Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijanis vote to extend presidential terms in referendum

BAKU, SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijanis voted in a referendum to make 29 amendments to the country’s constitution which opposition leaders have said are designed to strengthen President Ilham Aliyev’s grip on power.

The Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) said that around 90% of the votes were in favour of the amendments, the most controversial being an extension to the presidential term from five to seven years. Other changes included scrapping the age limit for parliamentarians and presidential candidates and the establishment of the role of vice-president.

The turnout, recorded as 69.7%, was much higher than the 25% needed to validate the results although some election observers complained of irregularities such as ballot stuffing which the CEC said it would investigate.

Brushing aside allegations of an unfair voting system and whether the reforms were actually needed, members of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party said the result proved the high regard that ordinary people have for President Aliyev.

“This was a test of people’s trust in the country’s President, and it was held successfully,” said Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister and deputy chairman of Yeni Azerbaijan.

This is the second time that Azerbaijan has held a referendum to change its constitution under President Aliyev, who came to power in 2003.

In a 2009 referendum, Azerbaijan controversially voted to end a limit on the number of terms that a president can stay in office.

These tweaks to constitutions drawn up in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 have been fairly standard across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. They allow the incumbent president to remain in power for as long as he wants, reduce the number of irksome elections that need to be handled and also widen options for a handover of power to a son or daughter or favoured associate.

The Venice Commission, the European Commission’s watchdog for constitutional issues, criticised Azerbaijan’s referendum saying the the amendments would “severely upset the balance of power by giving ‘unprecedented’ powers to the President.”

And many Azerbaijanis held a similar view.

A 22-year old Fidan, a student in Baku said that she had voted against the constitutional changes. “These changes will turn the country into a monarchy,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Oil rig catches fire in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea

SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A gas leak caused an explosion at an oil platform in the Guneshli oil field, off the coast of Baku.

Although nobody was injured or killed, the fire at Platform 19, will once again raise concerns about safety at oil platforms in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea, less than a year after at least 31 rig workers were killed at two other rigs in a storm.

SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company operated the platform.

It said that the fire had burned for a full day before it was brought under control by fire-fighters.

SOCAR said that all 49 workers were evacuated during the fire.

Azerbaijan’s oil industry is still trying to recover its credibility after the rig fire in December, the deadliest since the Piper Alpha fire in the North Sea killed at least 167 people in 1988.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Referendum season

SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – >> Azerbaijan held a referendum this week to tweak its constitution. Didn’t Tajikistan have one in May and hasn’t Kyrgyzstan said it will hold one in December. What’s with all these referendums?

>> The autocrat’s textbook says that every so often you need to call up a referendum to make changes, big or minor, to the constitution, and also to show off just how popular you are. They all have their peculiarities and differences, but leaders from Central Asia and the South Caucasus have all played the referendum card.

In May, 92% of Tajikistan’s voting population turned up to extend presidential powers.

This week, a referendum in Azerbaijan proposed 29 small-scale amendments to the Constitution, which were overwhelmingly adopted, of course.

In the coming months, Kyrgyzstan is likely to have a referendum to grant more powers to the PM.

In previous years, countries across the region have held several referendums. Essentially the aim has been to change the Constitution to allow the incumbent to remain in power by scraping limits on terms, age caps, the length of each term.

>> OK, but are these changes meaningful? Do they have a real impact on politics?

>>These kinds of referendums can be meaningful. From a legal point of view, they change the law. They scrap age requirements to become president — as was the case in Tajikistan and Azerbaijan — and transfer powers from the president to the PM — like Kyrgyzstan’s referendum proposes.

In practice, however, their main aim is for the presidents to retain power or to transfer it to their offspring. There have been notable, and honourable exceptions, of course but not many.

Tajikistan’s referendum this year scrapped limits on presidential terms and lowered the age that a person can run for president to 30 from 35, potentially allowing President Rakhmon’s son, Rustam Emomali, to run for office in 2020.

Azerbaijan had already scrapped limits on presidential term in a referendum in 2009. This time round it lowered the age requirement to 18 from 35 and gave the president the right to dissolve Parliament. President Aliyev’s son Heydar is 19 now. This may be a coincidence, of course.

>> And what about Kyrgyzstan?

>> Kyrgyzstan is a little different. President Almazbek Atambayev will have to leave office next year after his term expires. Some have speculated that, in an effort to avoid losing power he is trying to strengthen the office of PM where he would like to return once he steps down next year.

Certainly his reasons for supporting changes to the constitution are not entirely clear.

The key difference, once again, with other countries in Central Asia, is that Kyrgyzstan’s democracy has advanced further.

>> So, essentially, most of the more seriously autocratic leaders in the region, that’s Azerbaijan and Central Asia with the exception of Kyrgyzstan, have all used referendums to improve their chances of holding on to power? By contrast Georgia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan have held referendums in the last few years to boost the power of Parliament over the presidency? Is that right?

>>More of less, although it is important to understand that the drivers of referendums in Georgia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan can also lie in self-interest with incumbent presidents hoping to hold on to power by becoming PM.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijan to have talks with Bulgaria on exports

SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bozhidar Lukarski, Bulgaria’s minister of economy, will hold talks with an Azerbaijani delegation to explore the possibility of buying 1b cubic metres of gas. SOCAR and Bulgargaz, the two state-owned companies, signed a supply agreement in 2014. So far, however, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, the pipeline through which Azerbaijan’s gas will be pumped, has not been built. Azerbaijan sees exports to Europe as key to growing its client base.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijan’s export to Turkey declines

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan exported to Turkey 2.9% less gas in Jan.-July 2016, compared to the same period last year, the Turkish energy regulator said. Azerbaijan’s exports in the first seven months of the year stood at 3.8b cubic metres, mostly originating from the Shah Deniz gas field. Azerbaijan’s supplies to Turkey make up around 20% of Turkish gas imports through pipelines. Oil and gas exports are vital to Azerbaijan’s economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijan’s IBA signs promotional deal with Juventus football club

SEPT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), majority owned by the government, signed a promotional deal with Italian football club Juventus, continuing Azerbaijan’s strategy of using sport to promote itself.

Juventus released a photo of its executives meeting IBA officials in Baku, posing with one of its famous black and white shirts.

Under the terms of the deal, the value of which has not been announced, IBA will be able to use Juventus logos and branding to promote its products. Juventus will also be committed to opening and running a football academy in Baku.

Juventus’ head of global partnerships and corporate revenues Giorgio Ricci said that the deal with IBA was the fifth regional sponsorship deal that the club had concluded in the last 16 months.

“We are proud to be working in a country of great potential such as Azerbaijan, and to collaborate with an organisation as prestigious as the International Bank of Azerbaijan,” he said.

For IBA, the timing is less auspicious. Azerbaijan’s economy has been under pressure because of a sharp fall in oil prices and analysts have said it will fall into a recession for the first time since 2009.

Banks have in particular come under pressure because of their previous loose lending arrangements which have now generated mountains of bad debt. This bad debt portfolio was exacerbated by a 50% fall in the value of the manat last year.

In July, a court in Azerbaijan also convicted IBA’s former CEO, Jahangir Hajiyev, of money laundering.

Sport, though, has become an important outlet for Azerbaijan to market itself. Azerbaijan had sponsored Spanish team Atletico Madrid and Baku is one of the 13 host cities for Euro 2020 football tournament.

The Azerbaijani government owns a 55% stake in IBA. IBA accounts for around 60% of all lending in Azerbaijan.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Exxon used Bahamas-based accounts for companies operating in the Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan

SEPT. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released previously confidential documents detailing companies linked to offshore accounts in the Bahamas, an update to the so-called Panama Papers.

The documents, obtained from the secretive Bahamas business registry, show connections between companies and intermediaries set up in the Bahamas tax haven in the Caribbean.

“There is much evidence to suggest that where you have secrecy in the offshore world you have the potential for wrongdoing” Gerard Ryle, the director of ICIJ, said in a statement.

Among South Caucasus and Central Asia-focused companies, ExxonMobil made extensive use of Bahamas-based companies for its operations in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The law firm Harry B. Sands, Lobosky & Co., based in Nassau, was the main intermediary for these accounts.

A company called Borjomi was also listed among Harry B. Sands, Lobosky & Co.’s customers. It is unclear if this company has connections with the Georgian water producer.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Council of Europe criticises Azerbaijan referendum

SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional experts working under the Council of Europe, criticised the upcoming referendum in Azerbaijan, which calls for an extension of presidential terms from five to seven years and other laws which it said would consolidate power in the hands of President Ilham Aliyev.

In a statement, the Venice Commission said that the proposed legal amendments will effectively allow Mr Aliyev to rule indefinitely.

“Many proposed amendments would severely upset the balance of power by giving unprecedented powers to the president,” the lawyers of the Venice Commission said in a statement.

Azerbaijani officials said that the Commission was out of line in judging the proposed amendments which will be voted on in a referendum on Sept. 26.

“The referendum doesn’t expand presidential powers, this is about improving governance,” Shahin Aliyev, head the Presidential Administration’s law unit, told local media.

Mr Aliyev has already tinkered with Azerbaijan’s constitution when he scrapped a limit on presidential terms in 2009.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Italian Snam to join Azerbaijan in DESFA purchase

SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Italian gas distributor Snam will participate in the purchase of a 66% stake in the Greek gas network DESFA only if Azerbaijan’s state owned energy company SOCAR remains in the deal, industry sources told the Greek newspaper Energypress. Snam did not comment. SOCAR offered to buy 66% of DESFA for €400m ($446m) in 2013, but the European Commission blocked the deal, citing its regulations on market competition.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Petronas deals with Azerbaijan

SEPT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Malaysia’s oil and gas company Petronas signed a memorandum with Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR to develop the Goshadash offshore block. Goshadash is located in the Absheron archipelago in the Caspian Sea. Petronas is already active in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector, as it owns a 15.5% stake in the Shah Deniz gas field.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)