Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s SOFAZ invests in Japan property fund

FEB. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOFAZ, Azerbaijan’s $35b oil wealth fund, has invested $100m into Redwood Japan Logistics Fund II which invests in property across East Asia and Australia. SOFAZ has been diversifying its investments over the past few years, often into property. Hurt by the steep drop in value of its energy exports, Azerbaijan’s government has been challenging SOFAZ to take more risk to boost profit.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Azerbaijan orders new locomotives

FEB. 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has ordered 50 locomotives from French rail manufacturer Alstom for 276m euros, media reported quoting an Azerbaijani railways spokesperson. The loan for the locomotives was supplied by a consortium of French and British banks. The new locomotives will run along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that will be completed later this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Iran considers setting up bank in Azerbaijan

FEB. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran’s state-owned Bank Melli is considering spinning off its branches in Azerbaijan into an independent bank, Valiollah Seif, the Iranian Central Bank chief, told the Trend news agency.

If a new Iran-owned bank does emerge in Azerbaijan, it will mark a major watershed in relations between the two countries. These relations have improved markedly over the past couple of years, since Hassan Rouhani became Iran’s president in 2013. Under Mr Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, war had at times appeared likely.

In the interview, Mr Seif also said that he had held talks with this counterparts in Azerbaijan to set up a joint bank run by the two neighbours.

Azerbaijan’s banking sector has been roiled by an economic down- turn linked to a collapse in oil prices and it is likely that any move by Iran to set up a fully-owned bank in Azerbaijan will be driven by politics as much as by economics.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Azerbaijan tries to close OSCE office in Armenia

FEB. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United States warned Azerbaijan that it shouldn’t try to force the closure of the OSCE office in Yerevan, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported. It said that Azerbaijan may be trying to close Europe’s main security and democracy watchdog after it voted against extending its mission because it was based in Yerevan. The OSCE is heavily involved with monitoring a ceasefire around Nagorno-Karabakh, disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan closed the OSCE office in Baku in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Azerbaijan applies to host UEFA Champions League in 2019

FEB. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Baku has applied to host the 2019 UEFA Champions League final, one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, at its Olympic Stadium. Baku’s Olympic Stadium is already one of the designated hosts for the 2020 European Football Championship. If Baku did win the right to host the 2019 UEFA Champions League final, Azerbaijan would be the first country to host it without ever having had a team compete in it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Currencies: Kazakh tenge, Azerbaijani manat, Georgian lari

FEB. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Azerbaijani manat and the Georgian lari jumped by 6.6% and 5.7% in the week to Feb. 9, a sharp jolt against their predominantly downward trajectories.

The manat was valued at 1.82/$1 on Feb. 9, a one month high. The lari was valued at 2.63/$1, a two- month high.

In Baku, some currency analysts said that this was the start of a realignment of the national currency that would see it appreciate back up to around 1.5/$1, a level not seen since mid-2016. They argued that the currency was undervalued and that as oil prices continue to rise, even slightly, and the economy improves, the manat will strengthen.

Other analysts are more cautious and have said that a multi- million dollar one-off transfer from Azerbaijan’s state oil fund to the government has boosted the value of the manat temporarily and that the decline will continue in the longer term.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Belarus deports Russian blogger to Azerbaijan

FEB. 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Belarus extradited Russian travel blogger Alexander Lapshin to Baku to face charges of supporting Armenia- backed rebels in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Free speech activists have said thatMr Lapshin’s arrest and extradition are symptomatic of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s authoritarian tendencies.

And in rare move, Russia released a statement criticising the blogger’s arrest.

Mr Lapshin is a relatively popular blogger who is better known for whimsical asides about his travel exploits and his travel pictures rather than his political musings. He travels on three different passports — Russian, Ukrainian and Israeli — and reportedly travelled to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2011 and 2012.

It is not clear why Mr Laphin’s trips to the region would have upset Azerbaijan and its authorities so much.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Cracks show in relations between Azerbaijan and EU

FEB. 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tension between Azerbaijan and the European Union spilled out into the open at what was meant to be a friendly summit meeting, highlighting the complexity of a relationship essentially built on gas.

First the Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, said as he headed off to meet Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev that the “nice part of my day is over” and then, a few hours later, Azerbaijan cancelled a meeting with senior European Parliament members. The European parliament had, the day before, hosted an event to push for greater human rights in Azerbaijan.

Relations between the two sides have been strained for years. The EU recoils at Azerbaijan’s alleged crackdown on the media and opposition activists, while Azerbaijan accuses the EU of trying to interfere with its domestic politics.

But Azerbaijan-EU relations are also important. The EU desperately wants to reduce its dependency on Russia for its gas. And they have bet on Azerbaijan and its plan to pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe.

It was to discuss plans to pump gas along the the so-called Southern Gas Pipeline Corridor across Georgia and Turkey, through southeast Europe and into Central Europe, that moved Mr Aliyev to travel to Brussels.

Things, though, got off to a bad start whenMr Juncker wrapped up a press conference prior to meeting Mr Aliyev with what appeared to be a derogative aside.

“Thank you, have a nice day,” he was quoted by media as saying to journalists at the end of press conference. “I will now see the president of Azerbaijan, so the nice part of my day is over.”

Although, Mr Aliyev and Mr Juncker did meet up, releasing a joint statement afterwards about strong relations, it was clear that the tone had been set. An Azerbaijani official declined to comment on Mr Juncker’s remarks.

Mr Aliyev also met with Federica Mogherini, the EU’s chief diplomat, and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council. After these meetings both sides released friendly statements.

Mr Tusk said both that he had raised human rights with Mr Aliyev and that he also wanted to improve Azerbaijan-EU relations.

“We want to upgrade our relationship and develop its full potential through a new bilateral agreement,” he said.

A few hours later, though, there was another set back when Azerbaijan cancelled a meeting with Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament. In the build-up to Mr Aliyev’s visit to Brussels, human rights groups had signed a petition calling for Europe to push harder for rights in Azerbaijan.

The European Parliament has been particularly vocal in its criticism of Azerbaijan’s crackdown on human rights activists and journalists who criticise the government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Azerbaijan admits that prices are rising

FEB. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government has finally admitted that prices are rising across the country, pushed up by a sharp fall in the manat currency and a dire economic outlook, but that these rises are not going to hurt ordinary people.

In a press release aimed at dampening growing frustration with the government, deputy PM Ali Ahmedov said that the government was investing in schemes that should suppress prices.

“I do not think the current level of increase in prices will affect the level of poverty in Azerbaijan,” he said.

Although evidence on the streets of people’s frustration with price rises is muted, social media sites, and especially Facebook, are full of disgruntled posts. Facebook in particular has become an important medium for ordinary people to express their views relatively freely.

One Facebook user, Elnur, said that the government was not doing enough to prevent price rises and was supporting big business over small.

“The government is guilty of not preventing large holdings and companies that create monopolies in imports, impacting price increases,” he wrote.

Irada Bayramova, a school teacher who lives in Baku, described the price rises to the Conway Bulletin.

“I used to pay 2.40 manat for tea. Now the price of the same tea is 3.27 manat. Previously 1 kg of potatoes was 1.05 manat but now I need to pay 1.59 manat,” she said.

“Everything is too expensive and the prices do not fit salaries. We cannot buy products in the market. The government needs to help us as we are in a hard situation.”

Azerbaijan’s oil-backed economy has been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Qatar to increase flights to Azerbaijan

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a press conference with his Qatari counterpart, Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that the Qatar airline had agreed to increase the number of flights to Baku. He said that the driving motivator of the planned flight increase was a jump in the number of tourists travelling to Azerbaijan. Mr Mammadyarov didn’t give any figures to back this up or say how many Qatar flights would now operate to Baku. International airlines have been increasing their flights to the South Caucasus.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)