Devaluation of Manat was a Spark that Kindled the Fire

• 02.25.2015, 19:52
• Greta Avetisyan
•  Region,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World

In those days the internal political life of Azerbaijan is quite tense, which, of course, has influenced the mood of the public and has caused their dissatisfaction. In one of the cities in Azerbaijan – Liman, because of the increase of prices in the country a rally took place. Nowadays, the political system of Azerbaijan is quite closed and in such circumstances it becomes very difficult to give a concrete picture of what is going on inside the country. However, even in such a closed system, from the publications of several Azerbaijani Media it becomes obvious that the dissatisfaction level of the society is increasing. Several days ago it was declared that the Azerbaijani Manat has devaluated. This was followed by the increase of prices in the country. The devaluation of Manat is in direct cause and effect relation with falling oil prices in the world. A great part of Azerbaijan’s budget is filled by oil revenues. If till the recent days the Azerbaijani authorities had succeeded in assuring its society that the currency of the country is stable and the world economic developments cannot influence the stability of Azerbaijani economy, then now Azerbaijan’s means, to artificially keep Manat stable, has exhausted. In one day the Azerbaijani society found itself in a situation that was not expected at all.  

In parallel with this, the level of corruption is also very high in Azerbaijan. According to the data published by Transparency International, Azerbaijan is ranked on the 126^th place among 175 corrupted countries (the countries are put with the increasing order of the corruption level). It is obvious that the society of a country that has such great amount of oil reserves should live in better conditions than today. This, of course, speaks about the high level of corruption in Azerbaijan.

The growth of the number of arrests – arrests of activists, lawyers, human rights advocates – is also connected with the increased level of corruption in Azerbaijan. By arresting these people, the Azerbaijani authorities try to silence the thinking layer of population and activists, whose being in freedom would cause serious problems to the Azerbaijani authorities.

In this regard I consider the start of the social activities in Azerbaijan to be quite delayed, however, this is explained by the ability of the Azerbaijani authorities to silence right people in the right place. As for the devaluation of Manat, this was just a spark that kindled the fire.