SEP. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani opposition newspaper, Azadliq, published online a video allegedly showing a member of parliament, Gular Ahmadova, discussing the bribe a businessman would have to pay to win a seat in the national legislature. The prosecutor-general has pledged to investigate the allegations.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP needs to invest billions to slow declining oil production at its fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, Reuters reported, quoting diplomats and oil executives. The article suggested it may not be commercially viable to pour the extra cash into the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku jailed three men for planning to kill rabbis at a Jewish school, in a plot linked to Iran. The men, all Azerbaijani nationals, were given prison sentences of between eight and 14 years. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have worsened markedly this year.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Baku detained 30 protesters marching towards the US embassy to demonstrate against an anti-Islamic film that has angered many Muslims, media reported. The police blocked the protest, which reporters estimated attracted 100 people, before it reached the embassy.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)
SEP. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a $1b deal, ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of India’s state-owned energy company ONGC, bought nearly 3% of the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) group of oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and a similar size stake in the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
SEP. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – When Hungary allowed Ramil Safarov, a convicted murderer, to return to his native Azerbaijan it triggered a storm that encapsulates tensions in the South Caucasus.
Safarov was attending a military course in Budapest in 2004 when he crept into the room of Gurgen Markaryan, an Armenian army officer, and killed him with axe. It was brutal. Safarov smashed his axe into the sleeping Armenian several times, nearly severing his head.
But, after years in prison, he returned back to Azerbaijan and was immediately pardoned.
To Azerbaijanis, Safarov is a hero. He was promoted to major and given compensation for the time he spent in prison. In Armenia, though, he is a callous murderer.
The problem lies, of course, in a war over the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh fought between Armenian-backed forces and Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A ceasefire was brokered in 1994 but Azerbaijan and Armenia are still technically at war. Almost every week a skirmish along the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh kills a soldier.
Oil wealth has allowed Azerbaijan to re-arm over the past few years while Armenia, short of friends in the region, has looked to build a new alliance with neighbouring Iran.
The pardoning of Safarov has stoked tension at an already dangerous period.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
AUG. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Richard Morningstar, the new US ambassador to Azerbaijan, arrived in Baku, ending a year of uncertainty. Matthew Bryza, a former senior US diplomat in the South Caucasus, had been appointed US envoy to Azerbaijan in Feb. 2011 but the US senate blocked his permanent promotion to the job, which he quit in January.
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(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)
AUG. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Upgrade work to extend the life-span of oil fields operated by the BP-lead Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) caused production to drop by 11.6% to a five year low in the first half of 2012, media quoted company officials as saying. AIOC accounts for most of Azerbaijan’s oil production.
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian authorities started the trial of two Azerbaijani poets arrested in May for illegally entering the country, media reported. The trial of the two poets is politically sensitive and will further strain relations between the two neighbours. Azerbaijan has called for the release of the poets.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps a sign that Azerbaijan’s oil production is slowing, the pipeline that pumps oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, BTC, recorded a 10% drop in volumes for the year to end-July, Bloomberg reported. Oil has been vital for Azerbaijan’s recent economic boom.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)