The Voice of Mirza Xazar

Reporters Without Borders today urged the judicial authorities to reconsider the 30-month prison sentences imposed on journalists Yashar Agazadeh and Rovshan Kabirli of the daily Mukhalifat when their appeal hearing begins tomorrow. Agazadeh has been on hunger strike in prison against their conviction on 20 May of libelling the president’s uncle, Djalal Aliev, in an article linking him to possible corruption. “The laws must be amended as a matter of urgency so that journalists are no longer sentenced to jail terms that are out of all proportion to the offence,” the press freedom organisation said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New crackdown on opposition media Reporters Without Borders today strongly denounced a recent wave of restrictions and repression targeting Azerbaijan’s independent media and urged the authorities to restore press freedom. It said it was “very concerned” about yesterday’s assertion by the head of President Ilham Aliev’s office, Ramiz Mehdiyev, that there were normal democratic freedoms in the country and said it hoped he would quickly change his attitude and take all steps to ensure freedom of expression. “It is unthinkable that such a senior official can publicly say this when everyday facts show that the media is under pressure.” Ali Hasanov, another top Aliev aide, said while attending a conference on democracy in societies in transition yesterday that “we have an independent media and freedom of expression here. The opinion of some NGOs that there are pressures on the media in Azerbaijan is just an opinion.” He said the recent imprisonment of several journalists was justified and that growing international criticism of the government’s actions was groundless. The offices of two opposition newspapers, the Russian-language Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language Gundalik Azerbaijan, were shut down by the ministry of emergency situations on 20 May, officially because of security problems with the electrical system and building-evacuation procedure. But Uzeyir Jafarov, editor of Realny Azebaijan, said it was really because of what the papers had printed. Their offices were searched and computers seized. Jafarov, who was beaten up in April after attending a controversial trial, said today it was “impossible to live and work” in Azerbaijan. He said he and five other journalists would try to make democratic countries aware of what was going on by applying for political asylum in Austria, Canada, Finland and Norway. The founder of the two papers, Eynulla Fatullayev, was imprisoned in Bayil after being sentenced on 20 April to two and a half years for supposed libel. He may now be convicted of “incitement to terrorism” under article 214 of the criminal code, though his lawyer said he had not yet been interrogated about this. His family received an anonymous phone call on 17 May warning that he would be killed if he continued to take the same positions after he was released. Two journalists of the daily Mukhalifat, Rovshan Karbili and Yashar Agazade, were also each sentenced to two and half years in prison on 20 May for an article accusing members of President Aliev’s family of corruption. Miklos Haraszti, the media freedom representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), yesterday deplored the crackdown and called on the government to drop all the prosecutions. Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

15 June 2007 Azeri Radar Would Not Replace Czech Anti-Missile Site, U.S. Says NATO allies plan to assess missile defense systems by February 2008 By Vince Crawley USINFO Staff Writer Washington -- NATO's 26 nations have agreed to assess by February 2008 the political and military implications of planned missile- defense systems in Europe, and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said alliance members have voiced no criticism of the U.S. portion of the plan. Gates also told reporters June 14 that an Azerbaijan radar site, proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, would complement, not replace, an anti-missile radar system the United States is negotiating to build in the Czech Republic. Gates visited Brussels, Belgium, June 14-15 for a scheduled meeting of NATO defense ministers, as well as a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council. "I was very explicit in the meeting [of the NATO-Russia Council] that we saw the Azeri radar as an additional capability, that we intended to proceed with the radar, the X-band radar in the Czech Republic," Gates said. The United States is in talks with the Polish and Czech governments to host 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic to defend Europe and North America against intercontinental missiles launched from the Middle East. (See related article.) Russia has expressed concerns that the missile-defense system could upset the long-standing nuclear deterrence posture in Europe. But the United States says the proposed 10 interceptors are too few to be effective against Russia's numerous warheads. At the annual Group of Eight Summit in early June, Putin made a surprise offer of partnership with the U.S. and European missile defense system, proposing to share data from a Soviet-era air-defense radar system leased by Russia and located in Azerbaijan. Reaction to the proposal has been mixed in Azerbaijan, where some worry the radar site could be seen as too provocative for neighboring Iran. (See related article.) "I appreciated Putin's recognition of the potential missile threat from the Middle East and welcomed his proposal last week to share radar data from Azerbaijan," Gates told reporters. Throughout the Brussels meetings, Gates said he did not hear criticism by allies of U.S. anti-missile plans in Poland and the Czech Republic. "There were no criticisms by any of the NATO allies of our missile- system proposals or of our moving forward," Gates said. "There obviously is interest in trying to encourage the Russians to participate with us, to make the system complimentary to NATO short- range missile defenses." Gates said NATO and the United States would continue discussing how to make their missile-defense systems work together in a complimentary way. On June 14, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer released a statement saying the alliance will study the possibility of "bolting" NATO and U.S. missile-defense systems together to ensure that all 26 allies are protected effectively from future threats. De Hoop Scheffer said the allies plan to assess by February 2008 the effects of U.S. anti-missile plans in Europe and how these plans can be coordinated with NATO's own anti-missile plans. "In essence, the alliance will pursue a three-track approach," de Hoop Scheffer said in the statement. The three tracks include: continue the ongoing NATO project to develop by 2010 a theater missile-defense for protecting deployed troops; assess the full implications of the U.S. system; and continue existing cooperation with Russia on theater missile defense, as well as consultation on related issues. De Hoop Scheffer stressed that missile-defense issues are based on two key principles: the "indivisibility of security" and that there cannot be "A or B" NATO members in terms of protection from missile threats. A transcript of Gates' remarks to reporters after the Brussels meeting is available on the Defense Department Web site. The full text of a NATO statement on the Brussels meeting, as well as audio and video links to meeting events, is available on the NATO Web site. (USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Mina Muradova and Khazri Bakinsky: 5/30/07

An ambitious infrastructure upgrade campaign has taken Azerbaijan by storm in recent months, but some economists point to the 2008 presidential vote as the prime reason for the state-funded building boom and question the projects’ transparency.

Infrastructure projects will account for a staggering 87 percent of this year’s government investment programs, recently revised to total $2.2 billion (1.9 billion manats), according to Oktai Ahverdiyev, chief of the Cabinet of Ministers’ finance department.

Under this plan, by the end of 2007, Azerbaijan will have five new airports – some in the remotest parts of the country. Aside from existing international airports in the western town of Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second largest metropolitan area, and the exclave of Nakhchivan (bordering Armenia and Iran), an international airport is planned for the southern town of Lenkoran, close to the Iranian border. Airports in Sheki, a popular tourist destination in northern Azerbaijan, and Zaqatala, a small nearby town, will handle smaller planes. The cost for these facilities has not been made public.

Extensive highway and bridge projects are also in the works. In 2007, the government plans to spend $500 million on the construction and repair of highways – a figure that is 80 percent higher than 2006 expenditures, APA news agency reported, citing the Ministry of Transportation. Ten new bridges and 18 underpasses are planned for Baku to lessen the city’s growing traffic congestion. In addition, repairs will be carried out on 40 bridges between Baku and the Russian border, and a new highway will be built from the Azerbaijani capital to the Iranian border.

At an opening ceremony for one of Baku’s new bridges in March, President Aliyev declared that the bridge building shows Azerbaijan’s economic muscle. “It means that we are becoming strong,” media outlets reported him as stating. The 200 million manat ($232 million) allocated for the bridges and underpasses “will not be to make a profit,” he elaborated, stressing that “[a]ll of this is done for the people’s welfare.”

Senior government official Ahverdiyev has stated that “poverty reduction” will also be included in the campaign. Planned expenditures will target improvement of “the water supply, sanitation systems, education [system] and healthcare,” Aheverdiyev told Trend news agency recently.

Some questions, however, surround the details.

"Azerbaijan’s infrastructure needs to improve, but first it should be seriously studied to define priority highways and bridges [for work], which of them can really eliminate problems with traffic jams,” argued economist Azer Mehtiyev, deputy chairman of Baku’s non-governmental Center for Economic Research. Money for these improvements has so far been allocated without such a hit list, he added.

That leaves particular questions about the viability of the five new airports, observed Zohrab Ismaylov, head of the non-governmental Center for Market Economy Assistance in Baku. "I am not sure that airports in Zaqatala or Lenkoran can give a profit even in the mid-term future," Ismaylov said. Zaqatala has a population of around 26,000 people, according to official statistics. Lenkoran’s population stands at under 50,000. Both towns are in non-industrial areas with no emphasis on exports.

Both Mekhtiyev and Ismaylov, however, contend that the large-scale investment projects have as much to do with the 2008 presidential elections as they do with infrastructure improvements.

Decisions about the infrastructure projects “come suddenly during [Aliyev’s] trips to the regions and in meetings with residents,” observed the Center for Economic Research’s Mehtiyev. “There is no clear… policy."

Mehtiyev holds that the construction projects will be used to let Aliyev show that he has met a 2003 presidential campaign promise to create 600,000 new jobs by 2008. At an April 13 speech to government ministers, Aliyev reported that 535,000 jobs – the majority allegedly permanent and outside of Baku – have been set up during his time in office.

Public tenders for the projects have also not been held, a fact that has spurred concerns that money for the projects, derived from Azerbaijan’s sizeable oil income, is being misappropriated. Mehtiyev charges that companies “close to high-level officials” act as project contractors; Ismaylov of the Center for Market Economy Assistance claims that a recent 371 million manat (about $369 million) increase in state investments was approved by parliamentarians without detailed information about the funds’ intended use.

"From the point of view of efficiency and of transparency in spending oil revenues, the construction industry is not the best sphere," Ismaylov stressed. Many construction companies are unregistered and operate wtihout paying taxes, he noted.

One pro-opposition political analyst agreed. “[Information about] implementation of these projects is closed to the public,” charged Rasim Musabekov. “It is out of public control and gives the government an opportunity to misappropriate oil revenues.”

Government officials could not be reached for commentary.

But for President Aliyev, what matters is that signs of change are beginning to appear.

“New business have opened, roads are paved, neighborhoods improved and modernized,” the Azerbaijani leader told reporters in April. “The main goal is to reduce the gap [in living standards] between urban and rural population centers. And we can achieve this.”

Editor’s Note: Mina Muradova and Khazri Bakinsky are freelance reporters in Baku.

(www.eurasianet.org)