Press Review 02/26/16

Official newspapers widely cover the 24th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy. The Azerbaijan newspaper calls it genocide against Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces.

Azadlig, with reference to the international credit agency Moody’s writes that the deepening crisis and the fall in oil prices are increasing the pressure on the banks.

Echo reports that most Azerbaijani citizens traveled abroad during the "big" petrodollars in the period from 2007 to 2014.

For example, in 2007 the figure was 1 million 631 thousand. It peaked in 2014, reaching 4 million 282 thousand.

In 2015, the number of tourists decreased by 10% to $ 3 million 7 thousand. The decline will continue in 2016. Expenses of tourists in the peak years were about 1.5 billion dollars.

Novoye Vremya: Selling weapons to Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia takes into account the balance of power in the region. This is how the Russian Foreign Ministry responded to Azerbaijan’s note in connection with the sale of weapons to Armenia.

Bizim Yol writes about the embezzlement at the Irrigation and Water Management JSC in the amount of 164 million AZN. This company annually transfers funds to the same companies. All these misappropriations are carried out under the guise of tenders.

Yeni Musavat writes about the discussions in Washington D.C. between representatives of Baku and the U.S. The U.S. demands to release political prisoners and restore operations of the Baku offices of the US Republicans Institute and the US National Democratic Institute. The White House is waiting for concrete decisions from Ilham Aliyev before his trip to New York. -0-