Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan and US argue over new embassy

>>The US says Azerbaijan has made the issue political>>

JAN. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Azerbaijani government cancelled a property agreement with the US on construction of a new embassy building in Baku because of criticism of its election in 2013, a US State Department report released this month said.

Relations between Azerbaijan and the US have nose-dived recently. Last month, Azerbaijani police raided the office of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the US government.

The State Department’s report adds more evidence that relations between the two countries has worsened.

“The mission’s top management priority is the construction of a new embassy building to replace the overcrowded and physically vulnerable 100-year-old chancery and a separate commercial annex one mile away,” the US State department report wrote.

“The Azerbaijani Government has frustrated at least seven US site acquisition efforts over the past decade. Most recently, the government cancelled a signed property agreement after the United States criticised the 2013 election.”

Azerbaijan has pressured human rights activists and independent media over the past few years, attracting heavy criticism from the US and Europe.

Azerbaijani political analyst Zardusht Alizade agreed the Azerbaijani authorities were using the row over the building of a new US embassy in Baku to frustrate the US.

“The Azerbaijani government does not want American embassy to extend here and to hire more people,” he said.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Azerbaijan extends journalists’ pre-trial detention

JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan extended the pre-trial detention of journalist Khadija Ismayilova, prompting criticism from Europe’s democracy watchdog, the OSCE. Ms Ismayilova is a critic of the government. She is accused of coaxing another journalist into suicide.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Armenia and Azerbaijan row over N-K

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan accused Armenia of launching a raid across its borders, another escalation of tension between the two neighbours over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The two sides disagreed on the number of casualties.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Oil output from Azerbaijan’s ACG falls

JAN. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil production at the BP-led Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli oil fields (ACG) continued to fall last year despite pledges that the drop would drop, Reuters quoted a source at Azerbaijan’s national statistics office as saying. ACG is Azerbaijan’s largest oil field.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)

Remittances to Azerbaijan fall

>>Remittances from Russia fall>>

JAN. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — As the Russian rouble falls in value, families of Azerbaijani migrants working in Russia face an increasingly frustrating economic headache.

The Azerbaijani manat has doubled in value against the Russian rouble in the last five months ago. This means that the Russian roubles sent back by Azerbaijani workers to their families are now worth half.

Unofficially around 2m migrants from Azerbaijan work in Russia. They send home about $2-3b a year, Azerbaijani economists have estimated.

Gulsara Qurbanova, a mother of three said she and her children live on money her husband sends from Russia. “Before he used to send us around 35,000 roubles a month and we received around 800 manat when we converted it,” she said. Her voice was strained with worry.

“Now it’s about half that. Obviously we face financial hardship because of it.”

The drop in the value of the rouble is hitting exports from Azerbaijan to Russia too.
Fuad Garibov from Khachmaz, a northern town in Azerbaijan said he has decided to hold on to a consignment of dates that he had intend to sell in Russia. “If I sell it now, it’s obvious that I will lose, he said.

“I hope that something will change soon.”

Azerbaijan’s economy is also reliant on oil and gas sales. With energy prices halving over the last six months, the Azerbaijani economy, which once looked so buoyant, is looking strained.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)

EBRD halves Azerbaijan growth rate

JAN. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) halved its predictions for Azerbaijan’s growth rate in 2015 to 1.5% from 3% in 2014. The downturn in the Russian economy and the fall in the value of oil have hit Azerbaijan.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)

Human rights groups challenge Aliyev

JAN. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human rights groups challenged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to confront Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev over his crack down on free media and civil liberties when he flies into Berlin for talks on Jan. 21. The authorities in Azerbaijan have locked up several anti-government activists.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)

New ferry service links Turkmenistan and Baku

>>Ferry service highlights increased trade between Turkmenistan and the rest of the world>>

JAN. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Trade between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, the South Caucasus and Europe is increasing, a trend underlined by the docking in Baku of a new ferry.

The ferry, operated by a Turkmen company, can carry up to 200 passengers and 53 trucks across the Caspian Sea. Its main role is to cut the journey time down and to aid trade between Turkmenistan and the Europe.

This is a trend which, under current Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has been accelerating. Mr Berdymukhamedov opened up Turkmenistan in a way that his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, dodged.

Turkmenistan has now not only become a major gas exporter to China and elsewhere but is also a bigger player in global trade.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)

Azerbaijani Central Bank spends heavily

JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it spent $1.13b in December supporting its national currency — the manat — counter a falling Russian rouble and a drop in global oil prices. This represents about 8% of its total currency reserves.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Armenia, Azerbaijan armies clash around N-K

JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing two of its soldiers along the border to the dispute region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Separatists backed by Armenia control Nagorno-Karabakh but peace, or a relative peace, is only held by a 1994 UN-brokered ceasefire. There are weekly shootings along the border.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)