NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan handed 10 more prisoners back to Iran, part of a swap system that has helped build trust between the two neighbours over the past decade. An official at the Iranian embassy in Baku said that this was the 26th prisoner swap. Relations have improved markedly from six or seven years ago when tension was so heightened that there was talk of war.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 19 (The Bulletin) — Construction has started on a fibre-optical line running across the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan’s government-linked Astana Times reported. The project will, officials said, improve communication between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 4 (The Bulletin) — Anglo-Asian Mining, the Azerbaijan-focused gold producer, said that it had found new gold reserves at its Gedabek mine. It said of the new gold reserves that it “identified further mineable extensions giving increased confidence in life of mine”. Anglo Asian Mining is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has seen its share price increase rapidly over the past couple of years.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
BAKU/NOV. 4 (The Bulletin) — Chevron finalised a deal to sell out of major stakes it owned in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector, a reflection of the reduced US corporate interest in the region.
In the deal, Chevron sold its 9.57% stake in the Caspian Sea oil field Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), Azerbaijan’s biggest oil producing project, and its 8.9% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline for a total of $1.57b to Hungary’s MOL.
The California-based Chevron said in December it wanted to sell its assets in Azerbaijan. ExxonMobil has also said that it wants to sell off its smaller stakes in ACG and BTC.
For MOL, the deal gives it a bigger tie-in with Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector, less than 12 months before Azerbaijan is due to start pumping gas to central Europe along a network of pipelines stretching from the Caspian Sea via the South Caucasus, Turkey and the Balkans.
“This transaction is an excellent fit to MOL’s current portfolio and the transaction contributes to the further transformation of MOL’s upstream segment into an international business by developing the company’s footprint in its core CIS region,” MOL said in a statement.
The deal is one of the biggest in MOL’s history and will add 20,000 barrels of oil per day to its production ACG has been producing oil since 1997, when the so-called ‘Deal of the century’ was signed between a consortium of Western partners led by BP and the Azerbaijani government.
Over the last eight years or so, its production has been declining, though, frustrating Azerbaijan’s government which has demanded increased investment by the partners.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
July 26 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s coastguard service rescued nine crewmen from an Iranian cargo ship just before it sank in the Caspian Sea. Reports said that the ship, which was carrying tiles to the Russian port of Makhachkala, had sprung a leak near the Azeri port of Lenkoran.
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin
July 24 (The Bulletin) — An Azerbaijani MIG-29 fighter-jet crashed into the Caspian Sea on a training exercise, media reported. Azerbaijan’s government has asked for help from Russia and Turkey to locate the crash wreckage and the body of the dead pilot.
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin
FEB. 7 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anglo Asian Mining, the Azerbaijan-focused gold miner, said it expected gold output to fall to 65,000-67,500 ounces in 2019, down from 72,798 ounces in 2018. The announcement immediately triggered a fall in the price of Anglo Asian Mining’s share on the London Stock Exchange. It had been one of the top performers in 2018. >>See Markets on page 8 for more
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
FEB. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan signed a deal with Liberty Media, the owners of the Formula 1 franchise, to hold an F1 Grand Prix in Baku for the next five years. The Baku F1 race has become an important part of Azerbaijan’s national branding since it first hosted it, as the European Grand Prix, in 2016. >>See Comment on page 2
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
FEB. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia has bought four Su-30SM fighter jets from Russia for an undisclosed amount, media reported saying that it was the first time in “many years” that the Armenian military had bought new fighter jets rather than second-hand ones. The fighter jets should be delivered by 2020. Armenia is still officially at war with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — Karin Strenz, a German MP from the ruling Christian Democratic Party, has become the first parliamentarian to be punished by his/her home country for taking cash and gifts from Azerbaijan between 2012-14, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
HRW said that on Jan. 18 Germany’s Bundestag had ruled that Ms Strenz had broken parliamentary rules in a “cash-for-lobbying” scandal that has been dubbed by anti-corruption campaigners as the “Azerbaijani Laundromat”. Ms Strenz faces a fine of up to $68,000. She has also faced calls from within the Christian Democratic Party to resign.
But, critically for HRW, Ms Strenz is the only one of 16 members of the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) to be punished by their national parliaments since being thrown out of PACE for taking the gifts and cash in exchange for defending Azerbaijan’s human rights record.
In a statement, Hugh Williamson, HRW’s director for Europe and Central Asia, said: “This is the most shocking aspect…Let’s hope politicians in Spain, Belgium, and other parliaments hit by the scandal will quickly follow the Bundestag’s lead. It’s about standing up for human rights in Azerbaijan, and in Europe as a whole.”
Last year, PACE published a report that described a patronage and influence network set up by Azerbaijan to help it steer debates in the Assembly where people were openly criticising Baku’s human rights record.
Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has jailed dozens of opposition activists and journalists for financial crimes and drug smuggling, charges that many have said have been fabricated.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is sensitive to criticism from Europe, particularly because, at the time, he had been trying to secure a major gas supply deal.
The PACE report in 2018 said that Italian Luca Volonte was at the centre of the 2.4m euro corruption scandal to buy support in the Assembly for Azerbaijan.
He is being investigated in Italy for corruption, although a court in Milan cleared him of money laundering February 2018.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019