Alley Oop!

It is depressing. Reading news from Azerbaijan is depressing. Hearing terrible stories about detentions, arrests, kidnappings is depressing. Hearing government officials lie despite of everything that is going on is depressing. Hearing new human rights activists and advocates being barred from leaving the country is depressing. Hearing bank accounts being frozen is depressing. 

How easy it has become to kidnap people in Azerbaijan? 

How simple one can accuse someone of fraudulent engagements when the whole government is in nothing else but fraudulent.

Perhaps we don't even have to aim so high. Take any school, or a university for that matter in Azerbaijan. Look at the level of corruption there?! We have doctors with bought diplomas for Gods sake?! Do you know what this means?! That we have no future! Or we have a very depressing future ahead. 

It is depressing. Sometimes I cannot even stomach it. How can it be so easy. It just happens. Alley oop and all of a sudden you can land in jail. Alley oop and you are a drug addict. Alley oop, and you are a traitor.

But this is not a circus. Its all real. And its real people who are punished. Yes, punished! For speaking their mind, for being open minded, for embracing (or at least wanting to) a future that is not DEPRESSING!

And why? Because someone is not comfortable, someone needs to have the constant state of fear installed in such a way that it only needs an occasional update, like today, chuck few people in jail, freeze few more accounts and there you have it.  No need for an update until the pretrial detention times run out and then a new update is needed. Another alley oop and there, you have it- another innocent man or a woman in behind bars, or threatened, or blackmailed. Doesn't matter as long as the end goal is clear- more fear!

And its everyone. Everyone must live in fear. Activists, their family members, their friends, their distant family, and distant friends. 

You see what I mean! It is just depressing...

Who to blame when there is no one left to blame?

Emil Agazade is the head of media department at the European Azerbaijani Society. For those of you who don't know of this organization, let me enlighten you here for a second. EAS is a well known lobby organization based originally in London, but now with operating offices in Brussels, Paris, Berlin and Baku. They do a myriad of activities but you could read more about their orientation so to say from their homepage.

Now back to Mr. Agazade who appeared here bashing the International community for bashing Azerbaijan in return. In his "touching" piece, he wrote that blaming such a young democracy for its shortcomings is ridiculous especially when we have Armenia and the on-going war on the one hand and mother Russia walking in our footsteps on the other. Don't know about you, but that left me scratching my head. Basically, it all boils down to this: we don't have a democracy, free and fair elections, respect for human rights and free media, because we have an evil neighbor, that is fighting us and then there is this big brother too watching over our shoulder and not letting us do what a democracy should. 

So instead of being better we simply arrest journalists, blackmail them, crush voices of dissent and tell the whole world that we are as good as gets and that Europe and the rest of the critical eyes prying over us, should mind their own business and look at their own so called "democracies" which are not really democracies but wanna- be democracies. 

And one last thing, even if take the argument that there are no true democracies in the world (according to Mr. Agazade) as given, it doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't be the first. Why not?! Oh well, we all know an answer to this, because its easier this way, because its easier to rest the blame on someone else instead of us. Its easier to divert the attention. I am just curious, how much longer, this blame thing, or whatever it is, is going to continue. How much longer, will Armenia, Russia, Europe or whoever, is going to be responsible for all the violations, allegations, intrusions and blasphemy? Who are you going to blame, when there is no one left to blame?