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In This Issue:
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Fact of the Week:
Recordings of mugham, one of the most recognized forms of Azerbaijani music, are today carried to the edge of the solar system aboard NASA’s Voyager I and II space missions. Chosen by a committee led by the late American astronomer Carl Sagan, the music is contained on a copper and gold disk of images and sounds selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.
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Bulgaria Ready to Buy Gas From Azerbaijan
 Bulgaria is ready to buy one billion cubic meters of gas annually from energy-rich Azerbaijan, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said during a visit this week to Baku.
Parvanov said he had discussed Azerbaijan's participation in the European Union's Nabucco gas pipeline with President Ilham Aliyev and declared Bulgaria's readiness to work on oil and gas projects in the country.
“Azerbaijan and Bulgaria play a major role in developing energy security,” he told journalists after meeting President Aliyev.
Azerbaijan is a key partner in a Western-backed corridor of oil and gas pipelines built in recent years to deliver Caspian energy resources to the West.
The EU's 2,000-mile Nabucco pipeline will transport gas from the Middle East and Central Asia to energy-hungry consumers in Europe, bypassing Russia in an attempt to reduce the bloc's reliance on Moscow. The pipeline, due to be completed in 2013, will run from the Caspian Sea via Turkey and the Balkan states to Austria.
Azerbaijan Reopens Catholic Church
Ruined in Soviet Times
 The Vatican’s No. 2 official presided over the reopening of a Catholic church in Baku that had been shut down for more than 70 years under previous Soviet rule.
President Ilham Aliyev, addressing the March 9 ceremony in Baku, said, “The fact that representatives of all religions live as one family in Azerbaijan strengthens our country."
In his remarks, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the event was “rich in meaning” and “will leave its mark in the annals of history.”
The reopening fulfills a promise made to the late Pope John Paul II and Azerbaijan’s Catholic community by the late President Heydar Aliyev to grant land and restore the parish that had been ruined by Soviet atheist authorities in the 1930s. The promise came during the late pope’s 2002 visit to Baku.
“It was the most eloquent welcome,” Bertone said. “It was proof of this desire to make religious tolerance a true pillar of the life of Azerbaijan.”
Azerbaijan, a secular country with a majority Muslim population, is known for its religious tolerance. The country is home to a Catholic community of hundreds of parishioners, as well as vibrant Orthodox Christian and Jewish communities.
Located at a key geographic crossroads between Europe and Asia along the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan has for centuries been a flow-point for civilizations passing between East and West, North and South. Tolerance and understanding of different religions and cultures have thus been woven into the fabric of society, something that was reflected in Bertone’s words on Friday.
“Civilization rests on a rock that is concrete—the serene coexistence of different religions,” he said.
Azerbaijan to Reopen Georgia Pipeline Before July
 Azerbaijan will resume oil shipments by the end of June via the BP-led pipeline to the Georgian port of Supsa, which has been shut for repairs for over a year, a top government official said March 11.
"The Baku-Supsa pipeline will resume operations in the second quarter of 2008," Elshad Nasirov, vice-president of SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas firm, told reporters.
BP, which used the 120,000 barrel-per-day pipeline to ship crude from the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore project in the Caspian Sea, shut the route in October 2006 to repair a 95-mile section on Georgian territory.
The ACG fields' partners include Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Devon Energy, Japan's INPEX and Itochu, and Turkey's TPAO and Socar.
The group is currently producing 770,000 barrels per day (bpd) and expects output to hit a peak of 1 million bpd next year.
Oil is currently exported mainly via the BTC pipeline that runs from Baku to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Baku Hosts Fifth International Automotive Exhibition
 The automobile industry descends on Baku this week, with the Fifth International Automotive Exhibition now underway.
Some 125 companies from 27 countries will take part in AutoShow 2008, exhibition manager Babak Amashov said at a press conference this week. Cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles, as well as automobile-related products such as accessories and insurance, will be exhibited. Exhibitors include Azauto, Suzuki, Agrointer, Alfateks, Good Year, Performance Center and other companies.
The exhibition takes place at the Heydar Aliyev Sport-Exhibition Complex. The show is sponsored by the Economic Development and Transport Ministries, Trade-Industry Chamber, Azerbaijani Export and Investment Promoting Fund (AZPROMO) and the Central Traffic Police Station.
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