Unlawful arrests, referendum and more in Aliyev's La La land

Remember the two youth activists detained in May in Azerbaijan? If you don't here is a story to freshen up your memory. The two men were detained unlawfully. There was no proof the two were allegedly drug users as police claimed. Not only were they detained unlawfully but they were also tortured, threatened with rape and not allowed to see their family members or the lawyer. 

It has now been more than two months since their detention and in these past two months they have only seen their family twice. In fact, only one, Giyas Ibrahimov was allowed to see his family even though by law they are allowed family visits once a week according to their lawyer. 

The lawyer also said that during medical examination on July 5 and 12, doctors concluded the two were clean of drugs and in fact there were no traces of any substance. 

Not surprisingly when the lawyer asked that the fingerprints found on drug packages "discovered" during the search were compared with fingerprints of the two youth activist, the court dismissed this request. 

Where does this leave us? For starers that neither Giyas nor Bayram are drug addicts. We have already known that Azerbaijan's judiciary is a shit-show and fair trial to activists, journalists, rights defenders is non existent. 

Their faith will be decided soon. I fear it won't be a good outcome. But then maybe the thought of acquiring more power via referendum will make the government officials forget about these two innocent gentlemen. 

After all, it is not an easy task to run a country especially if you fear you will be brought down by your very own "closed circle of special friends" who have been around you but you fear they have been around for far too long. Surely there is also the killing urge to stay in power for as long as possible, groom your children to become future presidents and so on. 

In fact, here are all proposed amendments to the constitution, for which Azerbaijan will hold a referendum on September 26. 

Please follow the link and read it online. 

Also in Aliyev's la la land are measures taken against Gulen establishments. A university, that is known for its quality education (unlike many other universities of Azerbaijan) was turned over to Baku Higher Oil School or simply put under the management of SOCAR (the State oil company). The university since 2013 was already under the management of Azerbaijan's International Education Center which was wounded by SOCAR. 

I wrote the following for Global Voices earlier about the matter: 

In 2014 when Erdogan went to Azerbaijan to visit President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan promptly shut down a network of schools linked to Gulen that were regarded as some of the best in the country.

The management of 11 high schools, 13 university exam preparation centers and one private university was transferred to SOCAR, Azerbaijan's state oil company. Fast forward to July 18, 2016 and the pattern continues. After reportedly conferring with ally Erdogan, Aliyev decided to announce the closure of one of the country's few remaining bribe-free education establishments, the Caucasus University, which was founded by adherents of Gulen.

And last but not least one newspaper known for its ties with Gulen establishment was shut down while one TV channel's license was revoked after airing an interview with the cleric. 

Then there are banks and other business (unrelated to Gulen) but closing down as a result of the financial crisis. This time 4 more banks- Parabank, Zaminbank, Dekabank, Kredobank- had their license revoked. 

This all for now, until next update. 

Exorcism: from movie screens to real life

It was a search result on Google actually that brought me originally to this piece of news- "The exorcist of Azerbaijan". A video posted on YouTube, receiving some 180,000 views (at the time of the writing) shows how a young woman "treated" by some man who believes himself to be an exorcist. He reads verses from Koran, smacks her on her head and hits her several times on her shoulder, then burns her with matches and so on. At the end, the "devil" speaks to the man and reaching an agreement leaves the body of the young woman. She falls asleep on the couch. In another video the girl appears perfectly healthy and speaks about finding her path with the help of that exorcist man and now willingly living with him for the purposes of her treatment.
 

Azerbaijani people believe in black magic, witches and superstition. They spend the money they usually don't have on visiting the so-called "healers" in search for answers to their problems, health issues, and possession. Majority of the people are convinced they have been "charmed" (in a negative sense of that word) by evil enemies, relatives, mothers in laws and etc. So it is not surprising that when the video appeared online, while some criticized the video and urged the family to seek professional help, many others took the story as real.

And even the media is on the case- well sort of. A local TV channel ANS invited the family to one of the shows- 'Among the People', where the young woman stares at one of the local "experts" (also known as another exorcist) and starts hissing when that expert starts articulating some weird hand gestures. Yes, all of this happens on TV even with dramatic music in the background and astonished TV host who claims not seeing anything like this ever before. The only sane doctor in the room urges the family to seek professional help but not sure anyone really cared about what he had to say. 

So where does this leave us? Surely that people always have a urge to believe in things. Blaming someone else is always easier than seeking solutions to one's problems. If its health then it must be the full moon, if its money issue it must be the evil neighbor who envied the family buying that new car, if its work issue, it must be the some third power making you look bad and resulting either in you losing your job or not getting the job to begin with and so on and so forth. 

But what it all boils down to is education, our community and of course the media. Surely if that TV host from the very beginning pinned the older brother to the wall (in literal sense that is) telling him what business does he have here at the studio when the girl should be receiving treatment at a professional institution from a professional doctor, who is not by the way, a self-proclaimed exorcist or a healer instead of playing the role of a shocked TV host, perhaps there would be a different kind of story there. 

Surely there is always need for drama in our societies (whatever that means) but at a cost of one's life? Really, is that worth it?