Azerbaijan Archives

Azeris Kill Armenian Soldier at Nakhichevan Border

June 26, 2015 By administrator

Armenian border patrol units on the Nakhichevan border

YEREVAN—Azerbaijani forces launched attacks against Armenian border units stationed at the Nakhichevan border, killing one soldier, reported Armenian Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan in Facebook post Friday.

At 6:30 p.m., according to Hovhannisyan’s post, Azerbaijani forces launched attack against the town of Gorhayk in the Syunik Region, using heavy artillery.

As a result of retaliation efforts by Armenian forces, the Azerbaijani side incurred heavy losses, said Honhannisyan on his Facebook post.

“Unfortunately, however, during the operation, Armenian Army soldier Aman Mayisi Yepremyan, born 1987, was killed,” announced Hovhannisyan, who expressed condolences to the soldier’s family on behalf of the Defense Ministry.

Hovhannisyan pointed out that the border with Nakhichevan has not seen active combat since last year, when two Armenian soldiers were killed, prompting an advance by Armenian forces that resulted in the fortification of the border.

The ministry spokesman said that while Armenian Armed Forces were doing everything to restore stability on the border, the Azerbaijani forces were advancing tensions.

OCCRP: Story of Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova exposing Aliyev clan corruption

June 26, 2015 By administrator

journalist Khadija Ismayilova

Over the past decade, the investigative reporter and commentator for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and regional coordinator and partner for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Khadija Ismayilova, had been shaking things up by exposing government corruption. More recently, she was zeroing in on the activities of President Ilham Aliyev and his clan. She has said that she never set out to target them; their names just kept cropping up in her investigations. Along the way, she started getting clear warnings —warnings other journalists might have heeded. Ismayilova knew that they were telling her to keep her nose out of places it did not belong. But for her, running was not an option, American journalist Don Ray writes on OCCRP website https://www.occrp.org/freekhadijaismayilova/stories/the-making-of-an-investigative-reporter.php.

The more she dug, the clearer the picture became. Her investigations documented the outright plundering of the Azerbaijani treasury: the ruling clan seemed to be leveraging personal control of the former Soviet state’s transportation system, banks, government mining operations and more. The more she uncovered and reported, the more the government tried to close off the access to key information. When that did not stop Ismayilova, the threats of personal attacks began — outrageous, demeaning and humiliating attacks. Ismayilova told them she would not stop, so they followed through by releasing hidden camera video of her most intimate moments. The ploy backfired, however, and turned public sentiment in her favor, she said. Next they arrested her on what her employers, supporters and leading journalism organizations consider to be ludicrous, trumped-up charges, Ray writes.

He points that nearly a decade earlier, it had been the assassination of the journalist Elmar Huseynov that inspired the then-28-year-old reporter to devote her life to exposing corruption, consequences be damned. Huseynov used to publish a very critical and independent magazine, ‘Monitor,’ which highlighted high-level corruption cases and the President’s clan being involved in corrupt practices. Ismayilova realized that he had been working on topics that were difficult to report and he often failed to get all of the key documents to prove his stories. “But he was telling the truth to people,” she said. After Huseynov’s death, she vowed to help pick up where Huseynov had left off.

Until 2009, Ismayilova says, the media were still very quiet in Azerbaijan because of continued attacks on reporters who were writing critical stories. But that year, she began helping Washington Post writer Andrew Higgins work on a story about the president’s clan owning expensive real estate properties in Dubai. Publishing that story broke the silence. Nobody denied that the Aliyevs owned the property. “Before that, we had journalists saying, ‘Oh, this government, president — they are thieves.’ It was all their own opinions — never facts. And now we had facts to talk about — facts to refer to,” Ismayilova highlighted.

According to Ray, Ismayilova and her fellow reporters learned from OCCRP how to fish for offshore companies connected to the Aliyev clan. They started digging into bank privatization records relating to the state airline company. They discovered that, in the mix of privatization, one of the representatives of the clan ended up being one of the owners of Silk Way bank.

In August 2010, Ismayilova and fellow reporter Ulviyye Asadzade broke the story. “They broke the law to become a bank owner,” Ismayilova said. “We published this story, proving every sentence there.” The bank was part of a larger, recently privatized company that enjoyed a near-complete monopoly over every aspect of airline service businesses. There was no comment from the government about the story. However, the Aliyev regime began trying to silence the voices that were not under its control.

Ray notes that for nearly a century, from 1920 until 1991, when Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, the Azerbaijani people had little or no access to news stories that were critical of the government. Since 1991, when Azerbaijan gained its independence, journalism has not improved much, Ismayilova said. The government fully controls the broadcast media and the handful of newspapers have low circulation and poor distribution. “So basically, there is no independent media in Azerbaijan,” Ismayilova said. “Most of it is still propaganda, but it’s propaganda of the regime.”

According to the article, Ilham Aliyev became president on October 15, 2003, two months before the death of his predecessor Heydar Aliyev who had been a high-level official in the Soviet KGB. In 1969, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev appointed the senior Aliyev to the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party, as an enforcer in a Soviet anti-corruption campaign. Two decades later, Mikhail Gorbachev forced Heydar Aliyev to resign from a high-level position in the Soviet Politburo because of allegations of corruption. The elder Aliyev became the president of the Azerbaijan Republic in 1993, and won reelection in 1998, despite allegations of voter fraud and corruption.

Before his death in 2003, he had already put his son, Ilham, in a position that would ensure he would succeed him. Ilham Aliyev garnered 76.84 percent of the votes. He won a second term in 2008 with 87 percent of the vote, thanks in part to the opposition parties boycotting the election, Ray points.

Aliyev’s administration orchestrated a constitutional referendum that abolished term limits for the president and inflicted severe restrictions on freedom of the press. “We had BBC, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,” Ismayilova said, “but they all were banned on local frequencies in 2009. The government of Azerbaijan doesn’t want its citizens to listen to this news, because they were not able to control the content.” The foreign broadcasters turned more to the Internet to reach the people of Azerbaijan, although much of the population had no online access.

In June 2011, Ismayilova proved that Aliyev clan representatives were the main shareholders of Azerfon, then Azerbaijan’s only provider of 3G mobile phone services. A few years earlier, everyone had believed what the government had announced — that Azerfon belonged to the German firm Siemens A.G. and a couple of British firms.

According to Don Ray, in early 2011, Ismayilova discovered that one of energy corporations was involved in a controversial construction contract the president referred to as a “patriotic project.” “It was building the highest flagpole in the world,” Ismayilova said. “The Azerbaijani flag would be on it.” But it turned out to be a short-lived glory. Just six months later, Tajikistan – another “stupid country” – built a taller one, she says. Ismayilova says she discussed the project on her radio program, and later she would learn from Wikileaks documents that the country’s leader was not happy with her. “President Aliyev named me an enemy of the state for making fun of this project on the air,” she said.

According to the article, Ismayilova says she was still investigating the story on March 7, 2011, when she received a blackmail letter. She had no doubt that it came from someone in the Azerbaijani government. “I received this package which contained a note saying, ‘You whore. Behave or you will be defamed.’” It included intimate photographs that were still images that came from a hidden camera footage from her bedroom. “I knew that this is how they want to stop me,” Ismayilova said.

[12:53:18] KENTRON — Elibegova Anzhela: She ignored the advice of colleagues who told her not to do her radio show that afternoon. She was sure the blackmailers were listening to her that day. Next, she posted a public statement on Facebook under the headline: “This is how I answer the blackmailers.” “I said I’m not going to stop any of my investigations and I said I’m not going to shut up. I’m not ashamed of anything in my life, I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve been doing, and if they think that they shamed me — and that will stop me — they’re wrong,” she wrote.

She says she filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, but it did not stop the blackmailers from posting the video of her and her boyfriend on a website that the blackmailers had created to look like it belonged to an opposition party. “In a country where honor killings are still taking place, in a country where women are not entitled to have sex before marriage, in a country where this kind of behavior, like having a boyfriend, having an apartment and living by yourself, is considered as going against traditions,” she said, “I received full support from society.”

She says it did not surprise her that the prosecutor’s office said it was never able to identify who had put the secret video cameras in her apartment. “I had no doubts about who did it — who ordered it —but I wanted to know how did it happen.” She was able to figure out the camera angle and quickly discovered phone wires where the camera in her bedroom had been. She followed the wires to the living room and also to the bathroom. “That was a shock,” she said. “And the week after, I couldn’t go to the bathroom. I had this feeling that somebody is watching.”

According to the article, she followed the wires to a telephone box outside that belonged to the state-run telephone company. She demanded that the prosecutor’s office call whoever installed the line. Being rejected, she herself called to the telephone company to send a service member. The man who arrived looked at it and said he remembered installing it in July of 2011 because he was told the client needed another phone line.

In the meantime, she continued working on her investigative stories. She had teamed up with her former student, Nushabe Fatullayeva who had been doing some curious digging of her own. On May 2, 2012, the two journalists documented a paper trail that proved that a lucrative contract to mine government gold had gone to a company in the United Kingdom — a company that was actually owned by a Panama corporation. Ismayilova and Fatullayeva showed that Aliyev clan representatives were the secret owners. Six days later, Ismayilova found that the clan was involved in the building of a US$134 million concert venue called the Crystal Hall to host and showcase the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. One of the builders was a company of which the president’s clan was a secret owner, according to Ray’s article.

That same year, Azerbaijan’s National Assembly passed legislation that required a court order to find out who owns what in Azerbaijan, and, just to be safe, the law grants lifelong criminal immunity to all ex-Presidents and ex-First Ladies. The new laws only apply to companies in Azerbaijan, so Ismayilova and OCCRP colleagues Pavla Holcova and Jaromir Hason dug through property records in the Czech Republic. In October of 2011, the team reported that Azerbaijani officials, including the ruling clan, had formed corporations in Prague, purchased land, and built hotels and villas in luxurious places such as the famous spa city of Karlovy Vary, Ray points.

Ismayilova broke another corruption story in late June 2014, when she wrote about media mogul Sona Veliyeva, who is married to Ali Hasanov, an influential government official — an official with power to make policy regarding freedom of speech, political liberties and the media. Quite often, Ismayilova wrote, President Aliyev would make decrees that prevented outside networks or productions from airing video inside Azerbaijan. To fill the video vacuum, Hasanov would dole out contracts to local producers, including the companies his own wife owned. In all, Ismayilova connected a dozen such media companies to Hasanov’s wife, according to Ray’s article.

Ismayilova also proved that the Aliyev clan was working its way toward a near monopoly of the telecom industry. Before she could provide more details on the story, authorities arrested her on December 5, 2014. She has been in prison since, Ray writes.

Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova: Exposing TeliaSonera’s scandalous bribery is reason for my arrest
Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova jailed for criticizing authorities wins Anna Politkovskaya Award

Source: Panorama.am

How Azerbaijan Manipulates Public Opinion in the USA

June 25, 2015 By administrator

By Till Bruckner

Published June 19, 2015

To see how foreign interests distort reality to guide political debate and influence American foreign policy, just look at the meeting of December 5, 2012 in the US Congress headed by Dan Burton, then Indiana Republican.

The meeting was organized by the subcommittee of the House for Europe and Eurasia, and the guest of honor was Brenda Shaffer, who holds a Ph.D. specialist on the Caucasus and former director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard.

Burton presented it as “the cutest woman in the diners.” She then went alerting elected officials present on the fact that Iran is destabilizing the Western countries in the region, particularly Azerbaijan, its neighbor small but rich in oil.

But Burton and Shaffer both had ties with Azerbaijan they have not disclosed to the committee.

Shortly after the presentation took place, Burton resigned his seat in the House and began a new career as president of the Azerbaijan America Alliance Council, a lobby group promoting closer links between the countries and apparently funded by a close family of the president of Azerbaijan.

Shaffer for his part continued to praise Azerbaijan in other appearances in Congress, in many editorials and articles in the press, and in the work of US think tanks.

The documents submitted to the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), [Regulations for Foreign Agents Registration] within two months after being sworn in 2012, show that the DCI Group, a pressure group under contract with the Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington gave him instructions and advice before the hearing to the commission. This firm is known to force messages to its customers by using third parties supposedly neutral and independent, to “influence the intellectual circles in which political decisions are made.”

This more subtle approach to influencing elected uses more traditional methods, such as travel expenses paid in 2013 in Baku for 10 congressmen and 32 staff members that the Washington Post has revealed.

But the goal is the same: DCI systematically identifies elected as a target group who submit information on Azerbaijan in its Foreign Agents returns.

The DCI Group’s contract with the embassy explicit how, with 20,000 dollars a month, it may prepare and publish commentaries in major online and traditional media to develop a focus group core for wear, and to “define new active projects to accompany the accession of Azerbaijan strategy.”

The Shaffer links with Azerbaijan and Israel

The leaders of DCI and Shaffer have not agreed to comment on this story for their actions, they have not agreed either to tell if Shaffer had been paid for his statement or whether it is still paid.

But under “actions to influence US policies in favor of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” the DCI Group has announced the joint actions with Shaffer:

“Description: email to Dr. Brenda Shaffer, Ph.D., Lecturer, Haifa University and Georgetown University, October 10, 2012, about a white paper on the footprint marked in southern Iran -Caucase on its ties with Armenia and the importance of Azerbaijan. Meeting with her 5 December 2012, to present to the media. She had with another meeting February 5, 2013 to discuss the possibility of future articles related to Azerbaijan

This is a subject that Shaffer Treaty; the written declaration it made to the subcommittee Burton was entitled: “The Iranian influence in the South Caucasus and the surrounding region.” At the end of this document, it describes itself as an independent academic expert. And in a form “Truth in Testimony” [a kind Declaration on Honour] to submit to Congress before appearance, Shaffer left the white “organization that you represent” field.

Yet the same day it was his evidence, the DCI Group went public with her a meeting “to present to the media.”

Besides the DCI, documents show that Shaffer worked as advisor Socar, the state oil company of Azerbaijan.

Neither Shaffer nor Socar not responded to emails asking for details about the relationship between her and the company, not least that the start date of the contract. She revealed nothing of his agreement to the members of Congress to which it was addressed.

Its action for the company to close notoriously corrupt ties with the regime of Azerbaijan became known to the public when the media obtained her his business card to the header of Socar and made state in September 2014.

Shaffer also advised certain government structures in Israel, including the commission of natural gas. It is also part of the steering committee that oversees the main plane of the energy sector of Israel.

The interests of Azerbaijan and Israel are so aligned that diplomats from both countries have recently organized a joint tour of Jewish communities from the US to put pressure on them in their favor. During this tour, the Israeli ambassador in Baku, echoing a theme typical of the pro-lobby groups Baku, praised Azerbaijan as a model of tolerance because its government does not persecute its small Jewish minority.

Shaffer was also silent about his links with Socar last July when she made a statement before the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee by submitting a written report urging the support of a pipeline project in Azerbaijan. She said that this project would antagonize Moscow, improve security of supply of Europe, and create tens of thousands of jobs.

Low Declaration Requirements for Pressure Groups

The main purpose of the Congress form “Truth in Testimony” is to make public grants and federal contracts rather than highlight conflicts of interest, which releases the omission of Shaffer on its interests abroad any legal consequences.

Attempts to fill this gap to pressure groups have had only limited effect.

The California Democrat Representative Jackie Speier, recently proposed a rule requiring some reporting to Congress to declare income from foreign governments. “The American people have a justified desire that these links are transparent and can reveal conflicts of interest by disseminating publicly, has she told a House subcommittee settlement.

In early January, the House adopted the suggestions of Speier, but they are unclear and have not been tested. Under the new rules, Shaffer should have declared the money received from Socar, if she had made the statement as part of a mission “outside government field”, that is to say, as a representative of a group of pressure or NGO. But if she had filed as a university professor, probably not. As a further complication, a national company Socar is not directly a government.

To effectively address these gaps, Bill Allison, editorial director of the Sunlight Foundation, suggests that the registrant is required to list “all sources of income of more than $ 10 000 for example over the past two years.”

FARA, the Regulations for the Registration of Foreign Agents which bans lobbying for foreign clients without official registration as their agent, can also be easily bypassed. Shaffer was not registered under FARA but Socar Azerbaijan has nine different interpreters, Anar Mammadov, an oligarch with close ties to the regime of Ilham Aliyev.

Allison, when asked if Shaffer had violated FARA, said “The information is not enough to tell. It depends on the nature of his work as an advisor to Socar.

“If it makes it easier meetings between SOCAR and US government officials, if she writes articles for the interests of Socar, it must declare with FARA. If it is limited to recommend restaurants in Georgetown … That said, the fact that it has made a statement to Congress, she no doubt other contacts with congressional staff (it has not only made an appearance at a hearing), and it is paid by Socar, or Socar itself (which is recorded and payroll) should reveal their contacts with these officials. But it is unclear whether it is illegal. “

Experts have long realized that FARA is full of ambiguities and gaps. For example, the powerful Armenian lobby fly completely off the radar. Called one day by an insider of the third of the most powerful lobbies in the capital, it is largely financed by US citizens of Armenian origin, but constantly promotes what he considers the interests of Armenia. No one entity appears to have filled a form in accordance with FARA to account for the activity of pressure groups in favor of Armenia. Similarly, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) [Committee on Relations between the US States and Israel] without question the most powerful pressure group of Foreign Affairs of the capital, does not fulfill FARA form despite the injunctions of the Department of Justice to do so.

A recent letter from Republican Representative Frank R. Wolf of Virginia, called the Justice Department to review the implementation of FARA this year for possible changes.

Allison said his group would like to see “an electronic recording, better specific requirements which must be declared when contacts are made, and how to write the minutes and other improvements on the system statement. “

Reflection Groups As foreign influence Tools

Focus groups have played an important role in the strategy of lobbying of elected officials and the press. Azerbaijan has long been one of the biggest spenders in foreign countries pressure groups in the capital, with part of the money directly used in the focus groups.

“A significant change occurred in the Azerbaijani lobbyists,” said Gerald Robbins, an official of the Institute of Foreign Policy Research specializes in Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asir. “A new generation, educated in methodology of marketing of the West took over [in Baku]. They understand that the university and focus groups are important places to get ideas. “

Pressure groups and ideas whitening are slow and gradual process, say political observers. The two both aim to change minds and open minds to new ideas – those of pressure groups, of course. But it is still difficult to accurately measure the effect of a particular action of a pressure group such as Shaffer or that of DCI group.

Translation for Gilbert Béguian Armenews

Thursday, June 25, 2015,
Jean Eckian © armenews.com

Iran does not tolerate Baku’s policy of Azerbaijanizing Iranian history anymore

June 25, 2015 By administrator

A 20-volume book “General History of Iran” has been published in Iran. It presents Iran’s concise history since pre-Aryan era to the fall of Qajar dynasty, according to the Iranian information agency IRIB.

Since the Islamic revolution in Iran, the authorities have not paid proper attention to the pre-Islamic history of the country, to put it mildly. Instead, the appreciation of the history of the post-Islamic era was emphasized.

Engaged in creating national identity and its own history, the Azerbaijani Republic could not remain indifferent to this fact. Taking advantage of the occasion, it started to zealously “Azerbaijanize” the Iranian cultural and historic values.

After making the Persian-language poet and one of the greatest classics of the Iranian literature of the 12th century, Nizami Ganjavi, and Nader Shah “Azerbaijanis”, Azerbaijan was also able to register the musical instrument tar under its name in UNESCO. Now it is working diligently on appropriating the Iranian sport of polo, the Caspian horse and the festival Shab-e Yalda (Night of Yalda).

During his recent visit to the historical site Takht-e Jamshid (Persepolis), Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the people of Iran must preserve their Islamic and Iranian civilization.

If a few years ago Azerbaijan’s policy of appropriating the Iranian cultural values was carried out by the media, over the recent years it has been done at the highest level by the chief of the Azerbaijani Presidential administration.

The fact of publishing the above-mentioned book, as well as the statement Rouhani made in Persepolis show that the authorities in Iran have begun to appreciate their pre-Islamic history and to stand up for their own history. The Iranian authorities presumably have begun to realize that Azerbaijan’s policy of “Azerbaijanizing” the Iranian cultural values should not be tolerated anymore.

As regards Iran’s steps against the Azerbaijani falsifications, Iranian Minister of Culture Ali Jannati’s rather vivid description is worth mentioning, “The small-minded elements who attempt to eliminate Iran’s cultural values, the Persian language and literature, will not achieve their goal.”

Armen Israyelyan, Iranian studies expert

Terrible Two’s Turkic Tantrums

June 20, 2015 By administrator

By Garen Yegparian

Garen Yegparian

The terrible two Turkic “republics” – Azerbaijan and Turkey – with their behavior remind even the most casual observer of nothing more than a child in its terrible twos. We are constantly treated to temper tantrums and other childish behavior.

In recent months, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan stormed out of an EU Summit over the phrasing of a document about Artzakh. Of course there were Turkey’s recalls of ambassadors to the Vatican, Luxembourg, etc. over Genocide recognition. Connected with this were the insults hurled at Argentina as a consequence of the Pope’s recognition, since he is Argentinian. The EU was also treated to polite, pseudo-diplomatic, invective for calling on Turkey to recognize the Genocide. You can just envision these officials foaming at the mouth as they fulminate against their tormentors, can’t you?

Turkish consular officials attacked Armenian protesters in Marseilles. Azeri officials refused to take OSCE monitors to the front-lines with Artzakh’s forces, even though the latter fulfilled its obligation and took the monitors to the front-lines from the Armenian side.

One of my favorites is when Turkish government officials surreptitiously crossed the Syrian border to visit the tomb of the grandfather of the Ottoman Empire’s founder. I have a mental image of these chubby Turks in ill-fitting suits tippy-toeing across the border, Elmer Fudd-like, while whispering “shhhhh, be vewy, vewy, quiet, we’re visiting our murderous founding fathers, heh-heh-heh-heh”! Similarly, there are the periodic intrusions of Turkish warplanes into Greek airspace.

If we go back a little further in time, we are treated to Erdoğan’s various outbursts. Who can forget his lecturing the world that Moslems cannot commit genocide, as he defended Sudan’s President Bashir? Then there was his loudly criticizing Israel over the latter’s Gaza offensive. Plus, remember how incensed he was over the deaths of Turks on the ship Mavi Marmara? How about his finger wagging outburst and strutting off the stage in Davos during a discussion with Israel’s President Peres? Oh, and how about his “exchange” with the Egyptian president over the jailing of Moslem Brotherhood members?

I keep thinking we’re back in the 1980s when Turkey’s Ambassador to the U.S., Sukru Elekdağ, was known for irately spouting foolishness in public. Ah, yes, those good old days when Turkey would threaten U.S. military access to its territory because of Armenian Genocide resolutions. And almost contemporaneously there was Turkey’s status as a major drug transshipment country and its invasion of Cyprus. For that last example, even if Turkey’s blaming the military government of Greece is appropriate, why does it still maintain the occupation and why did tens of thousands of Turks get settled in occupied northern Cyprus? Oops, and I almost omitted Azerbaijan’s 1980s pogroms of Armenians when legal demonstrations and political processes were put to use to achieve Artzakh’s independence.

Of course, we can’t omit the four military coups (the last one being very subtle) that Turkey has “enjoyed” over the past half century.

Why does the world tolerate this? Why do these two bullies not get punched in the nose, just once, so they settle down and behave as most bullies do once confronted? Perhaps that should be a focus of our political efforts, taming Turks. What do you think?

Garen Yegparian (June 19, 2015)

Armenian youth to hold action near Azerbaijani consulate in Los Angeles

June 20, 2015 By administrator

The Armenian Youth Federation will hold a demonstration on Saturday in front of the Azerbaijani consulate in Los Angeles to call attention to the Azerbaijani government’s continuous human rights violations, Asbarez reported.

“We won’t sit idly by and watch Azerbaijan attempt to present itself as a democracy on the world stage,” said Gev Iskajyan, a member of the AYF’s Central Executive board. “With the international attention surrounding Baku at this time, we feel now is a good a time as any to show the world just how corrupt the government of Azerbaijan is.”

The demonstration is held amid European Games in Baku.

ECHR rules Baku must pay € 14,000 over violation of journalist’s rights

June 19, 2015 By administrator

On June 18, the European Court of Human Rights ruled a judgment in the case “Mehdiyev against Azerbaijan.”

As Tert.am reports citing contact.az, the Court revealed a violation of Hakimeldostu Mehdiyev’s rights, maltreatment, imprisonment by the Ministry of National Security of Nakhchivan for his journalistic activities.

The reason for the persecution became Mehdiyev’s publication about violation of citizens’ rights in 2007, after which he was summoned to the local office of the National Security Ministry, where they started beating him with truncheons, demanding to stop his journalistic activity. After that, he was taken to court and arrested for 15 days for resisting police. While in custody, he was refused food and water, and was released without explanation in 4 days.

The authorities have not acknowledged the arrest of Mehdiyev.

The European Court ruled that the government of Azerbaijan is obliged to pay Mehdiyev 10,000 euros as compensation and 4,000 euros for legal and other expenses.

Tert.am. Azerbaijan loses another case in at ECHR

Azerbaijian Live, from the fifth most censored country, it’s the first ever European Games – Report Politico

June 17, 2015 By administrator

By Jacob Balzano
Rejoice! After years of enviously watching athletes in Asia, Africa, the Pacific and the Americas flaunt their sporting might together as continental brothers and sisters, Europe finally has a competition to call its own. Live, from the fifth most censored country in the world, it’s the first ever European Games.

Jutting out into the glistening Caspian Sea, Baku, the oil boom capital of Azerbaijan, is fizzing and popping with European Games mania. Six thousand athletes from 50 countries have descended on the city to run, twist and grunt their way through two weeks of gruelling sporting competition. Stadia have sprouted like mushrooms, glassy hotels stretch into the clouds and phalanxes of volunteers marshal the masses of spectators, hacks and dignitaries into arenas to watch the games, some of which will qualify athletes for the Rio Olympics next year.
It is impressive to see Baku holding an event so flash, sophisticated and well-attended when one remembers that barely two decades ago the city was a dusty backwater still convulsing from the collapse of the Soviet Union and war with neighbouring Armenia. Yet even before the opening ceremony on June 12th, there were sinister signals that this event would not quite live up to the Olympic ideals. Officials from Amnesty International, which planned to hold a press conference in Baku during the games, to highlight the country’s political prisoners, were denied visas. As were delegates from Human Rights Watch. A British activist from Platform London was detained at Baku airport for over 30 hours before being promptly deported. Journalists from the BBC, the Guardian, Radio France International and German broadcaster ARD were also denied accreditation.
When this news broke, I attended a press conference where presidential adviser Ali Hasanov ruminated that this was an anti-Azerbaijani campaign directed by Western elements jealous of the country’s success. Another way of interpreting this is that government officials are not fond of media who have explored claims that they have in recent years siphoned off untold billions of state assets into their personal accounts, annihilated the free press and neutralised or imprisoned anyone who dared speak out against their behavior.

Even from a pragmatic perspective, denying entry to journalists from major media outlets was a careless move that completely backfired. The Azerbaijan government, far from muting issues it didn’t want discussed, managed to amplify them and attach intrigue and skulduggery to the European Games even before the event had officially started. In doing so, the government very helpfully exploded that old deceit that these showboat sport extravaganzas serve as some wondrous key for world peace, rather than the cynical orgy of unblinking power, geopolitics and capital that they unfailingly end up being.
In the Roman Empire, it was said all that was needed for a happy populace was bread and circuses. It has been speculated that Azerbaijan spent up to $10 billion on hosting the European Games. Bread, however, can be a luxury for some in a land where the average monthly salary is around $400 and significantly less outside the capital. The opening ceremony’s bill of $100 million seemed comparatively austere to the overall cost of the games. It was in fact a stunningly elaborate spectacle that blended 12th century Persian poetry, flying carpets, exploding pomegranates and … Lady Gaga. The latter’s attendance was a closely guarded secret until the last minute, when she appeared at a piano adorned with flowers to trill John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Depending on the cultural sensitivities of the country where this song is performed, singers sometimes omit the lyrics imaging there is no God. Until last week I have never heard a version which leaves out the line imagining “no need for greed or hunger.” Perhaps Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had given some helpful artistic guidance beforehand?

As the spiritual home of BP, which hoovers up more than 600,000 barrels of oil per day from Azerbaijan, and that country’s largest foreign investor, Britain was expected to send an exciting guest to the opening ceremony. Prince William? Sting? Someone from Game of Thrones? Almost. Britain was valiantly represented by Tobias Ellwood MP, Parliamentary undersecretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Alas, my attempts to get an autograph were thwarted by the millions of screaming fans ahead of me. The Honourable Member’s Twitter feed duly cranked out some messages banging the drum for British business and support for athletes of “Team GB.” The next day Ellwood flew to Bahrain where #Reform and #HumanRights were on the agenda, talking points apparently absent from his Baku
The lack of any senior British representative was symptomatic of the rest of Europe’s energetic incuriosity about the event. The only European heads of state in attendance from farther West were Prince Albert of Monaco and the grand duke of Luxembourg. There were however, some more regal dignitaries from the local neighbourhood, namely President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan.
Even Erdogan would remark the following day, “I could not see any leaders from the EU, although the name of this event is ‘European Games,’ the Turkish leader sniffed. To which Putin (with whom he was holding talks), retorted with a mischievous grin, “As a European Union candidate country, you are representing the whole bloc.” At one point in the ceremony, for fans of Greek mythology, a performer representing the Phoenician woman Europa (for whom the continent was named) sailed across the stadium on top of a white bull suspended from the eaves, just to hammer home the message that this was a European thing.

Speaking of bull, Patrick Hickey, the president of the European Olympic Committees and chief architect of the European Games project (and former Irish judo champion), took to the stage to address the audience. Among the blizzard of platitudes, he spoke of how sport “has a unique power to affect positive change, to instil a set of values that make change inevitable” before dropping the buzzwords “global ethics, fair play, respect and friendship.”

Reporters Without Borders ranks Azerbaijan 162 out of 180 countries in its annual press freedom index. Transparency International ranks Azerbaijan 126 out of 175 on its global corruption index. Democracy was always a risky sport in Azerbaijan, but in the last year, the correlation between Azerbaijan’s growing global presence and the severe crackdown on journalists and human rights activists has been absolute. Those who have not been thrown in jail have either fled or have fallen silent to the extent that Baku now seems like a ghost town for civil society.
Before embarking to Azerbaijan, I met a human rights worker in a café in neighbouring Tbilisi, Georgia, who told me: “For the first time in a decade, I literally don’t know who to meet over there anymore.” The next day, an email landed in my inbox from a well-connected analyst: “I’m sorry, Andrew, but my Baku colleagues were simply too fearful to be in contact with you.”

Azerbaijanis Paying Price For Aliyev’s 2015 European Games

June 16, 2015 By administrator

By RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service

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State workers have told RFE/RL that they have been forced to help foot the big bill for the European Games,

With dozens of opposition activists and independent journalists behind bars, domestic criticism of Baku’s hosting of the 2015 European Games is hard to find.

But despite the clampdown on dissent by President Ilham Aliyev’s government — which in recent days has banned Amnesty International and kicked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) out of the country — complaints from upset Azerbaijanis are still being heard.

Several state workers say they have been forced to help foot the bill for the expensive (up to $10 billion), first-ever mini-Olympics for some 6,000 European athletes.

A doctor from the north-central city of Mingachevir told RFE/RL that fellow doctors at his hospital were forced to contribute between 100 and 500 manats ($105-$524) apiece.

“Each department is required to donate at least 2,000 to 5,000 manats ($2,100-$5,240),” said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Therefore, senior doctors have to collect money from other staff [and] there are rumors that whoever does not contribute money [for the European Games] will be fired.”

Speaking to RFE/RL, Ilham Mayilov, the head of Mingachevir’s Health Department, rejected reports that doctors had been ordered to pay money to support the games.

But there are indications that some doctors may have decided to pass along the cost for the games to their patients.

“My doctor told me I will not receive my free medicine for two months until the European Games are finished,” an ill Baku resident told RFE/RL via Facebook last month.

The patient, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, normally gets four injections per month to treat the disease, with each injection costing some 400 manats ($381).

Another person, who is receiving chemotherapy, told RFE/RL that she would only receive about one-third of her state-paid medicine until the European Games are finished.

Sefaya Ahmedova, a press officer at the Health Ministry, dismissed reports of patients having their treatments reduced or medicine not being paid for due to doctors having to contribute to the costs of the European Games.

The “involuntary” contributions to help pay for Baku’s big event seems to involve other state workers.

The father of a man who works at the Economy and Industry Ministry told RFE/RL that his son, like many other midlevel state employees, receives a bonus, under-the-table payment every month to enhance his low official salary.

But he said his son’s 800 manat ($838) salary has been reduced to 250 manats ($262) for the last four months, with his missing bonus being sent to the European Games’ budget.

ALSO READ: Aliyev’s Azerbaijan In Spotlight As European Games Begin

Other anonymous sources told RFE/RL that similar “bonus salaries” were no longer being received in recent months by employees at the State Customs Committee.

Committee officials told employees the bonus cut happened due to the games and will be resumed after the games are finished.

Azerbaijan won the right to hold the games based partially on a generous promise to pay the airfare of the thousands of athletes, trainers, and coaches who have come to Baku to compete in more than 250 events from June 12-28.

Much as they did for the 2012 Eurovision song competition hosted by Azerbaijan, Baku authorities have spared no expense in projecting a positive image of the country while the eyes of Europe are on it.

But critics say that rather than working to improve its rights record to bolster its image, Azerbaijani officials have focused on sprucing up Baku’s visual appearance to put the city’s best foot forward.

The effort has drawn scorn from some Baku residents who are unimpressed by the cosmetic improvements.

A mural painted on a concrete bridge underpass near a bus station in north-central Baku has been dismissed by many as state-approved graffiti.

Ironically, some of the artists hired to paint the mural reportedly were selected from a list of street artists who have been arrested in the past for painting graffiti.

Some have previously served up to 10 days in a Baku detention center on charges of hooliganism, for acts such as painting the word “freedom” on a concrete wall or scrawling opposition slogans.

While some residents grumble, others see benefits from the European Games, such as with newly planted trees in parks and flowers near Baku Boulevard, a main street in the booming capital that also boasts free WiFi while the games are being played.

There are modern buses on the streets and new, air-conditioned subway cars beneath.

Perhaps most surprisingly, people on Facebook say they have seen police officers on the streets who are, uncharacteristically, smiling.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ron Synovitz and Pete Baumgartner

OSCE and UN condemn Azerbaijan for violating human rights and freedom of speech

June 16, 2015 By administrator

Among the countries jeopardizing freedom of speech, OSCE points out Azerbaijan, Russian and Ukraine, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović said speaking at a two-day conference “Journalists’ safety, Media Freedom and Pluralism in Times of Conflict” in OSCE’s Vienna headquarters, according to the Azerbaijani information agency Turan.

She said the governments of various countries must put an end to media manipulations. The world situation is characterized by the attack of corrupt regimes on freedom of expression, she added. Mijatovic called propaganda “a scar on the face of journalism,” stressing the importance of countering it in modern terms.

The Assistant UN Secretary General for Human Rights Ivan Shemonovich cited data from journalists’ organizations as estimating that approximately half of the journalists killed in the world have lost their lives outside war zones.

On June 16, during the 29th session of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, came up with a statement calling on a number of post-Soviet countries to give up cracking down on NGOs and activists. He spoke up for the prisoners in Azerbaijan and condemned the draft laws introduced in several Central Asian countries targeting NGOs, UN website reports.

He further drew attention to the situation in Azerbaijan and said he was troubled by the reports about the violation of the right of fair trial and the cases of long-term pretrial detentions in that country. “I urge the authorities to release those having health problems on humanitarian grounds, as well as drop charges against those jailed just for exercising their rights,” the High Commissioner said.

The Chair of the Committee on Democracy and Human Rights of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Isabel Santos, commended Azerbaijani authorities’ decision to allow the human rights defender Emin Huseynov to leave the country. “It is good news that Emin Huseynov was allowed to leave Azerbaijan. I commend Switzerland’s determination to make it possible. Still, it is also a sad day as the civil society leaders are forced to leave the country under the authorities’ pressure,” Santos declared.

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