BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A massive blackout hit Azerbaijan and affected most of the country Tuesday, the worst power outage since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

President Ilham Aliyev set up a government commission to investigate the accident at a power plant in Mingechavir that officials said caused the blackout. The Emergencies Ministry said the breakdown of a transformer in Mingechavir sparked a fire that was put out in 20 minutes and did not cause any deaths.

The blackout occurred as the Caspian Sea nation experiences a heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) causing power consumption to spike. The outage plunged the capital, Baku, and nearly 40 other cities and regions into darkness.

Officials said power was restored in Baku after several hours, but several subway stations in the capital were closed. Utility crews struggled through the day to restore power in other regions.

On Tuesday evening, Baku and other regions suffered a second blackout. Officials wouldn’t immediately name the cause.</s>BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The subway in Azerbaijan's capital has suspended service in the wake of a massive blackout in the Caspian Sea nation.

The authorities said the Baku subway will be closed for the entire day Wednesday due to unstable power supply. City officials provided extra buses to help commuters.

The power outage hit the ex-Soviet nation early Tuesday when a transformer at one of the nation's power plants caught fire. It was the worst blackout in Azerbaijan since the 1991 Soviet collapse, and energy workers were struggling for a second day to restore supply.

President Ilham Aliyev has set up a government commission to investigate the reasons behind the blackout.</s>BAKU, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijan has been hit by a massive blackout affecting most of the country, the worst power outage since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

President Ilham Aliyev set up a government commission to investigate the accident at a power plant in Mingechavir that caused the blackout early Tuesday. The Emergencies Ministry said a transformer’s breakdown in Mingechavir sparked a fire that was put out in 20 minutes and inflicted no casualties.

The blackout came amid a heat wave in the Caspian Sea nation, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) resulting in a power consumption surge that plunged the capital, Baku, and nearly 40 other cities and regions into pitch darkness.

It took several hours to fully restore power in Baku but efforts to restore power in other regions continued.</s>ISLAMABAD - The CPEC project (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) is significant for Azerbaijan, due to fact that thanks to this project Azerbaijan can export goods to China.

Ambassador of Pakistan to Azerbaijan Sajid Khan Mohmand said that the goods can be sent to China from Astrakhan via Azerbaijan, Iran and Pakistan.

"We are also expanding the main seaport of Gwadar. By 2025, the port can accept more and more large vessels, and there are transport corridors within the Lapis Lazuli project and the Ashgabat agreement that connect Azerbaijan with Pakistan and Central Asia, all of which can be of great importance for Azerbaijan," the ambassador was quoted as saying by Azerbaijani newspaper "AzerNews" on Tuesday.

CPEC is a collection of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan. Originally valued at $46 billion, the value of CPEC projects is now worth $62 billion.

CPEC is intended to rapidly modernize Pakistani infrastructure and strengthen its economy by the construction of modern transportation networks, numerous energy projects, and special economic zones. Trade and economic contacts occupy a significant place in bilateral relations between China and Azerbaijan.

The process of interaction between the two countries was marked by constant tendencies of expansion and strengthening of cooperation.

The cooperation between China and Azerbaijan strongly contributes to the realization of the Great Silk road program.

China became Azerbaijan's 4th largest trading partner in 2017. Customs data of Azerbaijan estimated bilateral trade at a record close to $1.3 billion in 2017, up 33 percent from the previous year. Exports of Azerbaijani goods amounted to $433.8 million (3.21 percent of total exports), while imports of Chinese products to Azerbaijan reached $854.5 million (9.73 percent of total imports).</s>Late on Monday, Azerbaijan saw a major blackout after an explosion occurred and fire broke out at the Mingachevir station.

"The electricity has been restored at all the strategic facilities in Azerbaijan… In places where there is no electricity, problems will be eliminated within the next hours," Shahbazov said as quoted by the Azeri News Agency (APA).

Tanriverdi Mustafayev, the head of the press service of the Azerishig company, providing energy to the country, in turn, said that the most important facilities — hospitals, subway, international airport, military units — are fully provided with electricity.

According to local media reports, the electricity supply has been restored so far only to some of the northern parts of the country. The explosion reportedly occured at the 6th block of the power plant. The preliminary cause of the blast in HPP's block was allegedly an overload of the electric energy in the local power grid. However, local authorities have launched an immediate investigation into the incident, saying that there were no casualties reported.</s>Baku. 10 November. REPORT.AZ/ Up to 2 900 citizens of Azerbaijan work at "BP-Azerbaijan" company.

Report informs it was said by Gordon Birrell, Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey at BP.

According to him, it is 87% of the company's total number of employees. G.Birrell said that many of them are professional staff and occupy high positions. Birrell added that "Shah Deniz-2" project has employed more than 15 thousand Azerbaijanis.</s>BAKU, Azerbaijan — The mayor of Azerbaijan’s second-largest city has been shot and wounded in an attack that also wounded his bodyguard.

The Interior Ministry said Elmar Veliyev, the mayor of Ganja, was attacked outside his office late Tuesday. It said in Wednesday’s statement that the gunman was arrested by police. His motives weren’t immediately clear.

Veliyev and his bodyguard have been hospitalized with gunshot wounds and are in stable condition.

Authorities said that President Ilham Aliyev has taken personal control of the investigation.

Ganja, a city of 330,000, is located in western Azerbaijan.</s>(RFE/RL) — Azerbaijan experienced a total electrical blackout early on July 3, but authorities reported that supplies were quickly being restored throughout the country.

Authorities attributed the massive outage to a explosion in a thermal power station located in the city of Mingachevir.

The office of the presidency said that extremely hot weather — which prompted widespread use of air conditioning — taxed the electrical system and led to the accident.

The outage put residents of the capital city Baku in the dark for hours. But by 3 am local time, power had been restored, the president’s office said.

Temperatures are expected to soar later on July 3 to a high of 43 degrees Celsius, forecasters say, posing further strains for the electrical system. Air conditioning is one of the biggest drains on power worldwide.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Emergencies said firefighters brought the fire from the explosion in Mingachevir under control and were cooling down the electrical plant. It said no one was hurt of killed in the explosion.

“Electricity supply will be gradually restored in the country. There is no reason to panic,” a ministry official said. The ministry said electricity had been restored in some northern regions of the country.

Yahya Babanli, a spokesperson for Azerenergy, a state energy supply company, told Real TV that Azerbaijan is trying to import electricity from Georgia and Russia.

Real TV and Azerenergy reported that electrical supply resumed in some Western areas as the result of an energy exchange with Russia.

Babanli said that it could take a long time for the thermal power plant to recover from the explosion, which occurred at a substation connected to several high-voltage power lines.</s>Baku. 19 February. REPORT.AZ/ Chinese companies are exploring opportunities to invest in promising projects in Azerbaijan. In connection with this in the future it is expected to increase the number of Chinese companies operating in Azerbaijan.

Report informs Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Azerbaijan Hu Yu said during a round table in Baku dedicated to the economic development of China.

"Azerbaijan and China expand cooperation in various fields.We have the opportunity to do so. Trade turnover between the two countries is quite low, however, we note the annual increase.Last year, China entered the top ten trade partners of Azerbaijan.I hope that in the future we will enter the top five.According to China's statistics, 31 Chinese companies operating in Azerbaijan.Azerbaijani statistics indicate 80 companies with Chinese capital in Azerbaijan."

According to him, in recent months, a lot of Chinese companies are studying the possibility of investing in various projects in Azerbaijan.</s>Parliament’s recommendation to negotiators working on the EU-Azerbaijan Comprehensive Agreement, passed by 564 votes to 69, with 47 abstentions, calls on the Council, EU Commission and the EU foreign policy chief to:
• ensure that the future agreement is ambitious and delivers tangible and concrete benefits to both sides, not only for large companies, but also for SMEs and citizens of the EU and of Azerbaijan;
• ensure that the deepening of EU-Azerbaijan relations is conditional upon it upholding and respecting democracy, the rule of law, good governance, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
• remind the Azerbaijani authorities that no comprehensive agreement will be ratified with a country that does not respect fundamental EU values and rights,
• ensure, before the negotiations are concluded, that Azerbaijan releases its political prisoners and prisoners of conscience,
• help Azerbaijan to develop a strong framework to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms and ensure that it respects the right to freedom of peaceful assembly,
• support reform of the judiciary aimed at ensuring its impartiality and independence from the executive,
• put in place specific provisions to help Azerbaijan to fight economic crime, including corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and back investigations into laundering schemes, notably the “Laundromat” affair, and
• further support free and pluralistic media in Azerbaijan with editorial independence from dominant political and oligarchic groups and in line with EU standards.

MEPs hope that if negotiations advance speedily and all key conditions are met the new agreement could be signed before the next EU-Eastern Partnership summit in 2019. They also urge the EU side to ensure that the new agreement does not take effect provisionally until after the European Parliament has given its consent.

Parliament’s rapporteur Norica NICOLAI (ALDE, RO) said: “The EU is Azerbaijan’s top trading partner and Azerbaijan is a strategic energy partner for the EU – it is high time to update the framework for our relations with a comprehensive agreement. Today’s vote shows that the European Parliament will remain very attentive to developments in Azerbaijan and I hope we can work together to ensure that the necessary progress in terms of democratic standards can be achieved before the conclusion of negotiations.”

EU-Azerbaijan relations are governed by the 1999 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. Negotiations for a new agreement were launched on February 2017. The EU is Azerbaijan’s top trading partner and its biggest export and import market, accounting for 48.6% of Azerbaijan’s total trade and providing its largest source of foreign direct investment.
Azerbaijan's largest blackout since 1991 affects most of the country.