Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Turkey ratifies free trade deal with Azerbaijan

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BAKU/JAN. 19 2021 (The Bulletin) —  — Turkey’s parliament ratified a free trade agreement with Azerbaijan, part of a plan to boost bilateral trade by five or six times over the next couple of years.

The free trade deal was originally signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in February last year. Since then the coronavirus has slowed global trade but Azerbaijan’s victory, supported by Turkey, in a war against Armenia has accelerated increasingly close relations.

Turkish media reported that the free trade deal will allow quotas and customs to be lifted on certain goods. Turkey’s main exports to Azerbaijan are machinery, construction materials and mechanical appliances.

And media in Azerbaijan has reported that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that he would prioritise handing contracts to rebuilding Nagorno-Karabakh to Turkish companies in what appears to be a clear statement of gratitude for Turkish support in Azerbaijan’s war with Armenia in 2020. 

One of the first deals to be announced was a $50m investment by Turkey into a textile factory in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azeraijan and Iran extend railway cooperation

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JAN. 19 2021 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan and Iran signed a deal to extend their cooperation in the railway sector, media reported. Iran has increasingly tried to engage its neighbours in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan-Iran relations have improved over the past five years or so and the heads of their railway companies emphasised the importance of the Rasht-Astara cross border railway link. 

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azerbaijan says to start Covid-19 vaccinations on Feb. 1

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JAN. 18 2021 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will start vaccinating its population against Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, from Feb. 1 using China’s Sinovac vaccine. The country’s health ministry said that it would vaccinate medical workers and the over 65s first. Kazakhstan also said that it would start its own vaccination plan from Feb. 1 using Russia’s Sputnik-V.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Armenia returns POWs to Azerbaijan

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JAN. 18 2021 (The Bulletin) — Armenia has handed over all the Azerbaijani soldiers it captured during a six-week war last year but the return of Armenian POWs from the Azerbaijani side has been delayed, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said during a press conference. Each side blamed the other for the delay in returning Armenian soldiers. Around 5,000 soldiers died in the war. 

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azerbaijan commissions new Central Bank HQ

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JAN. 15 2021 (The Bulletin) — In a show of confidence in its Central Bank which was derided by ordinary Azerbaijanis six years ago for allowing the manat to devalue twice in 12 months, Azerbaijan’s government commissioned the construction of a new $265m and 37-storey headquarters for it. Building work, by Turkish construction company Tekfen, is expected to take three years.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Pashinyan and Aliyev due to meet in Moscow for first time since war

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YEREVAN/BAKU/JAN. 8 (The Bulletin) —  Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are due to meet in Moscow for the first time since a war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year, media reported (Jan. 8).

Neither side has confirmed or denied the media reports that the two rivals will meet in the Kremlin on Jan. 11 to discuss a peace deal, policed by Russian soldiers, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting will be an especially tense affair for Mr Pashinyan who has been under major pressure since he signed the deal that ended the six-week war in November and handed swathes of the region back to Azerbaijan.

Thousands of people have regularly protested in Yerevan against Mr Pashinyan, calling the deal a humiliation and calling on him to resign. Mr Pashinyan has resisted these calls but has conceded that a parliamentary election should take place this year.

“I can leave the position of Prime Minister only by the decision of the people,” Mr Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page on Dec. 25. “There is only one way to get the answer to all these questions: holding extraordinary parliamentary elections.”

Mr Pashinyan, who was propelled into the PM’s position after a revolution in 2018, has cut an increasingly diminished figure since the war. Senior ministers have resigned and, as well as regular protests in Yerevan attended by thousands of people, protesters have stormed the Armenian parliament and blocked a government motorcade from reaching Stepanakert, the only remaining Armenia-held town in Nagorno-Karabakh. All this is a humiliation for Mr Pashinyan, who has always seen himself as a man of the people.

By contrast, Mr Aliyev secured his legacy with his swift victory over Armenia in the war. 

He has reclaimed land that Azerbaijan lost to Armenian in the first war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s and has also secured Turkey’s involvement in the South Caucasus, a reliable ally that Mr Aliyev hopes to use to counterbalance Russia.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Aliyev says that Russian tomato ban was a surprise

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JAN. 7 2021 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said that he was surprised that Russia imposed a ban on Azerbaijani tomatoes from Dec. 10. Russian officials said that they had found pests in some tomatoes but some analysts have said that the ban is retaliation for Azerbaijan’s comprehensive victory over Armenia for control of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Russia pressures Azerbaijan on shooting down of helicopter

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JAN. 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — Russia pressured Azerbaijan into opening a criminal case into the shooting down of one of its military helicopters in November. The pressure will increase tension between Russia and Azerbaijan. The Kremlin has been irritated by Azerbaijan’s gloating over its victory against Armenia in a six-week war last year against Armenia for control of Nagorno-Karabakh and for its strong support from Turkey. Azerbaijani forces shot down the helicopter on Nov. 9. The Azerbaijani authorities had wanted to class the incident as an accident.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Fuel prices rise in Azerbaijan

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JAN. 4 2021 (The Bulletin) — State-mandated fuel prices rose in Azerbaijan to offset, state-owned energy company Socar said, the refining investments it has made to improve quality. Media reported that AI-92 petrol had risen by 11% and the cost of a litre of diesel had risen by a third. Fuel price rises have previously triggered disquiet in the region.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Caspian Sea gas reaches Central Europe

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BAKU/JAN. 1 2021 (The Bulletin) —  Gas produced in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea which is then pumped through a 3,500km pipeline that cost $45b to build is now, finally, reaching central Europe.

The completion of the so-called Southern Gas Corridor is viewed in Europe as an important part of its strategy to reduce its reliance on Russia for gas supplies, and in Baku as the start of what Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev hopes will be a major boost for the economy.

“The Southern Gas Corridor will strengthen the system of global energy security. It has connected the Caspian region to Europe,” Azerbaijan’s energy ministry said in a statement after Greece, Bulgaria and Italy confirmed that gas had arrived through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, the final part of the Southern Gas Corridor.

The question analysts have posed, though, is not if gas will be delivered to Europe, but how much? There have been concerns that lockdowns imposed to control the coronavirus pandemic have dented demand for consumers for gas, although what is shaping up to be a cold European winter may have changed this thinking.

Linked pipelines running across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and the Balkans now pump gas directly from the BP controlled Shah Deniz 2 project in the Caspian Sea to Europe. 

The European Commission is keen on the project because it wants to reduce its dependency on Russia, which controls 34% of the European gas market.  It first floated the plan to build a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Europe in 2008.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021