Category: Azer News

The Taxtakörp Hydropower Plant, built on the Samur River in Azerbaijan’s Shabran district, has generated 675.5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity since it was commissioned through September 1, 2026.

According to the Azerbaijan’s Energy Ministry, located on the Taxtakörp reservoir, has been generating electricity since September 28, 2013.

The Taxtakörp Hydropower Plant has a total installed capacity of 25 megawatts (MW) and consists of three hydro units, each with a capacity of 8.33 MW.

Hydropower plants are considered a source of environmentally clean energy because electricity generation from hydropower does not involve direct emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during operation.

The plant was commissioned 13 years ago as part of Azerbaijan’s efforts to expand its domestic electricity generation capacity and make greater use of its water resources.

In the evening of September 27, President of the Republic of Trkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

The President of Trkiye respectfully commemorated the memory of the martyrs on the occasion of Remembrance Day in Azerbaijan.

The head of state expressed his gratitude to the President of Trkiye for the phone call.

The European Union will provide almost pound 710 million in support for displaced people and host communities in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as emergency assistance to people affected by crises around the world.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the funding as part of Global Citizen’s 2026 campaign, according to the European Commission.

The funding package includes measures to support vulnerable migrants and displaced people in sub-Saharan Africa, including assistance related to migration, protection, voluntary return and reintegration. A separate portion will address humanitarian needs linked to conflicts, food insecurity, malnutrition and climate-related shocks.

The European Commission said the package also includes funding for the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries.

Von der Leyen said the EU support would benefit displaced communities across Africa and the communities hosting them, while also providing assistance to communities affected by war and other crises.

The announcement was made during the UN General Assembly High-Level Week in New York and formed part of international advocacy organization Global Citizen’s 2026 campaign.

The new funding is intended to strengthen humanitarian assistance and support communities facing displacement, conflict and other crises, with a significant share directed toward sub-Saharan Africa.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Ukraine’s acting ambassador to the country, Andriy Veshkin, Yonhap reports.

According to the information, the diplomat was asked to appear at the Foreign Ministry after Kyiv disclosed information about the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul.

South Korean authorities said Ukraine revealed the information during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to the UN General Assembly without sufficient prior consultations and later denied the existence of any confidentiality agreement.

Seoul warned that the incident had seriously damaged trust between the two governments and could negatively affect bilateral relations.

On Wednesday, speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had recently handed over to South Korea two North Korean soldiers captured in the Kursk region.

A total of 28,979 people purchased tickets to visit Azerbaijan’s Mud Volcanoes Tourism Complex in the first eight months of 2026, with foreign tourists accounting for the vast majority of visitors.

Murad Agabayli, Chairman of the Board of the State Tourism Agency’s Reserve Management Center, told journalists that 26,235 of the visitors were foreigners, while 2,744 were domestic tourists. Another 798 people visited the complex free of charge.

According to Agabayli, the foreign visitors represented more than 150 countries. Tourists from China, Russia, Trkiye, Israel, India, Poland, Germany, Italy, Bahrain and the United States were among the largest groups.

The Mud Volcanoes Tourism Complex, which opened on June 13, 2024, has become one of the destinations most frequently visited by tourists coming to Baku, according to the official.

The complex offers several attractions designed to provide visitors with information about Azerbaijan’s distinctive natural environment. These include a Tourism Information Center, an exhibition hall dedicated to mud volcanoes and minerals, and workshops where visitors can participate in pottery and oil-painting master classes.

A natural history exhibition also displays nearly 1,000 specimens representing the fauna of Azerbaijan and other parts of the world.

Visitors can observe the mud volcanoes in the complex’s open area, including the Gilyanch mud volcano, consisting of eight cones arranged in a row, as well as a volcano that emits oil. The complex also provides an opportunity to observe Toraghay, described as Azerbaijan’s and the world’s largest mud volcano. The volcano is 402 meters high and has a diameter of 150 meters.

Agabayli also addressed transportation to the complex, noting that organizing dedicated public transport is challenging.

The complex is located approximately 100 kilometers from Baku. Agabayli said the site can be reached by leaving the main tourism route by about 20 kilometers and noted its proximity to the Gobustan Reserve, another major tourist destination.

He acknowledged that there is currently no dedicated public transportation service to the complex, but said the site remains accessible to tourists who want to visit.

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to deliver remarks on artificial intelligence at the White House on September 28.

Trump is also scheduled to meet with Dario Amodei, chief executive officer of AI company Anthropic, and attend a dinner with him.

According to Trump, the meeting and his upcoming remarks on artificial intelligence will be significant.

Amodei has previously warned about potential risks associated with the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence technologies. Trump, meanwhile, has expressed support for continued development of AI technology.

It comes just two days after Amodei’s company suffered a legal setback in its case against the government over restrictions preventing the use of its products for Defense Department work.

The dispute between the AI company and the Pentagon broke out in February when Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering national security and designated the company a supply chain risk. Amodei had refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones.

The warning follows growing concerns about AI both within the technology industry and among the wider public. Reports have highlighted increasingly advanced systems capable of tackling problems beyond human capabilities, while also raising concerns that such technologies could behave unpredictably or be used for harmful purposes. These concerns have intensified to the point that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune that the company would postpone plans to sell shares to Wall Street investors until next year as it prioritizes AI safety.

Representatives of Azerbaijan’s Albanian-Udi Christian Religious Community have visited the Khudavang Monastery complex in the Kalbajar district.

During the visit, members of the community performed religious rites, offered prayers and lit candles at the church located within the monastery complex.

Speaking to journalists, Rafiq Danakari, Deputy Chairman of the Albanian-Udi Christian Religious Community, said representatives of the community have been visiting the Khudavang Monastery annually since 2020.

He noted that over the past several years, members of the community have also visited various ancient monasteries and churches in the liberated territories, as well as the Aghdam Juma Mosque.

Danakari highlighted the importance of conducting religious rites in the Udi language.

‘These churches are the heritage of the Azerbaijani people; they are cultural assets belonging to the Azerbaijani people. All religious sites and sanctuaries in Azerbaijan have an owner. That owner is the Azerbaijani people,’ he stressed.

Another community member, Romen Jallati, said regular visits to religious and historical sites in the liberated territories have been organized since 2020.

According to Jallati, during each visit, community members pray for the souls of Azerbaijan’s martyrs, commemorate their memory and light candles.

‘The heritage of Caucasian Albania is not merely that of the Udi people; it is the shared heritage of Azerbaijan as a whole. Thank God, we are able to visit these areas freely and offer our prayers,’ Jallati said.

A new militant group, called Yahya Movement after late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, issued a statement announcing its existence and threatening to strike the United States and Israel, Iran’s state media outlet IRIB News reported on Monday.

“O criminals, we will come to you not in our land, but in your own land and at the doors of your homes,” the armed movement reportedly said on its information channel.

According to the report, the identity and affiliation of the group are not yet known, but it is rumored that the movement is “close” to Palestinian resistance groups. The group also condemned the silence of the international community and urged the general public across the globe to join the Yahya Movement.

bp has successfully completed a multi-well subsea intervention campaign at the Deepwater Gunashli section of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

Russell Morris, bp’s Vice President for Wells in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Trkiye, said the company had launched the multi-well subsea intervention campaign at Deepwater Gunashli in October last year.

‘Today, I am pleased to note that the campaign has been successfully concluded, all intended goals have been achieved in compliance with safety regulations, and the operation was completed approximately one month ahead of schedule,’ Morris said.

According to him, the campaign covered seven subsea wells that had previously been considered difficult to access using traditional intervention methods.

‘By completing intervention work on these wells, we were able to conduct effective monitoring, identify opportunities for reservoir pressure management and increased production, which contributed to revealing additional potential of the field,’ he said.

Morris noted that the manner in which the campaign was carried out made the achievement particularly significant.

‘The campaign represented the first application of lightweight well intervention (RLWI) technology in bp’s Caspian operations. To achieve this, the subsea construction vessel Khankendi was successfully transformed into a lightweight well intervention vessel (LWIV) in just a few months, an impressive achievement for the teams involved,’ he said.

A key element of the transformation was the installation and commissioning of a moonpool system aboard the Khankendi. Positioned near the vessel’s centerline, the moonpool creates a protected vertical passage through the hull, allowing subsea equipment, remotely operated vehicles and intervention tools to be safely lowered directly to the seabed.

According to Morris, Oceaneering’s BORIS system, or Blue Ocean Riserless Intervention System, was at the heart of the operation.

‘This is an advanced subsea mechanical cable intervention system that enables access to subsea wells without the need for a traditional drilling RLWI. Despite weighing approximately 50 tonnes, BORIS was successfully deployed on board the vessel and provided well control, pressure maintenance and full subsea management, protecting multiple independent well barriers throughout the intervention operations,’ he said.

Morris said the technically complex project brought together bp and several of its major contractors, including Saipem, Oceaneering and SLB.

‘This highly complex project has brought together the expertise of bp and some of our main contractors, including Saipem, Oceaneering and SLB, in engineering, subsea technologies, vessel operations, production, logistics and well services, on a single platform,’ he said.

The bp vice president emphasized that the project had demonstrated new ways of accessing and managing subsea infrastructure and could provide greater flexibility for future operations in the Caspian.

‘This now gives us greater flexibility for future subsea interventions in the Caspian. It is also a shining example of how advanced technology, collaboration and operational excellence can help maximize production from mature assets such as ACG, which is part of the bp CCAT (Caspian, Central Asia and Trkiye) region,’ Morris said.

The European Union (EU) is preparing phased roadmaps aimed at accelerating the accession process of four candidate countries – Albania, Moldova, Ukraine and Montenegro.

According to Politico, the roadmaps, to be prepared by the European Commission, will outline the reforms and requirements each country must fulfil, as well as indicative timelines for completing different stages of accession negotiations.

The plans are also expected to define commitments by current EU member states, whose approval is required for the accession process to move forward.

At this stage, similar roadmaps are not planned for Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia or Trkiye.

The European Commission has confirmed that the roadmaps will establish priorities, timelines and specific deliverables to help the most advanced candidates complete the necessary reforms.

Earlier, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged targeted support for the candidate countries “that have made most progress” during her State of the Union speech earlier in September.