NOV. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The state-run International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) plans to issue a $500 million Eurobond in 2014, its first debt issue since 2007, media reported. In 2007, the IBA $600m with a debt issue. It cancelled subsequent issues because of the poor state of the market during the global financial crisis.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR wants to build the largest port in Turkey, media quoted its head, Rovnag Abdullayev, as saying. The plan underlines Azerbaijan’s importance to Turkey as one of its main economic partners. The port will cost $400m to build and be operational by 2016, Mr Abdullayev said.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Paralympic Committee lifted a ban on Azerbaijani weightlifter Gunduz Ismayilov who had tested positive for doping in 2004 after he proved that a jilted ex-girlfriend had spiked his drink. Mr Ismayilov had received a life ban for testing positive for doping.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has accused Iran’s military of firing shots across the border in the latest escalation of tension between the two neighbours, media reported. The Azerbaijani authorities reportedly closed a border crossing for several days after the alleged incident. Azerbaijan-Iran ties are strained
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s taken 2-1/2 years but it finally appears that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will meet again to discuss their differences over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The announcement was made late on Nov. 5 by representatives from the United States, France and Russia who have been pushing for negotiations. The media reported the announcement the following day.
This is major news on an issue that has been threatening to damage peace in the region. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Only a shaky 1994 ceasefire keeps the two sides apart. There are sporadic fire-fights along the border of Nagorno-Karabakh, now controlled by Armenian-backed rebels, though.
Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan last met to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh in June 2011 in the Russian city of Kazan. Those negotiations flopped over disagreements about a proposed referendum in the region. The Armenian side wanted only the current residents of the region, almost entirely pro-Armenia, to get a vote, while Azerbaijan wanted the population of Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s to all have a vote.
There are plenty of hurdles ahead but even the prospect of Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan’s meeting is progress.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A NATO delegation flew into Baku for a three day trip designed to further military assistance and training. A second NATO delegation is due to arrive a few days later to open a NATO training centre. Both trips underline increasing close connections between Azerbaijan and NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a 2-1/2 year hiatus, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to meet to discuss the thorny issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still, officially, at war over the region although a 1994 cease-fire keeps the two side apart.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — As a foreign policy it is an unorthodox one. Azerbaijan’s government has been pushing for allies and recipients of business contracts and aid to build statues of Heydar Aliyev, a former Azerbaijani president and father of the current leader.
You can admire statues of the Heydar Aliyev across the world, from Russia to Kazakhstan to Serbia, to name just a few. They’re normally fairly similar. Heydar Aliyev, dressed in a suit, stands or sits looking statesman-like.
Heydar Aliyev is considered the father of modern Azerbaijan and is generally popular in Azerbaijan although what Russians or Kazakhs or Serbians think of him is less clear.
In any case, Mexico called Azerbaijan’s bluff earlier this year and could now be facing the consequences.
In January, the authorities in Mexico City dismantled a statue of Heydar Aliyev in a park after residents signed a petition calling for it to be taken down because of Azerbaijan’s alleged poor human rights record.
Now, though, media has reported that Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Mexico, Ilgar Mukhtarov, said $3.8b of contracts may be cancelled unless the statue is resurrected.
He said the authorities in Mexico City had reneged on deal. Azerbaijan repaired and improved two inner city parks at a cost of $5m in return for giving a statue of Heydar Aliyev pride of place.
Unorthodox foreign policy indeed.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will start building extra warships for its navy in the Caspian Sea, media quoted unnamed Azerbaijani defence ministry officials as saying. The announcement is likely to alarm the other Caspian Sea littoral countries and underline Azerbaijan’s general military expansion.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the scruffy provincial town of Sheki in northern Azerbaijan set a date for the start of the politically sensitive trial of Ilgar Mammadov, a high profile opposition leader, and 17 others who are accused of inciting anti-government riots.
International human rights groups have called the trials political motivated and described them as part of the Azerbaijani authorities’ strategy to clamp down on dissenters.
The judge scheduled the case to begin on Nov. 28.
Mr Mammadov and the other 16 defendants are accused of inciting violence in the town of Ismayilli on Jan. 23.
Anti-government protesters gathered in the town after a confrontation with family members of the local ruling elite. The protesters burnt cars hurled rocks at interior ministry forces in the worst outbreak of civil violence in Azerbaijan in President Ilham Aliyev’s decade-long rule.
Prosecutors say that Mr Mammadov, chairman of the opposition group REAL, and Tofig Yagublu, a columnist for an opposition newspaper and chairman of the Musavat political party, travelled to Ismayilli from Baku the following day to encourage the protesters to continue to confront police. They were arrested a few days later held in detention since then.
Both men have denied the charges and have instead said that they travelled separately to Ismayilli to simply investigate what had happened.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)