Training
During the Soviet period, the education system was
heavily influenced by the then regime. Textbooks were
written in Moscow, and then translated. After the
disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, work
began on adapting the education system to domestic
conditions and preserving the tradition from the time before
the establishment of the Soviet Union, when Azerbaijan was a
Muslim educational institution. See TOPSCHOOLSINTHEUSA for TOEFL, ACT, SAT testing locations and high school codes in Azerbaijan.
In the early 1990s, the education system consisted of a
compulsory and free primary school, subsequent secondary
school and higher education institutions. About 1,400,000
students went on to secondary school, which also included
specialized vocational schools with about 70,000 active
students. In higher education there were 17 institutions,
including the University of Baku (founded in 1919). There
was also a special university for oil engineers.
The European Melodiesrand Prize was held in May 2012 in
the capital Bakú, after Azerbadjan had won the year before.
Local attempts at protests were crushed. There were only a
few and occasional international boycott proposals. The EU
and the US only criticize the regime sporadically for its
human rights abuses. Azerbadjan is a major oil producer and
strategic ally in Central Asia.
During a 2012 state visit to Hungary, President Aliyev
succeeded in persuading the Hungarian government to transfer
the convicted Azerbaijani murderer Major Ramil Safarov to
Azaebadjan, where he would then be served the rest of his
sentence. Safarov had previously participated in a
NATO-sponsored English course in Hungary, where he had
murdered another participant, Gurgen Margaryan of Armenia,
one night. Safarov was subsequently sentenced to life
imprisonment. Back in Bakú, however, Safarov was not jailed,
but instead received a heroic reception, promoted to major,
given an apartment and eight years' salary - for the period
he had spent in prison in Hungary. President Aliyev has
repeatedly described Armenians throughout the world as
enemies of Azerbaijan and threatened to occupy
Nagorno-Karabakh with military force.
Also in 2012, the Project for Organized Crime Reporting
and Corruption appointed Aliyev as Man of the Year. Not as
the least, but as the most corrupt. It was well documented
that the Aliyev family secretly held large holdings in the
country's companies such as banks, contractors, gold mines
and telecommunications companies. Aliyev's 2 daughters own
properties in Dubai, Paris and London for more than $ 50
million. Ł.
In October 2013, Aliyev was elected president for a third
term. In this election, however, he had to settle for 84.5%
of the vote. A decline of more than 2% compared to 2008. The
opposition demonstrated against the extensive electoral
fraud. Interestingly, however, 2 different European observer
missions came with conflicting assessments of the election.
The Council of Europe had a delegation in the country, which
began its visit just 4 days before election day itself. It
came with an opinion endorsed by the European Parliament:
"In general, around the election day we have been able to
observe a free, fair and transparent election process". In
contrast, the OSCE delegation consisted of 13 international
election experts based in Bakú and 30 observers who were in
the country for several weeks. The OSCE's conclusion was:
The election was' undermined by restrictions on freedom of
expression and assembly, which prevented the candidates from
being on an equal footing ». The mission leader stated that
"the observers received reports of intimidation and even
witnessed physical attacks on journalists in the days
leading up to the election, which were generally marked by
many shortcomings".
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