.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Armenia blamed each other for more clashes along the border of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said that five Armenian soldiers had been killed in shootouts; the Armenia-backed government in Nagorno-Karabakh said that one Azerbaijani soldier had been killed.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – French President Francois Hollande will visit Baku for talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on April 25, media reported. France has developed strong business links with Azerbaijan, especially in transport.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Central Asia and South Caucasus region will host its first Formula 1 Grand Prix next year in Baku.
Formula One boss Bernie Eccelstone gave the greenlight for Baku to host a Grand Prix despite lobbying from human rights and media groups who accuse the authorities in Azerbaijan of cracking down on civil liberties.
“Baku? No problem. That’s going to be another good race,” Mr Ecclestone told reporters ahead of the Grand Prix in Bahrain.
Formula One signed a deal with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev last year to host a Grand Prix, but without Mr Ecclestone’s support the race wouldn’t have gone ahead.
On the human rights issue, he said that Formula One had done their checks. “I think everybody seems to be happy,” he said. “Doesn’t seem to be any big problem there.”
Human rights groups, the United States and the European Union may disagree — they have all heavily criticised Azerbaijan for locking up activists — but Mr Ecclestone’s comments will be a vindication for Mr Aliyev.
Mr Aliyev has sort to promote Azerbaijan through sport. Later this year, Baku will host the first European Games, it sponsors the shirts of major football teams and will host matches at UEFA’s Euro 2020 tournament.
But Formula One is another level up. It is one of the most watched sports in the world and is certainly one of the most glamorous and now it will act as a prism for viewers to discover Baku when they watch Formula 1 race through its streets in 2016.
It will be the second Grand Prix held in the former Soviet Union. Last year, Russia hosted a Grand Prix at Sochi.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A delegation from the Azerbaijani national railway company travelled to Ashgabat for talks with its Turkmen counterparts on developing a transport corridor, media reported. Turkmenistan wants to boost trade with Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil exports in Q1 2015 increased by 3.7% from a year earlier, a source at the state statistics committee told Reuters. The source said a rise in output at the BP-operated Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) oilfields had driven the overall rise. BP has been under pressure to stem a drop in output at ACG.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian defence minister Hossein Dehghan travelled to Baku for talks with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in a ground-breaking diplomatic initiative.
The neighbours have been fierce regional rivals over the past few years and at times it has looked as if the rhetoric was going to lead to war.
But since President Hassan Rouhani came to power in Iran in 2013, relations have soothed. Perhaps, also, the diplomatic push by the United States and Iran to patch up their differences has helped.
Iranian news agencies quoted Mr Dehqan as saying: “The two countries enjoy common geopolitics and their common interests and threats have increased the necessity for the expansion of multilateral cooperation more than ever.”
But it’s not all that straight forward. Azerbaijan supports Saudi Arabia-led efforts in Yemen where its forces are leading a counter- attack against rebels backed by Iran, and Baku has also improved relations with Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy.
Still, realpolitik may prevail and the rivals could patch up their differences.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku sentenced Azerbaijani human rights activist Rasul Jafarov to 6-1/2 years in prison for tax evasion and embezzlement. Jafarov’s supporters say the charges are jumped up and the authorities are using the courts to crush opposition.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is one of the top 10 most repressive states in the world for journalists, the New York-based lobby group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. Azerbaijan is the only former Soviet state to feature on the list.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s government will have to dip into savings built up in its Oil Fund to prop up its ailing economy, economists have said.
They said the Azerbaijani government will not cut the state budget sufficiently despite a massive fall in the price of oil and gas.
“If the government does not cut budget spending the only real way to cover the deficit will be calling back State Oil Fund’s reserves abroad, or the government must have another big devaluation,” Samir Aliyev, an independent economist at the monthly Economic Forum magazine, told the Bulletin.
At Dec. 31 2014, the Oil Fund was worth around $37b.
The downturn in energy prices since last summer has hit Azerbaijan hard. It devalued its manat current by a third this year.
Rovshan Agayev, an independent economist, also told the Bulletin that even during the financial crisis of 2008 the government did not increase spending from the National Oil fund.
“This is a result of mismanagement of the state budget money for many years,” he said.
The independent MP Vahid Ahmedov told RFE/RL it was acceptable for the government to use cash from the fund, created in 1999, to prop up the economy.
“What was the Oil Fund is created for?” he said. “To save some money for the future generation and as well as to help the economy in crisis times.”
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)