How Azeri government scares liberals at home and foreigners abroad to gather support among them
Recently, a small group of religious Muslims assembled near the statue of Liberated Woman in Baku on the occasion of the death of Prophet Muhammad and martyrdom of his grandson Hassan, and anniversary of the Khojali massacre. They were planning to make a small march toward the Martyrs’ Alley and put flowers on the graves of people fallen for the independence of Azerbaijan.
However, after first “Allah Akbar” and “Every Place is Karbala,” police brutally intervened and dispersed the rally. Four detained are still awaiting court. Apparently, the government in a secular Muslim republic of Azerbaijan doesn’t like to be reminded that it is Allah who is the greatest.
Needless to say, Azerbaijan has no freedom of assembly. The last truly public rally was brutally dispersed by police in 2005 when tens of elderly women and men and children were left unconscious and bleeding on the ground. The irony was that the rally was in fact authorized (sic!).
Thus in last five years, only two kinds of rallies could be assembled – when religious people met for an occasion and when the government mandatorily brought state servants to their outdoor meetings. In order to stop people gathering together, the government even closed all major mosques and forbade people from praying outside of those remaining small ones.
Every time when secular, liberal, nationalist or even leftist opposition tried to stage a protest, the police brutality was inadequately high. For example, during 10 May protests, the police grabbed hair of young girls, beat them and swept to the police cars – in Azerbaijan to hit a girl or women is a terrible social stigma and only fathers, brothers and husbands can do that.
However, every time a handful of religious took the streets, the police were suspiciously outnumbered, polite and even diplomatic.
Political science already has an answer to this phenomenon – authoritarian and secular governments of the Near and Middle East, including their Azerbaijani imitators do their best to suppress all kinds of secular and pro-western forces from democratic to autocratic ones, in order to have only one local force capable of being a partner with the West – they, the governments themselves.
They also put a small window for some radical religious elements in order to have a scarecrow to frighten liberals at home and foreigners abroad to gather support among them – just in case if logic and persuasion and numerous Paul Gobles in reserve fail to do that.
However, common sense gives different answers to ordinary people – with every attempt of religious to truly protest their plight, seculars’ fear of an imagined Islamic revolution irrationally deepens – fortunately or unfortunately, Iran is just south of us. With appearance of every outspoken religious critic, tens of secular critics of the government self-censure themselves. Even just claims of the religious met with the bias and distrust by those who are themselves victims of the very same predator government.
Wandering through the comments left at Radio Liberty piece on the aforementioned rally of the religious, you sadly witness how yesterday’s liberals critical of the government and police, now become cowards endorsing their actions.
Instead of perceiving that they are natural allies in their struggle against tyranny, seculars and religious both alienate themselves from each other.
“The reign of freedom cannot be established without that of mores, nor mores founded without beliefs,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in his Democracy in America more than century and half ago.
However, he added sadly, “[the partisans of freedom] have perceived religion in the ranks of their adversaries and this is enough for them: some attack it, and others do not dare to defend it.”
Alas, still true for our circumstances. Alas.
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