My personal blog, my thoughts.
The government of Azerbaijan allocates its multi-billion dollar oil and gas revenue in four ways: 1) Bribery; 2) Theft by Pres. Aliyev’s family and his cronies; 3) Military purchases; and 4) Other budgetary matters. No wonder the majority of the people in Azerbaijan live in abject poverty, despite the billions of petrodollars earned by Aliyev’s autocracy.
JUST PAST 7 p.m. on May 29 in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, an independent journalist, Afgan Mukhtarli, called his wife from a cafe to say he was coming home. She asked him to buy bread, according to a friend of the journalist who was at the cafe. The friend departed, but Mr. Mukhtarli never made it home. A day later, his wife discovered he was in neighboring Azerbaijan, in jail. Fearing persecution as a journalist, Mr. Mukhtarli had fled Azerbaijan two years earlier. In a brazen example of a police state reaching beyond its borders, Azerbaijan apparently dragged him back.
There is a video of the “Top 10 worst dictators that are still in power.” Video content producer and syndicator WatchMojo of Canada published the infotainment on “leaders who hold on to power with iron fists.” WM claims 8.8 billion all-time video views and 15 million subscribers, one of YouTube’s major channels.
Read more “Aliyev in Top 10 tyrants in power”
So what does Jahangir Hajiyev think about it?
The written answers I received to the former banker while still on trial were also clarified. For a discussion of the readers of Ovqat.com, I write a written interview that I have not published so far since my time is short of selling:
Read more ““Samir Sharifov – who is provocative, illiterate, or both?” – Interview”
There were plenty of Azeri commentators and officials who criticized Armenian President Serge Sarkisian’s speech at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last week, but I did not come across any Armenian commentators or government leaders who attacked Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s ugly speech on Sept. 20.
Read more “Aliyev Lies Before the Whole World at UN General Assembly”
Recently there were two serious scandals one of which was related to the issue of the territories of Artsakh and the other issue is related to the adoption of a concept on developing the Russian language in Armenia.
This article was published by the Guardian
Revelations over payments by Azerbaijan to European politicians have seeped into the German election as it emerged that a close ally of Angela Merkel allegedly received money from the authoritarian regime.
Read more “Azerbaijan Laundromat: Merkel ally ‘received cash from regime’”
Imprisoned investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli has been questioned with respect to criminal proceedings launched against Gozal Bayramli, deputy chair of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party (PFAP).
Mukhtarli wrote about this in a letter he sent to Bastainfo. He said that during the questioning he was asked about Dashgin Aghalarli, who currently resides in Georgia, and Farman Jeyranli, the founder of the clinic Lancet, who is in jail in Georgia.
Read more “Afgan Mukhtarli makes appeal to international organizations”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to resolve claims brought by the Azerbaijani government that have hampered its news reporting inside the country for almost three years, the RFE/RL reports.
A group of EU parliamentarians is calling for an investigation into reports that Azerbaijan bribed EU officials in return for nice reports about the country’s elections and human rights record.