EUROPEAN VOICE: WHEN TAKING THE OFFICE ILHAM ALIEV WAS STILL DILETTANTE WHO PREFERRED GAMBLING IN CASINOS TO SHAPING POLICY
20:11 05/04/2013 ” IN THE WORLD
One night in January this year, a bronze statue of Azerbaijan’s late
strongman ruler Heydar Aliyev vanished from its perch on Paseo de la
Reforma, Mexico City’s most historic boulevard, Jenifer Renkin writes
in European Voice.
According to the article The Aliyev monument had been unveiled in
August last year, causing dismay and confusion in equal parts.
Mexicans wondered why city authorities had chosen to honour a dead
autocrat who had ruled a country 8,000 miles away. “It turned out
that Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former communist country on the Caspian
Sea, had paid handsomely to renovate the park in which the statue
was erected. Rumours swirled that the Azerbaijani government had
threatened to pull $4 billion worth of investment out of Mexico if
the statue was removed,” the article says.
According to the author the tale of the disappearing statue has all
the hallmarks of Azerbaijan’s current political system: a creepy
personality cult, wads of cash, and a hint of menace. At the centre
of the story is President Ilham Aliyev, son of Heydar.
According to the article Under Ilham Aliyev, oil has flowed, corruption
has flourished and freedoms have stagnated. “In Azerbaijan, the most
easterly member of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership, seats in
the parliament are touted for $1 million and critical journalists wind
up in jail. Azerbaijan ranks 156th out of 179 countries for press
freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders; on Transparency
International’s corruption perceptions index, it is 139th out of
176, well below its Caucasian neighbours Armenia and Georgia,” the
author writes.
As the article reads, Today, Aliyev is facing perhaps the most serious
challenge to his ten-year rule as protests flare across the country
in the build-up to a presidential election in October. “In January,
thousands demonstrated in Ismailia demanding the resignation of the
local governor. The same month saw shopkeepers on the streets of
the capital, Baku, campaigning against rent rises. In March, police
used water cannons to disperse hundreds of people who had gathered in
the capital to protest against unexplained deaths in the military,”
the European Voice writes.
Kenan Aliyev, head of the Azerbaijani service at Radio Free Europe,
says two factors are driving the discontent exploding on social media –
the high cost of living, and corruption. “Very little of the oil money
is touching the daily lives of people…there is huge dissatisfaction
with the government,” he says.
Emin Milli, a writer and opposition activist who has served two
jail terms for his political activities, says Aliyev “was sold as
a guarantor of stability”, but now has turned into “a guarantor
of chaos”.
“Ilham Aliyev was a political novice when he was swept into the
presidency aged 41 in 2003 as his father was dying of heart disease.
Although Aliyev junior had notched up various jobs in the ruling New
Azerbaijan party, he had a reputation as a dilettante who preferred
gambling in casinos to shaping policy. After studying at the elite
Moscow State Institute of International Relations in the Soviet
Union, famed for producing Moscow’s top diplomats, Aliyev had gone
into business after the collapse of communism. He certainly led a
more comfortable life than his father, who worked his way through
the ranks of the KGB to become the first Muslim in the Politburo,”
the author writes.
According to the article Azerbaijan’s political system – likened
by US diplomats in leaked cables to medieval feudalism – has hardly
changed since Aliyev junior came to power. “He has sacked some cabinet
ministers, but key players of the Heydar Aliyev government remain in
post, including the interior minister, the defence minister and his
chief of staff, notes Kenan Aliyev.
Aliyev is running the government of his father,” K. Alieva says.
“Heydar Aliyev is not easily forgotten in Baku. His likeness pops up
on billboards and plinths all over Baku, while Azerbaijan’s Academy
of Sciences is hard at work devising “Aliyev science” in the run-up
to the ten-year anniversary of his death this May,” the article says.
The author notes that as Ilham Aliyev polishes the personality cult
of his father, discontent about corruption is spiralling. Khadija
Ismayilova, an award-winning investigative journalist, was prosecuted
for uncovering the extent of the family’s holdings.
Source: Panorama.am
From: Baghdasarian