Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Abdullayev visits Turkmenistan, again

NOV. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani media reported on yet another trip to Ashgabat by the head of Socar, Azerbaijan’s oil and gas company, Rovnag Abdullayev.

Mr Abdullayev was in Ashgabat for the opening of major gas conference. It’s an important time for Azerbaijan- Turkmenistan relations because Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has agreed to sign up to a new pipeline running from Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, to Europe.

Visits by Mr Abdullayev to Ashgabat may appear fairly routine but each trip brings the two countries closer together.

Europe sees Turkmen gas as critical for reducing its reliance on Russian energy and considers the pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to central Europe to be the easiest way to supply the gas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Azerbaijan’s ex-deputy minister arrested

NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting Azerbaijan’s deep- rooted problem with corruption, police arrested former deputy defence minister Salimov Mehman for alleged corruption, media reported. Mr Mehman had been deputy defence minister from 1995 to 1999.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Iran president visits Azerbaijan

NOV. 12-13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian president Hasan Rouhani visited Baku on his first official trip to Azerbaijan since becoming Iran’s leader in 2013. The trip was friendly, a turnaround in Iran-Azerbaijan relations. Under former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the two neighbours had seemingly edged close to war.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Car imports drop in Azerbaijan

NOV. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan imported 52,000 cars in Jan-Oct this year, a drop of 38.5% from the same period in 2013, media reported quoting the state statistics agency. The drop is likely attributable to a combination of weaker economics and new emissions regulations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Prince Andrew meets Azerbaijan’s President

NOV. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prince Andrew, fifth-in-line to the English throne, flew out to Baku for talks with President Ilham Aliyev, the Daily Mail newspaper reported. It’s unclear why Prince Andrew made the trip although he was Britain’s special trade representative.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Armenia promises consequences

NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a ratcheting up of tension, Armenia promised “grave consequences” after Azerbaijan shot down one of its military helicopters. Azerbaijan said that the Armenian helicopter had attacked its positions. Armenia said it had been on a training exercise.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Azerbaijan shoots down Armenian helicopter

NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan said that it had shot down an Armenian military helicopter, killing all three crew members.

Armenia later confirmed the downing of its helicopter. The incident triggered the most serious stand-off between the two neighbours since a UN negotiated cease-fire ended a war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994.

Pro-Armenian rebels now control Nagorno-Karabakh but Azerbaijan has pledged to re-take the region and it has spent much of its recent oil wealth building up its army and buying the latest hi-tech weapons.

Azerbaijan’s military later released an animation showing how the Armenian helicopter had been flying over its territory and opened fire on its soldiers before it was shot down.

Armenia countered that the helicopter was on an unarmed exercise when it was shot down.

A Conway Bulletin correspondent in Baku said that most Azerbaijanis supported their government’s action.

“Armenia should respect Azerbaijan’s borders,” 28-year- old Muard Guliyev told the Bulletin. “If it doesn’t, there will be hard times head.”

International agencies and countries urged both Azerbaijan and Armenia to reduce the rhetoric.

Earlier this year, a shootout between the two sides killed several soldiers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Fatal off-shore accident occurred in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea

NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An oil rig partially collapsed in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, killing at least one worker. This was the second fatal accident on Azerbaijan’s off-shore energy sector in less than a month, throwing up general safety concerns.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)

OSCE criticise Azerbaijan

NOV.10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Europe’s main democracy watchdog, the OSCE, accused Azerbaijan of crushing independent media. Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE media representative, said free media had been “purposefully persecuted under various, often unfounded and disturbing charges.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)

Protesters rally against Azerbaijan’s President

NOV. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Several hundred people protested against a crackdown by the authorities in Azerbaijan against the media, a rare protest in this increasingly heavily policed state.

A Bulletin correspondent said that the demonstration in Baku was good natured and had a festival-like atmosphere with flag waving, folk music and dancing.

Police tried to block reporters from speaking to demonstrators and from filming the march but they eventually relented.

Shakar Isgandarli was one of the demonstrators.

“I am a teacher of two political prisoners, Anar Mammadli and Bashir Suleymanli,” he said. “I taught them to fight against injustice. And they did. Now the Aliyev regime has jailed them for this”.

Europe and the United States have made increasingly harsh statements about the crackdown by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on the media but, seemingly, without much impact. Virtually every week, reports from Azerbaijan say that another anti-government activist has been imprisoned.

Mammadli and Suleymanli are two human rights lawyers who were imprisoned earlier this year for tax evasion and illegal business activities. They have said that these charges have been fabricated.

Protesters called for the resignation of Mr Aliyev and vowed to continue protests. The risk for Mr Aliyev is that although the police and prosecutors have been effective at imprisoning government critics, the arrests are stirring more anti-government feelings.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)