Aliyev's wonderland and surprises

It is hard to keep track of all the crackdowns in Azerbaijan these days. Its happening all at the same time. And in the meantime, our economy is also on its way to share the faith of Russians. But that wold be the topic for another blog post. 

Just like today for instance as one of the country's prominent investigative reporters, Khadija Ismayil was brought into yet another sham trial held behind the closed doors away from everyone's ears and eyes, Arif Yunus - the husband of rights activist and also jailed Leyla Yunus - sentence was extended by another five months. By that point (August 5, 2015 to be precise) he will be in pretrial detention (and not just any but the worst of the worst - the Ministry of Interior where torture and ill-treatment are notorious) a year to be exact. Who knows whether his pretrial detention will get another extension. By that time European Games would be over, and Aliyev will need yet another new toy, so he will decide whether Yunus might continue getting in his way of playing. 

And coming back to the case of Khadija Ismayil - guess what?! Of course she was not released. After all she is now facing additional charges (surprisingly all the same ones as a dozen or more of other political prisoners are facing at the moment) so in order to get to that part, this case had to close. And close it did, with a fine - 2500Manats for slander. 

Hmm... It is questionable who slandered whom but in Azerbaijan its irrelevant really especially when its judicial system works ALWAYS to the benefit of the accuser, especially if that accuser is full of **** and has not a grain of humanness left in him. So this filth claimed Khadija insulted his dignity (which he doesn't have but hey lets consider for a second that he does).

There is another filth too - but that one, claims Khadija forced him to commit a suicide. Surprisingly (there are awful lot of surprises in Azerbaijan right?!) he was able to survive and thanks to him, Khadija was jailed (based on charges of inciting to suicide). 

And all of this happening around the time when EU Special Representative for Human Rights is in town. I bet there is another surprise coming our way - his visit wont change anything! 

***Correction to the original post where I mentioned Turkoglu (the part about slander) with the part about suicider. But it doesn't make much difference since both are filth and have no dignity as one of them claims to have. 

  

And the Sakharov prize goes to...

European Parliament made its final call and awarded its highest human rights accolade- Sakharov Prize to Dr. Denis Mukwege, Congolese gynecological surgeon. 

Congratulations Mr. Mukwege! I hope your cause and fight reaches out to many more and you save many more lives. 

 

In the meantime, our very own, Leyla Yunus came third. This most likely means, she will remain in prison together with her husband and the government will do whatever it takes to prevent other activists, defenders, journalists from receiving any other awards. Because they want to save face. Because Yunus winning the award would have put further pressure on the ruing government in Azerbaijan. But she didn't win. So less pressure. 

Where does all of this leave us?

The show must go on, and all of us who have taken part in promoting, advocating, writing, lobbying for Azerbaijan's political prisoners, continue doing so and should continue doing so. The Sakharov Prize may be over and Mr. Mukwege is the winner but our political prisoners remain in prison, and the struggle for their freedom must continue. 

You see the problem with spotlights is that they fade, the bulbs blow up or someone needs more spotlight and attention than others so people move on carrying their spotlight with them. But Azerbaijan is just one of those rare countries that needs the spotlight all the time. As soon as its gone, someone else ends up beaten, jailed, harassed, intimidated or worse killed (and it is likely the perpetrators will never be found).

I would like to remind readers in Europe, respected and esteemed Parliament Members, the Council of Europe (even if it has proven useless) and everyone else in the Western hemisphere who keeps tabs on human rights issues in Azerbaijan and still hasn't gone to the "dark side", to continue putting pressure on Azerbaijani leaders. Just think about it for a second: when did we start coming up with excuses when someone is threatened because he/she has a voice? When did we start valuing certain commodities (like caviar) over freedom of speech and freedom to assenbly? When did we start differentiating about different types of citizens, refugees vs. political prisoners? Aren't refugees in a way political prisoners too? Trapped in between official fighting and hunger for power? Aren't we all humans at the end of the day? 

Will these words make more sense and have bigger impact if addressed from the UN stage?! Well, we have no such opportunity so this blog post will have to do!

Oh I know the answer all right. But please tell me,  since when democracies stopped being democracies and turned into profit seeking enterprises; where value for basic human right is no longer valued at its highest and instead its all about barrels. Is it all about barrel of oil vs. barrel of human right?!  

I hope its not. Because if it is then we are kind of doomed. 

 

Why don't we all stop and think for a moment. Just remember the basic rights, remember the basic freedoms. Justice ought to be served eventually for all, and not for one group of people over another. If it is justice Azerbaijani government seeks than it shall seek it equally for all.

Dear friends, supporters, followers, haters, don't forget about Azerbaijan and the crackdown its honest people are facing at the moment. Remember it might be just a tat bit too late when the sh** hits the fan and there is no one to talk to in the country. Just saying...

Public diplomacy and freedom of speech in Azerbaijan...pending arrest (updated)

09:05: As of early hours of this morning Leyla Yunus husband is in intensive care and Mrs. Yunus was giving statement (questioned) at the prosecutor general office. Yunus was meant to meet with France's president Francoius Hollande on his visit to Azerbaijan on May 17th. She believes this detention is to prevent her from this meeting. Sounds like Emin Milli's arrest when he was meant to translate for the German Ombudsman Gunter Nooke in 2009.

01:37: here is another update in English. No news yet though Yunus herself believes its in close relation to her work in peace diplomacy.

22:55: According to the lawyer Khalid Baghirov (who is also overlooking the case of Mirkadirov) who is currently at the airport he hasn't seen the couple. The lawyer says the law enforcement agents are "conducting" search of their luggage and will then search their apartment.

Which could mean a whole new set of things: like finding books of certain nature for instance like they found in the apartment search of young NIDA activists. There is just no limits to what Azerbaijani government can do. It is as simple as that.

***
If you haven't heard about the case of Rauf Mirkadirov, Azerbaijan journalist based in Turkey, deported and then arrested and charged with espionage then here is an article for you to get the picture. 

Mirkadirov, isn't just a well known journalist writing for many years for the Russian daily Zerkalo. He is also a known name in the circles of people to people diplomacy advocates. 

He is accused of transferring some kind of "secret" information and photographs- in a nutshell, state secrets of some sort- and is currently in a three month pre- trial detenion facing a possible sentence of 10 years. 

Just now [AZ] I am reading that another well known human rights advocate Leyla Yunus is detained together with her husband Arif Yunus as the couple was leaving the country for Doha. While according to the news several foreign diplomats were able to get the couple through the customs, they were stopped from boarding the plane. 

The couple is also outspoken on the public diplomacy and has taken part in many meetings. The nature of these recent arrests is troublesome as this could mean a number of things starting from a new type of measure of Azerbaijan government to silence its critics but also show its disinterest in the dialogue with its neighbor Armenia. Surely this could mean other things but the bottom line is clear- Azerbaijani authorities relentlessly punishing free voices. Already there are several journalists, advocates, political figures and bloggers in jail not to mention 8 young men who have voiced their concerns about the political and social situation in the country and are now facing trumped up charges. 

So do all those apologists of Azerbaijani government still consider it a democracy? They probably do, no doubt but many others who see the real situation should raise their voices and concerns! This is not an acceptable!