Press Review for 07/05/2016

The official newspaper Azerbaijan has published material on the successful development of non-oil sector and regions. In this direction, there are three government programs, with the result that the country's GDP has increased by 5 times while the non-oil sector grew by 1.8 times, the author claims. At the same time, the share of private sector in GDP has reached 82%, the volume of investments increased by 6.2 times, and 547,000 jobs were created.

Currently, business support continues, In 2015, 5,015 companies were allocated more than 158 million AZN of credits.

Azadlig has published an article by the head of the National Council Jamil Hasanli on the arrest of PFPA Vice-Chairman Fuad Gahramanli.

The authorities have long been trying to accuse Gahramanli of involvement in the unrest in Nardaran. For this reason, the case against Gahramanli is "tied" to the case against the members of the movement Muslim Unity. This is the style of the NKVD investigators in 1937, when repression was justified by the fight against the enemies of the people, writes Hasanli.

The author notes the case is not only falsified against Gahramanli, but also against the inhabitants of Nardaran as a whole. Another mediocre operation of the Interior Ministry led to victims among the civil population and the police. It was called a coup attempt and used for mass arrests of believers. Subsequently, the arrested were tortured, trying to get their testimony against the Popular Front Party.

Echo has published material on the drug prices set by the Tariff Council. The Tariff Council argues that it reduced the price of 90% of the medicines and some others were reduced by 2-3 times. However, in reality this does not happen. Thus, prices for some types of drugs have doubled and some have disappeared from the market.

The expert Nariman Agayev, referring to the results of monitoring of pharmacies, reported that usual vitamins and medicines for diabetics have disappeared. The devaluation of the manat and regulation of prices by administrative methods made unprofitable to import the most popular medications.

Novoye Vremya, as always, is looking for the source of all problems in the intrigues of the West. This time the target of attacks is the US Congressman Chris Smith, who proposed the imposition of sanctions against the violators of human rights in Azerbaijan. Speaking at the OSCE event in Tbilisi, Smith repeated his warnings about the need to release all political prisoners.

The author accepts the above as blackmail. Over 20 years of cooperation there were many facts of human rights violations, and the Americans threatened many times, but sanctions were not applied, the article says. Behind this criticism are the interests of the US, and not care about democracy, says the author.

Bizim Yol has published an article about the improper use of social assistance.

The expert Natig Jafarli believes targeted social assistance has become the cause of laziness of the population and members of the government. But after the flow of petrodollars decreased, they have to cut expenditures and social care is one of the "victims".