Azerbaijan, the land where parents denounce their children: Thank you Mr. President! You have done your job here!

Just when you think it cannot get any more worse, this [AZ] happens. Allow to explain for those who do not understand and speak Azerbaijani. Gunel Movlud is an Azerbaijani writer. She has an incredible talent for nailing down the right words in her writing. She is smart. She is also an editor of Meydan TV, media outlet started by a former political prisoner himself, Emin Milli. In the last few months, Meydan TV faced a number of issues with the government- its journalists were persecuted, several of them questioned at the grave crimes unit. One of Meydan TV journalists was thrown into 30 day administrative detention for allegedly "swearing at the police". 

Gunel's story is unique however. Based outside of Azerbaijan she has continued her work from afar. Some two weeks ago two of her older brothers were arrested at the same time in two different towns. They are charged with drug charges and are facing possible 3-5 years of jail time if convicted. 

Yesterday [October 21], Gunel Movlud's mother Shofkat Shafiyeva told BBC Azeri service she is denouncing her daughter. "If my daughter won't denounce Meydan TV, then I am denouncing her" said the mother to BBC Azeri service. 

But Gunel Movlud is determined to continue her work and she has not intentions of stopping her cooperating with Meydan TV. 

On her Facebook status right after her brother's arrest she wrote the following: 

"Friends, I do not want to talk much about what has happened. Even a child would understand these arrests are targeting Meydan TV. They don't want anyone to work with Meydan. They are using relatives to pressure. But I won't give up my work with Meydan TV, or with Emin [Milli]. I will not distance myself from the people who work with Meydan. The arrest of my two brothers left my parents who are both battling with their health to death. Yes, I am afraid, of my family, my child, of my family getting ruined this way, of my life, of the life of my relatives. They can do anything. I am afraid and fear is absolutely normal. But I will continue my work even if I am afraid. This is not a sign of some bravery. It is just I cannot see myself live a different life. It has been a long time since I have completely removed the "and" in "life and activity/work" without even knowing it. Those who cannot keep silent will continue to speak up. With love to all people with dignity!"

Number eight

Dedicated to 8 young men currently facing jail time. For what? For speaking their mind! For being young and for doing what they believe in! They have been on a hunger strike as a sign of protest but it has done little to change the wicked orders. This is yet another disgusting attempt by the authorities to silence the country's future- its youth.

***

why do you hate?

for what, oh please be kind and reiterate

and please tell me there is an expiration date

on that deep, disgusting hate!

is it for freedom of one's mind?

or your jealousy of an existence of such mankind?

don't worry the day will come for you to find

the punishment for suffering you've mastermind

but till then lets evaluate your hate

oh yes, that's filthy, gross and nasty state

so let's begin with who you are?

a snake? awaiting for your bait?

that sounds just about right

a snake-that bites at day and night

who else you are?

no, no, you are a madman sucked in hate

and all you care about is large estate

living a life in that presumptuous state

you are a truly snake, with venom ready not just for 8

despite you knowing their innocence

you bite right through them without any wait

just like a vicious snake would readily disarm its bate

but not to worry, there is a cure even for your hate

there is this thing called justice gate

and soon you too will hit its door

and there you'll see the sadness you've deplored

the pain you have imposed upon

the lies you've fed, not once

and not just to innocent number 8

but to the millions of this country's men

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!

Why new media and social networks are only tools

This has been argued by many, so I wont be telling something completely new here. And yes, I do therefore agree with Evgeny Morozov too and his "Net Delusion: the dark side of internet freedom" book. 

I would say that by now, many would agree that especially in dictatorial regimes, social media can and is used by these very regimes to "retaliate" its own activists for the sake of "greater good".

But I wont be going into too many details with my personal thoughts on this this time and would like to share here instead an interesting post from Rationalinsurgent's blog titled "Regimes can exploit social media too" that pretty much sums it up perfectly. And here is even a teaser for you from that post:

Authoritarian regimes are crafty. They have lots of resources at their disposal, and they think strategically about the best way to use those resources to restore "calm" (read: maintain power).

And now, its time to crush NGOs

So, I was meaning to write a post about recent developments in Azerbaijan, but I was putting it off, first because I was traveling and then because I got robbed and the feeling of anger, annoyance, fright, and everything that comes with the robbery that takes place while you are asleep in your own house and someone you don't know breaks in, walks around your house as if it was theirs was slightly putting me off but now, a day later after the robbery, though I am still very angry and annoyed by what happened I shall do what all bloggers do- despite my feeling of being stripped off my identity- write and spill out everything.

Last week, while I was in Baku, the most shocking (though I shouldn't be, as by now I shouldn't get surprised when these things happen) news broke out- the government of Azerbaijan was changing legislation on NGOs. And these were not some minor changes, these were changes that might end existence of NGOs in Azerbaijan, well, apart from those that are in "partnership" with the government (the devil himself).

The international as well as local reaction was full of disappointment, anger, frustration. During the NGO forum held on 18th of June, an outraged NGO employee shouted at Rauf Zeyni, the head of the NGO forum, that was sitting at the round table "Because you are a coward! You don't have an NGO" when he offered to refrain from drastic actions such as no negotiations with the government on this issue. 

While, international actors claim the importance of NGOs as a tool in implementing democracy, the government thinks otherwise. What seems like a path of serious limitation on freedom began with the strict control over political parties, then existing media outlets (with of course the most scandalous news of closure of foreign radio stations) and now NGOs. According to Novella Jafaroglu, this step taken by the government is simply because "NGOs were able to do and to say something. These organizations had the opportunity to travel, to lobby and tell the world of what was going on in Azerbaijan. So the government knowing NGO activity decided to cut NGO rights in fact given to us by our own constitution, simply because the government is not responsible to anyone". 

According to the new legislation:

- not only the registration of NGOs is going to become a lot harder (than it already is), but the new changes also impede ban on the activities of local as well as international NGOs;

- it outlaws the activities of NGOs that have more than 50% of foreign funding;

- NGO activity could not begin until its fully registered (which takes at times months);

- an NGO won't be able to have a foreign national as its director or a founder;

- if an NGO was closed based on the court decision for law violations, the founder gets a five year ban on founding another NGO

and many other troublesome new changes.

According to Ekrin Gadirli, the co- founder of Republican Alternative (REAL)"the proposed changes contravene basic freedoms- association, expression, assembly". Isa Gambar, leader of one of the opposition parties in Azerbajan also stressed during the same forum the limits the government was trying to put on the civil society movement in the country. "We need to be able to say "NO" to the government" exclaimed opposition leader at the end of his speech.

It should be come as no surprise that restriction on NGO funding, will seriously undermine their effective work. On this note, in his speech at the NGO forum the head of the Economic Research Center, Qubad Ibadoglu, said, these changes will worsen the NGO activity especially given new financial restrictions. According to the available data for 2008, the total number of NGO employees and volunteers stands at 222,000 and a total 15 million dollars of financial assistance was rendered to NGOs by foreign donors in the same year (in comparison with 1.19 billion dollars received by the government of Azerbaijan from the foreign sources). This remains an insignificant number when compared to another ex- Soviet country- Hungary- which has around 57.000 NGOs (Azerbaijan has 2.500 officially registered NGOs) whose grant turnover is 3.5 billion EUR per year. 

The discussion was postponed to be held at the National Parliament on June 30th according to Turan news agency (http://azerireport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1368&Itemid=42)