{"id":188714,"date":"2018-02-15T19:31:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T19:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/article\/small-bookstore-owner-describes-hostile-takeover-by-powerful-minister\/"},"modified":"2021-10-29T14:36:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T10:36:24","slug":"small-bookstore-owner-describes-hostile-takeover-by-powerful-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/small-bookstore-owner-describes-hostile-takeover-by-powerful-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Small bookstore owner describes hostile takeover by powerful minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \"Nigar
\n Nigar Kocharli
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n \"Nigar
\n Nigar Kocharli
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n Nigar Kocharli opened her first bookstore \u2013 a small space in a cafe in Baku \u2013 in 2001, with an initial capital
\n
\n investment
\n <\/a>
\n of $600. Since then she’s opened more than a dozen new stores and the chain, Ali and Nino, is the first bookstore chain in Azerbaijan.\n<\/p>\n

\n Her business is now under threat, she says, from one of Azerbaijan’s most powerful figures. In a Facebook post, she detailed how Kamaleddin Heydarov, the Minister of Emergency Situations in Azerbaijan, is attacking her small business.\n<\/p>\n

\n In the
\n
\n post
\n <\/a>
\n , an address to Heydarov and his son, Taleh Heydarov, she described how four years ago she was invited to the offices of Gilan Holding, a business controlled by Heydarov. During the meeting, a company official demanded she give up her business and hand it over to Gilan. \u201cWe are an elephant, and you are an ant \u2013 we will crush you,\u201d Kocharli said she was told.\n<\/p>\n

\n Subsequently, she said, she started having problems with customs and shipments of books were delayed. Her staff were harassed by police, and she suffered mysterious burglaries, she said in a later
\n
\n interview
\n <\/a>
\n .\n<\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Taleh Heydarov had started his own book business, a chain called Libraff. And recently, she was told by the administration of seven malls where Ali and Nino shops operate that they will have to close, and will be replaced by Libraff shops.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cObviously, it’s much more difficult to do good than to close the Ali and Nino chain and open your own bookstores in its place,\u201d she wrote.\n<\/p>\n

\n Libraff has denied the allegations, and issued a statement claiming that the company has no ties with the government. The statement further accused Kocharli of spreading misinformation about the company and its bookstores, adding that if the \u201cattacks\u201d have increased in the last four years, an ant should have been crushed long ago by an elephant.\n<\/p>\n

\n Heydarov is a notorious figure in Azerbaijan; one memorable United States
\n
\n diplomatic cable
\n <\/a>
\n released by Wikileaks described his sprawling business empire and cracked that his Ministry of Emergency Situations also was known as the Ministry of Everything Significant. It noted that the MES had a reputation for bullying out competitors. \u201cMES staff have previously warned American and other foreign businessmen that their purview covers anything that is associated with temperature, pressure, or isotopes — categories broadly interpreted to include just about everything under the sun,\u201d the cable reported.\n<\/p>\n

\n More recently, Heydarov has been at the
\n
\n center
\n <\/a>
\n of a
\n
\n scandal
\n <\/a>
\n in Malta involving shady financial deals with members of Azerbaijan’s government.\n<\/p>\n

\n Surely the bookstore business is insignificant for a business as large as Heydarov’s, and opinions differ about what could be behind the apparent takeover. Some Azerbaijani commentators have said it seems to be a
\n
\n display
\n <\/a>
\n of strength and power, and others argue that it is about
\n
\n gaining
\n <\/a>
\n control over all sources and means of access to
\n
\n information
\n <\/a>
\n .\n<\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Kocharli has been put forth as a
\n
\n model
\n <\/a>
\n for Azerbaijani small businesses and has has gotten investment from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Small Business Support program. \u201cIt has become a very competitive award,\u201d she said in a 2015 EBRD press release, referring to the grant. \u201cSometimes people hate me for it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The minister, Kamaleddin Heydarov, was described as the Minister of Everything Significant in a U.S. diplomatic cable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":99620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSmall bookstore owner describes hostile takeover by powerful minister - MEYDAN.TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/small-bookstore-owner-describes-hostile-takeover-by-powerful-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Small bookstore owner describes hostile takeover by powerful minister - 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