JAN. 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s Gazprom said it would buy 3b cubic metres (bcm) of gas from Azerbaijan this year, up from 500mcm in 2009 and an estimated 2bcm in 2011. Russia and Azerbaijan are competing for potential gas customers. Azerbaijan is expected to announce soon which project transporting gas to Europe from the Caspian Sea it will support.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In its annual growth forecasts, the World Bank said weakening markets in the West would hit the developing world in 2012. For 2012 growth forecasts for Central Asia and the South Caucasus were: Tajikistan 6%, Kyrgyzstan 5.5%, Kazakhstan 5.5%, Uzbekistan 8%, Turkmenistan N/A, Azerbaijan 3.1%, Georgia 5%, Armenia 4.3%.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hackers attacked websites in Azerbaijan belonging to the president, the government and the official media. Many of the attackers left anti-Semitic messages. Media also reported that some websites in Israel were attacked at the same time. The next day official websites in Iran were hacked.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia will compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan later this year, the Eurovision event organisers said. Armenia and Azerbaijan are still technically at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 15 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting the growing influence of China, Azerbaijan will produce a commemorative stamp for the Chinese year of the dragon, the Chinese People’s Daily Online reported. China has been extending its diplomatic reach across both Central Asia and the South Caucasus over the last few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States has started 2012 without a permanent ambassador in Azerbaijan.
US senators have to approve new ambassadors and a pro-Armenia group blocked the permanent appointment of Matthew Bryza, an experienced south Caucasus diplomat, as President Barack Obama’s envoy in Baku.
Mr Bryza was able to serve one year as temporary ambassador in Azerbaijan but he left the country on Jan. 3 2012 after his supporters failed to persuade the pro-Armenia group to drop its objections.
At the heart of the issue is Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous slither of land wedged between Azerbaijan and Armenia which the countries fought over after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.
A 1994 ceasefire holds but Azerbaijan and Armenia are still technically at war and although Mr Bryza specialised in the South Caucasus as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs between 2005 and 2010, the pro-Armenia lobby say he and his Turkish wife are too close to Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, to be unbiased.
The international spotlight falls on Azerbaijan, and inevitably its human rights record, in 2012 when it hosts the Eurovision Song Contest and, with its increasing importance to European energy supplies and NATO logistics in Afghanistan, the US needs to decide on a permanent representative in Baku soon.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 13 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – An investigation by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) cleared Azerbaijan of trying to buy two gold medals at next year’s Olympic Games for $9m. The BBC made the bribery allegations during a TV news story. Another separate investigation by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) is due to report next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s state-controlled energy company Gazprom agreed to roughly double the amount of gas it buys from Azerbaijan next year, Dow Jones news agency reported. The deal comes just as the Azerbaijanis are deciding which of three proposed gas transport routes to Europe to support.
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan delayed backing one of three proposed projects to transport gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. A decision had been expected by the end of 2011 but will now be made by March 2012, said the head of state oil energy company SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev. The three projects are Nabucco, Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TANAP) and Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted the Azerbaijani military attaché to Tehran, Mehman Suleymanov, saying Azerbaijan wants to strengthen ties with Iran and in particular defence ties. Azerbaijan’s defence minister is due in Tehran at the start of 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)