APRIL 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s secular opposition held the first in a series of rallies ahead of next month’s Eurovision Song Contest calling for the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev. Opposition leaders said that 10,000 people attended the sanctioned rally, although police said there were only 1,200 protesters.
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(News report from Issue No. 083, published on April 13 2012)
MARCH 30/31 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking for an investment boost, Kyrgyzstan’s new president, Almazbek Atambayev, visited Baku for the first time in 21 years for a talks with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev. Mr Atambayev has already been successful in pursuing Azerbaijani investment. Azerbaijan has pledged to build a $250m refinery in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 082, published on April 6 2012)
APRIL 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian PM, Tigran Sargsyan, suggested that Russia could move its missile defence radar station in the South Caucasus from Gabala in Azerbaijan to Armenia. His suggestion is certain to stir strained Armenia-Azerbaijan relations as Baku is re-negotiating Russia’s rent on the important Soviet-era radar.
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(News report from Issue No. 082, published on April 6 2012)
MARCH 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan swiftly denied a report in the Foreign Policy magazine that it had agreed to allow Israeli fighter jets to use its airbases if Iran ever attacked Israel. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have deteriorated over the past year as Azeri-Israeli relations have developed.
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(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)
MARCH 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkish energy minister, Metin Kilci, said Turkey and Azerbaijan might agree a deal in April to build a gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea, media quoted Reuters as reporting. A deal to build the so-called Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) would please European countries which have been pushing for a new energy route from the Caspian to reduce their reliance on Russian gas supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)
MARCH 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian public TV broadcaster, APTV, formally pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest, to be hosted by arch-enemy Azerbaijan. Public broadcasters organise the national entrants for the competition and APTV’s withdrawal means Armenia will not be represented at the contest in May.
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(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)
MARCH 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP will boost investment in the Chirag, Azeri and Guneshli oilfields in the Caspian Sea to $3.2b this year, up from $2.6b in 2011. It also said that total investment in the Shah Deniz gas field, which BP operates with Statoil and Azerbaijani state energy company Socar, will nearly double to $1.55b.
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(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)
MARCH 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 1,000 people rioted in Quba, a town of 40,000 people in the north of Azerbaijan, burning down the house of the regional governor in the worst street violence since President Ilham Aliyev came to power in 2003.
Police in full riot gear resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets to restore order.
The trigger for the violence was a video of the governor chastising the people of Quba for selling their property. The day after the riot, the central government sacked him.
This protest was different from anti-government demonstrations in the past year in Baku. Most of those had been organised on Facebook and the internet by an emerging middle class. The authorities had been ready for them and snuffed them out before they could gather momentum.
There have also been protests by radical religious Azerbaijanis demonstrating against the government’s secular policies. Again these had been pre-arranged and easily dealt with.
In Quba, though, the protest had been spontaneous, non-religious, non-political and violent. All it took was a thoughtless remark by a governor to set alight seething frustration, showing just how fragile the authorities’ control is.
At least in Quba the authorities reached for tear gas and rubber bullets rather than the live rounds that their counterparts in western Kazakhstan used to quell a riot in December.
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(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)
FEB. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has agreed to buy $1.6b worth of missiles and drones from Israel, Israeli diplomats told news agencies. Azerbaijan’s defence budget has grown exponentially over the last few years. Azerbaijan’s relations with Iran have worsened recently and its ties with Armenia are historically acrimonious.
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(News report from Issue No. 079, published on March 1 2012)
FEB. 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of 22 Armenian singers called on the country to boycott the Eurovision Song contest in Baku in May. Armenia and Azerbaijan are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia has applied for a place at Eurovision but has not yet selected its singer.
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(News report from Issue No. 079, published on March 1 2012)