$48 billion has been stashed away from Azerbaijan

Tax Justice Network has established that $48 billion has been stashed away from Azerbaijan in off-shore accounts. If this all was money made in a transparent, free market economy, legally - I would have been proud for Azerbaijan producing so many successful billionaire entrepreneurs. But knowing that there are no official/ legal billionaires in Azerbaijan and that there is no place for honest, competitive business to make any really big fortunes there, and economy is owned by ruling family and it's oligarch associates - that money surely must have been made illegally, it is corrupt and stolen. 

We also know 2 more things: all big money in the country is controlled by Aliyev family/ mafia and there are about 9 million people in Azerbaijan. So, divide $48 billion by 9 million = $5,333 Aliyevs stole from each Azerbaijani citizen. Imagine: for a family of four it is $21,000 of their hard earned money that they could have spent for child's education, to get a decent home instead of an old/ small shack they live in, to start a small business, or to pay for treating a life-threatening illness of a family member. That much needed money is stolen by Aliyevs so that Ilham can pose cutting ribbons of useless Olympic palaces, while his family runs around the worlds most expensive resorts, donates to foreign museums, and poses on fashion magazines. So that his 11-years old son can own Dubai villas, and his daughters show-off at high-class society gatherings and high profile charity events. All that is paid by ripping off Azerbaijani children, elderly, sick, poor, hard working employees and honest businessmen, soldiers, teachers, doctors...

Forget about big concepts and principles like "democracy" and "human rights", or noble ideas like "freedom" and "justice" - as worthy as those values are. Just realize this: Aliyev mafia family and their associates and puppets are simply having a hell of the time at your very own expense. 

For some of you it means having to go by with less than you deserve and earn, and to others it means living in misery, pain, fear and want - just to enable the shameless, brazen vanity and corruption of Aliyevs and their mafia establishment.

And to all decent Azerbaijanis it should mean a cause that is urgent and worthy enough for us to rise up, reclaim our dignity and get rid of this disgraceful, thieving, unjust regime.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65697