Azeri daily critical of leader for taking holiday amid gas supply crisis

Azadliq, Baku
5 Jan 05

Excerpt from Orxan report by Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq on 5
January headlined “Ilham Aliyev has run” and subheaded “The inept
successor escaped under the guise of vacation as soon as the gas
crisis started. Normal heads of states interrupt their holidays and
get back to work as soon as such a situation arises”

[Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev has taken a holiday. It may be
regarded unethical to comment on this – one may be told that any
citizen, including Aliyev, has a right to go on holiday. However,
serious social problems have emerged in Azerbaijan, of which Aliyev
regards himself as head.

[Passage omitted: Weather forecasters promise cold January]

Russia has suspended for an indefinite period the supply to Azerbaijan
of gas it buys from Turkmenistan. In 40 districts of Azerbaijan, that
is in the majority of its districts, the households have not been
receiving gas for days. Under the circumstances, the head of state
should have mobilized internal resources and taken necessary measures
to protect the population from the cold winter. Instead, the president
runs away, that is escapes. In the military slang, this is called
desertion. If the head of state is unable to resolve social problems,
then what will he do as commander-in-chief, should the military
conflict with Armenia resume? Undoubtedly, Aliyev cannot handle social
tension and in no way will be able to tackle military tension.

Forty districts of Azerbaijan receive no gas. This means that the
people are facing power shortages. The population has no choice but to
cut down trees. No one in their right mind would risk freezing his
children by vesting his hopes on such an inept leader as Aliyev, on a
leader who escapes when he is needed most.

After the supplies were halted, Aliyev should have engaged in talks
with Turkmenistan to restore the import of gas at any cost and to
ensure that people receive plenty of gas from domestic reserves by the
time the supplies are restored. Just like it was in Ukraine where,
despite a power vacuum, Kiev negotiated with Asgabat and managed to
restore the import of gas even at the cost of higher prices (1,000
cu.m. of Turkmen gas will cost 18 dollars more). Aliyev, however,
preferred to take a holiday as soon as the crisis started, although he
had vowed on the holy Koran that he would protect the rights and
freedoms of the citizens. The majority of the Azerbaijani citizens
have been deprived of their right to heating during the cold
winter. Instead of keeping his promise, Aliyev took a vacation.

A normal head of state would have interrupted his holiday and got back
to work as soon as such a situation arises. Instead, he convened a
session of the Security Council, talked about progress in the Nagornyy
Karabakh negotiations albeit nothing has been achieved there yet, and
went on holiday the next day. He could have at least gathered the
leaders of the energy sector and ordered them to tackle the
issue. Yet, he did not take a single step to resolve the gas crisis,
left Azerbaijan and now it is said in China.

Of all the state officials, only the head of a department in Azariqaz
[Azeri gas] has said that the restoration of gas supplies does not
depend on them, but on talks between Russia and
Turkmenistan. Naturally, a question arises – then why do we need the
Azerbaijani government if it is unable to do anything?

In fact, the energy sector mafia profits from the halting of gas
supplies. It is known that although using gas to generate electricity
is more economic, it leaves less space for fraud. On the contrary,
using fuel oil increases the fraud opportunities fivefold. Since the
import of gas was cut off, fuel oil is now being used to generate
power. Therefore, the energy bosses want this situation to
continue. In turn, Ilham Aliyev has gone abroad after leaving the gas
supply to the population at the mercy of the energy bosses. So, what
is that if not desertion?

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress