NOV. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, flew to Vilnius to sign a deal visa deal with the EU. The deal, which will make it easier and cheaper for Azerbaijanis to travel to the EU, is more a small step than a ground-breaking agreement but media said the next stage could be dropping visa requirements altogether.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
DEC. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Greek parliament ratified a deal to build the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will connect Turkey with Italy and send Azerbaijani gas to the EU. The Greek parliament’s ratification is important as it keeps TAP on track for a construction start in 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
DEC. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Azerbaijani border guard died in a shootout on the border with Iran. The Azerbaijan-Iran border is used heavily by smugglers although the incident could also inflame tension between the two neighbours. Separately, Azerbaijani authorities released an Iranian they had suspected of plotting to bomb the Israeli embassy in Baku.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
DEC. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Completing the fall of the former high-flying politician Gular Akhmadova, a court in Baku sentenced her to three years in prison for corruption.
A video of Akhmadova organising a $1m bribe to arrange for Elshad Abdullayev, formerly the owner of a university in Azerbaijan, to win a parliamentary seat at an election in 2005 surfaced last year and handed her instant notoriety.
The case captivated ordinary Azerbaijanis as it gave them a rare inside glimpse of corruption by members of the political elite. Media dubbed the case “Gulargate”.
Corruption is rife in Azerbaijan, business and politics mix casually and bribes are exchanged regularly, but it is rare for a case to play out so publicly.
Ahkmadova entered parliament in 2000 and held her seat until the ruling New Azerbaijan Party expelled her because of the corruption scandal last year. She was known as a stalwart party loyalist and, clearly, was able to arrange for wealthy people to win parliamentary seats in return for a bribe.
It’s unclear how many times previously, Akhmadova had sold parliamentary seats but it is clear something went badly wrong with this deal. Mr Abdullayev, the professor/businessman, didn’t end up with the seat and instead had the licence to his university revoked. He is now living in exile in France from where he published videos of his negotiations with Akhmadova, presumably as revenge.
And Akhmadova has form. She’s also hated by Azerbaijan’s marginalised opposition groups.
In March 2013, the authorities sentenced Avaz Zeynally, editor of an independent newspaper to nine years in prison for extortion, charges international groups said were false and politically motivated.
His accuser was Akhmadova.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will re-commission its 10 Su-24 bombers, withdrawn from service in 2008, media reported quoting unnamed military sources. The news is more evidence that Azerbaijan is spending heavily on its armed forces. It is still officially at war with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Baku jailed 29 people linked to the Islamic extremist organisation Al Qaeda for planning a series of attacks ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest last year. Three of the imprisoned men received life sentences. Human rights groups say that Azerbaijan overstates the Islamist threat.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani security services said they had arrested a 31-year-old Iranian man for planning to bomb the Israeli embassy in Baku. The Iranian man, Hassan Faraji, denies the charges. Azerbaijan have arrested a number of Iranians for plotting attacks. The arrest strains already tense relations with Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The countries of the former Soviet Union are not shy at highlighting the threat that radical Islamists pose to stability. Without heavy police measures, the Islamists would destabilise their countries, they say.
Azerbaijan is no different.
A court in Baku jailed a group of 29 people for allegedly plotting to bomb various targets around Azerbaijan ahead of the Eurovision Song Context in May 2012.
Three of of the group received life sentences.
Analysts and human rights activists have challenged the authorities’ version of events. They have said the state exaggerates the threat to impose their control.
Certainly most of Azerbaijan’s 9m inhabitants are Shi’ite Muslim, although the state itself is nominally secular. The last major bomb attack in Azerbaijan was the 1994 bombing of the Baku metro when 27 people died. Separatists in the north of the country, rather than Islamist extremists, claimed responsibility for the attack.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Topaz Energy and Marine, an oil field service company based in Dubai, said it had won two contracts worth $100m contract with BP in Azerbaijan. Topaz said it will perform supply duties at the ACG and Shah Deniz fields in the Caspian Sea. It will launch one vessel to serve the contract this year and another next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At first glance the visit of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to Baku on Nov. 20/21 was unremarkable.
Mr Lukashenko met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, exchanged pleasantries, pledged to bolster economic cooperation and, finally, opened a Belarusian embassy in Baku. All standard enough for presidents in the former Soviet area.
But the two countries relationship is, actually, becoming more significant on a global scale. Their shared problem is Russia which, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was their colonial overlord.
Belarus has had to deal with a number of economic rows with Russia over the years, most recently over potash, a mineral used to produce fertiliser.
It is a member of the Russia-led Customs Union but it still clashes with its larger neighbour over gas and other trade issues.
Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are even more strained. They have argued over gas supplies and Russia’s military support for Azerbaijan’s arch enemy Armenia.
If a relationship between two countries can be measured in terms of trade, the Belarus-Azerbaijan relationship would be booming. Media reported that trade between the two countries had increased six-fold since 2006.
Azerbaijan assembles various Belarusian trucks and tractors for the local market, key exports from Belarus, but the relationship has prospered recently mainly due to weapons and energy.
And at the core of these issues is Russia.
To reduce its dependency on Russian energy, Belarus imports gas from Azerbaijan. To counter Russia’s support for Armenia, Azerbaijan imports weapons from Belarus.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)