The British prince Andrew is a regular guest of the head of the “evil regime” of Baku – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The ongoing situation is analyzed by the British newspaper Daily Mail.
“Prince Andrew is always considered as an” expensive guest “of the country’s leader, who is one of the most corrupt people in the world, according to the Transparency index. However, in Britain, the prince was criticized for his friendship, which continues despite the fact that he is no longer a sales representative to the country. Last month, he met with the Ambassador of Azerbaijan in Buckingham Palace, “the newspaper writes.
According to the Daily Mail, Prince Andrew visited Azerbaijan 8 times during the last 6 years. Moreover, 2 visits out of 6 were private, which raised suspicions that he has business interests in Azerbaijan, including the golf complex which was under construction. Buckingham Palace resolutely denied these accusations.
”Great Britain is the largest investor in Azerbaijan, mainly through BP and a dozen companies related to oil. Since 1991, about 20 billion pounds have been invested in the country”, according to the Daily Mail.
The article reminds that nevertheless, Aliyev recently accused BP of “giant mistakes” and a strong reduction in oil production, which resulted in £ 5 billion losses for Azerbaijan. BP quickly changed its representative to Baku.
The article says that Aliyev gained power after his father, the head of Committee for State Security, following the results of the 2003 elections, which, according to society’s conviction, were falsified.
“If the vulgar acting of Baku is a pure comedy, then the dark side of the regime is not a joke. For example, arrests of young people for insignificant disrespect to the previous head of the country or the idolization of his mother Zarifa. Moreover, ordinary citizens were forced to leave their homes so that the government will be able to open a place for totemic towers and esplanades, including a palace for Eurovision worth £ 85 million,” the newspaper writes.
It is noted that when the elderly Shirinbadzhi Rzayeva refused to leave her home, someone with the help of an excavator dropped a slab on the roof of her house. “We called the fire force office, everything they just asked, why we do not want to sell the house. The president wants to build his new city at my expense. I refuse to participate in that, “she said.
“Moreover, Aliyev destroys any kind of opposition. The Human Rights Watch and Amnesty witness about it. The phones are regularly tapped. Four years ago, the Minister of internal affairs publicly admitted that the suspects were tortured in the remand center. Last year 31-year-old detained Turac Zeynalov was charged with espionage. Those who visited him understood that he had been beaten up, and he could not even move.
He died 3 days later from “skin cancer”, as the authorities claimed, “- the author writes.
According to the publication, the special services of Azerbaijan do not anything as well as spying on the private life of women journalists through hidden cells when they have sex in their houses. It is noted that the 36-year-old reporter of “Radio Liberty” Khadija Ismailova received a letter with a threat: “Whore! You had better behave appropriately, or you will be ashamed! “. She ignored the threat and continued investigating the corruption issues in Azerbaijan.
According to one of her friends, it would be painful for any woman, especially for an unmarried Muslim woman, however Ismailova knows how low they can go down and she is not the one to be afraid. “There are many journalists and activists in the terrible prison of Baku, the crime of who is only that they are journalists, activists, bloggers,” the Daily Mail reports, adding that it is dangerous for a journalist even to walk down the street.
“And what is that 4-meter tall sandstone wall on a new highway from the airport of Baku? The taxi driver Malik explains on the way to the city in the “black taxi”, now painted into purple: “So that you and other foreign guests will not see poverty on the other side.” Streets are regularly cleared of tramps, and the poor, disabled and orphans are sent to temporary shelters, “the British edition stresses.
However, to dwell on the small excesses of this sinister regime means to miss the main thing. “Dubai on the Caspian” has developed hydrocarbon power over the whole of Western Europe, including Great Britain, and its grip will last for decades, the article says, where Azerbaijan is called an “absurd” state.
“It is not surprising that the Foreign Office (the UK MFA) is turning a blind eye to human rights abuses, including restrictions on freedom of speech, assembly, political interference in the courts, and repeated incidents of torture and ill-treatment of opponents. On the contrary, the FD was only too pleased to help Prince Andrew with visits here, “the newspaper writes.
“Perhaps they are right. Aliyev, albeit a tyrant, but a pro-British tyrant, which is such an argument. Of course, a stable flow of mega-contracts flows to hundreds of our companies, currently connected with Baku. Apparently, Prince Andrew was in Azerbaijan on a much more important matter than anyone understands, or at least says. It is also true that the rates here are much greater than most people understand: they include the “energy security” of Europe for future generations. Aliyev claims that he has enough gas for the next hundred years – fuel that is beyond the reach of Gazprom and the Russian bear, and the fundamentalist despotism of Saudi Arabia or Iran, “the newspaper said.
According to the article, the wealth of Azerbaijan decreased because of the Karabakh war. “Then, in” Eru Eldorado “- immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, educated but impoverished local” Natashas “rushed to the British oil industry for $ 100 a night in a seedy club. In this Wild East, drunken foreigners, drooling on Azerbaijani belly dancers, awkwardly shoving foreign currency into their bras and panties, “the publication writes.
According to the article, Heydar Aliyev in 1994 achieved $ 18 billion investment BP. “Even after death, Geydar watches threateningly from posters and statues: everything else in Baku has changed a lot,” the author notes.