Burton's wild imagination

Nah, unfortunately it wont be Tim Burton I will be writing about. Although I wish it was. Its easier to write about true artists and talented people than about people who pretend to be knowledgeable and say some very strange things about places, people, and issues they don't really know much about (or worse, are paid to say or write). 

So here is another Burton, Dan Burton, a former Republican member of U.S. House of representatives from Indiana. 

Mr. Burton recently wrote a piece about Azerbaijan, giving it a catchy title "Why Azerbaijan is important to America and the free world?"

Turns out former Republican member knows this super great, amazing country - Azerbaijan - but thats the problem you see. There is no such Azerbaijan Burton is writing of. And here is why. 

In his piece Burton describes Azerbaijan as a country committed to religious tolerance and understanding. Hmm... Is this why few religious figures are sitting in jail? And which understanding? I am guessing just because we have some churches and synagogue its a sign of understanding? 

Moving forward, Burton writes "Tolerance in Azerbaijan is an example to the entire world". Oh my! well thats something. If the entire world would take the "tolerance" exercised in Azerbaijan as an example then sooner than later there will be more people in jail (arrested on bogus charges of course); there will be no free media left (bought by the government or ready to suck up at any cost); rampant corruption; abuse of human rights and crackdown over free voices. 

As Burton writes "Azerbaijan has taken impressive steps in just 23 years" - well if you mean mastering the crackdown, corruption, and failing at building a democracy then yes, impressive indeed! Azerbaijan has taken impressive steps in building up fear; in discouraging its own citizens; in failing at providing equal, fair and top quality education across the country; in failing to provide basic services and care of its own people! This is no big news, all it takes is visiting few villages outside of Baku Mr. Burton and you will see how "Far" and "impressive" the country has come. 

There is also something about economy too. "The economy is robust, and economic policies are aimed at improving the lives of citizens", well this is some statement. Which robust economy are we talking about here?! The one that depends solely on energy resources? Or the one that has failed so far at making this country a place where living standards are high, where people actually live and have a normal life (and don't give me that World Bank report conclusions please)! Of course this does not suit the government, why would it?! If Aliyev's cronies and himself remotely ever considered improving the lives of citizens (as Mr. Burton notes) well neither Aliyev nor his cronies would be in power right now. 

But there were few more things that really made me laugh - responsible free markets and gender equality. 

There is no such thing as free economy in Azerbaijan let alone responsible! Its all a monopoly of goods and businesses owned by very powerful men (yes men not women mind you) and of course government officials and the all mighty, his holy highness Mr. Aliyev himself.

And about that gender equality - there isn't much of it. Just because women were given a right to vote before the United States it doesn't mean women are equal in Azerbaijan. They have to fight for their rights harder, they have to prove themselves (if they ever get a chance), they have to keep on fighting to have an independent life and no, they do not get to choose often as decisions are made for them. Have you met powerful female government officials? And no, the head of the State Committee for Women, Family and Children does not count! 

So next time someone writes an apologetic piece about how great Azerbaijan is, make your research, visit the country, talk to the locals (and I mean really go and talk to the locals) and then its really up to you and your conscience. Just for the record, pieces as these do more harm for the people in this country not to mention the political prisoners, human rights defenders sentenced on bogus charges by the very same government people like Burton praise and are ready to lay.  

Oh and I just learned that Burton isn't just a former Republican member of U.S. House of representatives. He is also the chairman of the Azerbaijan America Alliance - an organization with a big name and just as big and generous of a pocket when it comes to "promoting" interests of Azerbaijan in "certain circles" and headed by the son of one of the corrupted minsters of Azerbaijan, Anar Mammadov.   

Azerbaijan a country where gazelles and leopards are more valuable than its people

So Azerbaijani First Lady together with her two daughters attends "Here Today" exhibition in London last week. The exhibition "takes on the challenge of raising awareness of today's most pressing environmental issues, and seeks to raise funds to keep the hundreds of species facing extinction here tomorrow and beyond" reads the explanation on the official website. 

Supported by Artwise [Curators] who" take pride in delivering art of the highest quality in a professional manner" and glossy Baku Magazine  (managed by one of the President's daughters) the exhibition received a lot of coverage back in Azerbaijan. How could it not?! With the First Lady and the two daughters there not sure it could have been otherwise (not to mention one of Leyla Aliyeva's works was also featured at the exhibition). 

In her opening speech, daughter Leyla Aliyeva said, "In Azerbaijan, we enlighten the youth on protection of the environment". I wonder if Ms. Aliyeva is aware but in Azerbaijan people prefer throwing trash as they walk on the streets rather than use rubbish bins. And its all over the country done by young and old.  So I am not sure which "youth" she refers to because majority of it doesn't care much about environment. 

As to preserving endangered species and what not, I think our government should focus on preserving its respect towards human rights and freedom of expression, release its political prisoners first. Otherwise it really looks like gazelles and Caucasian leopards are a lot more precious than a human life. Maybe this could be IDEA's next project. I am sure daddy and mommy would approve...

Congratulations! We made it to Obama's speech (despite the stutter)

Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative Forum, President Obama named some of the most notorious countries for their crackdown on free speech and media. 

Azerbaijan too made that list, despite President Obama's stutter. So what?! Apparently, others [RU] in Azerbaijan took it as their responsibility to poke fun at this incident. Which for some if not many, probably went unnoticed. 

But all these jokes and what not are besides the actual point - Azerbaijani government cracks down on independent non-governmental organizations, individuals and journalists on an on-going basis. And no matter what our beloved government officials say to our media (none of which is free by the way) its the opposite. In fact, its like a game - whatever they say, always think the opposite. So if you hear somewhere our officials say we have freedom of speech guaranteed and rule of law provided, just think the opposite times a 100 because in reality the situation is always much worse. 

The battle of words goes on

Following the publication of the following piece in Washingpost about Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev and the most recent crackdown on the supporters of free speech and democracy in the country it didn’t take long for the official response to come through.

Commenting on the allegations explained at length in the article (including the trumped up charges brought up against Leyla and Arif Yunus), Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Washington D.C. Elin Suleymanov said it wasn’t as simple as that. “The merit of charges against Leyla and Arif Yunus should be determined by the legal system in Azerbaijan, not by political campaigns. The detention could have been avoided had they responded to the repeated summons to testify in an ongoing investigation. Instead […] they rejected any interaction with law enforcement officials”. Perhaps if Mr. Suleymanov was prevented from leaving the country on one of his trips without any explanation he’d think differently. Until then, his response should come as no surprise.

In his letter to editorial of Washington Post, Richard Kauzlarich, who was US Ambassador to Azerbaijan between 1994 and 1997 wrote a timely response to Ambassador Suleymanov: “The ambassador did not address the bogus charges of spying for Armenia made against Leyla and Arif Yunus, the fact that Mrs. Yunus is being denied medicines and medical treatment or the fact that there are dozens of other political prisoners being detained or imprisoned in Azerbaijani jails”.

The truth of the matter is everyone including Ambassador Suleymanov is aware that the on-going crackdown is unjustified. And more than anything it makes the government of Azerbaijan look weak – if this was a confident leadership the country would have no political prisoners in jail or any other problems with freedom of speech or human rights as a matter of fact.

As for public diplomacy and the role people like Yunuses play in the on-going track two discussions instead of belittling, some gratitude would be much appreciated. Especially as Ambassador Kauzlarich rightly notes, “neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan has demonstrated a commitment to the Minsk Group framework because neither side is prepared to make the compromises necessary to achieve the peaceful resolution of this conflict”.

CIA agent!

There are many things that keep on surprising me about Azerbaijan and its keen hard-working trolls (or whoever these folks are) to say everything that comes to their troll-minds about those who tend to have a different opinion from them. 

So in the past few years, I have been called many things- ranging from so-so to bad and to terrible. At first it gets to you. Then although you end up developing a stamina for it it still bothers you. After a while, it becomes funny although in a tragic and dramatic sense. 

When I received this tweet this morning, I laughed because obviously this guy have completely lost his mind (unless of course there never was on in place). 

@arzugeybulla @gkates CİA agentiyle birlikte amerika jurnalistasının yetirməsisinizmi ?
— قورقوت أشرف BAKU (@TSOKUMAE) August 13, 2014

Perhaps its going to be a disappointment to you mr. @TSOKUMAE who has only 23 followers but no, I am not a CIA agent and no, I am not the prodigy of some American Journalism- not sure what that was supposed to mean anyway. 

All I could say is good luck with your work and endeavors- I am sure you are going to make one professional troll one day.

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...

Surreal Azerbaijan

Amid all the bad news coming from home, seeing this tweet on my feed felt surreal today. Really? Golf? Tournament? While innocent people are convicted on trumped up charges, others will be golfing. If it ain't surreal then what is it?! This is how pretty much things are in Azerbaijan. While some suffer, others enjoy the suffering and indulge themselves in surrealism of 21st century prospering Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan Golf Federation preparing for international tournament  http://t.co/Y1U71N2MVp #azerbaijan
— News.Az (@news_az) July 21, 2014

Aliyev did it! Azerbaijan takes over Council of Europe's Chairmanship

Indeed, he did it! Azerbaijan took over Council of Europe's chairmanship for the course of the next 6 months while most of its members remained silent! The taste of caviar is sweet isn't it?! 

According to Reporters Without Borders, Azerbaijan takes over the chairmanship with the worst press freedom record of other 47 member states. 

So much for bastions of democracy, free speech and human rights! 

The reality of politics is harsh and Azerbaijan is a perfect example. It plays the game just the way it wants because there are no honest judges left in the game. 

For the apologists of Azerbaijan's regime

Dear apologist, the video (below) is from the country you call a democracy, you call a partner, you speak of highly at meetings and events. This is from a country where 8 young innocent men were sentenced on trumped up charges for just believing in values of freedom, equality, for wanting Azerbaijan to be a true democracy and not a democracy served on a golden platter full of caviar, which you don't mind shoving in your face.

Dear international actors who have been looking the other way. You called our recent elections free and fair, you have raised no voice when honest people were put in jail. You remain silent to the daily struggles of citizens, because you get what you need in return- the resources to keep your people safe and warm. 

Dear government official, you have done your job well. You have silenced continuously those you want to be silenced. You intimidate those who are free. You instill fear in your people. You have chained your very own people and you have sucked up all the life out of them- you have created a country of robots and soulless individuals, brainwashed, afraid, not free. You have skillfully blackmailed, detained, murdered, jailed, and yet you are still considered a democracy abroad by any of your apologists (who you keep well fed, similar to brainwashing but the other way around). You have released those who belong in jail, and you have arrested those who believe in something bigger.

So, what does today leave us with... Crushed hopes, devastated families, mothers and fathers in despair, but not to worry we still have plenty of apologists of Azerbaijan who don't give a damn thing about the country's people and their chewed up rights. Oh and a country taking over the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Way to go! Just sit there, silently, watching the country's free thinkers suffocate. 

N!DA

They are on their 9th day of hunger strike.

Not enough, never enough

We all know by now, that Azerbaijani authorities have a mind of their own- they come after freedom fighters, proponents of free speech, advocates of rights, opposition, youth- whoever they deem "unfit" to their typical soldier. Not only do they come after them but they sentence them under false pretenses- hooligans, drug possession, illegal arms possession, you name it. But when I read today of an underground theater shut down in Baku I realized once again- there is never a limit to what our authorities want, it is simply never enough for them! On November 23rd, the local police shut down the basement where an independent "Oda" theater recently moved. According to this article, police informed the theater actors that the local residents of the building complained of loud noise overheard during the practices. While its actors were released after giving their statements at the police station, the keys to the theater remained with the police.

So now we can add independent theaters too to the long list of "disliked" professions... I wonder how these things are decided? Someone gets up on a wrong foot in the morning, and after a short eeny, meeny, miny, moe game, a decision is made. Today it was the theater. Tomorrow it will be someone else. 

Not only has the police violated a number of constitutional provisions- private property protection, freedom to recreate, personal freedoms and more but it remains to be seen what will come out of this- probably not much. The theater will remain closed, and its actors will have to think of a new place, and maybe even a new name. 

The unlimited power will do this to you... Eventually you lose track of reality and yourself.

Azerbaijan: Suits, uniforms, body ache

On March 10^th, Azerbaijani citizens came together to protest the deaths of military conscripts. Many held the photographs of a deceased young soldier, an 18-year-old conscript Ceyhun Gubadov whose initial death report said the young man died of a heart failure. The young man however was the victim of physical mistreatment. Gubadov wasn’t the first, nor is he the last conscript to lose a life in suspicious, undefined circumstances (most often hazing and abuse), which usually are covered by fake medical reports.  

Police ordered demonstrators to disperse given the rally was unsanctioned. Men in uniforms and plain clothed police however resorted to violence quickly using water cannons, rubber bullets and force in an attempt to scare the protestors. 

The poem below is about my emotions and feelings- what came out as a result of recent events at home. 

"suits and uniforms"

Making up your mind

Waking up to the reality

Slowing down the pace

Of life, of yet another sanity

I’m suffocating

These men in suits and uniforms

They mutilate me

Not physically but mentally

My body aches

From mental wounds

From their insanity

They are killing me

Gradually

They are suffocating me

Slowly

They mutilate me

Reducing living cells

Of my lucidity

I reach the point

In my life

When questioning the “suits” and “uniforms”

Makes no more sense

As they are senseless

They are still

Not physically but mentally

They hurt, they suffocate

Both physically and mentally

They say it’ll pass

But when and how

And will my body, mind and soul

Keep up the fight

The struggle

And find the strength

To see the light and day

When men in suits and uniforms no longer there

To mutilate and suffocate

To let me go

To let us go

To live a life

No longer scared,

No longer hurt

But that’s a dream,

Too far from the reality

And as I wake up

And see reality

My body aches

Not physically but mentally

And once again

I start to lose my sanity

Magic in the air- or will Ilham Aliyev trick European politicians all over again

Of course I am not talking about flying men on a stage, or colorful and endless little handkerchiefs coming out of one's pocket. This is actually about a well- known trick of a white rabbit. You know- one minute rabbit is there, and then bam and rabbit is gone. 

This time, the trick will be performed by no other but Ilham Aliyev- the authoritarian President of Azerbaijan.  His audience will be the Council of Europe. The question is will the CoE nod in unison and rise to their feet to loudly applause His Excellency Aliyev or will they actually understand they are being tricked? 

We'll see as PACE decides today on the definition of the term political prisoner. I am keeping my fingers crossed and so are the many of the journalists, bloggers, advocates and organizers at home. You see, its actually very simple. We care about our future, the future of our country and the future of the generations to come! We care about our present! We care about the people who think freely and are not afraid to show this! I care for my country's future! The please do care too! 

And of course, what prompted me to write this post was this brilliant story told in pictures by European Stability Initiative - Ilham the Magician and the Council of Europe. Must see!

Hunger Games and Aliyev Regime

Source: Google Images

What does one of the recent bestseller trilogies and Azerbaijan's well known human rights tyrant Aliyev have in common? Well, don't you think it's already obvious by the first sentence of this post? If not then let me draw some parallels here so as not to leave anyone in the dark...
 

For those of you who have already read the books would know what I mean if I say- Capitol, Panem, President Snow and districts. For those who haven't read the book here is a short scoop- Capitol is the "capital" of what was once upon a time somewhere in North America. "Panem" is the nation that lives in the Capitol and other districts. And President Snow is the tyrant/dictator ruling the whole of Panem. Now without spoiling the book or the story let me go back to the connection. 

As you already guessed- President Snow is no other but Ilham Aliyev. Capitol and Panem- well that's easy to figure out. And just like in Capitol where people live lavish life styles (not all but enough, where life moves at its paste, where buildings are high and sky is the limit) Baku fits the description just fine. But what is really extraordinary (I gotta' tip my hat off to the author) is the similarity of the ways in which President Snow and President Aliyev especially when it came to punishing, humiliating and what is more alarming- killing the dissidents and those who protested the system operated- cold blooded, threatening and uncanny. 

And of course, the "Hunger Games" are daily challenges Azerbaijani people have to face- dealing with violence (especially during rallies), being beaten up by the police (instead of tributes, though in our case, we might as well call our police forces some kind of special tributes, like the challenges and mayhem that would be introduced during the games by those who run the games from their computers). Of course there is less blood (at least visible one, though if we look at most recent cases of journalists and human rights advocates being beaten this might no longer be the case) and murder but overall, the parallel is there. In fact, they way individual districts are described (coal, miners, agriculture, iron and etc.) fits our regional districts, starving people (more or less as salaries are low and prices are high, agitated and strict police reporting to the capital and doing whatever it basically wants, should I go on? No, I think I will stop here for now... 

Now, the only thing missing in this parallel is the hero of the book, or the heroes of the book- the Mockingjay, Gale, Peeta and others. Unfortunately there ain't no Mockingjay in Azerbaijan but maybe one day we'll have one too- come out of its ashes, "the bird who was on fire". Who knows... For now however, we'll just have to do with what we have- President Snow/Aliyev, Capitol/Baku, Panem/Azerbaijanis. 

 

Azerbaijani lawyer disbarred from national bar association

Azerbaijani authorities are on a mission- to narrow down (and most probably complete removal) the circle of free voices by using a number of many different ways- detention, false charges, beating and what not. They don't really care whom they sack, as long as the mission is accomplished, they are happy and can to bed with one less person to handle. The list might be getting shorter but frustration ain't going anywhere. 

A prominent defense attorney, Osman Kazimov was disbarred from Azerbaijan's National Bar Association. His expulsion was requested by the First Deputy Attorney General Rustam Usubov when 'Kazimov and his client refused to sign record of deposition claiming that the statements in that record were altered and did not represent what the defendant had told the investigator during the interrogation' reports AzeriReport. Kazimov is known for defending Nuri, Ruslan, Bahirli and Ramin Taghiyev in 2006, who were charged with an attempt to overthrow the government following contested parliamentary elections held in Azerbaijan. 

Read the following article for more info on Osman Kazimov.

Those high walls, carefully built around authorities will eventually fall, nothing is eternal. The question is what is going to happen then...