Turkey blocking probes in southeast, says Human Rights Watch

July 11, 2016 By administrator

The Turkish government is blocking access for independent investigations into alleged abuses against civilians across southeast Turkey, the Hurriyet Daily News reports quoting Human Rights Watch (HRW) as stating on July 11.

“The government should promptly grant the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights permission to enter the area and investigate according to its standards,” a statement on HRW’s website read, adding that rigid curfews have been imposed in many towns since the restart of security operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in summer 2015.

“The curfews also prevent non-governmental organizations, journalists, and lawyers from scrutinizing those operations or any resulting abuses by security forces or armed groups. Authorities have blocked rights groups – including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights – from trying to document abuses even after curfews and operations ended,” the statement said.

According to the HRW, the Turkish government has not responded to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein’s public statement in May, nor to his letter requesting permission for a U.N. team to conduct an investigation in the region. However, it added that the government has indicated that Zeid himself would be welcome to visit Turkey.

“The Turkish government’s effective blockade of areas of the southeast fuels concerns of a major cover-up,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Turkish government should give the U.N. and nongovernmental groups immediate access to the area to document what’s going on there.”

Turkey: Human rights activist sent to court for arrest for supporting press freedom campaign

June 20, 2016 By administrator

A human rights activist was sent to court on June 20 for arrest after supporting a campaign in solidarity with Turkish daily Özgür Gündem, which was started on World Press Freedom Day, news portal Bianet has reported.

Turkey Human Rights Foundation (THIV) head Prof. Şebnem Korur Fincancı was sent to court for arrest on charges of making terror propaganda when she served as the editor-in-chief of Özgür Gündem for one day on May 29 as a part of the “Editor-in-chief on Duty” campaign.

Financı called the decision “an effort to break solidarity.”

“This is an expected situation. It is also disturbing to send people to court for arrest by hand-picking [them],” Financı told Bianet.

Meanwhile, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Turkey representative Erol Önderoğlu and journalist Ahmet Nesin also testified to the terror and organized crimes prosecutor for taking part in the campaign.

A total of 44 prominent journalists, including Hasan Cemal, Şeyhmus Diken, Tuğrul Eryılmaz and Ayşe Düzkan served as one-day editors-in-chief during the campaign, while 37 of them were probed for their support.

Özgür Gündem started the campaign on May 3 to provide solidarity and defend press freedom against a number of investigations it faced.

US Welcomes News That Saudi Arabia Will Head UN Human Rights Panel

September 23, 2015 By administrator

While many expressed outrage over Saudi Arabia’s appointment as head of a United Nations’ Human Rights Council panel, one nation has given its seal of approval. Despite the Kingdom’s deplorable rights record, the US State Department “welcomes” the UN’s decision.

After it was revealed earlier this week that Saudi Arabia would chair the key UN Human Rights panel, many were shocked by the inherent hypocrisy behind the decision. Writing for the Daily Beast, Salil Tripathi pointed out that the “Saudi government is unelected and run by one large family, or clan,” which “executes prisoners with particular relish, turning their executions into a public spectacle.”

Director of the Human Rights Action Center Jack Healey also indicated his surprise.

“In essence, there has to be a human rights council,” he told Sputnik. “But the human rights protection will depend upon those who are interested in promoting human rights. And the government of Saudi Arabia has a long history of not allowing human rights activists to monitor in their own country.”

One entity not particularly shocked or surprised by Riyadh’s appointment is the US State Department. During a briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner revealed the US position during an exchange with Associated Press reporter Matt Lee.

“Again, I don’t have any comment, don’t have any reaction to it,” Toner said. “I mean, frankly, it’s – we would welcome it. We’re close allies.”

This is, perhaps, an unsurprising position for the United States to take. Washington has a history of overlooking Riyadh’s systemic abuse, precisely because the two countries are such close allies.

“The US loves human-rights-abusing regimes and always has, provided they ‘cooperate,'” Glenn Greenwald wrote for the Intercept. “The only time the US government pretends to care in the slightest about human rights abuses is when they’re carried out by ‘countries that don’t cooperate.'”

According to Amnesty International, 102 individuals were executed by the Saudi government within the first six months of 2015, most of those by beheading. The Kingdom is also prepared to crucify a 21-year-old for taking part in pro-democracy protests.

“It’s bad enough that Saudi Arabia is a member of the council, but for the UN to go and name the regime as chair of a key panel only pours salt in the wounds for dissidents languishing in Saudi prisons,” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer wrote for his organization’s website.

“I mean, we have an ongoing discussion with them about all these human rights issues, like we do with every country,” Toner said on Tuesday. “We make our concerns clear when we do have concerns, but that dialogue continues. But I don’t have anything to point to in terms of progress.”

Source: sputniknews.com

Turkey’s Human Rights Association takes Armenian orphanage to Europe’s agenda

June 30, 2015 By administrator

By Siranush Ghazanchyan,

The Human Rights Association (İHD) in Turkey has brought the case of a partly demolished Armenian orphanage in Istanbul to the agenda of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Demolition of the Kamp Armen orphanage started in May but was subsequently halted, when the owner of the land said he would donate it to the Armenian community in Istanbul.

Speaking at a press conference on June 29, a member of the İHD’s central executive board, lawyer Eren Keskin, along with other members of the association, said they had sent separate letters to Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks and European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey Kati Piri to draw attention to the Kamp Armen issue.

“In the letter, we said it was a heavy human rights violation that Kamp Armen’s certificate of ownership had not been returned to the Armenian community and that Turkey was not fulfilling the European Union criteria it had vowed to reach,” said Keskin.

Efforts to demolish the orphanage – where thousands of Armenian orphans, including slain journalist Hrant Dink, had grown up – began on May 6, drawing widespread attention once news broke on social media. Later in the day, the demolition was stopped when groups including activists and leading figures from the Armenian community rushed to the area to protest the destruction.

The protesters, who had held a vigil for 19 days, vowed on May 27 that they would continue camping in the area until the license for the buildings is given to the foundation.

Keskin claimed that Turkey was breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, which as an international agreement holds higher validity than national laws. He added that Turkey was also violating the Treaty of Lausanne, in which the rights of Turkey’s minorities were outlined.

Pastor Krikor Ağabaloğlu of the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church said they planned to rebuild the demolished structures as soon as they receive the license.

“The orphanage cannot be used at the moment. But we plan to demolish it and rebuilt it in the same way. [When it reopens] it will not host only Armenian children, its doors will be open to children from all nations,” Ağabaloğlu told daily Hürriyet on May 27.

Fatih Ulusoy, the owner of the camp’s land, was reported as promising on May 24 to donate Kamp Armen to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church and School.

The Turkish Association of Human Rights seeking admission at trial Perinçek

January 26, 2015 By administrator

ASSOCIATION (Turkish) OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE TRUTH AND JUSTICE CENTER MEMORY CALL ADMISSION AS INTERVENER IN THE TRIAL Perincek

January 28, 2015, will start the review of Perincek v / Switzerland by the Grand Chamber, whose powers the European Court of Human Rights are those of a Court of Appeal.

It is well known now that in 2005, Dogu Perinçek had traveled to Switzerland, a country that has officially recognized the Armenian Genocide and passed a law criminalizing the denial, and made in Bern and Lausanne statements denying Genocide Armenian, manufacturing according to him. In 2007, Perinçek had been found guilty of deliberately violating national law and was sentenced by the court in Lausanne. His appeal to the Federal Court was dismissed, he brought the case before the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in his favor in 2008 [2013] and decided that the court in Lausanne had violated the right to expression, a right guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights in Article 10.

The Association of Human Rights sent a letter to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice in 2014, explaining that the denial of the Armenian Genocide incites hostility towards Armenians and asking her to do call Switzerland the decision of the ECHR. Subsequently, the appeal of Switzerland and its request was accepted in June 2014.

The first hearing of that review will take place on 28 January 2015.

The Turkish Association of Human Rights joined the Truth Justice Memory Center and the International Institute for the Study of Genocide and The Toronto Human Rights to appeal to the ECHR in July and Party present a Notice of Joint Kit, that is to say, to be admitted as an intervener. The ECHR has given the request of the three human rights organizations favorably.

We explained this issue in Turkey, the denial of the Armenian Genocide incites racial hatred and encourages anti-Armenian groups. Neither the decision of the ECHR nor the case we presented under joint part relate the historical reality of the massacres of 1915-1917 or precise definition. The bottom of the approach is the fact that the statements are Perinçek footprints racism and discrimination. In this sense, the review by the Grand Chamber is of particular importance as a precedent addressing the denial, minimization and justification in a separate context of the Holocaust.

The decision of the ECHR is held to the effects of denial and discrimination solely on the Swiss Armenians and overlooked the fact that Perincek’s leader Talat Pasha Committee and that the denial of genocide as an international lie, even proclaimed in Lausanne, is a direct charge against the Armenians of Turkeys. We have therefore supported in our file the statements of Perincek do not end in a qualifying event, they constitute the crime of discrimination, and have said that the decision should take into account the position of Perincek political player leading in Turkey, head of the Workers’ Party and leader of Talat Pasha Committee – and the goals and actions of the Committee.

That’s right, the act was considered criminal under Swiss law was committed on Swiss soil, but the Talat Pasha Committee and its leaders, which include Perincek, are in Turkey the authors of acts aimed at the Turkish society. The recipients of their message – those who listen to the Armenians should expect to requests for clarification and trouble, even if they are on the other side of the earth – it was the Turkish society. The hostility against Armenians and in respect of other non-Muslim peoples was fueled in this Turkish company which is intended this message for generations. Reflections and anti-Armenian sentiments were exacerbated throughout the history of the republic, the Permanent dogma, dissemination in the mass media and indoctrination in education, the notion that the eradication of population and the empire’s Armenian civilization is a lie.

Holocaust denial is not only in statements like “there was no genocide.” Denial requires justification irreversible and unforgivable eradication of a people: the notion that “it is the Armenians who are responsible for the events”, ie the Armenians deserved their eradication, they have “stabbed the Turks in the back, “and collaborated with the enemy, has always been and still is constantly repeated in the classes, lectures at universities in the series and TV shows, and books.

Hostility towards Armenians is not only limited to speech; it takes lives. In such a context of discrimination and ethnic hatred, Armenians were attacked and Hrant Dink, the founder and director of Agos, was the victim of a murder whose perpetrators must always be presented to a court. Armenian military Sevag Sahin Balikci was killed in 2011 by another soldier in Batman, where he was doing his military service, on the day of April 24, World Remembrance Day marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. The conditions in which took place the killer trial provoked public skepticism, while the press reported that commanders had put pressure on the military that they may witness the incident was “an accident.” In addition, the “event for Khojaly” of 27 February 2012, which was held in Taksim Square, chaired by the Minister of the Interior, banners that read “You are all Armenians, you are all bastards “were deployed. In the space of two months between 2012 and 2013, in the district of Samatya Istanbul, home to many Armenians, many elderly Armenian women were attaquées- Maritsa Kucuk is one of them, his bones were broken in several places his entire body larded stabbing. And 23 February 2014, banners saying “Long live Ogun Samasts, that Hrant Dink be damned” were brandished, without opposition, in front of Agos newspaper.

In total, the denial of genocide is the essential basis, the most fundamental basis of the threat to the existence of Armenians in Turkey, a threat that the state admits.

As associations of human rights that were direct witnesses and reconciled acts and declarations of incitement to ethnic hatred, we, the Association of Human Rights and the Truth Justice Memory Center, consider it our duty, our purpose and our field of action to present our findings to the European Court of Human Rights in order to contribute to a good and right decision.

Finally, we stress once again: the negation causes hatred and hatred kills. We defend the inalienable right to live in safety, without fear of tomorrow, and hope that the European Court of Human Rights will in the name of fundamental human rights, impede the speech that incites acts contrary to this inalienable right.

January 23, 2015,

INSAN Haklari DERNEGI

Hakikat ADALET Hafıza MERKEZI

Translation for Gilbert Béguian Armenews

Monday, January 26, 2015,
Jean Eckian © armenews.com

No country for human rights: Azerbaijan’s increasingly intolerant regime – NY Times

October 22, 2014 By administrator

By Gunay Ismayilova and Samir Kazimli

As human rights defenders, we must report that our own situation in Azerbaijan has been deteriorating fast.

Two years ago, human rights groups across Europe worried that holding theEurovision Song Contest in our country would only prop up Azerbaijan’s increasingly intolerant regime. Now their fears have been confirmed. Just in the past year, we have seen a cascading series of arrests of human rights defenders on trumped-up charges.

So imagine our dismay on hearing about Europe’s latest approach to our country: The Council of Europe itself is holding a conference this Saturday and Sunday in Baku, on how to implement the European Convention on Human Rights. Those attending reportedly will include Judge Dean Spielmann, the president of the European Court of Human Rights, the very institution that is supposed to be the bulwark of our cause in Europe.

It would be humorous were it not so tragic.

There is only one reason for the choice of venue: It’s Azerbaijan’s turn, according to its place in the alphabet, to hold the chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. By all other measures, the decision makes no sense at all.
Many leaders of the already limited number of independent nongovernmental organizations here are now in prison, most of them on sham charges of “illegal entrepreneurship,” abuse of power, state treason and tax evasion.

Our European visitors probably won’t get to see the 58-year-old human rights defender (and founding director of the Peace and Democracy Institute in Baku) Leyla Yunus. She was arrested on July 30 on charges of treason and other counts her lawyers say are fraudulent. Or her husband, Arif Yunus, 59, who was arrested six days later. On Sept. 23, according to the lawyers, Ms. Yunus was beaten by a guard at the Kurdakhany detention center, where she is being held.

The Europeans probably won’t visit Intigam Aliyev, either; he is a lawyer and human rights defender who was detained and charged on Aug. 8. There are serious concerns about the health of both Ms. Yunus and Mr. Aliyev, and indications that neither is receiving the medical attention they require.

Nor will the Europeans meet Rasul Jafarov, a young pro-democracy activist arrested on Aug. 2. He was about to kick off a “Sports for Rights” campaign protesting plans to hold the first-ever European Games in Baku in 2015, an event that has support from the international corporations BP, P&G, Tissot and others.

Journalists have also been systematically targeted. Last month, a criminal case was opened against the investigative journalist and corruption fighter Khadija Ismayilova (no relationship to the co-author of this article), after she spoke in Strasbourg, France, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. She is now at risk of joining almost a dozen other journalists and bloggers who are already in prison.

Then there is Anar Mammadli, the recipient of the Council of Europe’s Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize. Sadly, our friend, who was honored just last month for his work on monitoring elections and other democratic rights, is currently serving a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence, handed down in May.

All in all, Azerbaijan seems a particularly strange place to discuss the business of how better to implement human rights.

A string of recent European Court judgments has taken Azerbaijan to task for a long list of serious rights abuses, including police torture and brutality, detention of political opponents, imprisonment of journalists, interference in elections and refusal to register legitimate civil society groups.

Rather than uphold the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights, Azerbaijan has continued to use the law as a political club to silence critics. As in many countries whose economies run on oil revenues, Azerbaijan’s corrupt ruling elite has no interest in implementing the rule of law, which would lead to its inevitable fall from power.

In our view, it is a travesty that the Council of Europe is sponsoring a conference about human rights in Azerbaijan. The event will only be used cynically by the state-controlled media to add legitimacy to the current government, which tramples the rights that the Council of Europe seeks to defend.

Time for Sanctions on Baku – The American Interest

October 3, 2014 By administrator

Below is an article by The American Interest

By David J. Kramer and Richard Kauzlarich

As the West has turned its attention to the Islamic State and the Ukraine crisis, the government of President Ilham Aliyev has expanded its crackdown on dissenting voices in Azerbaijan with harassment, threats, beatings, and arrests. Even American citizens and international NGOs have bet caught up in the widening net of repression. These actions demand a response.

For years, Belarus’s leader Alexander Lukashenka has been called Europe’s last dictator, although Vladimir Putin is giving Lukashenka a run for his money, amidst the worst crackdown on human rights in Russia in decades. And now we might also add another leader in the region to the list: President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.

After an accelerating series of arrests, Aliyev’s government now holds nearly 100 political prisoners, roughly double the number in Belarus and Russia combined. Beyond the raw numbers, Azerbaijan’s authorities are also getting more thuggish in their handling of critics, journalists, and opposition figures—as well as Westerners.

Statements of concern and criticism from Western and international officials and organizations have fallen on deaf ears in Baku. Even President Obama’s recent criticism of Azerbaijan’s treatment of NGOs made no impact. To the contrary, there are now credible reports that the Azerbaijani authorities plan to arrest investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova when she returns to Baku from a trip abroad. The best way to try to reverse this disturbing trend is to impose penalties on the Aliyev regime for its outrageous treatment of its own people.

Among the most egregious abuses are the July 30 arrests of civil society activists Leyla and Arif Yunus, accused of spying for Armenian secret services—implausible charges linked to the decades-old dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. On August 20, journalist Ilgar Nasibov was savagely beaten into a state of unconsciousness while he was in the office of a rights organization in the Naxcivan region. Several leading opposition figures—including Ilgar Mamedov of the opposition movement REAL and Tofig Yakublu of Musavat—languish in prison on unsubstantiated charges.

American citizens and organizations are not immune from Azerbaijan’s heavy-handed intolerance of dissenting voices. Said Nuri, an American citizen of Azerbaijani origin, was recently blocked for nearly a week from leaving Baku, after visiting his ailing father. The local offices of several American and international non-governmental organizations have been raided and/or their bank accounts frozen, and their employees harassed including IREX, the National Democratic Institute, Transparency International, and Oxfam. Several grantees of the National Endowment for Democracy have been arrested, and numerous others have had their accounts frozen.

Azerbaijan’s smear campaign has included U.S. officials, too. Recently departed U.S. Ambassador Richard Morningstar was subjected to various personal attacks by Azerbaijani government representatives, including the Chief of the Presidential Administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev. Senate staffers during a visit to Baku earlier this year were called “dogs” by a prosecutor and “spies” by a parliamentarian after meeting with Khadija Ismayilova.

Any individual or organization that criticizes Aliyev or promotes democracy is viewed as hostile. Mehdiyev has characterized independent media as “anti-Azerbaijani forces” financed from abroad.

The Council of Europe’s human rights chief, Nils Muiznieks, slammed the Azerbaijani government earlier this month for the “totally unacceptable” human rights situation, which, he said, “flies in the face of the human rights obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan” as a member of the Council. In August, several UN human rights envoys said they were “appalled” by the growing number of abuses and arrests of rights activists “on the basis of trumped-up charges.” The “criminalization of rights activists must stop,” they declared, calling for the release of the Yunuses and others.

For years, Azerbaijan’s oil and gas reserves insulated the country from exposure for its abysmal human rights record. The West’s attention lately has been focused on the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the challenge of the Islamic State, giving the Aliyev regime a sense that it can get away with its crackdown. To be safe, at last month’s NATO summit it offered to take part in investment and reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, betting that contributions to the allied effort would buy it a pass on its internal situation. Azerbaijan has also thrown around lots of the money it has earned from energy exports to buy influence and friends in the West.

Azerbaijani authorities often argue that they live in a tough neighborhood—sandwiched between Russia and Iran and with an unresolved conflict with Armenia—and that this should excuse them for their behavior. Geopolitics, however, shouldn’t shield Azerbaijan from criticism for treating its citizens and Western organizations as criminals.

It’s time, therefore, for the United States to apply a law modeled on the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act to authorities in Baku. A number of Azerbaijani activists have called for such measures. Given the reported assets the Aliyev family and its circle hold overseas, freezing their assets and denying them access and travel to the West might just do the trick. The State Department should also issue a travel warning to American citizens alerting them of the surveillance, harassment, and possible detention they might face in Azerbaijan.

At a time when Vladimir Putin is continuing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, some will argue that, for geopolitical reasons, this is not the time for the United States to get tough on Azerbaijan. There is never a good time to take such steps, but the situation inside Azerbaijan demands a response now. Further Western expressions of “concern” or characterizations of the situation as “unacceptable” would sound increasingly hollow. The Aliyev regime must understand that there are consequences for its abuses.

Human rights activists call on rock band ‘‘Okean Elzy’’ to dedicate a song to Azerbaijani Political Prisoners

September 4, 2014 By administrator

Human Rights Campaign “The Art of Democracy” appealed to the head of the Ukrainian rock band “Okean Elzy”, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, in connection with the forthcoming concert of the Baku at the end of this week. The authors wrote in the appeal that Okean Elzy should bear in mind the human rights abuses being inflicted on the people of Azerbaijan, “where youth groups, academics, political activists and NGOs have become the targets of government repression,” Turan reports.

In their appeal the authors have also written to dedicate one of the songs to Rasul Jafarov, a 30 year old human rights activist. he launched a Sing for Democracy campaign to use 2012 Eurovision song contest —which was hosted in Baku—to showcase the country’s poor human rights record. He has also been the coordinator of the Human Rights Campaign “The Art of Democracy”.

As the article also reads, in December 2013, he was on Maidan, in solidarity with the Ukraine. . Back then, Okean performed in front of the jubilant crowd, dedicating the concert to all those who were detained and injured in the protests. Since then, Rasul has become a fiercest fan of Okean Elzy.

The authors of the appeal say that they urge the group to speak up against Rasul’s arrest. The best way to do so is to dedicate him the song “На Небі” while performing this song at their concert in Azerbaijan. “Rasul believes that the Azerbaijani government should afford all artists, journalists, activists and ordinary citizens the right to express themselves freely without fear of reprisal. We hope that you share this believe,” the article reads.

During the last session at the PACE Rasul Jafarov and a number of other human rights activists made a report on the political prisoners’ problems in Azerbaijan. And a month earlier, at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE in Baku Jafarov and others held a public hearing on the civil society problems. Both of these events caused a negative reaction in Baku. Authorities were literally furious by PACE decision to appoint a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

source: panorama.am

UN’s Navi Pillay warns of Israel Gaza ‘war crimes’ (74% of those killed in Gaza are civilians,)

July 23, 2014 By administrator

The UN’s top human rights official has condemned Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip, saying that war crimes may have been committed.

Navi Pillay told an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Israel’s military offensive had not done enough to protect civilians.

She also condemned Hamas for “indiscriminate attacks” on Israel.

Israel launched its offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping rocket fire from Gaza.

“There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes,” Ms Pillay said.

However Israel, which claims the UN Human Rights Council is biased, is unlikely to co-operate with any authorised UN investigation, the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva reports.

‘Heart-wrenching split’

At least 649 Palestinians and 31 Israelis have been killed in the past 15 days of fighting, officials say. A foreign worker in southern Israel was also killed by a rocket fired from Gaza on Wednesday, police said.

The UN says about 74% of those killed in Gaza are civilians, with medical clinics among the facilities hit by air strikes.

Kyung-wha Kang, the assistant secretary-general at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said civilians in Gaza had no safe to place to go “as 44% of the land has been declared a ‘no-go zone’ by the Israeli army”.

“Families are taking the heart-wrenching decision to split to different locations – mother and son to one; father and daughter to another – hoping to maximise the chance one part of the family survives.”

BBC: Rights concerns cast shadow on Azerbaijan’s political rise

May 8, 2014 By administrator

By Leyla Najafli
BBC Azeri

Nida is struggling to maintain campaigns with its activists in jail Continue reading the main story
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The latest lengthy jail terms handed out to activists in Azerbaijan have raised already high concerns over human rights abuses in the country – just as it is due to take on a prestigious international role.

Eight young activists from the prominent Nida movement were convicted of organising mass unrest, and possession of illegal drugs and weapons. They had been on a 20-day hunger strike – but a Baku court sentenced them to between six and eight years in jail on Tuesday.

Amnesty International has called them “prisoners of conscience”, while Human Rights Watch called the judgment a “colossal injustice”.

But the authorities maintain that they were imprisoned for their criminal activity, dismissing any doubts about the courts’ impartiality.

‘Bitter irony’
The activists, aged between 18 and 30, had protested against non-combat soldier deaths in the army – some of the biggest demonstrations the country has seen in recent years.

The court verdict came days before the country is due to assume chairmanship of the cabinet of ministers at the Council of Europe (CoE) – the continent’s leading human rights watchdog.

In a recent open letter to members of the CoE’s parliamentary assembly (Pace), the European Stability Initiative, a European think-tank, wrote of the “bitter irony” of Azerbaijan taking over the chairmanship at a time when it has “never had more political prisoners”.

“There should not be any [political prisoners] in a Council of Europe member state. Pace… has so far turned its eyes away.”

Since the crisis in Ukraine, the search for alternative gas sources, which would reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia, has become a priority for Europe.

Azerbaijan provides this alternative, with new gas pipeline projects due to be finished in the coming years.

But Western diplomats continue to be accused of “selling out democracy for energy”.

Indeed, while Western diplomats and European officials have expressed “concern” and “disappointment” at the the verdicts against the activists, there is no sign of shock.

‘Hardly news’
The muted reaction is in stark contrast to five years ago, when bloggers Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli – known as the “donkey bloggers” – were jailed for “hooliganism” charges.

There was uproar in the international community, and Hillary Clinton, then US secretary of state, raised the issue with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The activists were released by presidential pardon after a year in prison.

But that was then.

“Alas, it’s hardly news any more that activists are handed long prison sentences in Azerbaijan,” said Giorgi Gogia, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This has been a mainstay in the government’s two-year effort to silence its critics.”

With so many jailed activists and journalists – Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Club says there are 142 political prisoners – it appears that being active in civil society in Azerbaijan is more of a risk than ever in its 20 years of independence.

There have been no mass protests in the country since the disputed presidential elections in October, when Mr Aliyev claimed victory for a third term in office with more than 84% of the votes.

In comparison with previous post-election protests, the demonstrations were small and ineffective.

Many put this down partly to a crackdown which had jailed opposition activists in the run-up to the vote.

But, to many, the overall picture is clear: despite its best efforts, civil society in Azerbaijan is paralysed because of recent events; and gas and geopolitics are seen as too important for the West to put any real pressure on the authorities.