Press Review 04/05/2016

The Karabakh problem, the number of political prisoners, the Armenian side attempts to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh and the situation in the banking system are the main topics of today's press.

The official newspaper Azerbaijan published an article on the April war and its outcome, a presidential trip to the frontline zone, the superiority of the Azerbaijani army and the defeat of Armenians.

The article states that in the case of provocation by the Armenian side, the Azerbaijani army will respond adequately. It expresses confidence in the restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and it would be better if it happened peacefully.

Azadlig discusses the number of prisoners in the country. It is noted that hundreds of innocent people are behind bars, arrested on someone's instructions, or for someone else's crime. Experts believe the large number of prisoners is due to the fact that alternative forms of punishment provided for in the Criminal Code are not applied. On every inmate the state spends more than 4 thousand manat annually. It seems someone is interested in keeping a large number of prisoners, so it was easier to write off the money.

Echo: "Tighter articles for monopoly and restriction of competition is definitely good news. But the problem is that the control mechanisms of the issue are not provided. This law will remain on paper and it will not work. Azerbaijan has a huge number of monopolists, and this problem is not for the first year, the expert Oktay Hagverdiyev said.

According to the economist, the rise in prices is mainly due to the active work of local monopolies, which control virtually the entire market. "If there were no monopolies, there would not be such a sharp rise in prices. After the devaluation, of course, the prices would be increased, but not so much," the expert said.

Novoye Vremya: Recognition of Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh is not only a provocation, but also outright blackmail against the international community, particularly the OSCE Minsk Group and the United Nations. Why do these departments keep silent then?

In turn, the regional office of the OSCE Minsk Group in Tbilisi noted it was tracking the information, but refused to comment further.

Deliberately or not, the OSCE Minsk Group backs such inappropriate behavior of Armenia, the author said.

Bizim Yol writes about the situation with Bank Standard. The expert Samir Aliyev said the bank has more than 600 million manat of deposits and the loan portfolio is even greater. However, the bank cannot return anything to the citizens. The state wants to save the bank and put a certain amount in it, but it is impossible to remedy the situation this way. For this reason, the bank's further fate is uncertain and it would be better to close the bank.