{"id":172821,"date":"2016-01-16T11:29:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-16T11:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/article\/azerbaijan-blames-protests-on-everything-but-economy\/"},"modified":"2021-10-29T12:49:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T08:49:07","slug":"azerbaijan-blames-protests-on-everything-but-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/azerbaijan-blames-protests-on-everything-but-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan Blames Protests on Everything but Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n They blame the opposition. Or \u201creligious radicals.\u201d Or even poachers. But whatever they do, even as oil prices dip to record lows, officials in energy-rich Azerbaijan are not blaming a recent string of regional protests
\n
\n on the economy.
\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n Azerbaijani police
\n <\/a>
\n on January 14 reported making 55 arrests connected to protests over the last two days in towns to the north, south and east of the capital, Baku.\n<\/p>\n

\n Protesters in Siyazan, a town 115 kilometers north of Baku, clashed with riot police equipped with tear gas and rubber bullets. The
\n
\n Kavkazsky Uzel
\n <\/a>
\n news service reported that some 300-400 residents rallied in front of Siyazan\u2019s town hall on January 12 and 13 against continued inflation and a massive recent depreciation of the manat, the national currency.
\n
\n The Azerbaijani service of RFE\/RL
\n <\/a>
\n carried footage of what appeared to be military trucks entering Siyazan.\n<\/p>\n

\n In the opposite corner of the country, protesters on January 12 blocked a highway in the town of Liman, about 215 kilometers south of Baku. Regional officials met the demonstrators to hear their concerns over growing consumer prices and a ban on cash-sales of tobacco and alcohol (since \u201ctemporarily\u201d lifted).\n<\/p>\n

\n Official suspicion for the disruptions has fallen on
\n
\n alleged activists
\n <\/a>
\n from the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan and Musavat Parties \u2014 one young Popular Front activist, Turan Ibrahim, has been arrested for seven days \u2014 as well as \u201cvarious radical and religious extremist forces.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Details have not emerged about the so-called \u201cextremist forces\u201d suspected in stirring up the demonstrations, but police have announced that they caught two groups of 19 people supposedly bent on setting up
\n
\n a sharia government
\n <\/a>
\n by force.\n<\/p>\n

\n A few days earlier, citing an alleged coup plot backed by an anonymous foreign power, riot police had cracked down on protests in
\n
\n the heavily religious, economically squeezed town of Nardaran
\n <\/a>
\n , northeast of Baku.\n<\/p>\n

\n Some officials, though, have other suspects in mind for the displays of street anger. The environment ministry blamed protests in the Neftchala region, 175 kilometers to the south of Baku, on \u201cpoachers” of fish. One ministry official speculated darkly that \u201cforces behind the poachers\u201d organized a demonstration which blocked a main road for two hours,
\n
\n Contact.az
\n <\/a>
\n reported\n<\/p>\n

\n While the demonstrations in Siyazan, Lankaran, Fizuli, Ajabedi and Agsu appear to have abated, officials so far seem to be addressing piecemeal the larger question of how to resolve the economic problems that sparked participants\u2019 anger.\n<\/p>\n

\n As oil prices tanked to under $30 per barrel, the Central Bank on January 14 closed banks\u2019 retail foreign-exchange bureaux. To support the manat, the State Oil Fund will fork over $200 million to the country’s banks via auction.\n<\/p>\n

\n In a throwback to Soviet practices, local political bosses in one region met on Thursday with businesspeople to emphasize President Ilham Aliyev\u2019s ban on
\n
\n \u201cartificially high\u201d food prices
\n <\/a>
\n . Elsewhere, the director of a
\n
\n bread-factory\u2019s store
\n <\/a>
\n has been arrested.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time that protests have led to claims of conspiracies. In 2013, officials blamed
\n
\n unrest in the provincial town of Ismayilli
\n <\/a>
\n over
\n
\n economic complaints
\n <\/a>
\n and local-government abuses on unnamed \u201cforeign powers.\u201d\u00a0 Names were never supplied, but long-term jail sentences for
\n
\n two opposition-leaders
\n <\/a>
\n charged with allegedly stirring up locals were.\n<\/p>\n

\n Various international critics continue to condemn such tactics, but the Azerbaijani government is not particularly concerned.\u00a0 It has a lot riding on maintaining stability.\n<\/p>\n

\n Until oil prices began to slide, Azerbaijan had been on \u0430 fast economic-growth track and lavish spending spree. The economic success, however unequally distributed, was seen as a key factor in the longtime hold on power by President Ilham Aliyev and his entourage.\n<\/p>\n

\n They don’t intend to let that hold weaken now.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n Originally published by
\n
\n EurasiaNet.org
\n <\/a>
\n <\/b>
\n <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They blame the opposition. Or \u201creligious radicals.\u201d Or even poachers. But whatever they do, even as oil prices dip to record lows, officials in energy-rich Azerbaijan are not blaming a recent string of regional protests on the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":45164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAzerbaijan Blames Protests on Everything but Economy - MEYDAN.TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/azerbaijan-blames-protests-on-everything-but-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Azerbaijan Blames Protests on Everything but Economy - MEYDAN.TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They blame the opposition. 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