APRIL 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Azerbaijan detained journalist Rauf Mirqadirov on allegations that he spied for neighbouring Armenia. The lobby group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that the charges were trumped up and called on the Azerbaijan to release Mr Mirqadirov. Press freedom has declined in Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan deported eight Turkish nationals with links to the US-based opposition leader Fethullah Gulen back to Turkey, media reported. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Mr Gulen of trying to undermine the Turkish state.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anglo Asian, Azerbaijan’s biggest gold producer, increased production by a third in the first three months of 2014, it said. Anglo Asian, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, also increased its output forecast for the whole of 2014 by 29%.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two Azerbaijani banks secured multi-million dollar loans from foreign lenders, underlining confidence in Azerbaijan’s economy. AccessBank secured a $60m loan for microfinance deals and International Bank of Azerbaijan secured a $125m loan to lend to other companies.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev flew to Tehran to meet with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, cementing a détente between the two neighbours.
At their meeting the two leaders signed four different agreements aimed at boosting cross-border cooperation. On energy matters, Azerbaijan and Iran agreed to work together to build a pair of hydropower stations
Photos of the two men showed them shaking hands and generally looking at ease with each other.
This is good news for the South Caucasus region which had been looking increasingly unstable during the worsening of Azerbaijan-Iran relations.
Since Mr Rouhani came to power in 2013 ties have improved.
But re-working relations with Iran is also clever regional politics by Mr Aliyev. He aims to build as much support as possible for Azerbaijan’s cause against Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Aliyev also met with Iran’s top Islamic cleric, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, who made reference to Azerbaijan’s close relations with Israel.
“Of course, the Zionist regime (Israel), among some others, is not pleased with the strong ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and constantly disrupts this process,” he said according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim.
“But, with seriousness and political will, obstructionism can be overcome.”
Ties between Iran and Azerbaijan are still finely balanced.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A landmine killed three Azerbaijani soldiers on the border between Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region controlled by Armenia-backed separatists, and Azerbaijan, media reported. The deaths highlight the fragile cease-fire that covers Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said he wanted to prioritise upgrading the navy over the next year, media reported. Analysts have warned of the militarisation of the Caspian Sea, split between Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan visited his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Baku, his first overseas trip since winning local elections in March. The timing of Mr Erdogan’s visit underlines the importance of Azerbaijani-Turkish relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) fined Azerbaijan $500,000 after nine of its athletes tested positive for doping last year. The fines will embarrass Azerbaijan which hosts the first European Games next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government should develop rural microfinance mechanisms to help boost its economy and wean it off its addiction to oil, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in an annual report.
The main body of the ADB’s report covers similar ground to other economic organsiations — that as oil prices relax and Azerbaijan’s own oil output slows, revenues to the government budget are likely to dip.
This, the ADB said, will probably reduce public spending.
And public spending, fuelled by oil revenues, has been driving Azerbaijan’s economic growth.
The government, therefore, has to look for other ways of generating economic growth, the ADB said. It praised the Central Bank’s move to curb lending to consumers and instead promote growth through loans to small and medium sized businesses.
“However, more is needed to promote lending in rural areas,” the ADB said.
Roughly 40% of Azerbaijan’s population live in rural areas but, the ADB said, growth was being stymied by excessive government activity swamping private enterprise and potential state revenues. What Azerbaijan needs to do in rural areas is build micro-finance options and extend bank branch networks.
“These steps should boost rural income and, eventually, revenue from rural areas, thereby reducing the budget’s current dependence on oil earnings,” the ADB said.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)