AZE.US
White Party chairman Tural Abbasli used a televised interview this week to deliver a blunt attack on corruption in Azerbaijan, arguing that while officials enrich themselves, ordinary citizens are left to absorb the cost.
Speaking on the BAX DA channel, Abbasli linked alleged budget waste and abuse of power to the growing financial burden on the public. Referring to the case of former Azerbaijan State Agency of Automobile Roads head Saleh Mammadov and a reported 176 million manat overspending figure, he said such losses do not disappear on paper but eventually come back to the population in the form of higher payments and tighter pressure.
According to Abbasli, the money lost through corruption is effectively recovered from citizens through rising tariffs, коммунal costs, service prices and fines. He argued that ordinary people end up paying for the excesses of a system that, in his words, keeps producing and protecting the same type of officials.
He also said the problem goes beyond individual cases. In his telling, Azerbaijan’s system does not reward professionalism or fair competition, but instead creates an environment in which politically connected figures dominate profitable sectors while independent business struggles to survive.
Abbasli further criticized the official response to public complaints, citing the recent controversy around a resident of Mingachevir who said there was “nothing” in the city and was later said to have recorded a video walking back those remarks. Abbasli argued that authorities should respond to the underlying problem, not try to silence the signal.
His broader message was that corruption in Azerbaijan is not just a question of officials taking money. It is, he argued, a system of pressure whose consequences are felt every day by ordinary citizens.
AZE.US