Qishloq Ovozi (Archive)

After nearly 30 years of talks, arguments, and threats, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have agreed to jointly develop a disputed hydrocarbon field that lies in the Caspian Sea about midway between the two countries.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the development of the Dostlug field at a videoconference meeting on January 21.

While an agreement on the hydrocarbon field is a major step in the improvement of relations between the two Caspian littoral countries, it also rekindles the prospect of the construction of a trans-Caspian pipeline.

The name of the field -- Dostlug or “Friendship” -- symbolizes compromise.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, both countries have laid claim to the field, with Azerbaijan naming it Kyapaz and Turkmenistan calling it Serdar.

It was actually one of three disputed fields that are located in the middle of the Caspian Sea, roughly halfway between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The other two are the Azeri and Chirag fields, which Turkmenistan calls, respectively, the Omar and Osman fields. But Azerbaijan started developing the two fields, Chirag in 1997 and Azeri in 2002, with help from an international consortium led by BP, and without resolving the ownership dispute with Turkmenistan.

Azerbaijan’s decision to develop the two fields angered Turkmenistan’s first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who had met with Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev in Baku in 1996 to discuss cooperation to benefit both countries.

Azerbaijani-Turkmen relations plummeted and grew worse as the Chirag and Azeri fields started production.

Together with a third nearby field -- Gunashli -- combined estimated recoverable reserves from the three fields is some 7 billion barrels of oil and ACG fields quickly accounted for the bulk of Azerbaijan’s oil production (though production peaked in 2010 at 823,100 barrels per day and has been gradually decreasing since).

Meanwhile, the lack of tankers limited the amount of oil Turkmenistan could export.

Relations started to improve between the two countries after the deaths of Heydar Aliyev (2003) and Niyazov (2006), though as late as 2009 Berdymukhammedov was still contemplating taking the matter of ownership of the Chirag and Azeri fields to international arbitration.

In 2007, Berdymukhammedov’s first year in power, Turkmenistan issued a license to the Cyprus-based company Buried Hill to develop Block III, the Serdar (now Dostlug) field, and the company began seismic surveying, but Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan agreed to hold off on any work until they resolved their dispute over the field.

So the signing of a memorandum on the Dostlug field is a significant accomplishment for the two countries and Aliyev mentioned it was the result of "persistent activity from our two countries."

An official from the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), Ibragim Akhmedov, said, “Many technical and commercial details still need to be worked out in connection with the future development of the field,” but he hailed the memorandum as heralding a “new era in the history of relations of Azerbaijan with neighbor Turkmenistan.”

Dostlug has proven reserves of some 1.4 billion barrels of oil and further exploration could find more.

Akhmedov added that due to the development of the Chirag and Azeri fields, “We have infrastructure and pipelines in the Caspian, oil pipelines and gas pipelines connecting the region to markets in Europe and other areas.”

That raises the larger matter of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP), which aims to annually bring some 30 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan for export to Europe.

Robert Cutler is a senior research fellow and director of the Energy Security Program, NATO Association of Canada, and leading authority on Caspian geopolitics and energy matters.

Cutler told RFE/RL, “This [memorandum of understanding], which was enabled and accelerated by the August 2018 Aqtau Treaty, in fact dissolves away the final obstacle to the TCP.”

The long debate over the status of the Caspian Sea and its division was largely resolved at the Caspian summit in Aqtau, Kazakhstan, in August 2018 when the leaders of the five littoral states -- which also include Iran, Kazakhstan, and Russia -- signed the Caspian Sea Convention.

An agreement on developing Dostlug would be a major step in Azerbaijani-Turkmen cooperation in jointly developing sites in the Caspian Sea and could be key to finally constructing the TCP.

Cutler said “there should be no doubt that the two sides have had detailed conversations on TCP cooperation in the context of bilateral discussions that have now produced this [memorandum of understanding].”

As Akhmedov mentioned, there are still “many” details left to be resolved in cooperation on the Dostlug field and one of those will undoubtedly be the financing for the project.

Azerbaijan does not have enough gas to fill the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) as the volume the pipeline carries have increased, eventually to 60 billion cubic meters, and although several countries have been mentioned as possibly contributing to the gas that will be transported by TANAP.

Turkmenistan, with the fourth-largest reserves of natural gas in the world, is the obvious choice to send gas through TANAP and on to Europe.

Cutler said that since the memorandum on Dostlug has been signed, “Observers should not be surprised by further progress on TCP implementation in the foreseeable future.”

There is, however, one drawback.

SOCAR has invested its own money into the energy-export projects, including the TANAP pipeline, which brings Azerbaijani gas across Turkey to Europe.

Turkmenistan’s economy is currently in crisis and the country could desperately use any new revenue it can find.

But Aliyev made it very clear in late August 2018 that Azerbaijan was willing to act as a transit country for Turkmen gas but if Turkmenistan wanted a pipeline built, the government should fund the project the same way SOCAR funds its export-route projects.

There was no clue from the complimentary exchanges between the Azerbaijani and Turkmen leaders at the video summit if Aliyev thought Turkmenistan should also contribute financially to the development of the Dostlug field.

One of the most hazardous jobs in Tajikistan is being a lawyer -- at least the type of lawyer who believes in genuine justice.

Buzurgmehr Yorov and Nuriddin Makhkamov are two examples.

Yorov suddenly faced criminal charges after daring to defend Tajik opposition figures in court and Makhkamov faced similar charges after trying to defend Yorov.

Both were convicted of fraud, inciting national, racial, local, or religious hostility, and extremism, despite the prosecutors' failure to present any evidence to support the charges. Yorov was sentenced in 2016 to 23 years in prison, with five additional years being added at a later trial, while Makhkamov was sentenced that same year to 21 years in prison.

Fast forward five years and you have Saidnuriddin Shamsiddinov, a 41-year-old attorney and former bailiff who was just sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison after a Vakhsh court found him guilty of seven crimes, among them the illegal sale of land, fraud, and purposefully spreading false information.

Shamsiddinov's relatives reject the charges and verdict and say the real reason for Shamsiddinov's imprisonment was his criticism about prosecutors and judges in posts on social networks.

RFE/RL's Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi, spoke with Shamsiddinov's brother, Kamariddin, who said Saidnuriddin posted under the name Saidi Sadr and regularly denounced judges and prosecutors.

Kamariddin recounted one of these posts in which Saidnuriddin wrote: "Some judges in Khatlon…embarked on the path of mistakes and decide the fate of people in the wrong way, unreasonably condemning many poor people."

Another of the posts read: "Judges of the Khatlon district court -- Boyzoda T.G., Akhmazoda M., and Rasulzoda -- violated the law for their own benefit."

These are exactly the sort of comments authoritarian Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has disingenuously called on citizens to make in order to rein in corruption and prevent flawed policies from continuing to damage society.

But in Tajikistan, authorities are sensitive to any criticism and those who criticize usually find themselves in court.

Fayzi Oli is one of Shamsiddinov's lawyers. He said the prosecution has a weak case.

"We reviewed all the material concerning the illegal sale of a plot of land. His father sold the land, and he is no longer alive, but the father's signature is still on the documents," Oli said, adding: "Regarding the publication of deliberately false information about the prosecutor, my client did not publish any illegal information."

Oli said that "as a lawyer, I testified at the trial that citizens have the right to complain to the president, the prosecutor-general, or the Supreme Court, but my colleague was all the same convicted for these reasons."

Another of Shamsiddinov's lawyers, Nusratullo Mirzoev, said his client used his final statement in court to declare his innocence and reject all the charges against him.

But the judge used the statement as evidence of Shamsiddinov's guilt.

Ozodi contacted the judge at the trial, Ahliddin Nazarzoda, but after hearing the question about Shamsiddinov, he hung up the phone and disconnected it.

Public prosecutor Abdumajid Saidzoda declared that allowing Shamsiddinov to remain free would be a threat to the safety of Tajik citizens.

Shamsiddinov's family plan to appeal the verdict, but in Tajikistan there is really no hope for an acquittal.

Saidnuriddin Shamsiddinov was only calling for a fair judiciary to emerge in Tajikistan, but he appears to have become the latest victim of an unjust practice that has been a hallmark of the country's court system throughout nearly 30 years of independence.