Amnesty International: Azerbaijan in Downward Spiral of Oppression Archives

Armenians stage protest outside Azerbaijan permanent mission to UN

February 27, 2016 by administrator

A group of representatives of the American Armenian community on Friday staged a picket outside the building of the permanent mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations (UN), in New York.

Their protest was aimed against the Azerbaijani propaganda regarding the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Azerbaijan.

The demonstrators held signs that read “[Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev, stop the lies,” “Stop Threats of War,” and “We Remember Sumgait,” etc.

Twenty-eight years have passed since the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait. In late February 1988, large-scale massacres because of ethnicity were committed there.

On February 27 of that year, the situation went out of control in this town, which is just 25 kilometers from the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku.

Several thousand Azerbaijani nationalists started burning the homes of the local Armenian population and killing the homeowners.

According to official data alone, 32 Armenian residents of Sumgait were killed, and hundreds of others suffered severe injuries and became disabled.

The February 27-29, 1988 Sumgait pogroms, about which Azerbaijan is silent to this day, were the first harbingers of the Azerbaijani neo-fascism

These massacres were followed by the Azerbaijanis’ pogroms of the Armenians in Kirovabad—today’s Ganja—and in Baku, deportation of the entire Armenian population in Shahumyan Region, and incitement to war, all in response to the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) people’s demand to exercise their right to self-determination.

Armenian Assembly of America opposes $4 bln bailout for Azerbaijan

February 1, 2016 by administrator

205044 In a letter sent this week to Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) urged the U.S. to oppose any proposed bailout for Azerbaijan‘s corrupt and authoritarian regime, especially with U.S. taxpayer dollars.

According to recent media reports, the U.S.-backed International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are contemplating a $4 billion bailout for Azerbaijan, while at the same time Standard and Poor’s downgraded Azerbaijan’s bond rating sending a warning to investors that they are considered speculative junk.

“Rather than reward one of the most corrupt dictatorships in the world, whose president, Ilham Aliyev, received the first ever Organized Crime and Corruption Person of the Year award, bestowed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Azerbaijan should be urged to make much needed reforms and use its oil resources for the betterment of its people and not at the expense of Christian Armenians,” the Assembly letter stated. Further, the letter highlighted that “Azerbaijan’s president continues his policy of trying to resolve the dispute over Nagorno Karabakh by threatening to wipe Armenia off of the map.”

The Assembly’s response comes as 2015 saw the highest number of Armenian casualties of Azerbaijani snipers and heavy artillery fire since the 1994 ceasefire agreement, including the targeting of Armenian schools and other civilian areas along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact.

“The notion of bailing out a corrupt, foreign regime that continues to blockade and attack its Christian neighbor is out of step with America’s values,” stated Assembly Board Co-Chairmen Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian. “We urge the United States to use its considerable influence as a leading member of the IMF and World Bank to oppose any such bailout,” they continued.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues.

Karabakh Freer Than Azerbaijan According to Freedom House Survey

January 28, 2016 by administrator

WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) — Nagorno-Karabakh remains a “partly free” territory governed by a less repressive administration than Azerbaijan, the U.S. human rights group Freedom House said in an annual survey released this week.

Freedom House evaluated “political rights” and “civil liberties” in 195 countries and 15 territories, including Karabakh, on a 7-point scale, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free. It again rated both Karabakh and Armenia “partly free” and kept Azerbaijan in the “not free” category of nations surveyed.

What is more, the “Freedom in the World 2016” survey further downgraded Azerbaijan’s ratings, giving the authorities in Baku a median score of 6.5.

“Azerbaijan’s political rights rating declined from 6 to 7 due to an intensified crackdown on dissent, widespread irregularities surrounding the November parliamentary elections, and serious violations of the right to a fair trial in cases against journalists, opposition activists, and human rights defenders,” it explained.

“President Ilham Aliyev’s government used the polls to show its teeth to the democratic world, barring several foreign journalists from covering the process and imposing restrictions on international observer groups that led some to suspend their monitoring missions,” adds the report.

By comparison, Karabakh’s political rights and civil liberties ratings remained unchanged at 5.

Freedom House upgraded the status of the Armenian-populated unrecognized republic, which broke away from Azerbaijani rule in the early 1990s, from “not free” to “partly free” in 2013. The watchdog attributed that to Karabakh’s “competitive” July 2012 presidential election which it said featured a “genuine opposition.”

The Azerbaijani government on Thursday condemned the U.S. watchdog’s latest evaluations of Azerbaijan and especially Karabakh. “Setting aside the separatist regime created in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in the latest annual report is yet another instance of bias shown by Freedom House,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev said, according to the APA news agency.

Hajiyev said that previous reports also exposed “Freedom House’s biased attitude towards Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Like other Western human rights groups, Freedom House has repeatedly decried the arrests and imprisonment of dozens of Aliyev critics in recent years. In 2014, it urged the United States and the European Union to consider imposing sanctions on Azerbaijani officials involved in human rights abuses.

Armenia NSS: Azerbaijan and Turkey special services tried preventing Genocide commemorations

December 19, 2015 by administrator

YEREVAN. – Azerbaijani and Turkish special services, with active involvement by the local community organizations, have made attempts at obstructing the holding of Armenian Genocide Centennial commemorations in several foreign countries.

Chief of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia, Colonel General Gorik Hakobyan, stated the aforesaid at Friday’s special session devoted to the national security service officers’ day in Armenia.

“[But] these intentions were exposed and prevented on time,” Hakobyan added. “And second, during the passing year, Azerbaijani armed units tried several times to aggravate the situation on the line of contact (…), all of which have failed.

“The [Armenian] national security agencies (…) were able to perform their task by keeping our population away from the harmful activities of the adversary.”

In the NSS chief’s words, however, the Azerbaijani special services’ inimical aspirations and attempts of provocative actions against Armenia do not stop in several other directions.

Amnesty International: Azerbaijan in Downward Spiral of Oppression

October 9, 2013 by administrator

BAKU—Harassment, intimidation, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, fabricated charges and unfair trials are all part of the arsenal the Azerbaijani authorities are employing in a downward spiral of oppression in the run up to the October 9, 2013, presidential elections, said Amnesty International.

“With new arrests of civil society activists reported almost daily, it’s hard to keep up with the sheer number and the speed at which dissenters are being persecuted at the moment,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Director. “The persecution is so widespread and frequent it’s difficult to assess just how bad the current situation really is.”

“We have already adopted no fewer than 14 people as prisoners of conscience. These people are currently behind bars solely for expressing their views or taking peaceful action.”

In its new report published today, “Downward Spiral: Continuing Crackdown on Freedoms in Azerbaijan,” the organization documents and analyses how the government has been intimidating and silencing critics ever since the widespread protests in March and April 2011.

The report documents how the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the media, critical and pro-democracy groups, and opposition parties have come under attack

• Independent media is silenced by the refusal of broadcasting licenses, the imposition of heavy fines for alleged defamation, and the harassment and occasional beating of journalists.

• NGOs are suffocating under excessive administrative regulation and unclear requirements which the authorities use arbitrarily to deny them registration, limiting their ability to secure funding.

• Civil society activists, opposition politicians and independent journalists are regularly targeted with arbitrary arrests and prosecutions on fabricated charges, especially in the run-up to the elections.

“This wholesale crackdown calls into question the value of holding an election. People must be free to form their opinion and share it with others; be free to protest when they see their rights violated, and be free to do so jointly with others. None of this is allowed in Azerbaijan, and those who dare, pay a heavy price with their personal safety and freedom. This must stop, said John Dalhuisen. “The government of Azerbaijan must immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.”

Azerbaijan is a party to all key human rights treaties which protect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, amongst other fundamental human rights. It is also a member of the Council of Europe, and an important trading partner for many of its members.

However, its international partners appear to have little traction. Concerns voiced by Azerbaijan’s international partners over the “continued pressure” on activists, civil society and independent media have been rejected by the Azerbaijani authorities.

“Azerbaijan should put an end to the harassment and suppression of civil society and independent media. The international community must do everything in its power to ensure that the government of Azerbaijan fully respects and adheres to its obligations under international law,” said John Dalhuisen.

-1