Dispatches from Azerbaijan: European Parliament is bad, Mogherini is good, and more

Reading news feed from this morning, there was too much goodness not to share so in case you are sucker for real "good" news from Azerbaijan I suggest you stop reading right away. 

N!DA activists 

Let's start from two youth activists, members of N!DA movement who were detained May 10 and later charged with drug possession, after being beaten and tortured in detention. On June 2, while Amnesty International recognized Giyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mammadov as "prisoners of conscience", the two despite it being almost a month are yet to see their families. Their lawyer thinks it is probably because police is trying to make sure their wounds have healed so their parents cannot spot how heavily they have been tortured or simply a way to pressure the young men. 

Mehdiyev's second diatribe 

Its been a while since last diatribe from the head of the Presidential Apparatus, Ramiz Mehdiyev. The last time he published a 60 page article, it was beginning of unprecedented crackdown [December 2014]. Then he wrote about western colonialism, lambasting Western players, in particular the US of double standards, biased approach and anti-Azerbaijan sentiment. This time [az], Mehdiyev wrote about West establishing world domination. He then goes into arguing that the only strong state system is possibly only in presidential administration system. According to Mehdiyev, it is the IMF, WB, WTO and other financial institutions that are directly responsible for violating state sovereignty [wonder if the man is out of touch with his people, because he does not seem to be objecting the government borrowing money from these institutions for various projects and initiatives]. 

But looks like it wasn't just Mehdiyev who decided to bash some "Westerners" this week. 

Ilham Aliyev on fire, but wrong time and wrong place 

 

Next in line for bashing was European Parliament. This time it was President Aliyev who was critical. "The adoption of unfounded resolutions full if insults served to cut Azerbaijani ties with the EP", said the president in a meeting with Norica Nicolai [Vice-Chair of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament, Eastern Partnership rapporteur for Azerbaijan] and Iveta Grigule [member of the European Parliament]. President Aliyev accused the president and vice president of the European Parliament of being part of anti-Azerbaijan forces. But not to worry because Norica Nicolai doesn't really respect people's rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan. She was one of the delegation members who traveled to Azerbaijan to observe Presidential elections in 2013 who issued a positive report in contrast to ODIHR. Nicolai was also featured in European Stability Initiative's report "Disgraced: Azerbaijan and the end of election monitoring as we know it". 

In 2015, Nicolai published an article where she wrote: 

It is also a country in a very delicate, yet so far stable, political situation. Dealing with its government has to be done according to local cultural customs and whatever action has to be backed with concrete policies. In other words, carrots are more useful than sticks in this region of the world. Sending their Government critical resolutions from the EP every year, without actually giving them any real reason to listen is at best, a pointless exercise.

Wondering what she meant by "local cultural customs". Perhaps the customs of violating elections and silencing critics? Maybe I get to ask this question to Ms. Nicolai when I get a chance to meet her in person but for now, lets assume her only best intentions. 

So Ilham Aliyev bashing EP to Nicolai and Grigule, who by the way happens to be no accidental guest and is also known for supporting Aliyev, wasn't really about bashing and more about wining. 

If you haven't had enough and still want more depressing news from Azerbaijan then I suggest watching this video. It is in Russian but it is about the detention and torture of two N!DA activists.  

But do not worry if even after that you still care to read a bit more, there is plenty of depressing news every day, just stay tuned, and I as always be sharing more with you here.

"Azerbaijan: Freedom of Expression under Fire"

The video below is featured on Freedom House page, under the section covering the organization's most recent report on Azerbaijan: "Azerbaijan: Freedom of Expression under Fire". It is the end product of a three day mission organized by the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan's freedom of expression held in September of last year. 

I came across this video as I was updating another report on the situation of freedom of association and assembly in Azerbaijan. 

The report, 

[...] details many challenges that Azerbaijan's bloggers and journalists must endure to carry out their work, including hurdles both legal and societal; critical reporting can lead to prison time; journalists have also been victims of violence, while perpetrators    go unpunished.  

The report is also available in Azerbaijani and the summary of findings are available in Russian. 

Democracy facing tough challenges under the current Azeri government

The following posting contains excerpts from a recent publication by a think tank group affiliated with an independent news agency in Baku.

"During the first five year tenure of President Aliyev, democracy, human rights and the media freedom have suffered a big setback. Despite constitutional norms, Azerbaijan has been dismantling key democratic principles".

The report also states that in contrast to late President Heydar Aliyev, the current President (his son) Ilham Aliyev, has been departing from principles of European values turning the country into "depoliticized, homogenous, one- dimensional society controlled by permanent 'caste of the selected'".

In addition, while Ilham Aliyev, might take the credit for the highest economic growth (in the world: in 2006, Azerbaijan's GDP amounted to 34.5% growth) the country witnessed starting in  2005, it is not his trophy to claim, as the 'seeds' of this 'black fruit' were planted during his fathers' times back in the 90s, when the famous (or infamous) "contract of the century" was signed (1994) between Azerbaijan state oil company and foreign international oil companies (BP, Amoko, Statoil, Lukoil and others).

But not to deviate from the subject, one doesn't need to ponder upon how Democratic Azerbaijan is. Simply check out Freedom House rankings of Azerbaijan (2007), and you will see that this country is nowhere near to a democracy, let alone its values (Azerbaijan ranks 6 in political rights, 5 in civil liberties, non free in status, 6 in national democratic governance and 6.25 in corruption- the scale 1-7: 1 being a good system and  7 being the worst).

And now, with recent constitutional changes regarding the election of the president (according to Azerbaijan constitution an individual running for the presidency could not be elected more than twice- not anymore) and the extension of the presidential term to 7 years, it no longer makes sense to even ask the question of whether Azerbaijan ever be a democracy. It is pointless to talk about democracy and democratic values in a country where the state and its officials don't even know what a democracy means anyway...