Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani reserves remain stable

JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s foreign currency reserves inched up in May for the first time in a year, according to Central Bank data, suggesting that pressure on its manat currency had eased off. Like other countries in the region, Azerbaijan has been fighting to maintain the strength of its currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Azerbaijani electricity may rise

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Azerbaijan are considering increasing the electricity tariff to a more equitable market rate, media reported. Electricity across the former Soviet Union is generally subsidised although governments are reducing this, much to the irritation of ordinary people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Azerbaijan oil flow rises via Russia

JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil shipments via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline increased 40% in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2014, media reported quoting the state energy company. The increased oil flow through Russia is scheduled.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Azerbaijan orders OSCE to close office in Baku

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan ordered the OSCE to close its office in Baku and barred Amnesty from visiting the city, triggering fresh criticism of its civil rights record shortly before President Ilham Aliyev opens the inaugural European Games.

Azerbaijan and the West have been locked in an acrimonious row over civil rights which has threatened to damage their fragile relationship.

Now the OSCE, as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe is more commonly known, said that the Azerbaijani authorities had ordered it to close its Baku office.

“The government of Azerbaijan has notified the OSCE of its intention to close the organisation’s office in Baku,” AFP quoted the spokesman for the OSCE Baku office, Rashad Huseynov, as saying.

This takes relations between Europe and Azerbaijan to a new low. Among other roles, the OSCE is Europe’s democracy watchdog. It evaluates elections against European democratic standards.

Azerbaijan already has form, though. At the end of last year it raided and closed the office of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

London-based Amnesty also said it had cancelled a trip to Baku after the Azerbaijani authorities said that its delegation was not welcome to visit until after the European Games.

It’s a delicate relationship between Europe and Azerbaijan. While it may not like Azerbaijan’s attitude towards dissenters, Europe wants to buy its gas.

For Mr Aliyev, these are frustrating times.

He wants to increase the profile of Azerbaijan through sport and had hoped that the European Games, set to open on June 12, would act as the perfect launch.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

UN criticises Azerbaijan ahead of Games

JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Games, due to start in Baku on June 12, may turn out to be more of curse for Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev than a blessing.

The Games have shone a spotlight on Azerbaijan and it is not a pretty sight, according to many Western politicians and activists.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Michael Frost, was the latest high profile figure to criticise Azerbaijan on its civil rights record.

“As preparations are in full swing for the Baku Games, the Azerbaijani authorities stepped up their efforts to harass, jail, and surveil human rights defenders, as well as ban them from travel and freeze their assets,” he said, according to the UN website.

Many of the journalists and activists arrested over the past couple of years have been sent to prison on drugs and arms related charges. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been chased out of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani officials dismissed Mr Frost’s statement as part of the anti-Azerbaijan narrative that has been put forward over the last few years.

ENDS