Ali Hasanov's mastered skills to silence critics fails as he tries to silence animals as well

Ali Hasanov the head of social political department at the presidential apparatus claims the organizing committee has done a tremendous job getting the country ready for the upcoming European Games.

Even the European Olympics Committee has valued this progress highly notes Mr. Hasanov. 

“All of this proves that European Games will go down as the most magnificent games”. But unfortunately some forces are trying hard to engage in “black PR” and overshadow the development and progress achieved in this country economically, politically and socially” says Hasanov. These include Amnesty International and organization’s calls to boycott the games; spreading of disinformation; prearranged articles in foreign media full of blasphemy and so on. 

But the most leading institution in the so-called “black pr” campaign is Radio Liberty local bureau. “They are sharing videos of street dogs being killed as part of the "clean up" for the Olympic Games but no one can even prove the video was taken in Azerbaijan. It is obvious that by sharing such questionable facts those forces are simply spreading misinformation about the games. But this is nothing but crafty game against the country”, said Hasanov [Hasanov forgets to mention here that the video was shared by most of the online outlets yesterday morning, but was removed shortly after the news circulated online]. 

The video of stray dogs murdered in Balakhani district was shared widely on the social networks yesterday. Yelena Simakina who posted the video said in an interview with Azadliq Radiosu this was not the first time she has witnessed such brutality. “Almost every day there are street dogs that get killed. I filmed this about a week ago. Because you cannot kill stray animals in front of people, they bring them here. They shoot bigger dogs and beat the puppies to death with shovels” said Simakina [You can watch new footage here].

The killing range was quickly cleaned after the video circulated online. In an interview with Meydan TV the owner of the shelter repeated the words of Mr. Hasanov refuting any claims about killing of animals. “That video was probably taken in Soviet times” said the man. In the meantime the journalist zooms into the thick cloud of smoke in the back – exactly where the animals are getting burned after they are killed. 

Its certainly no soviet times, but the way the authorities treat the country reminiscent of those days – the crackdown, the surveillance and refuting all anti-government information. Azerbaijan might be in 21st century and about to host a multi billion sporting event, but the authorities’ methods to treat its people [and animals] are stuck somewhere in the past full of repression and crackdown.

I am pretty sure Orwell could possibly write a sequel to his 1984, “2015 same shit: 1984 disguised under billions of dollars”