OCT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armaments is big business in Azerbaijan. The government has increased its defence budget rapidly over the past decade and also built up a domestic industry. Azerbaijan media said that its defence manufacturing sector had grown by 250% in the first nine months of the year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have worsened over the past couple of years. The two neighbours have rowed over alleged spy rings, ties with Israel, assassination attempts and cross border shootouts.
Over the last couple of months, with the arrival of new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, there has been something of a thaw. He’s been more open to improving strained international relations than his predecessor.
Now, though, a fresh and bitter row has opened up on an unlikely front. Polo, a sport played by kings and the super-rich on horseback, has generated a fierce argument between Iran and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has applied to Unesco to have polo listed as an indigenous sport. They have said that polo derived in the country. Iran disagrees.
“We will tell Unesco that the traditional game is a common element that should not be registered exclusively in the name of a single country,” official Iranian media quoted the deputy head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation, Mehdi Hojjat, as saying.
Art dating back 500 years from ancient Persia shows men clearly enjoying a game of polo. They ride horses and hit balls with long sticks.
For Azerbaijan to claim it as theirs is a remarkable power play.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has asked UNESCO to list polo as its indigenous sport, triggering a row with Iran, media reported. Relations between the two neighbours have worsened over the past couple of years although there had recently been an improvement under new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has taken Russian citizenship to pay less taxes, visited Baku on a trip organised by the ministry of culture. Media said he praised the rapid development of the city. Earlier this year Mr Depardieu made an advert celebrating Azerbaijani food.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its annual global assessment of how easy, or difficult, it is to conduct business in different countries, the World Bank ranked Azerbaijan at 70th position alongside Turkey and Greece. Azerbaijan scored well for having a relatively low number of processes that need completing to create a new business.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The size of Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector has grown by 10.4% since last year, the country’s statistics department said quoting figures comparing the first nine months of this year with the same period in 2012. Expanding the non-oil sector is considered key to sustaining Azerbaijan’s economic expansion.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) –Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned 152 prisoners, including ex-economy minister Farhad Aliyev, to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, media reported. Mr Aliyev was jailed in 2005 for corruption. Some analysts interpreted his release as a softening of President Aliyev’s stance towards his opponents.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government has complained to Russia about the apparent mistreatment of one of its nationals by police in Moscow, media reported.
The complaint is important because it sets Azerbaijan at loggerheads, once again, with Russia over the sensitive topic of migrant workers.
Police in Moscow arrested Orhan Zeylanov, a 25-year-old migrant worker from Azerbaijan, on Oct. 15 for the apparent murder of a Russian man a few days earlier.
The murder was blamed for triggering a riot in a Moscow suburb, the worst anti-migrant violence for years.
TV footage from the arrest of Mr Zeylanov showed police kicking him. The TV commentator also referred to him as “the killer” before any formal court proceeding had started.
The row renews the debate over how migrant workers are treated in Russia.
It also, importantly, focuses attention on relations between Azerbaijan and Russia.
These have grown steadily more strained over the past few years. Azerbaijan has challenged Russia’s gas dominance and created an alternative energy supply route for EU states.
Azerbaijan has also become cosy with the United States. In short, its energy wealth has allowed it to act increasingly independently from Russia.
Compared to other former Soviet countries, remittances from workers in Russia make up only a small proportion of Azerbaijan’s economy, 3% according to the World Bank, but it is still important.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fitch, the rating agency, confirmed a BBB- rating for Azerbaijan after its latest economic assessment. It predicted GDP growth of 5% this year, driven by government spending, up from 2.2% in 2012. Fitch said, though, that this growth would slow slightly in 2014 and 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ilham Aliyev replaced his long serving defence minister, General Safar Abiyev, in a cabinet re-shuffle at the start of his third term as Azerbaijan’s president.
It’s a brave move by Mr Aliyev.
Gen Abiyev, 64, is one of most powerful figures in Azerbaijan and had been considered a vital component in building the Aliyev political dynasty. Gen Abiyev has been Azerbaijan’s defence minister since February 1995 and had served under Mr Aliyev’s father, Heydar Aliyev, who was president between 1993 and 2003.
He has built up a large power-base during his 18 years as a minister and overseen a military budget that has soared alongside the country’s economy.
But opposition figures have accused Gen Abiyev of massive corruption and blamed him for the deaths of recruits and the general poor morale among the military. They’ll celebrate the apparent downfall of Gen Abiyev.
Mr Aliyev appointed Zakir Hasanov as defence minister, previously in charge of the interior ministry forces. It’s still unclear what Gen Abiyev’s new role is.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)