Azerbaijan continues to embarrass itself, and it is no longer funny

Few days ago, I received news that renowned British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney will represent the case of Khadija Ismayilova, Azerbaijan’s unlawfully jailed top investigative reporter at the European Court of Human Rights. Clooney together with Nani Jansen from the Media Legal Defense Initiative will act as Co-Council for Khadija and challenge the government of Azerbaijan on the grounds that Ismayilova’s extended pre-trial imprisonment violates the European convention. 

I was thrilled by the news. But I also knew that very soon pro government mouthpieces in Azerbaijan would start labeling Clooney and Jansen “Armenians” trying to damage the country’s international image as a country of tolerance, justice and thriving democracy. I also feared this would have an impact on my friend’s case. 

It didn’t take long before the theatrics unfolded. Trend.az, one of many puppet media outlets in Azerbaijan said, “A. Clooney is of Armenian dissent and represented Armenia before Swiss, Armenian, French and European Court of Human Rights on ‘Armenian genocide’. All the while “forgetting” to mention that Amal Ramzi Alamuddin was born in Beirut and that she moved to London together with her family during the civil war in Lebanon. 

Some of Amal Clooney’s high profile cases include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Yuliya Tymoshenko, and Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy- one of three Al-Jazeera journalists detained in Egypt and sentenced to 7 years. 

But the story on Trend.az does not mention any of that, nor did Azernews.az or many other outlets. “So, deeply committed to anti-Turkic ideals Amal Clooney now has taken to Azerbaijan, first to prove her loyalty to Armenian lobbyists and second, to undersign another big case without caring who wins”, bashed the article on Azernews. 

Refraining from bashing but sticking to Clooney’s work on the case of Armenia was also brought up in another local paper 525.az. 

This kind of slander is not uncommon in Azerbaijan. Often critics of the government get labeled various kinds of names and affiliations ranging from being Western agents to spies and last but not least traitors. Everyone who is critical of the government at home or abroad is an Armenian. In my recent piece for Open Democracy I tried illustrating how desperate the authorities in Azerbaijan are to cling to this naïve if not ridiculous accusation each time the country’s deteriorated democracy, human rights or freedom of expression record is spotted and criticized. 

So why continue sticking to this nonsense and endure embarrassment even further? This is merely a sign of weakness and inability to state facts indicating fragility not only of the whole system on which the government of Azerbaijan operates but also how biased if not completely feeble its apologists, media and advocates are. 

In the meantime, the European Court decided to prioritize two more of Khadija’s cases- the violation of privacy [secret camera footage] and the failure of the authorities to properly investigate and prosecute- according to Media Defense Initiative. 

Khadija also confirmed that prominent human rights lawyer will represent her case at the ECHR. Speaking to her lawyer Fariz Namazli Khadija said she agreed to Clooney’s offer because of her “courage” while defending Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy in 2014. 

Khadija Ismayilova was detained on December 5, 2014. Her original charge was her involvement in allegedly pushing a man to attempt suicide. But absurdity of these charges was so clear that even the authorities knew they could not keep Ismayilova in jail for long on this bogus accusation. After extending Ismayilova’s detention by additional two months, she was charged with a series of new “economic charges” ranging from tax evasion, to abuse of power and illegal entrepreneurship. In September 2015 Ismayilova was sentenced to 7.5 years in jail. 

But there was no attempt to suicide, nor were there any economic violations, these charges were the byproduct of the wild imagination of Azerbaijani officials afraid of Khadija’s work exposing government corruption in this small oil rich country. 

Perhaps, it is not surprising then that it is this wild imagination that keeps the country’s officials detached from the reality, stuck in a world of conspiracy theories and made up enemies all the while sticking to what they know and do best- humiliate, intimidate and silence.

Azerbaijan on mute

In Azerbaijan, the judicial system is a black hole. Rarely do cases get resolved. The judiciary is a corrupt institution with its judges scoring golden stars by their mere ruthless behavior in courts. And this is more so the case when it comes to Azerbaijan's political prisoners or as many international rights watchdogs call them, prisoners of conscience. 

Having a fair trial as a political prisoner in the country is unimaginable. They make you feel helpless no matter how many lawyers you have, no matter how much evidence there is that proves clearly you are innocent. 

Turns out there is more they can actually do to silence you. 

Recently the Ministry of Justice installed "glass cages" as opposed to normal holding cells installed inside the court rooms. The defendant has a microphone but its control is in the hands of the presiding judge.

And so, when the voice of Khadija Ismayil was "muted" during her preliminary hearing on October 15 it was not at all surprising. The judge clearly was not interested in her commentary and perhaps he was not interested in her case at all. Not only have they silenced her by putting her in jail on bogus charges, preventing her from doing her job as a journalist, but now they are trying to mute her completely, not even let her speak at the court. 

During Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunus preliminary hearing which also took place yesterday, their microphone was not even on so the couple had no idea what is being discussed inside the court room at all.

So where is tolerance in that? The tolerance that Mehriban Aliyeva was proudly boasting about just few weeks ago in Paris? Where is democracy in that? The one that President Aliyev talks about all the time? Where is respect for your own citizens?

There isn't one. The government of Azerbaijan has no tolerance or respect for its very own people. It treats them like animals, keeping them on a leash and feeds them propaganda and gets away with it just fine in an unjust system that only benefits those who are ready to suck up and lose their humanness or throw it down the toilet for comforts of life and Aliyev- style security.

Welcome to muted Azerbaijan ladies and gentleman.

Turns out not only they are fake but they are also aggressive

They can also beat you up, or break your camera or attack you with a broken bottle as we saw outside Khadija Ismayil's trial today (August 7). The absurdity of it all is unexplainable, I cannot put in words how bizarre all of this is. 

So remember the fake court attendants? Well turns out they are not so fake after all. They are listed in the directory of the court and get called in to "attend" the trials of those defendants whose hearings are likely to be quickly filled up with friends and colleagues. 

I remember attending the hearing of N!DA activists when I was in Baku. I also remember attending several times the hearing of the donkey bloggers. The rooms were almost always full with friends, colleagues, diplomatic staff and so on. 

People would cheer for the defendants, somehow raising their spirit I suppose or perhaps to comfort themselves - I did, I was happy to see them all alive each time, see them smile and wave at every familiar face they saw at the court. It is such a different world that it is also very hard to put down in words.

But this time it is all very different. 

Just like it was during the hearing of Leyla and Arif Yunus, many of the people who actually knew Khadija were left outside the court, waiting. 

One of the local journalist, former political prisoner himself said he was familiar with this phenomenon of fake attendants. They are on speed dial and often are invited to fill out the seats. They are also paid a dismal amount of 5 to 10AZN.

So when a group of these fake attendants were caught on cameras leaving the court room instinctively the local reporters jumped on the opportunity to ask who they were. After all, perhaps it was possible that Khadija had some very very very very distant relatives even she herself didn't know existed?! 

Turns out they were not the distant relatives nor were they in the mood for much talking. In fact a few of them were unhappy. So unhappy that they were ready to beat the crap out of the reporters who approached them in the first place asking questions about who they were and where they were coming from. 

Eventually one had his camera broken, the other almost had the same but managed to save himself. 

The optimist in me wants to think they were angry not because they were asked questions but because they were so deeply disappointed with the show trial and how badly it was organized that they just couldn't handle the anger and simply had to burst out at the journalists. But we all know this is not the case. 

Today we saw that our people are ready to sell themselves for some petty cash, sit in a court of a person they don't know, snap and yell at journalists they don't know and then get to walk away freely as if nothing happened and as if it was not a human life that they just watched the whole day inside that court room get unjustly accused of the crimes she never committed.  

I guess Aliyev deserves real pat on the shoulder for achieving this almost robot like thinking and the enmity of people towards each other. It is his way of ruling that forces people to the extremes and these fake attendants are just one example.

As for us, outside observers, all that is left is to watch, bite our nails and pointlessly yell at our screens as we watch yet another innocent life get silenced for truth.

Khadija Ismayil vs. President Aliyev: the chronology

The case of Khadija Ismayilova vs President Aliyev: chronology | Create infographics

As 2015 PEN Literary Gala & Free Expression Awards Begins few thoughts about Khadija

As Khadija receives the prestigious 2015 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award today and as she enters 6th month in pre-trial detention, I wanted to share with you an interview I had with her some seven years ago. Back then I didn't know her well. But I heard so much about Khadija that I had to meet her. Here is a little something to think, to get inspired from.

I have edited the interview.

Khadija Ismayilova- Chief of Bureau at Radio Azadliq
16.10.08

Khadija, a young, Azerbaijani woman, is one of the examples of working young women of Azerbaijan, and also keen supporter of democracy and human rights.

Our interview with Khadija took place at the radio’s office.

Khadija, was at the meeting when I came, she was wearing black pants and a pink shirt. She had short black hair and was wearing no make- up. Very friendly in her approach, she told me about her life, her professional career. She had to apologize for not having enough time for a longer interview as she had to get back to her work. It was busy, the presidential elections just took place the day before, and the radio did coverage of the whole day.
 

Background:

Khadija was born in 1976 in Baku to a family of well- educated parents. Her father was a high- ranking governmental official and her mother was an engineer. Both of her parents were from Baku. Her father passed away five years ago, it was a breaking point in her professional career but more about this further down. Khadija is one of the four kids, one brother and three sisters.

“I went to a normal, local school here in the capital. In 1992 I was accepted to Baku State University. It was the first year when the Ministry of Education introduced test based university entrance exams and I was the pilot child. I graduated from the department of Eastern Studies.

I was always a hard- working person. During the same year I started university I began working as a tutor- teaching neighborhood kids. I started working because our family’s economic conditions worsened, my dad was released off his duties with the new government and with three more kids in the family, someone had to help. But that didn’t stop me from going to school. You see it was always very important for my father and mother to educate us, especially my older sister and me. Because we always studied and were not interested in fashion, soap operas, going out, having boyfriends and etc.

Career:

Even while studying at university, Khadija was already interested in journalism.

“I always wrote, even my parents thought I was going to become a philologist but journalism was really what I wanted to do!”

In 1997, Khadija started working as a translator at Avrasya Qazeti (Euroasia Newspaper).

“In four months of my employment at the newspaper, I became a journalist and the director of the newspaper. In between I worked at Hurriyet (Freedom) newspaper. Then my grandmother got sick, so I had take care of her and stay with her at the hospital. So when I came back I was looking for another job (AG: She left Avrasya due to personal reasons)”. 

AG: How did your parents react?
KI: “Well, it wasn’t so much my parents but my brother who reacted. On my first day at work I came home really late, it was almost close to midnight. My brother told me that I wont be going to work the next day and that I should forget about it. But my brother never had a say in things I did, so I went to my dad for the second opinion (smiles). And my dad didn’t say anything negative at all. He was always very supportive”.

After leaving Avroasya, she began working at another newspaper, called Gunaydin as the director of Social department. She stayed there till 1998.

Then there was Uc Noqte (Three Dots), where she worked as the assistant of the director in 1999, Zerkalo newspaper in 2000, followed by Exo.  

“I have an interesting story about Zerkalo. You see in 2000, the director of the newspaper Zerkalo, Rauf Talishinski left with the whole team and I was part that of that team. So Rauf Talishinski created his own newspaper, called Exo. By 2003 the then- objective newspaper Exo, took a stand (pro- government), and this was when I decided to leave”.

After leaving Exo, Khadija, began her work at the Caspian Business News as a the director of the Russian and Azerbaijan department- she was translating the articles. In 2004, she became media program grant manager at IREX and about at the same began writing articles to Eurasia Foundation.

“In 2005, I worked in TACIS project as a PR consultant at the Investment Promotion Fund. And in 2006 I moved to states, to work at the Voice of America as a broadcaster for Azerbaijan service. I stayed with the Voice of America for one and a half years, then came back home.

By the time I returned I already held an invitation to teach at the International Center for Journalist as a Chief trainer. This was in September 2007, in July of 2008 I left teaching position to work as a chief of bureau at the Radio Azadliq”.
 

AG: wasn’t it hard to work in journalism, as I know that its quite gender segregated job here in our country?
KI: “To be honest, it was until my father passed away, about five years ago. Let me explain: there were always rumors (ses-sohbet) about us- female journalists. And so I was always cautious because I never wanted my dad to hear something about me even though it would have been a fake story. But when dad passed away, such things became so insignificant that I totally stopped caring, and once I did that all the rumors stopped as well. As if people understood that I didn’t care anymore and this was when I became bolder and more straight- forward. 

But I think its hard in our society, I mean its hard as a woman, especially if she works. There are so many expectations to fill, so many people to please. I live with my older sister for example. Both of them work but her husband sometimes makes me feel to break something on his head. You see when both of them come from work, he stops working, whereas she continues- cooking, getting the table ready, dishes, the kids’ homework and also her own work. He on the other hand, doesn’t even lift his finger. He expects these things. And when he sees that their child has missed on the homework or something is wrong he blames her for that. Saying that you spend so much time on that internet that you forget about your own family. Even though, the reason why she is on the internet is because she does research for her job since she is the head master on new teaching ways, material and etc.

Women in Azerbaijan are not allowed, those work are employed at lower positions, rarely you see a woman in higher job opposition, they are discriminated and this is sad”.

She apologizes and tells me that she really needs to get back to work.