JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s ministry of culture has said it may ban British tour operator Regent Holidays after the company started advertising trips to Nagorno-Karabakh via Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting the growing attraction of Islamic finance in the region, International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) said it wanted to raise $200m-$300m later this year through a sukuk. A sukuk is the name of an Islamic bond. IBA is a government owned bank. It raised $252m through a sukuk in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
>>People in Baku worry that fuel price rises may also accelerate inflation>>
JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil prices may be falling on the world market but in Azerbaijan the cost of filling your car with either petrol or diesel has actually increased.
The government announced that it was putting the price of fuel up by 0.02 manat to 0.7 manat ($0.9) for a litre of petrol and 0.62 manat for diesel.
This sounds like a marginal increase only but, given the 50% drop in oil prices, actually represents a sharp rise.
Independent observers say that this is another attempt to fill the state budget, so dependent on oil revenue, with cash.
The government, though, has said the price increase was due to the inclusion of a road tax on oil products produced in Azerbaijan for domestic consumption, as well as imported from abroad.
In a suburb of Baku, 52-year-old taxi driver Ahmed Huseynov was waiting for customers at a taxi rank. It was a damp, dreary afternoon. The roads and rooftops were sodden and slippery after the first snows of the year.
“Every day we hear on the news that oil prices are decreasing which logically should have led to a decrease in fuel prices too,” he said. “I don’t understand the government’s decision.”
Azad Gayibov, 38, a school teacher and father of two, said the fuel price increases will mean careful budget planning for his family. “It does not mean an increase in fuel prices only, but also a deterioration in the entire economy.”
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has said that it will increase by 50% the size of its grain reserves, media reported. Azerbaijan wants to hedge against grain harvest fluctuations by increasing its stored supply to 750,000 tonnes from 500,000 tonnes. Its intervention will push up grain prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 30 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Pasha Bank, one of Azerbaijan’s biggest banks, has bought an 80% stake in Turkish bank TAIB for an undisclosed amount, media reported. The move by Pasha Bank shows the ambition of the Azerbaijani baking sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
>>US criticises yet another crackdown on civil liberties>>
DEC. 28 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan continued its crackdown on the media in the run up to New Year when it raided the office of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Officials pulled RFE/RL off the air and detained a handful of its journalists. They said that the raid was
part of a criminal investigation although they refused to elaborate.
Earlier in December Azerbaijani officials arrested an employee of the local language RFE/RL service for allegedly working for a foreign security service. Also, one of the radio station’s star journalists, Khadija Ismayilova, is currently being held in pre-trial detention. She is accused of coaxing a man into suicide.
For the past couple of years, the authorities in Azerbaijan have been mounting an increasingly aggressive
campaign against the remnants of its free-speaking media and other more liberal minded sections of its civil society. Newspaper editors have been imprisoned, anti-government activists locked up and NGOs backed by Western powers threatened.
And this belligerent attitude towards Western values has now severely strained relations with the US and Europe.
The US issued a strongly worded statement criticising the raid on RFE/RL.
In 2014 the US also withdrew its long-running Peace Corps programme. Although this was described as routine, observers said it was likely linked to worsening relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 4 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan may have serious problems making its national budget work with oil prices dropping below $50/barrel, media reported (Jan. 4). The government’s budget estimates are calculated at oil costing $90/barrel. Oil revenues directly contribute over half the government’s revenue.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – China has given Azerbaijan a grant of around $4.5m to boost economic relations between the two countries, media reported. China has expanded its economic and diplomatic reach across the South Caucasus significantly over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Baku arrested Khadija Ismayilova, one of Azerbaijan’s most prominent investigative journalists, and sent her to two months pre-trial detention.
Ms Ismayilova is accused of goading another journalist into committing suicide. She and her supporters have denied the charges.
Ms Ismayilova has a high profile in Azerbaijan for several reasons. She hosts a radio show for the local language station of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, she is a vocal critic of the government and has published various articles alleging corruption against the authorities and she was also at the centre of what she described as a sex sting nearly three years ago.
In the sex sting, videos of her having sex where posted online. They had been taken from inside her house. She again accused the authorities of trying to frame her.
Europe and the United States have voiced their concerns, increasingly loudly, about a freedom of speech clampdown in Azerbaijan. The charges against Ms Ismayilova are another indication of this, they said.
And on the streets of Baku, the atmosphere was tense. People were, generally, afraid to discuss the case.
If they did discuss it, they were clear that they thought Ms Ismayilova’s criticism of the authorities had been the trigger for her detention.
Rauf, 24, the owner of a small business, told a Conway Bulletin correspondent: “Certainly it’s because of her steady critical position against government officials.”
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US Peace Corps programme, which sends young Americans to teach English around the world, left Azerbaijan. Depending on who you believe, the US either withdrew the programme because it decided it was no longer needed, or the Azerbaijani authorities threw Peace Corps out as Washington-Baku relations deteriorated.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)