Background:


This recording covers two topics, the first half of side A is about the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deep Water Jackets Plant and their future developments, having been affected severely by the fall of the USSR. The second topic is the situation of Azerbaijanis of Agdam who fled to refugee camps during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Side A:


The Heydar Aliyev Baku Deep Water Jackets Plant’s offshore constructions can reach depths of more than 300 meters and they have recently negotiated contracts with western companies; many of them American and Japanese. French companies also came, the spokesman points out that all the equipment and technology of these enterprises are western but that the construction engineering was prepared by their local research institutes. The enterprise is 200m2 hectares where they have their own port and road net, even during construction they have used their port for receiving equipment by ships.

The company is unique in the world, as steel jackets are normally produced and assembled in a series of different factories whereas they do everything in the same enterprise. They have four skid ways in order to assemble eight jackets at the same time. The enterprise built for all of the former Soviet Union, they have worked for the Sakhalin area, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and for the Middle East. They had a lot of work before the fall of the USSR but after 1991 they only had orders from Azerbaijan, an approximate 50% decrease in production, but now they work for big oil and increase step by step. They also work on the refurbishment of a platform in the Caspian Sea, and they will transport all crude oil from their projects in the Caspian Sea to the Sangachal Terminal which is not far from Baku, and then through pipelines to Western markets. One line runs through Georgia and another from Russia.

In the second part, multiple interviews were conducted with Azerbaijani refugees from the city of Agdam, those who have fled the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The camp is settled by the International Islamic Relief Organization, this camp is one out of total of three refugees’ camps built by the Organization in Azerbaijan. The majority of the population of the city of Agdam arrived to this camp, three years before this interview. The camp is about 80km away from the city. One of the employees of the International Islamic Relief Organization said that one of the difficulties is the language of course; however they offer Arabic lessons to refugees who want to learn the language. They added that the number of refugees in the camp did not change since the ceasefire. 

One of the refugees who were interviewed was 21 years old; he learnt Arabic in the camp and  is from Agdam, he left the city with his entire family after the Armenian armed forces came to the city. They said that the Armenian forces were much stronger than the Azerbaijani armed forces, therefore the latter retreated.

Cornelis Hulsman described in Dutch the material atmosphere and the living conditions in the camp.

Another refugee who served in the army spoke in Azerbaijani and his answers were interpreted to Arabic, he said there were a lot of Russians within the Armenian forces, they were however under-cover.

Side B:


There were Azerbaijanis, and only few were Armenians. He also stated that most of the refugees in the camp were from Agdam however there are also people from Kalbajar, from Khojali and other cities. He also talked about those who were taken as war prisoners and there terrible physical conditions after they were released.  As for the help they get, it is all from the International Islamic Relief Organization who provide them mainly with food and clothes during winter time but they do not give them money. The refugees do, however, sometimes receive money as donations from independent people. This young adult also added that there are those who work in the camp’s bakery or as carpenter. He said that people in the camp are hoping every day to go back to their homes, thus he talked about his life back home, the village where he went to school, the feature of this village, main activities as agriculture. He continued by saying that the Russians are responsible for what happened.

Later, he interpreted to Arabic what an aged refugee was saying on what happened in 1918 when Turkish armed forces were helping Azerbaijani armed forces against the Armenians, and how the Turkish forces destroyed almost all the Armenian forces, only seven survived. 

After the interviews, Hulsman describes his bus ride from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Istanbul, Turkey. He says the route is rather dangerous as the cease fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan is happening only 3 kilometres away. The journey will take four days and covers a distance of 2500 km. Hulsman says he can see how the Turks are strengthening their ties with Azerbaijan.

Hulsman then interviews a German, who also describes the length of the journey.