Baku,June 2016
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Report Azerbaijan: the Situation for Regime Critics
Report Azerbaijan: The situation for regime critics Report Azerbaijan: The situation for regime critics LANDINFO – 13 OCTOBER 2017 1 About Landinfo’s reports The Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre, Landinfo, is an independent body within the Norwegian Immigration Authorities. Landinfo provides country of origin information to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (Utlendingsdirektoratet – UDI), the Immigration Appeals Board (Utlendingsnemnda – UNE) and the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security. Reports produced by Landinfo are based on information from carefully selected sources. The information is researched and evaluated in accordance with common methodology for processing COI and Landinfo’s internal guidelines on source and information analysis. To ensure balanced reports, efforts are made to obtain information from a wide range of sources. Many of our reports draw on findings and interviews conducted on fact-finding missions. All sources used are referenced. Sources hesitant to provide information to be cited in a public report have retained anonymity. The reports do not provide exhaustive overviews of topics or themes, but cover aspects relevant for the processing of asylum and residency cases. Country of origin information presented in Landinfo’s reports does not contain policy recommendations nor does it reflect official Norwegian views. Translation provided by the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, Belgium © Landinfo 2017 The material in this report is covered by copyright law. Any reproduction or publication of this report or any extract thereof other than as permitted by current Norwegian copyright law requires the explicit written consent of Landinfo. For information on all of the reports published by Landinfo, please contact: Landinfo Country of Origin Information Centre Storgata 33A P.O. -
Artush and Zaur – English Translation
Page 1 ALI AKBAR ARTUSH AND ZAUR (textbook of conflictology for adults) 1 Page 2 If there is a cross in the blood, I watched the reed, I did not find you, you are just a villain, an Armenian. Imadeddin Nasimi 2 Page 3 Azerbaijan, which inspired me with its existence to write and publish the book, With deep gratitude to the masses of Armenia and Georgia. author 3 Page 4 MEETING 4 Page 5 You have made me miserable, O Armenian, I became an Armenian slave in the way of love. 1 Tbilisi greeted him with a golden autumn and a light wind. Dirty concrete from the fourth car of the Baku-Tbilisi train Stepping on the platform, Zaur trembled slightly, lifting the collar of his jacket. Hanging his bag over his shoulder, stepped towards the wide stairs leading to the lower floor. Every time you come to this city, a strange spicy sausage The smell hit his nose. Today, the same smell was mixed with the smell of rainy weather. Similar to Acar khachapuri smoking in small ponds on the platform, unable to decide whether to evaporate in the weak rays of the sun stumps upset. The stumps were reminiscent of white sailing ships that had lost their direction at sea. On the roof of the platform in order The crows scream shamelessly, as if to those who got off the train in the crow dialect of Georgian "Welcome!" - they said. A three-legged dog quickly ran away from Zaur. Apparently, his right hind leg was under the train. -
Corruption in Azerbaijan: Past Five Years
CORRUPTION IN AZERBAIJAN: PAST FIVE YEARS 2019 CORRUPTION IN AZERBAIJAN: PAST FIVE YEARS 2019 This report was prepared by a group of experts, including lawyers and economists. The primary goal of the report was to assess the practical impact of corruption in Azerbaijan and the status of implementation of governmental anti-corruption measures, which are obligated by its par- ticipation in international platforms. CONTENT Abbreviations Summry 1. Introduction 2. Political and economic background 3. Assessment of level of corruption in Azerbaijan 4. Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan and Azerbaijan 5. GRECO’s reports on Azerbaijan 6. Assessment of transparency and corruption 6.1. Justice system 6.2. Social spheres 6.3. Procurements 6.4. Business 7. Recommendations 3 ABBREVIATIONS ASAN — Service Center under the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations PACE — Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe STPD — State Traffic Police Department ERCAS — European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Build- ing GRECO — The Group of States Against Corruption of the Council of Eu- rope JLC — Judicial-Legal Council OCCRP — Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project OECD — Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development GDP — Gross Domestic Product 4 SUMMARY International assessments have demonstrated that, in terms of scale, corruption in Azerbaijan stands out as a particularly negative example, not only in its region or among oil-gas countries with transition economies, but in the whole world. According to the 2015 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, Azerbaijan was ranked 119th out of the 168 countries reviewed, while in 2018, the country fell to 152nd place out of 180 countries. -
Azerbaijan: Vulnerable Stability
AZERBAIJAN: VULNERABLE STABILITY Europe Report N°207 – 3 September 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. i I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 II. POLITICAL PORTRAIT OF THE REGIME ............................................................... 2 A. CONSOLIDATION OF ILHAM ALIYEV’S POWER ............................................................................. 2 1. Formation of a leader ................................................................................................................... 2 2. From clan politics to bureaucratic-oligarchy ............................................................................... 2 3. A one-man show .......................................................................................................................... 4 B. SEARCH FOR AN “AZERBAIJANI MODEL” ..................................................................................... 5 1. Cult of personality ........................................................................................................................ 5 2. Statist authoritarianism ................................................................................................................ 6 III. RELATIONS WITHIN THE RULING ELITE ............................................................. 7 A. POWER BALANCE WITHIN THE SYSTEM ...................................................................................... -
AZERBAIJAN's DARK ISLAND: Human Rights Violations In
2009 • 2 REPORT AZERBAIJAN’S DARK ISLAND: Human rights violations in Nakhchivan Contents A. Summary .........................................................................................................5 B. Nakhchivan: Background and Political System ................................................8 1. A family affair ............................................................................................12 2. The economic role of the Family ................................................................14 3. The Nakhchivan clan: A driving force in Azerbaijani politics .....................15 C. Violations of basic rights in Nakhchicvan .....................................................20 1. The Media .................................................................................................25 2. Police brutality: An instrument to silence critics .........................................33 3. The practice of torture ...............................................................................37 4. Psychiatric Hospitals: “Curing” opponents .................................................38 5. Politically motivated dismissals ..................................................................42 D. The regime’s peculiar tools ...........................................................................45 1. Forced weekend work in the fields ............................................................45 Map of Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan. www.joshuakucera.net 2. Weird and unwritten laws ..........................................................................46 -
Baku, December 2019
Swiss Embassy Newsletter N° 8 Baku, December 2019 Contents Politics Swiss International Cooperation Culture & Education Varia Media Facts & Figures Links Dear readers, dear friends of Switzerland, Already six months passed since I took up my duties in Baku in July 2019, and I am very glad to present you with a new issue of the Swiss Embassy's newsletter. For me, the past months have been extremely busy and marked by many highlights and exciting discoveries while living in Azerbaijan and travelling to Turkmenistan. The presentation of my credentials to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (23 July) and to the Speaker of the Parliament of Turkmenistan (9 August) are, of course, among these highlights. As already announced in the previous newsletter, throughout 2019, we celebrate 20 years of bilateral technical cooperation with Azerbaijan. This important anniversary was in the focus of this year's reception on the occasion of the Swiss National Day, which was held on 11 July in front of the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, with participation of a youth orchestra from Switzerland. We are very grateful for the positive feed-back which we received from many of our guests. The official visit to Azerbaijan of the President of the Council of States of Switzerland, Mr Jean-René Fournier, in October 2019 was another highlight and contributed to developing the already friendly and wide-ranging relations between Switzerland and Azerbaijan. As in 2019 with the European Youth Olympic Festival, which was attended by a large Swiss delegation in July (see article), sports will be in the focus of attention in the coming year. -
1 Medea Ivaniadze China's Activities in the South Caucasus Issue 16
Medea Ivaniadze China’s Activities in the South Caucasus Issue 16, 14.6.2021 – 27.6.2021 The digest covers China’s political, diplomatic, economic and other activities in the South Caucasus region and relations between China and the South Caucasus countries. It relies on a wide variety of sources, including the Chinese media. It is worth noting that the Chinese media is controlled by the Communist Party of China (according to the World Press Freedom Index China is nearly at the bottom of the list and ranks 177th out of 180 countries) ● Georgian officials and other figures participated in an event dedicated to the founding of the Communist Party of China ● Chinese Ambassador and Azerbaijani ruling party officials discussed inter-party cooperation ● Xi Jinping is ready to raise bilateral relations with Armenia to a new level ● Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister hopes that China-Georgia cooperation will be strengthened within the BRI ● In January-May 2021, China was Georgia’s third-largest trading partner ● Chinese Ambassador said that Armenia was one of the first countries to actively participate in the BRI ● Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia says Georgia attaches great importance to the inflow of Chinese investments ● Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and China increases ● The National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia is beginning a relationship with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Read full publication: 14.6.2021 – 20.6.2021 Georgian officials and other public figures participated in an event dedicated to the founding of the Communist Party of China 1 Photo from the conference. -
UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title From well to welfare: social spending in mineral-rich post-Soviet states Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2m23n81t Author McCullaugh, Marcy Elisabeth Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California From Well to Welfare: Social Spending in Mineral-Rich Post-Soviet States By Marcy Elisabeth McCullaugh A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor M. Steven Fish, Chair Professor Steven Vogel Professor Jason Wittenberg Professor Michael Watts Fall 2013 Copyright 2013 by Marcy Elisabeth McCullaugh All rights reserved. Abstract From Well to Welfare: Social Spending in Mineral-Rich Post-Soviet States By Marcy Elisabeth McCullaugh Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor M. Steven Fish, Chair Why do some autocrats redistribute resource rents through high welfare spending, while others do not? Conventional wisdom suggests that authoritarian leaders unconstrained by institutions and with unlimited access to resource wealth would siphon off these funds for themselves and rent-seeking elites at the expense of delivering goods to citizens. Yet, welfare spending levels among the world’s petroleum-rich authoritarian and hybrid regimes indicate that some rulers are more inclined than others to “share the loot” with the larger citizenry. This dissertation provides a theory of redistributive social spending in mineral-rich authoritarian regimes, using the cases of Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. I analyze health, education and social security spending in each country from 2000-present, leveraging variation across cases as well as within each case over time. -
Azerbaijan by Magdalenaby Frichova H
Azerbaijan by Magdalenaby Frichova H. Kaan Grono Nazli Capital: Baku Population: 8.8 million GNI/capita, PPP: US$9,020 Source: !e data above was provided by !e World Bank, World Development Indicators 2011. Nations in Transit Ratings and Averaged Scores 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Electoral Process 5.75 5.75 6.00 6.25 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.75 6.75 7.00 Civil Society 4.50 4.25 4.50 4.75 5.00 5.25 5.25 5.50 5.75 5.75 Independent Media 5.50 5.50 5.75 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.25 6.75 6.75 6.75 Governance* 6.00 5.75 5.75 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a National Democratic 6.50 Governance n/a n/a n/a 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.50 Local Democratic 6.50 Governance n/a n/a n/a 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.25 Judicial Framework 6.25 and Independence 5.25 5.25 5.50 5.75 5.75 5.75 5.75 5.75 6.25 Corruption 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.50 6.50 6.50 Democracy Score 5.54 5.46 5.63 5.86 5.93 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.39 6.46 * Starting with the 2005 edition, Freedom House introduced separate analysis and ratings for national democratic governance and local democratic governance to provide readers with more detailed and nuanced analysis of these two important subjects. -
From Well to Welfare: Social Spending in Mineral-Rich Post-Soviet States
From Well to Welfare: Social Spending in Mineral-Rich Post-Soviet States By Marcy Elisabeth McCullaugh A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor M. Steven Fish, Chair Professor Steven Vogel Professor Jason Wittenberg Professor Michael Watts Fall 2013 Copyright 2013 by Marcy Elisabeth McCullaugh All rights reserved. Abstract From Well to Welfare: Social Spending in Mineral-Rich Post-Soviet States By Marcy Elisabeth McCullaugh Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor M. Steven Fish, Chair Why do some autocrats redistribute resource rents through high welfare spending, while others do not? Conventional wisdom suggests that authoritarian leaders unconstrained by institutions and with unlimited access to resource wealth would siphon off these funds for themselves and rent-seeking elites at the expense of delivering goods to citizens. Yet, welfare spending levels among the world’s petroleum-rich authoritarian and hybrid regimes indicate that some rulers are more inclined than others to “share the loot” with the larger citizenry. This dissertation provides a theory of redistributive social spending in mineral-rich authoritarian regimes, using the cases of Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. I analyze health, education and social security spending in each country from 2000-present, leveraging variation across cases as well as within each case over time. In Azerbaijan under Heidar Aliev (1995- 2003) and Ilham Aliev (2003-present), there is little evidence of desire on the part of the government to engage in redistribution. -
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Increasing State Capacity Through Clans Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1p59p2q5 Author Doyle, Jr, Thomas Martin Publication Date 2009 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Increasing State Capacity Through Clans A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Thomas Martin Doyle December 2009 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Shaun Bowler, Chairperson Dr. William Barndt Dr. Ebru Erdem Dr. Douglas R. White Copyright by Thomas Martin Doyle 2009 The Dissertation of Thomas Martin Doyle is approved by: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements It is with great appreciation and humility that I take this opportunity to thank the following people: Drs. Valerie O’Regan and Stephen Stambough for more than ten years of emotional and academic support. No student could hope to find better mentors and friends. Dr. Shaun Bowler, Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of California Riverside and chair of my dissertation committee along with Dr. Will Barndt and Dr. Ebru Erdem for their steadfast efforts in my behalf. Drs. Douglas R. White and Lilyan-Brudner White at the University of California Irvine for their dedicated labors aimed at expanding my understanding of a complex world. The entire faculty and staff in the Department of Political Science at the University of California Riverside for help on many levels. Particular thanks go to Kevin Grisham and Mark Neiswender. This study would not be possible without the information provided by so many citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan. -
Azerbaijan by H
Azerbaijan by H. Kaan Nazli Capital: Baku Population: 8.8 million GNI/capita, PPP: US$9,270 Source: The data above were provided by The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2012. Nations in Transit Ratings and Averaged Scores 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Electoral Process 5.75 6.00 6.25 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.75 6.75 7.00 7.00 Civil Society 4.25 4.50 4.75 5.00 5.25 5.25 5.50 5.75 5.75 6.00 Independent Media 5.50 5.75 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.25 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 Governance* 5.75 5.75 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a National Democratic Governance n/a n/a 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.50 6.50 6.75 Local Democratic Governance n/a n/a 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.25 6.50 6.50 Judicial Framework and Independence 5.25 5.50 5.75 5.75 5.75 5.75 5.75 6.25 6.25 6.50 Corruption 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 Democracy Score 5.46 5.63 5.86 5.93 6.00 6.00 6.25 6.39 6.46 6.57 * Starting with the 2005 edition, Freedom House introduced separate analysis and ratings for national democratic governance and local democratic governance to provide readers with more detailed and nuanced analysis of these two important subjects.