When rape and fear is your only weapon (part 2)

The atrocities committed in Azerbaijan's detention centers- this needs to be mailed to every single apologist of Azerbaijan in order for them to understand the kind of the regime they are applauding and wanting to keep around for the sake of "stability". 

"They chained my hands from behind and then started beating me with batons. They punched me with their fists and legs. And when I started screaming from pain they taped my mouth", recently detained youth activist Bayram Mammadov wrote in a letter that was passed by his lawyer.

"I was brought to the chief's room where 7 or 8 civilian dressed men were waiting for me. They punched me, they slapped me on the face. They were demanding I tell them why I drove that graffiti and who I was in cohorts with. They beat me continuously. I eventually lost consciousness, I couldn't hear anything from all the beating".

"When I told them I have never even seen drug substance, they told me they cannot just arrest me for drawing graffiti. This upset them so they beat me harder. They threatened me they would rape me with police baton. So I had to tell them I did use drugs. I did everything they told me and wrote a letter. Then they told me that if I apologize from the statue, lay flowers and do all of this in front AzTV cameras they would let me go".

"When I refused to do so they continued to beat me."

When rape and fear is your only weapon

"[...] the policemen beat them, forced them to take their pants off, and threatened to rape them with truncheons and bottles if they did not confess to drug possession. Following the abuse, they confessed to drug possession before they were allowed to see their lawyer."

This is not a movie script. This is police brutality in Azerbaijan, member of Council of Europe, signatory to a number of international conventions and treaties. This is the country, whose president recently shook hands with President Obama, smiling, proud while people like Ilgar Mammadov and Khadija Ismayilova are kept in silence behind the bars in Azerbaijan prisons. 

This a country that hosts conventions, UN events, sporting events all the while stealing from its people and living off like kings at the expense of its people. 

It is a country where police never found perpetrators behind Elmar Huseynov, journalist who was brutally murdered in front of his house in 2005. It is a country where police never fully explained and got the bottom of a murder another journalist/writer Rafig Tagi. It is a country where police failed to find those were behind setting secret cameras in journalist Khadija Ismayilova's apartment, and those who later blackmailed her with sex tapes and released them online.

But is a country where police is quick to fabricate charges against activists and notable individuals. It is a country where police can easily "discover" following a "thorough investigation" substantial amounts of heroin or molotov cocktails or arms in homes of activists, journalists, and other government critics. 

It should not be surprising then it also happens to be a country featured in Panama Papers and where its leader is stealing off just fine. 

The opening quote in this post was from a recent reported published by Human Rights Watch documenting recent arrest of two youth activists and their treatment inside the police. The report also said, "They [the two young men] were also forced to clean the toilets and yard of the police station while police filmed them. While at the station trying to get access to Mammadov and Ibrahimov, Sadigov [lawyer] saw police kick and humiliate his clients as they cleaned the station yard. Sadigov tried to intervene to stop the ill-treatment, but police physically pushed him out of the station."

I understand Aliyev's personal pleasure in silencing his critics, but does this recent treatment indicates that he also gets pleasure from his thugs called police raping these people as well?

Apologise form the statue! Now!

May 10, the annual Flower Day celebrations/aka lets celebrate dead president's birthday event go by this year with not much grandiose and extravagant spending. 

Then police discovers graffiti on the statue of the dead president. "F*** the system" someone has written and then the annual quote "Happy Slave Holiday". In Azerbaijan flower means "gül" [gyul] and slave means "qul" [gool]. The slave variation became a popular expression soon after the Flower Day began to be celebrated in Azerbaijan. 

Millions of Manats were spent on each holiday with flowers imported from all over the world. One MP at some point said it cost the country 14-15millionAZN [before devaluation that was approximately the same amount of millions in EUR]. The flowers would be assembled in few parks. There were also concerts and fireworks. Sometimes I even wondered whether Baku Mayor was actually celebrating president's death. 

But back to 2016 and the missing N!DA activists. 

So the two activists went missing May 10. On May 11 their whereabouts were still unknown. 

May 12, we heard from them. The two were being prosecuted for illegal drug possession [not the first time we see this charge used against activists in Azerbaijan]. And as if charges and 4 months detention isn't enough, the two are actually told to go and apologize in front of the dead president's statue. So they are supposed to stand in front of the statue, with state TV cameras filming all of this theater and ask the statue to forgive them? Seriously?!

What I don't understand is that if their crime is drug possession then why are they even told to go and apologize in front of the statue anyway?

Well, this is of course a rhetorical question. We all know the answer. Because it is all theater of the absurd.

N!DA activists OUT, N!DA activists IN

If you at any point, thought release of Azerbaijan's 14 political prisoners, suspension of sentences of Intigam Aliyev, Rauf Mirkadirov and permission to leave Azerbaijan granted to couple Leyla and Arif Yunus by the regime in Baku was a sign of progress, you were deeply deeply mistaken. It was not. Perhaps a sign of back door diplomacy working wonders yes, perhaps a sign of exchange of favors yes, but certainly, definitely and with full assurance NOT a sign president Aliyev and his government has any intention to become good all of a sudden.

Why? Well lets start from a criminal case launched against Meydan TV shortly after president Aliyev returned from his successful trip to Washington DC. Then there was another notice- 15 journalists  named in the investigation case against Meydan TV. Several current political prisoners motions for release and/or house arrest were dismissed by local courts and so on. 

And just yesterday there were news of two N!DA activists being detained. Hours after their detention their whereabouts are not known, their family and friends have not heard of them. Why? Because the government of Azerbaijan can do it. Because there are no checks and balances and because they hate, literally despise anyone who stands out and commits any act of disobedience. 

Bayram Mammadov and Giyasaddin Ibrahim were detained allegedly for writing "Fuck the System!" [in English] and "Happy Slaves Day!" [In Azerbaijani "Qul Bayraminiz Mubarek" ahead of Gul Bayrami or Flower Day celebrations] on a statue of Heydar Aliyev. May 10 is celebrated as Flower Day but also as President Heydar Aliyev's birthday. Since 2009, the government spent millions on celebrating this holiday bringing in flowers from all over the world and throwing them away two days later. This year however, as a result of the escalation on the front line and deaths of Azerbaijani service men, there was a symbolic celebration planting flowers. 

Strangely while the government pays its respects to the military personnel it did not do the same when ten days before the first celebrations of the Flower Day in 2009 there was an attack at the State Oil Academy killing more than a dozen of students and professors according to official data. 

So where does this all leave us?! Well, where we see that nothing has really changed in Azerbaijan and that official Baku's revolving door policy used against its critics is very much alive. And if the government is so much about respecting the dead, then we should cancel Azerbaijan's participation in Eurovision song contest, the Formula 1 race, and all other upcoming celebrations until we resolve all our troubles. 

This of course is called wishful thinking...

Post flower day- millions spent on few hours of show and then...

When I saw this video I felt terribly sad for the people there- tearing apart flower decorations brought to the country just for one day, in fact few hours for a show that cost millions of Azerbaijani Manats- to celebrate the birthday of the late president. 

Were they doing it because they hated it? I doubt. Were they doing it because they just wanted some free flowers? Probably. 

Instead, perhaps Administrative Authorities could have organized a day of people in Azerbaijan, open food stalls for the poor, assist those families who are in need, pay extra that month to teachers, doctors, and other state employees- all of this still could have been done in the name of the late president if thats the aim- to commemorate, to pay respect- at least, they could have done something to commemorate the tragedy of April 30th, the shooting at the state oil academy and done something nice for the veterans on Victory Day on May 10th. But I guess none of this would look as grand as the Flower Day...

Azerbaijan of 1918, 2012 and the future

Google images

"Its over now, calm down" said a Twitter user in response to my tweets about democracy issues in Azerbaijan during the final night of Eurovision song contest. Neglecting the reality is an easy way today in Azerbaijan and been this way for the last few years. Its easier to dust it off your shoulders and simply go with the flow. Its easy because you are untouched. Its easy because getting involved in the struggle for democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression puts you one step closer to a prison cell. It makes you the enemy of the state and puts you on the list of "wanted people". Sometimes I imagine that if it was a scene from one of the Westerns there will be small posters all over town pinned to the walls of buildings, coffee shops and restaurants with photos of activists, organizers and outspoken figures all with "WANTED" printed on them.

Its tiring to see constant criticisms of a country that could have potentially be the beacon of hope, the country rich in oil and gas resources with prospering life standards, well paid jobs for all, equality, free press and much more. But its not. And its unfortunate. Azerbaijan, today, though once a democratic state of 1918 is a corrupted, authoritarian, undemocratic state. Its current leadership and the ruling family has no respect to its past and especially to those two very significant years of our history. In fact, the name of the person who played an important role in bringing about this democratic state to life is systematically neglected. A spot where a statue should have been erected to M.E. Rasulzade is home to yet another fountain. And thats what is more important for Azerbaijani authorities than its history- fountains, parks, glamor and bling. 

Google images

In fact, just like many other things, history in Azerbaijan is used and referred to only at moments when it suits certain interests and when it comes to certain issues. But alas we speak of 1918 democratic state. We choose to butter up certain individuals when talking about them than pay our respects to leaders of the past. We choose to spend thousands or millions on imported flowers when celebrating a birthday of the late president than face the truth and do something about it. 

What we as people of Azerbaijan are failing at as a mass is making sure we have healthy, educated generations to take care of this country once there is no more oil and gas. What we have now is uneducated large portion of young society living in a lala land, disconnected from the world, sucked in to the vicious circle of devastating outcomes of being uneducated. Moreover we are raising generations who have little knowledge about people like Rasulzade and the significance of May 28th. We must change the way we think! We must work to raise educated generations and prevent further societal degradation.

Lets just call it spending money on flowers

Though I am few days late with this post, I still wanted to share some thoughts on the well- known by now Flower Day held in Baku. The day as some of you already know is dedicated to Azerbaijan's late President, Heydar Aliyev (also for those who don't know, the father of the current president). As a "token" (you will see why its symbolically in quotation marks later) of appreciation, his son, Ilham Aliyev, announced in 2009, that May 10th, will be the Flower Day held to celebrate the birthday of Aliyev senior. And so, the spending spree began. 

As if, Azerbaijan has nowhere else to spend its wealth (like education, social care, healthcare, and I could go on) and as if, the country is doing just fine with all its infrastructural developments (like having provided gas and electricity to all regions and villages of Azerbaijan, having sorted out sewage and trash issues across the country and I could still go on) our beloved, generous, official government began allocating the "tokens" or in another words, millions of Azerbaijani manats to host this day of joyous celebrations. 

Since 2009, flowers of different sorts are imported to Azerbaijan to decorate Haydar Aliyev National Park and literally dress the whole park in flowers. I actually remember well the first Flower Parade. I was in Baku at that time and had the "honor" to see the park and snap few photographs. I just waned to capture that day as a proof of yet another initiative of wasted money (flowers are thrown away obviously, hence the conclusion, millions down the drain, its simple math). A year later, once again we celebrated Flower Day and so on and so forth.

Now this year, Baku city administration decided to add more spice to the celebrations. They have designed three giant air balloons with of course portraits of Haydar Aliyev on them attached to a boat (sailing boat). In an interview with local press, the city mayor proudly spoke of this year's magnificent show. Flowers were brought from Germany, France, Italy, Brazil with designers working 24/7 to complete re-decoration of the park just in time he was saying in an interview. And then he adds, smiling "I assure you, he is looking at us [referring to H. Aliyev's portrait of flowers] and smiling. I am telling you. For me personally, this is the greatest honor" (The full interview in text available here and video here- both are in AZ). No worries mr. mayor, the only thing looking at you that day was the heating sun and all those sane people who understand the absurdity of this holiday. The rest were... well... happy to be there probably not even knowing why they are there (trust me there are people who go just to see the flowers unaware why those flowers are actually there, but thats another story).

This video report [AZ] provides more detailed info about that day. According to the video, a group of young activists, held a protest to mock the flower day. Their poster read- "we don't need flowers, we want democracy". 

Perhaps one day we are going to have more people understanding that indeed we do not need flowers. What we need instead is a democracy! I am just going to call this flower parade for now a democracy day- hoping that one day we are going to celebrate a true democracy festival in Azerbaijan!

April 30th- we remember the tragedy at the State Oil Academy

Today while remembering what happened on April 30th, exactly three years ago,  I recollect my memories of that day, trying to once again understand the logic, the incentive and the sickening state of mind of the person who committed that terrible crime. His name was Ferda Gadirov, a Georgian national who entered the school that day with a fully loaded gun and started shooting. It didn't matter at whom, he was just shooting. At the end he shot himself as well. According to official numbers 12 people lost their lives while 13 received wounds of different degrees. Some say there were more but where to find that information and how to confirm it...

An article shared today by Radio Liberty Azerbaijani service, shares few videos from that day and commemoration a year later [AZ]. Once again the face of our state police- the little humanity they have in them shows itself all over- dispersing the crowd of young people from gathering in front of the academy, shouting at them, not letting them place carnations on the stairs of the academy. Seeing them I cannot help but wonder, what if one of those students was his son or daughter or maybe a relative- a nephew, a niece? Would it be that easy if that was the case? Or are they so brutal that even something like that would have made no difference? Who knows...

And then another article published by another online news outlet talks about how the president of Azerbaijan paid families of those who were killed a sum of 30.000AZN and to families of those injured 15.000AZN. Some of you might think this was a sign of sympathy, or generosity but it wasn't. A true act of sympathy would have been to let people live their pain, organize a commemoration for all those innocent lives, to allow for people to gather. Instead, any act of remembrance was prevented, because there was a much more important event to be held, 10 days later, it was the notorious Flower Day celebration organized to celebrate the birthday of Azerbaijan's late president Heydar Aliyev. No one cared about lives lost only 10 days prior. A celebratory concert was organized to praise the president and his achievements. You know how much Azerbaijani government spent to hold this celebration? Millions (a debated number for 2009 was around 20 million). Because its more important than lives or ordinary citizens.

If its all about remembering and commemorating (in fashion) that it should be done equally but equality is a loose term for many of Azerbaijani officials meaning little especially when it comes to ordinary citizens of this country.

As to many of us who do remember today and to all those lives lost on April 30th, I can only express my deepest condolences and add, rest in peace young men and women of the State Oil Academy...

Yet another 'Flower Holiday'

In lest than two weeks, Azerbaijan will celebrate its 4th 'Flower Holiday'. It began four years ago, when local authorities decided to commemorate late President Aliyev on his birthday with this holiday. But it was never a simple holiday.

Different speculations are made each year as to how much money is spent on this holiday, but one figure always hits the media- millions. Brought either from Holland or somewhere else in the world, the flowers receive special care by gardeners like Ruslan Aliyev who spends hours on end watering, cleaning, and caring for the them. He says they need special attention, and thats what he does.

And each year, thousands of residents are either forced or come on their own to the park named after Haydar Aliyev to take a look at the flowers, take photos, have their ice creams or sun flower seeds and go home, for yet another time, not questioning the essence of this, not even one simple question: is it making their lives any better? I wonder if these people do the same on April 30th every year too, for some reason I doubt they do.

This article [AZ] published by Radio Azadliq (Radio Liberty Local Service) explores the upcoming holiday while paying a visit to heavily guarded park. Right now, no one is allowed, and the park is sealed from all the entrances.

Organized by the Baku city executive committee, the celebrations will continue throughout the day with fireworks held later in the evening. And this happens every year, including the year when just 10 days before the celebration, people died in one of the universities in Baku. Young men and their professors were shot but who cared?! Celebrations continued in their full even then. So nothing can stop Azerbaijani authorities from having their own fun, because at the end of the day, who cares about the rest...

"Moral Choice in Azerbaijan: “Flowers for Great Leader” or “National Mourning Day”?"

Moral Choice in Azerbaijan: “Flowers for Great Leader” or “National Mourning Day”?

By Emin Milli (Baku, Azerbaijan)

More than 2,000 students defied an unofficial ban on rallies in the city center of Baku on May 1 and gathered near the assaulted university with slogans “No to Terror!”, “No to Corruption!”, and “Declare National Mourning Day!”. Students are shocked with the terror act in the Oil Academy of Azerbaijan which destroyed lives of innocent students and teachers. The students said that if their demands are not met and mourning is not announced, they will gather to another mass demonstration on May 10. May 10 is the birthday of Azerbaijan’s late president Heydar Aliyev (father of the current president) and the government plans to celebrate a "Holiday of Flowers" on this day under the open air and near the same place. Government is refusing to declare mourning day and instead celebrates birthday of "savior of the nation" with the "Holiday of Flowers".

Is this humiliation ? Is this ignorance? Is this arrogance? Is this Ddsrespect of entire nation? Here is the video of the rally (on May 1):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3KyTslOP4E&feature=related 

Here are the pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1163062595047&f=1&e=-12#/note.php?note_id=78033758285&id=42755346715&ref=nf

(If you can not open page on facebook, then have a look at photos in attachment)

Fifteen million manats will be spent just in one day in times of financial crisis for flowers to glorify “the greatest leader of all times”. For comparison the government is planning to spend this year only 10 million manats to send students to study abroad.

Regime in Azerbaijan is on the road to its destiny. It reminds me of all the mistakes and mismanagement of the "safest political regimes" like those mentioned in the “State of Africa” book written by Martin Meredith:http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=69687976984 ,

 and also of the path of the last Shah of Iran: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDifaCVanaM&feature=PlayList&p=59D96999B552C4F4&index=0 )

May 10 will be another important moral choice for citizens of Azerbaijan and its current leadership. What will we choose?

(Feel free to send to everyone in your list and put it on blogs)