How government of Azerbaijan educates its outspoken bloggers?

There are few things the government of Azerbaijan is really good at. Intimidation, pressure, crackdown on dissent and so on- are some of its signature moves. But there is more including arrests, beating and murder. 

But there is also the “ethical conversations” which take place between officials of Ministry of Internal Affairs (sometimes also by notorious Band Hotel) and the activists. Often they disappear for some time while the Ministry staff "works on" what Russians would describe as “vospitaniye” [воспитание] which translates into “education” but doesn’t really do justice to the actual meaning of its word (although if you think of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" you would get a better idea). 

They “explain” and “talk sense” into these men that what they are doing is essentially wrong and they should not be complaining, creating noise, and disagreeing with what government says and does. 

This time, the representatives of Ministry of Internal Affairs were trying to talk sense into a young blogger, Khalid Khanlarov. The young man was arrested few days ago and sentenced to 25 days in administrative detention for resisting police on January 23. 

Khanlarov was administrator of a popular Facebook page “Ditdili” that was critical of the government. And so it is obvious that it wasn’t him resisting the police but the authorities resisting Khanlarov’s outspokenness. 

His lawyer Shahla Humbatova says her client was forced to write a confession and in return he was given the 25 days otherwise she says he was threatened with 6-7 years sentence. 

Khanlarov’s mother was also called into the police. “Your son will meet a man named Farid from Ministry of Internal Affairs”, said the deputy chief to Khanlarov’s mother during the meeting. Later, Khanlarov speaking to his mother told her this meeting, where he was “educated”. After that he was taken to police station no.4 in Binagadi district from where he was taken to the court and received the 25 days sentence. 

So just fyi- it isn't just glitzy events Aliyevistan is good at while hiding the rest of the truth behind high walls [aka belt of happiness], when it comes to muting dissent, it can make money off consulting others how to do this best. 

Defamation against one evil cat- the Internet

Turns out, there exists one very evil cat- the Internet. And its punishment is a new priority for Azerbaijani authorities. According [AZ] to the Director of social- political committee Ali Hasanov "Up until now, Internet has been like a homeless cat, overstepping every boundary, trespassing and no one could face it? Why?!"

"How is it possible that a journalist writing for a paper with a readership of some 10,000 people [probably referring to opposition papers, though I am pretty sure most of our pro- state papers don't have more readership either] is responsible for an article he/she writes but nobody is responsible for the information read on the Internet by 3million or 10million people. This cannot be possible, this is really "lawlesness" ["bespredel"]". 

Interesting- I wonder if Ali Hasanov intends to monitor and control most if not all of the cyberspace. Who knows?! What we do know is Azerbaijan's current population stands at approximately 9.4million. The total percentage of those even with an access varies depending on which source you look at- state vs. independent. The State Fund for the Development of IT under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies (MCIT) reports 48% of computer use and 65% of Internet use in the country in 2011. Now these are pretty high indicators when compared to the data provided by the Caucasus Research Resource Center's (CRRC) Caucasus Barometer. In their calculations, the center reports the following (for the year of 2012):

• - 59% of Azerbaijanis never used Internet;
• - 12% of Azerbaijanis didn't know what Internet was [as a result of lack of education and information there are few directions in the understanding of what Internet is, ranging from open access to online port and unethical behavior to unnecessary tool, to the evil of all evils and etc.- I should mention that the "innovative" understanding of Internet becomes worse in regions of the country];
• - 19% of Azerbaijanis used Internet once a week or more;
• - 7% of Azerbaijanis used Internet once a month or less;

Now back to Mr. Hasanov. So if we take these statistics into account, either Mr. Hasanov thinks Azerbaijan has bigger population, or knows something what we don't know at all. Which would explain the sudden and wide gap between the 3million and 10million people reference. And well, the access to and use of Internet is a whole different thing. Oh and then there is the gender factor- majority of Internet users in Azerbaijan are men. It is considered an act of shame to walk into an Internet cafe somewhere in a village as a girl- who will marry her then?! Because that is a bigger and more important question...

So, beware the dangerous, bad cat, Ali Hasanov is after you!

To read more about the Defamation Law, visit here.

 

More members of N!DA arrested today

Two more members of N!DA Civic Movement were arrested today. Rashadat Akhundov and Uzeyir Mammedli were accused under article 228.3 of the Criminal Code for firearm violations. They too like other previously arrested members of the movement are facing between 5 to 8 years of imprisonment. 

For more updates follow here and here.

Pledging legions in Azerbaijaniwood?

Her brain might be shrinking and her heart might be crushing, but she continues to pledge her loyalty to the government. Sounds like some Hollywood movie?! Well then, welcome to Azerbaijaniwood an all inclusive heaven on earth. 

During most recent meetings with Guler Ahmadova (Gulergate scandal might ring a bell) her lawyer who also turns out to be a doctor on call said Ms. Ahmadova suffers from "increased heart ache and brain shrinkage (???)". Her lawyer complained that despite her health issues, she still hasn't seen a doctor to which instead of complaining, the ex- parliament member only said full of dignity- her loyalty to the government is eternal, even if that means living on with a failing heart and a shrinking brain. 

Speaking of shrinking brains, I looked it up, and unless Guler Ahmadova is suffering from cerebral atrophy (related to "shrinking brain" disorder), which given no earlier reports on that, she (and so are we) good to go. Especially now that her appeal was rejected.