Press Review 02/28/2017

Evaluation of the First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, the growth of the debt, the demolition of the monument to the poet Mikail Mushfig are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the work of the First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva in the field of education, charity work in the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the post of Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO. The Fund helped to repair hundreds of schools, the author writes.

The website Azadliq.info writes about the rapid growth of the country's debt. According to the international rating agency Fitch, at the end of 2016 Azerbaijan's foreign debt amounted to 22.5% of GDP.

According to the economist Rovshan Agayev, the domestic debt grows and has already reached 35% of GDP.

The manat equivalent foreign debt is AZN 13 billion, and the domestic debt is AZN 7.5 billion.

Echo published an article about the country's dependence on imports. Today the figure is 30% of total production. The country will never be able to fully provide itself with butter and ghee, canned fish and meat products. In addition, Azerbaijan imports up to 30% of grain, particularly durum, the author believes.

Novoye Vremya has published an article entitled Mushfig Repressed Again. Every year, in spite of all applicable laws, dozens of monuments of architectural heritage disappear.

This time the monument to the Azerbaijani poet Mikail Mushfig has become an object to vandalism. On January 8, 1938 the young Azerbaijani poet Mikail Mushfig was sentenced to death and was executed on March 12, 1939. After 80 years, the poet was "repressed" again.