MP from ruling party proposes to shut down Western embassies in Azerbaijan

MP Elman Mammadov

Every single day Azeri officials should enlighten and entertain us with some witty comments, it seems. Their unofficial prerogative.

After one pro-government MP recently proposed to close down “Facebourg” recently, we thought we reached the limits of absurd, but now we were forced to doubt it again.

MP Elman Mammadov from ruling New Azerbaijan Party representing a Nagorno-Karabakh district in Azerbaijan’s rubber-stamp Parliament dropped another bomb today – he simply proposed to shut down OSCE, National Democratic Institute and Western embassies in Azerbaijan for “they regularly interfere into Azerbaijan’s internal affairs, organize riots, finance and instruct radical destructive forces.”

Elman Mammadov simply jumped into the bandwagon of a huge government-initiated campaign against independent youth groups that is ongoing in Azerbaijan these days. State controlled TVs and media, as well as various top government officials are making fuss over alleged “Facebook revolution” that NDI was planning to make through various youth groups.

7 members of NIDA Civic Movement are currently in pre-trial detention for alleged possession of drugs, firearms and Molotov cocktails. The government and its allies claim that USA gave 2 million dollars to various youth groups, mainly NIDA to organize a revolution in Azerbaijan.

They really believe in this, no kidding.

A SPECTRE is haunting the Philharmonic — the spectre of Facebook

Photo from Facebook

The news came first as a joke and then as a shock. 

The enlightened despot-director of the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic, a scion of a well-known Azeri musical dynasty, the husband of Aysel Teymurzade, Azerbaijan’s Eurovision 2009 contestant and finally, a celebrated pianist Murad Adigozelzade punished several Philharmonic employees for their critical comments on the Facebook.

Indeed. Yes, indeed.

The website that broke the news first is suspiciously down while I’m writing this post, but amateur photos of Adigozelzade’s official decree was posted on the Internet yesterday and it’s an utmost shame, let me tell you.

According to the decree, a group of members of State Choir posted critical remarks on their Facebook profiles about “the opening ceremony of the III International Mugam Festival dedicated to the 90th Anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev” instead of “disseminating the news of a high class opening ceremony on the social networks.”

As these actions are “contrary to the nature of culture workers and not accepted by the staff of the Philharmonic ”, the director decrees to give “serious warning” to the manager of the Choir and its art director, as well as “last warning” and “grave reprimand” to 5 artists – which means the next step will be firing them from their jobs.

Moreover, the Director instructs the managers of all “creative collectives” of the Philharmonic to watch out for similar incidents and prevent leakage of opinion (sic!) and talks (sic!) onto the social networks that can be critical of “the Republic” (sic!).

Well, I just want to point out that the decree of the Director has been just leaked :)

Human rights defender denied entry into Azerbaijan

Rebecca Vincent, a British-American human rights advocate and former coordinator for the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan has been denied a visa to Azerbaijan, where her family was based. She was told by the government to shut up and stop advocating human rights issues related to Azerbaijan. 

Below is her appeal to friends and colleagues taken from her Facebook page:

Dear friends,

Many of you are aware that I am no longer living in Baku. This is because I am no longer welcome in Azerbaijan. I have essentially been kicked out of the country in connection with my human rights work, in particular my work with the new Art for Democracy campaign, which we launched in December right before this happened.

While the fact that I was targeted is not entirely surprising, the timing and the way the authorities did it caught me off-guard. A few days after I left the country to travel to the UK for Christmas, I was notified that my immigration clearance had been pulled. Not my son’s, not my husband’s, just mine – with no explanation given. This has meant that my now 20 month-old son and I have not been able to return to our home for nearly three months, and that our family has been separated since my husband returned to Baku for work two months ago.

In the interest of returning to Azerbaijan as soon as possible, I remained quiet as the US Embassy tried to reach a solution with the Azerbaijani authorities. I was eventually offered a deal – that I could return to the country if I stopped my activism. I reluctantly agreed, believing it was best to reunite my family and thinking I could find quiet ways of helping from within the country. But the deal later fell through due to an apparent difference of opinion among senior government officials. It seems that some did not believe I would really stop my activism and were concerned that I would still be involved behind the scenes, still meet up with my friends, etc. – which of course I would. Those were not the terms of our agreement and I would not be able to live under those conditions.

I don’t want to focus too much on my own case as in many regards I have gotten off lightly. Human rights work in an authoritarian country certainly carries some risks, and this is the first time in nearly seven years of working on human rights issues in Azerbaijan that I have been directly targeted. I am very lucky to not be in jail or have been attacked – a fate that many of my local friends and colleagues have experienced. But I am now going public to try to get more international attention to the dire human rights situation in the country – which has gotten markedly worse over the past three months. I will also be initiating legal action in the hopes of eventually getting justice at the European Court of Human Rights, and shedding light on the many other cases of violations of freedom of movement and right to respect for family and private life in Azerbaijan.

The hardest part for me has been the overwhelming feeling that everything is unfinished – my life in Baku, my work, and most of all, my friendships. The reason I continue to dedicate so much of my life to fighting for the protection of human rights and democratic development in Azerbaijan is because of the many amazing people who are struggling in circumstances much more difficult than my own to fight for their rights and make their voices heard. I am lucky to count so many of you as my friends and I will always cherish the time we were able to work together side-by-side in the country. You have touched my life more than you will ever know.

But I am confident that I will return one day to a freer Azerbaijan. I can already feel things beginning to change, as people are growing fed up of corruption and oppression. I think the authorities can feel it too, which is the reason for the particularly vicious ongoing crackdown. In the meantime, I will continue to help fight for that freedom in any way I can from abroad.

Yours always,

Rebecca

1.5 million dollars of US taxpayers' money granted to Azerbaijani GONGO

Ali Huseynov (Photo: Trend.az)

Or how lambs were assigned to wolves for protection

Ali Huseynov is a nice guy and a very good legal expert. He is also a member of ruling New Azerbaijan Party and an MP of Azerbaijan’s rubber stamp parliament, Milli Majlis.

Moreover, in his capacity of the Chairman of parliament's Law Committee, Huseynov is also a mastermind behind all recent changes to Azerbaijani legislation curbing all kinds of freedoms, like of assembly, religion, information and media.

Huseynov also authored the notorious legislative changes in 2011 that restricted activities of all foreign and local NGOs in Azerbaijan.

In short, he is the Draco of Azerbaijan.

But Ali Huseynov is also the main guy behind Azerbaijan Confederation of Lawyers – a classic textbook GONGO and the Chairman of its board. And here comes the main concern.

US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently awarded 1.5 million dollars of US taxpayers’ money to Ali Huseynov’s Confederation for... “increasing the effectiveness of civil society and legal professionals to better defend the rights and interests of citizens and to improve the rule of law.”

Eh?

USAID was seeking applications among Azerbaijani NGOs for "a Cooperative Agreement to fund a program entitled Azerbaijan Rights Consortium (ARC) Project" and apparently they found the right partner!

This is what we call assigning a lamb to a wolf for better protection – or Athenians asking Draco again, instead of Solon, to write new humane laws for their polity.

(For purposes of comparison, let's assume Draco was still alive.)

Eleven prominent human rights organizations and NGOs in Azerbaijan have already addressed a protest letter to USAID and media raising their concerns.

USAID declined to comment on the issue, except for a small note that the grants was awarded according to all procedures and due process. But they promised to meet with protesters and clarify their questions.

How relieving, isn't it?

Anyway, we don't know what would happens after this. USAID would hardly reverse its decision. But as the prominent Azeri journalist Khadija Ismayil posted in her Facebook profile - dear USAID, just don't claim it is an American support to democracy in Azerbaijan.

Internet censored in the very Azerbaijani parliament, no kidding!

These two tasteless and ugly towers host Milli Majlis,
the Azerbaijani parliament (Photo: Panoramio)

Not a week passed since the famous Internet Governance Forum in Baku and occasional repeating of “Internet is free in Azerbaijan” mantra that an Azeri MP dropped a new bomb.

Etibar Huseynov, a pro-government MP and former journalist specialized in smear against opposition, told news agencies that “deputies can’t access social networks and YouTube in the Parliament offices” and “Internet is very slow.”

According to Huseynov, websites of some newspapers were also inaccessible, though he didn’t elaborate any.

Vice-Speaker immediately refuted the claims and said he would investigate the matter.

This is not the only complaint from the deputies though.

Elmira Akhundova, an overweight pro-government MP, also a former journalist and intellectual, asked for free passes to fitness clubs and reimbursement for medical operations abroad. No kidding.

But Fazil Mustafa, another MP, supposedly pro-government opposition, was more modest – he asked for new computers for deputies.

“The computers have morally aged, they occasionally freeze and we have to restart them frequently,” he told the press.

So, is the Internet really free in the Azerbaijani parliament?

IGF in Baku: Instant Coffee, no Wi-Fi and Vice-Premier for Emergencies

IGF 2012 logo

This is how Baku greeted the 7th Annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

It was the biggest puzzle for me. So much pomp and PR around organization of IGF; bringing half of world’s Internet elite and numerous high-ranking officials to Baku; and then - the government displaying very careless attitude to the whole event – wasn't it a bit strange?

There have been many articles and posts in the Internet regarding human rights and freedom of expression issues in the host country Azerbaijan, thus I’m going to skip them. As an old Azeri saying tells, an open village needs no guide. So, let’s look through other issues that got my attention.

"Have you seen the toilets," I was asked in horror by a foreigner friend even before I entered and got my badge – bad news travels faster.

The first day there was no drinking water available in the forum venue, the last day – food was so scarce that more than half of delegates couldn't get anything. During the whole event only instant coffee was served and Wi-Fi didn't work. No real coffee and Wi-Fi for the world’s top Internet people?! Yes, apparently!

Don't get deceived by headphones - no translation was available (Photo: IFLA.org)

I could think of this as maladministration and deficiencies of organization, but what about the President visiting a run-out-of-mill telecommunications exhibition – Bakutel just 100 meters away while Vice-Premier for Emergencies was reading his address in the opening session of the IGF? Was IGF an emergency?

And how they managed to operate a real café, an open buffet and display 4G in Bakutel, but have no decent coffee and Wi-Fi just 100 meters away?

Except the main session hall, neither of conference and workshop rooms was equipped with simultaneous translation – come on, wasn't this a UN event and doesn't UN have six official languages? How was a non-English speaker supposed to participate in side events and workshops?

After all, who decided to hold such an important event au bout du monde - in the Baku Expo Center next to the airport, far from the city center while there were a lot of places available in the city itself? Taxi mafia? Shuttle service providers? Or ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach of the Azerbaijani government?

Indeed, I am puzzled at the Azeri government. They are not capable of holding a normal event, I've started to think. Either they raze half of the city and spend a billion to hold a single event – like Eurovision, or they just pick everybody, leave them in the middle of nowhere without water and coffee – like IGF.

Isn't it possible for us to have somehow a normal course of events, dear government?

Azerbaijan ruling party, radical opposition unite to protest European Parliament

Opposition leader Isa Gambar said the decision was
"tactically and strategically correct.”

Musavat and Popular Front, two major political parties leading the Public Chamber, a loose coalition of radical opposition to the Aliyev government, in a surprise move, joined the ruling New Azerbaijan Party and “pocket opposition” on September 14 to protest the European Parliament resolution on the Ramil Safarov case.

A day earlier, the European Parliament has passed a resolution deploring the pardoning of Ramil Safarov who killed an Armenian officer in Hungary in 2004. The resolution considered this action "a gesture which could contribute to further escalation of the tensions" between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In return, representatives of eleven Azerbaijani political parties gathered in the office of YAP - the ruling party to a meeting chaired by its Executive Secretary held under the portrait of late President Heydar Aliyev and adopted a statement condemning the European Parliament’s resolution and accusing the institution in double standards and playing to tune of the Armenian lobby.

The statement stressed that [in Azerbaijani]:

The resolution adopted in regard to the extradition of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov and his pardoning by the President - is completely biased and serves the interests of Armenia and Armenian lobby.

The statement cited judicial arguments in favor of Safarov's pardoning and also described in detail a possible setting for the infamous Budapest crime - Ramil Safarov’s childhood trauma, loss of his close relatives in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as provocations from Gurgen Margaryan and Safarov’s being in an affect situation.

It also alleged interference to the Budapest court from the Armenian lobby and as a result of this interference, a harsh and anti-humanist verdict.

And as a justification for Safarov affair, the statement went further to cite the court decision on Anders Breivik case and Europe’s explicit silence in the face of apparent heroization of ASALA terrorists in Armenia – like Monte Melkonian, Vazgen Sislian and Varoujan Garabedian.

Then it concluded that,

We, the undersigned political parties, regardless of our political orientation express the anxiety and sensibility of Azerbaijani public in this issue and unambiguously protest this resolution of the European Parliemant and consider it to be an embodiment of bias and another demonstration of double standards.

The news was a major surprise and disappointment for many independent activists who thought the opposition betrayed the very principles they had been struggling for. The opposition parties who signed the statement were accused of whitewashing government's faults and justifying and supporting its anti-democratic, anti-European agenda.

There were a lot of accusations and emotions all over Facebook, where opinions varied from one extreme to another.

In response to the criticism, Isa Gambar, the Chairman of Musavat and one of the leaders of Public Chamber posted in his Facebook profile that despite their reservations about some procedures, they still considered the decision to join this statement “tactically and strategically correct.”

An experiment!

Photo from Crossed-Flag-Pins.com

There are 9 million people living in Sweden and 9 million – in Azerbaijan. And here I propose an experiment. 

Let’s take 4.5 million Swedes to Azerbaijan and 4.5 million Azerbaijanis to Sweden - a population exchange.

Each country will have an equal population of Azerbaijanis and Swedes.

And here comes the big question that we seek an answer to.

Can Swedes make Azerbaijan a better place to live and bring democracy to this South Caucasus country?

Or will Azerbaijanis convert Sweden into a Middle Eastern style sultanate in Scandinavia?

President Aliyev denounces human rights campaign held during Eurovision

President Aliyev in the Cabinet meeting / President.az

“Traitors to the nation, betrayers, anti-national forces!”

President Ilham Aliyev reacted angrily on Wednesday to the human rights campaign “Sing for Democracy” held during the Eurovision, denounced its organizers and opposition groups. He also accused them of a grand conspiracy to smear Azerbaijan's reputation.

Speaking in the Cabinet of Ministers meeting reviewing country's social and economic development for the first half of 2012, President Aliyev branded the activists “traitors to the nation” and “betrayers”, as well as alleged their cooperation with Armenian lobby.

In May, Baku hosted the Eurovision Song Contest – an annual music competition held between countries - members of the European Broadcasting Union and Azerbaijani civil society activists decided to use this opportunity to advocate for more human rights in Azerbaijan.

The campaign, called “Sing for Democracy” and human rights situation in the country got a lot of attention from European media and public. Two main opposition groups – the Republican Alternative and the Public Chamber also used the opportunity to draw attention to uneasy political situation in the country.

President Aliyev said the campaign was “unexpected” as there were no political issues raised before in the history of Eurovision. He said it was the work of anti-Azerbaijani forces gathered together to smear the reputation of the country.

These anti-Azerbaijani forces included – according to President's words – global Armenian lobby, Islamophobic circles in Europe and “third forces who can't tolerate Azerbaijan's achievements and economic development, especially during crisis years."

“Local anti-national forces, those who call themselves 'opposition' - not even forces, but elements” also joined this “nasty campaign based on lies and smear”, supported by both international and local press.

President Aliyev also accused activists of taking foreign guests out of the city center to show them suburbs that were in unfavorable conditions.

“But Azerbaijani people have witnessed once again who was who. Despite all efforts and smear campaign, it was us who won – Azerbaijani people and state.”

“We are strong, because we have people's support. We are also right and the right always wins and we will continue to win,” Aliyev concluded.

Kim Jong-un enjoys Disney show

How surreal modern dictatorships are!

Kim Jong-un, the leader of the world's most closed and cruel dictatorship, enjoys Disney show as if he is an innocent kid. Meanwhile, millions in his country starve, literally.

Azerbaijan's first and ousted President 'to quit politics' after 19 years

Ayaz Mutallibov / Credits - Unknown

Azerbaijan's first President Ayaz Mutallibov, 74, told the conference of his Social Democrat Party on Saturday that he was retiring from the party leadership and politics. Addressing the party conference through phone from Moscow, he said he would dedicate his time to family affairs and his declining health.

Mutallibov also praised current President Ilham Aliyev for his role in enacting of the law about former presidents which will grant amnesty to Mutallibov and remove all obstacles to his return to Azerbaijan.

Mutallibov couldn't return to Azerbaijan until now, for he could face 19-year old treason charges still pending. Though he briefly visited Baku back in August 2011 to attend his son's funeral after President Aliyev guaranteed him immunity on the highest level.

“The adoption of this law brought joy to me and my family, because it ended my exile and created a chance for me to return to my fatherland,” Mutallibov said. Though law doesn't forbid him to engage in politics, Mutallibov said he made a decision to leave politics for objective reasons.

Mutallibov's position is especially strong among indigenous population of Baku and wider Shirvan area that covers eastern parts of Azerbaijan – the region is now being courted by the First Lady's family – the Pashayevs.

First and Ousted President

Ayaz Mutallibov was the last and 14th communist party chief and – since 1990 – President of Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. He was re-elected President in 1991 - this time of Azerbaijan Republic, but resigned in March 1992 after failure to prevent massacre of Azerbaijani civilians in Khojaly by Armenian troops during Karabakh war.

After an unsuccessful attempt by ruling elite to bring Mutallibov back to power in May the same year, the opposition Popular Front lead an uprising that ousted him from power completely. Mutallibov went into self-imposed exile in Moscow and the Front opened a criminal case accusing him of treason.

But the Front could retain the power for little more than a year and had to invite former KGB general and another communist party boss Heydar Aliyev into power after they faced a military coup.

Heydar Aliyev took control of the country and removed the Front from power, but he also did nothing to dismiss the treason charges against Mutallibov.

Who paid most bribes in the South Caucasus?

Question: Have you or any member of your household been in a situation during the last 12 months when you/they had to pay a bribe in order to get a service or to obtain preferential treatment or consideration?

YES 
32% Azerbaijan
9% Armenia
1% Georgia

NO 
68% Azerbaijan
91% Armenia
99% Georgia

Source: The Caucasus Barometer, 2010

Azeri Traffic Police Caught Bribing Drivers

Radio Azadliq (RFE/RL) has released an amateur video of Azerbaijan traffic police bribing drivers - or a right word would be "racketeering" - just in front of the Ministry of Education, in almost downtown Baku.

Timing? On 31 December, the very same day when President Ilham Aliyev in his New Year address to the nation said that the government was fledging "a ruthless struggle" with corruption.

So what does police do in the video? They stop any car they deem "appropriate" and ask them to give money.