The Voice of Mirza Xazar

By Laith Jawad

Azzaman, December 17, 2011

Smuggling of Iraqi crude is going on unabated with contraband shipments reaching as far afield as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and the Gulf states, said Hussein al-Shahristani, deputy prime minister for energy affairs.

In an interview with Azzaman, to be published in full tomorrow (Sunday), Shahristani singled out the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region as being heavily involved in the smuggling of oil to Iran and other states.

The minister gave no figures on the volume of oil that is being smuggled but hinted that it was carried out on a scale not known before.

“Oil smuggling operations are continuing from Iraq to Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran and the Gulf ports,” said Shahristani. “Oil smuggling operations are continuing in the Kurdish region to these countries and we have spotted these operations via satellites. They are documented with pictures.”

Shahristani did not say what measures the government has in mind to halt smuggling and whether any high-ranking Kurdish authorities were involved.

It was not also clear how the Kurds in northern Iraq managed to smuggle oil to the Gulf ports in the south. Earlier reports spoke of Iraqi Shiite militias heavily involved in smuggling from the southern Iraqi oil fields.

But Shahristani said the central government had no control over the quantities of oil the Kurdish region produces, which are estimated at about 100,000 barrels a day.

The oil issue was reported to have been solved and the Finance Ministry has already funneled $427 million to Kurdish coffers to settle differences over oil production and exports originating in the Kurdish region.

But the minister said: “The central government has no knowledge of oil exports originating in the Kurdish region and that it receives no royalties.”

Shahristani is very critical of the deals the Kurds have struck with foreign firms to develop oil fields in their region, comprising the three provinces of Dahouk, Arbil and Sulaimaniya.

In the interview, he insisted that the deals were illegal and that development of oil fields, striking of deals with foreign firms and issues related to production, output and royalties are the sole prerogative of the central government in Baghdad.

source: Azzaman.com
 

Courtesy www.dreamstime.com  

Summary of two articles by Shahveled Chobanoglu in Azerbaijani language published in the newspaper "Azadliq"  

Summary in English Prepared by Mushvig Mamedov 

Nakhchivan. What tells you this name? Nakhchivan is an autonomous republic included to Azerbaijan Republic. A place with huge historic heritage, traditions, hospitability? Yes , that is true. But, besides that Nakhchivan is reported to be one of the most isolated regions in the world. According to the reports of human rights activist and journalists local population is oppressed by local state officers, rights are humiliated, political convictions are victimized. I will try to break this closeness as well as I can by translating into English blogs and articles about Nakhchivan.  

Just few days ago, a group of journalist and human rights activists visited Nakhchivan. Just upon arrival, they were told to leave Nakhchivan as soon as possible. But they could talk with local activist and peoples facing the oppression of Police officers and ExCom. Shahveled Chobanoglu, who is a freelance journalist, is one of members of delegation visiting Nakhchivan. Recently he wrote an article in Azadlig newspaper (http://www.azadliq.info) named ‘’What we don’t know about Nakhchivan’’. I am going to present some passages from this article:  

n --- We, a group of journalist and lowers, visited Nakhchivan and came back. I deliberately underlined our return because never did our companions return from Nakhchivan without problems facing there. They were beaten, told swear-words and expatriated. That is why our friends and acquaintances congratulated us upon our return. This congratulation itself proves us the heartbreaking and difficult situation there. Because a place can’t reach easily the state of inadmissibility which it has now. This based on humiliations of rights, unbearable state of local population or generally Azerbaijanis… Just ask question to yourself: is it possible to expatriate Nakhchvanis from Baku?  

Head of department of Internal Ministry of Nakhchivan threatened us so:  

-Leave Nakhchivan now!  

--- Everybody news that nobody can look at the citizen of Azerbaijan as a quest within the borders of Azerbaijan. Regardless our registration, each of us has right to be without an obstacle anywhere in Azerbaijan where he/she pleases and the commitment of the State is not to obstacle this movement but to create conditions for that. But most surprising is not that the obstacles are created for Human rights activist and journalist to visit Nakhchivan. We understand that it is done for concealing the truth there. What is surprising and horrific is that there are no confortable conditions for locals to live and work in Nakhchivan. Most part of locals had to leave Nakhchivan…  

--- Not only persons visiting Nakhchivan but also locals feel as quest in their own home. Ordinary people are glad to flee. Significant part of population has already left Nakhchivan. They work in Iran, Turkey and other places in most difficult works and live their suffering lives. Not so much we know about Nakhchivan…  

--- There are some villages where all young generation left their houses, and when the old are dying they are buried by support of soldiers.  

--- Very few things what is going on there are highlighted in mass media. The reason is that the people are told not to complain and give interview. They are threatened and frightened so that not to tell anybody about problems they face and if somebody asks to deny.  

--- All kinds of rights are humiliated demonstratively. The peoples are followed even in tea houses and can’t come together. It is also the humiliation of human beings’ feeling who are in need. But the situation there can be changed. We must try for that.  

P.S the links to original text:  

http://azadliq.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8444%3Anaxcvan-haqda-nlri-bilmirik-birinci-yaz&catid=32%3Aahvld-cobanolu&Itemid=41 and http://azadliq.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8479%3Anaxcvan-haqda-nlri-bilmirik-ikinci-yaz&catid=32%3Aahvld-cobanolu&Itemid=41  

WASHINGTON DC. July 27, 2011: “U.S. is concerned about state of fundamental freedoms in Azerbaijan”, said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas O. Melia, who recently returned from his visit to Azerbaijan. Melia spoke at the House Foreign Affairs Europe and Eurasia Subcommittee hearing on “Eastern Europe: The State of Democracy and Freedom” July 26, TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent reports.  

Specifically, Melia raised concern over the restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, as well as “a very limited capacity of citizens to change their government through peaceful elections”.  

“Elections in Azerbaijan continue to fall below international standards”, the Administration official said, citing the OSCE ODIHR assessment from the latest parliament elections. “November 7, 2010 parliamentary elections included a deficient candidate registration process, limits on freedom of assembly and expression, a restrictive political environment, skewed media coverage of candidates, and falsifying vote counts”.  

Mr. Melia also noted that the imprisonment of independent activists such as Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, opposition party activists Jabbar Savalanli, and human rights defender Vidadi Iskenderov, is a continuing problem widely perceived to be politically motivated.  

“We continue to urge Azerbaijan to resolve these and related cases in a manner consistent with the government‘s commitment to freedom of assembly and expression”, Melia said.  

He said that the Azeri government should allow the National Democratic Institute and Human Rights House in the country, to resume their activities, and permit Voice of America and RFE/RL to use national FM frequencies. “We urge greater respect for religious freedom, including permitting the registration of minority religions and allowing individuals to manifest their beliefs through religious attire. I raised many of these issues with senior government officials during my visit”, he added.  

According to the Deputy Assistant Secretary, in all three South Caucasus countries, US government programs promote a number of universal values, including democratic electoral processes and capacity building for defense lawyers, human rights organizations, and independent media.  

David Kramer, President of Freedom House, raised the question whether the scenarios seen in Cairo and Tunis were possible in Moscow, Minsk, Baku, and elsewhere in Eurasia.  

Of the three states in the Caucasus, only Georgia shows signs of progress towards democracy, while Azerbaijan showed more backsliding, he said.  

“The West is interested in seeing these countries become more democratic; policy should include deeper involvement and response to violations, not silence. This will not be easy given competing demands elsewhere in the world, but if the majority of countries in Eurasia continue to veer off the democratic path, the challenges for the West will only grow”, he said.  

Nadia M. Diuk from the National Endowment for Democracy also talked about Azerbaijan. “Despite the welcome release of the imprisoned youth movement bloggers and a leading independent journalist earlier this year, arrests of democracy activists continue in Azerbaijan, where the overall trend is a slow and painful decline of political pluralism and civil society”, she said. “Constitutional amendments adopted in March 2009 removed presidential term limits, the November 2010 parliamentary elections were considered to be the worst ever, and an attempt to introduce an extremely restrictive NGO law in 2009 was diverted only as a result of international pressure. Civic activists and human rights defenders continue to suffer harassment, and the freedom of assembly is non-existent. Many young activists have recently been detained, usually on trumped up charges of narcotics possession, hooliganism or other fabricated criminal offences. One youth activist imprisoned in 2005, Ruslan Bashirli, is still in jail”.  

Compared to Azerbaijan, the prospects for democracy and freedom look more hopeful in Armenia, the analysts agreed, where protest rallies of up to 15,000 people have taken place recently and political prisoners who were held after the 2008 protests have been released.  

According to Diuk, the US should look to this region as the source of a great wealth of experience on how the enemies of freedom are ever on the alert to assert their dominance, but also how the forces for freedom and democracy will always find a way to push back in a struggle that demands our support.  

“And as we look forward to a period of austerity, we should be mindful that a strategic and concerted effort through both diplomatic and non-governmental actors is the most cost-effective way to achieve these aims”, Diuk added (Turan).