Apparently Aliev has not done enough for the United States, because this really looks to be another attempted takeover in the name of ‘democracy’.
Azerbaijan is a Muslim country as is Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The recent US inspired revolutions in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan did not work.
Although making from here what looks like a good college try Aliev has been unable to entice Moscow to pump its oil through the BTC.
Kazakhstan seems to be the only state that has really something to explore and produce in the Caspian and expressed interest in the project at the very last moment and is probably the only factor that can keep the BTC afloat. In my opinon if Nazarbayev does commit it will be in part to ward off a ‘democratically’ inspired revolution in Kazakhstan. #msg-6557096
Baku has also been ineffective in dissuading the Russians from transferring weaponry to Armenia. #msg-6426043
Azerbaijan is the Key to Understanding the Region
To control, or dominate Iran, Mr. Bush has to encircle it: Afghanistan to the East, Turkey/Azerbaijan to the North, Iraq to the West, the South are already U.S. stooges. Pipelines, in effect, will become the new Berlin Wall. #msg-6273501
-Am
Groups Seek Free Elections in Azerbaijan
By AIDA SULTANOVA Associated Press Writer
June 4, 2005, 6:10 PM EDT
BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Opposition parties mustered their biggest rally in years on Saturday, bringing about 10,000 protesters into the streets of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to call for free elections after authorities backed down and gave them permission to hold a demonstration.
Just two weeks ago, police had beat back opposition protesters who tried to hold a rally in Baku despite an official ban, and dozens were arrested. In October 2003, one person was killed and nearly 200 were injured in clashes between police and demonstrators who were protesting allegations of vote-rigging in that month's presidential election in which President Ilham Aliev replaced his late father, the long-reigning Geidar Aliev.
The government last year announced restrictions on opposition rallies, citing the possibility of violence similar to the 2003 riots -- and further roiling relations with the opposition.
This time, about 400 police in full riot gear stood guard around a central square where protesters gathered, but they didn't intervene, and the rally ended peacefully.
Tensions have been steadily building in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation in the run-up to parliamentary elections set for November, leading some observers to predict that Azerbaijan could see an uprising similar to those that toppled unpopular regimes in three other ex-Soviet nations -- Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan -- over the past 18 months.
Azerbaijan, a mostly Muslim country of 8.3 million, is the starting point of a new, key pipeline that Washington says will reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East. The country also is a U.S. ally in Iraq and has troops there.
Supporters of several opposition parties marched in Baku on Saturday, chanting "Freedom!" and "Free Elections!" They held placards with slogans like "Down with the robber government!" and carried pictures of President Bush with the words: "We want freedom!"
The rally was intended to draw attention to the opposition's push for election law reforms and access to state-controlled television. The opposition parties have demanded changes to prevent fraud in November's parliamentary vote, for which three of the major parties have agreed to unite in a fight for political change.
"Not only the opposition, but all people need democratic changes," Ali Kerimli, the leader of the People's Front of Azerbaijan, said at the rally. "We demand free elections, and if the conditions for free elections are not created, every village, every bloc will demand the government's resignation."
Panakh Huseinli, one of the opposition leaders who spoke at Saturday's rally, said that Aliev's government wouldn't allow free elections.
"The Aliev regime will never allow free elections, and it will mean its end," Huseinli said. "The revolution is inevitable."
Baku city authorities had initially refused the request from the People's Front of Azerbaijan, the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan and the Musavat party to stage Saturday's rally in the capital, suggesting they hold it instead on the outskirts of the city.
After opposition leaders rejected the offer Friday and vowed to gather in downtown Baku anyway, authorities caved in and approved the rally.
Meanwhile, on the eve of the protest, a British woman who is related by marriage to Rasul Guliyev, the exiled leader of the Democratic Party, was detained in Azerbaijan for allegedly carrying a pistol, party spokesman Aidyn Guliyev said Saturday.
Almas Guliyeva's arrest was a political act aimed at intimidating Rasul Guliyev, he said. No relative of Rasul Guliyev would carry a gun, knowing the trouble that would cause for him, he said. The spokesman is not related to Guliyeva.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
