Azerbaijan - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Latest Azerbaijan News

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (right) met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev (left) on a visit to Baku in October.

Baku Slams French Armenia Genocide Bill

Azerbaijani officials have expressed their disapproval of French legislation that makes it illegal to deny that the mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey nearly a century ago was genocide. More

Azerbaijani Legislator Rejects Criticism Of Draft Law On Political Parties

An Azerbaijani member of parliament from a small pro-government party has rejected as inappropriate one of the criticisms leveled by a European legal advisory body against the new draft law on political parties. More

Azeri Villagers Detained After Altercation

Residents of the Caspian coastal village of Narimanabad in Azerbaijan's southern Lankaran district clashed on December 15 with police after border guards tried to prevent local fishermen from casting their nets beyond the two-mile limit. More

Azeri Home Demolitions Spark Violence

Several residents living on the outskirts of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, have been left bloodied and bruised after a violent confrontation with state oil company employees who were demolishing their homes. More

The gates to the Qabala radar station that Russia currently leases from Azerbaijan.

Moscow, Baku In Radar Talks

The Russian Defense Minister told reporters the talks -- which began on December 13 -- would continue through December 15. Russia signed a lease agreement for the strategic Qabala radar station in 2002 that is due to expire in December 2012. More

More Azerbaijan News

Caucasus Report -- Blogging The Caucasus

Khadzhimurad Kamalov during an antipolice protest in Makhachkala

A New Power Struggle In Daghestan?

Most Daghestani politicians and fellow journalists have linked Khadzhimurad Kamalov's killing last week to his journalistic and political engagement. "Chernovik," and Kamalov personally, have a reputation for fearless and trenchant reporting and analysis of the corruption and human rights violations for which Daghestan has become a byword. More

South Ossetian presidential candidate Alla Dzhioyeva has called on Russia to help resolve a simmering standoff between her camp and outgoing President Eduard Kokoity.

South Ossetian Opposition Suffers Setbacks

The parliament of Georgia's breakaway Republic of South Ossetia has failed to endorse two key provisions of the agreement signed on December 9 between the republic's then de facto president, Eduard Kokoity, and Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in the runoff presidential ballot on November 27 was subsequently annulled by the republic's Supreme Court. More

Blog Archive

Features & Commentary

Salman Rushdie went into hiding after Iran

The New Salman Rushdie Affair: Facebook ID Crackdown Has Activists Uneasy

Author Salman Rushdie knows he has enemies. He went into hiding for a time after Iran's Islamic authorities issued a fatwa against him in 1989 for his book "The Satanic Verses." But when Facebook changed his profile name without his permission, Rushdie found himself facing an all-new adversary. His protest against Facebook's policy of requiring legal names on accounts, however, is part of a broader debate over the ethical responsibilities for social-networking giants like Facebook.

A historical photograph by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky of 19th-century Russian settlers

Literature And Empire: Scholar Susan Layton Discusses Russia's 'Literary Caucasus'

Where did Russia's stereotypes of the Caucasus come from? Susan Layton's book "Russian Literature and Empire: Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy" provides part of the answer.

New York's Met Opens New Islamic Art Wing

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art this month unveiled its new wing of Islamic works in a major new effort to increase Americans' understanding of Islamic culture.

Chinese labor migrants working on the reconstruction of the Mingechevir hydroelectric power plant in October

In Oil-Rich Azerbaijan, Exploitation Growing Of Cheap Foreign Labor

Energy-rich Azerbaijan has become an attractive destination for foreign laborers looking for employment. But many end up working in circumstances that are illegal and exploitative.

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