Mass protests in Azerbaijan: Russian experts on their causes

Due to the fall in oil prices, Azerbaijan has faced serious problems. The national currency of the country — AZN, in a short period of time has depreciated by more than 90% (the worst figure in the post-Soviet space), which has led to job cuts and massive layoffs. On top of that, Washington announced sanctions against Baku. All this has led to the fact that residents of several Azerbaijani cities took to the protests, demanding to solve the socio-economic problems.

The economic issues related to the sharp fall in energy prices do exist, and in relation to Azerbaijan can be started or have already started a process that Americans use against undesirable for their political regimes, — says Sergey Mikheyev, head of the Institute of Caspian Cooperation. “But, despite this, there is no pre-revolutionary situation in Azerbaijan. Yes, there is the problem of dependence on natural resources at the expense of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas supplies. And it is logical that the fall in their prices is reflected in the Azerbaijani economy,” told RUSARMINFO Sergey Mikheyev. The leadership of Azerbaijan has not diversified the economy of the country, hoping that the price of oil and gas prices will be always high, so the country is now in such a crisis, — says Mikhayil Alexandrov, leading expert of the Center for Military and Political Studies of MGIMO.

“Besides, Ilham Aliyev should solve the problem of corruption, which has reached monstrous proportions,” told RUSARMINFO Mikhayil Alexandrov. According to the expert, in this context, Armenia, unlike Azerbaijan, is in a better position: having no energy, it does not depend on fluctuations in their value and the current low prices are beneficial of the country. Mikhayil Alexandrov believes that in addition to the fall of oil prices, Azerbaijan is negatively affected because of the unilateral rapprochement with Turkey after the deterioration of Russian-Turkish relations. “As soon as Moscow has imposed sanctions on Ankara, Baku immediately felt their effects. Azerbaijan because of its policy is now forced to incur losses that affect the domestic economic situation in the country,” noted Mikhayil Alexandrov. Note: In Azerbaijan the devaluation of the manat to 97% has resulted in closure of “exchangers”, causing 5000 layoffs. The economic crisis has led to mass protests in different cities of the country. As a result, in Lima, Siyazan, Fizuli and Agsu a number of demonstrators are detained.