Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
Azerbaijan Arrests 10 Citizens Suspected Of Fighting In Syria
January 7th, 2015
Security authorities in Azerbaijan have arrested a group of 10 citizens who allegedly fought in Syria, according to Azerbaijani and Russian media reports quoting the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry on January 7.
According to the reports, the suspects were arrested as the result of "search operations."
Nine of the men are thought to have crossed into Syria illegally in 2014, where they underwent training including in shooting various types of small arms, the reports said. After the training the men fought in battles in "illegal armed groups," the reports said, citing information from the National Security Ministry.
The reports said that the authorities are carrying out "ongoing investigative and operational measures" regarding the 10 men and are also attempting to establish the identities of others involved in fighting in Syria.
The reports did not say which groups the 10 men are suspected of having fought with in Syria. While the men were all named, the reports did not say when exactly they are alleged to have gone to Syria or when or why they returned to Azerbaijan.
Lack Of Details About Arrests, Sentencing
Media reports in Azerbaijan of arrests and sentencing of Azerbaijani nationals found guilty of fighting in Syria have been characterized by a lack of details about the circumstances of the defendants' alleged activities in Syria and about their trials.
Last month, pro-government portal Day.az reported that an Azerbaijani man named as Sabuxi Cafarov had been found guilty of fighting in Syria and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
However, the reports of Cafarov's arrest in June 2014 and his trial gave almost no information about his alleged activities in Syria, saying only that he fought there for a "long time."
The January 7 report of the arrest of the 10 Azerbaijani men is not the first report of a mass arrest of individuals thought to have fought with extremist groups abroad. In September, the Azerbaijani authorities arrested 26 individuals they said were alleged members of militant groups in Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq. One of the suspects was named as Elshan Qurbanli, who was alleged to have gone to Syria to fight with the Islamic State group.
'Azerbaijani Family Joined IS In Syria'
The reports of the arrests came amid another report by pro-government news agency APA that an Azerbaijani family living in Moscow had gone to Syria to join IS.
APA said on January 7 that its Moscow correspondent reported that the uncle of a missing Azerbaijani citizen, Turkan Huseynova, had told him that his niece and her family had gone to Syria.
According to APA, 21-year-old Huseynova, her husband, Gadzhimurad Gamidov, and their 1-year-old daughter Safiya disappeared on December 31. Gamidov is a Russian national from Daghestan and an ethnic Azerbaijani.
Huseynova's uncle, Dzhavanshir Huseynov, reportedly said that the couple had communicated with their families on January 1 and said that they planned to go to Syria and join IS. They had previously said they were in Turkey. The couple has not been heard from since, the report said.
It is not known how many Azerbaijanis are fighting in Syria. Estimates in news reports have ranged from 200 to 300. The largest group of Azerbaijani militants in Syria is likely fighting for the IS group. In May, Muhammad al-Azeri, the leader of an Azerbaijani IS faction in Raqqa, said in a video message that IS was on the "correct path of jihad" in Syria.
In response to reports of Azerbaijanis fighting in Syria and to increasing fears of the threat of radicalization in Azerbaijan, Baku has cracked down on citizens joining radical groups.
Measures have included the introduction of stricter antiterrorism legislation, amending its existing law, "On The Fight Against Terrorism." The new measures introduced in March included stricter punishments for those fighting as mercenaries.
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Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
16:11 27/12/2014 » SOCIETY
Azerbaijani political scientist: 2014 was a disaster for Azerbaijan: in 2015 will be ''Year of depression''
The political year in Azerbaijan turned out to be unsuccessful because of the mass arrests among the civil society, journalists; the vast majority of cases were followed by fabricated charges, which in turn had a negative impact on the socio-political situation in the country, Arastun Orujlu, a political scientist, director of the research center "East-West" told in an interview with "Minval.az".
According to the political specialist, in 2014 the socio-political system in the country has collapsed. Official Baku has spoiled its relations with all its important partners, except Turkey and Russia, and the West stopped being an important strategic partner for the country, the expert said. Moreover, during this year the official authorities of the country voiced a lot of accusations in address to the Europeans and Americans. And not only ordinary statements were made, but also concrete steps were undertaken: the expulsion of international institutions of the country, limitation of their activity in the legal form.
"The respected democratic institutions were deported from Azerbaijan, the verbal sparring between Brussels and Baku reaches its climax. This does not promise anything good for the country's future," said the political scientist.
Speaking of the Karabakh conflict, the political scientist noted that nothing important had happened in the negotiation process as well, there was no progress, there was just another attempt by Russia to use the conflict as a lever of pressure on official Baku, which actually succeeded.
2014 as a whole turned to be not successful for Azerbaijan from the economic view as well, Orujlu believes. According to him, a sharp drop in oil prices in a country the economy of which is totally dependent on oil, has led to the fact that the economy slowed down. "And we can see the first signs of this: there is the actual preparation of the population in the coming year to imitate, the introduction of additional taxes, higher prices. gasoline prices are falling around the whole world, but this did not happen in Azerbaijan, and as we learned recently, it will not happen at all, because it would be an additional burden on the state budget," said the political scientist.
As Orujlu notes, the conflict between Russia and the West has very serious consequences for Azerbaijan. Many Azerbaijanis, who, had settled in Russia, lost their former high incomes, some are left without any work. And actually started a flow of unemployed Azerbaijani migrants back to the country; the economy is not ready for this.
At the same time, according to Orujlu in 2014 in Azerbaijan hundreds of people who for various reasons were ready to fight in Syria, in Iraq, but not in Karabakh were revealed.
"Of course, this has affected the atmosphere in society; the number of suicides, brutal murders has increased. And they have a massive character," said the expert, adding that all of this was made possible by domestic policy, pursued by the authorities.
"And if you consider that there is a socio-political vacuum in the country then the surprises are totally expected in the next year. The system is completely destroyed. Either the media, or civil society, or the opposition, which no longer exists, does not play any role, to the people, no one listens. It took its own way in recent months, we have seen the use of force against the authorities at various levels. These are the first signs of a spontaneous protest, and it portends us about chaotic processes, and if such process begins, - and it will probably begin - then you can imagine how the vacuum will look: either all spontaneously chaotic processes will be taken under control by the authorities, or the extremists and radicals will take care of it," said the expert.
Azerbaijani authorities have made a historical mistake by wrong treatment with the civil society, the media, the opposition and those important elements of social and political systems that are like a balancing factor, stressed Orujlu. According to the political scientist, the detonator is already set up by the authorities, and the explosion will be heard which will sweep everything away, the date of the explosion is not known though: "In this sense, 2015 is a year of "economic depression."
The coming year be a difficult one, given the money to be spent on the European games and the anticipated parliamentary elections. "Next year will be quite risky for the authorities. And we will see it in the first months of the year,"he concluded.Leave a comment:
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Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
U.S. Official Slams Raid On RFE/RL's Baku Bureau
By RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service
December 26, 2014
A U.S. State Department official says the United States is "concerned" by a raid on the Baku bureau of RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, during which investigators from the state prosecutor's office shut down the premises after seizing company materials.
The investigators, who entered the bureau on the morning of December 26 accompanied by armed police officers, ransacked the company safe and confiscated computers and official stamps.
They also ordered staff members to leave the building, after holding them in a room for several hours without telephone or computer access.
Several staff members have since been summoned for questioning.
Prosecutors say the raid is part of an ongoing investigation into RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service as a foreign-funded entity.
RFE/RL and its bureaus are funded by the U.S. government.
Kenan Aliyev, the director of the Azerbaijani Service, said the raid is part of an overall crackdown on free media in Azerbaijan.
"The operation of our bureau is paralyzed in Baku," he said. "There has been a long ongoing crackdown on the media and NGOs in Azerbaijan, including the arrest of Khadija Ismayilova, the host of our show and our contributor. We view this as part of this ongoing campaign against independent media."
In Washington, a U.S. State Department official said the United States is "concerned by reports that employees of the RFE/RL bureau in Baku have been detained in their offices and questioned while the premises were searched by police."
"The reasons for the questioning and search are unclear,” the official told RFE/RL on customary condition of anonymity. "We call on the responsible authorities to conduct a transparent investigation in keeping with the law and Azerbaijan's international commitment to protecting media freedom."
The official added that Washington hopes that "Azerbaijani authorities share our conviction that a free and independent press is critical to the well-being of the nation and will act in accordance with that belief."
The representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatovic, called the raid "unacceptable," adding in a December 26 tweet that "the crackdown on freedom of expression" and media freedom "continues in Azerbaijan."
The operation also drew sharp criticism from independent media freedom watchdogs.
Johann Bihr, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk at Reporters Without Borders, said words "fail for describing the scale of the crackdown under way in Azerbaijan."
"President Ilham Aliyev’s government is methodically crushing each of the remaining independent news outlets one by one," Bihr said in a December 26 statement. "International bodies and Azerbaijan’s foreign partners need to respond firmly to such determined ruthlessness."
The raid comes three weeks after Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist and contributor to RFE/RL, was jailed in Baku.
Ismayilova is currently being held on two months' pre-trial detention on criminal charges of inciting a former RFE/RL contributor to attempt suicide.
Ismayilova's supporters have rejected the charges as spurious and motivated by her critical reporting on the Azerbaijani government.
Amnesty International has declared Ismayilova a prisoner of conscience, "detained solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression."
Aliyev says prosecutors have already attempted to use Ismayilova's arrest as a pretext for a broader crackdown on the Baku bureau, which remains one of the few independent media outlets in Azerbaijan.
The prosecutor's office on December 17 delivered a letter to the bureau requesting employment and salary information about both Ismayilova and the former colleague in question.
It also requested the names of all bureau employees, including freelancers, for possible questioning in connection with the case.
Ismayilova has published numerous reports investigating corrupt deals tied to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family.
Presidential chief of staff Ramiz Mehdiyev in early December issued a 60-page statement accusing Ismayilova of displaying a "destructive attitude toward well-known members of the Azerbaijani community."
Mehdiyev also accused RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service of working "for a foreign secret service."
The crackdown on Ismayilova and the Baku bureau comes amid a sweep of arrests and closures that critics say are aimed at silencing antigovernment voices.
Azerbaijan is currently believed to be holding as many as 100 political prisoners, including Leyla Yunus, the director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy and one of the country's best known human rights activists.
Yunus, 59, and her husband, Arif, have both been held in pretrial detention since July and August, respectively, on charges of treason and other crimes.
Yunus, who suffers from diabetes and kidney disease, has complained of physical abuse and denial of medical treatment while in detention. Her lawyers say she is in dangerously ill health.
The West has criticized what is seen as a growing crackdown on government critics in energy-rich Azerbaijan.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski told RFE/RL last week that Washington has been involved in "very serious discussions" with Azerbaijani officials about the recent detentions of the Yunuses, Ismayilova, and others.
Malinowski said U.S. officials have made it clear that Azerbaijan's relationship with the United States is "jeopardized by the crackdown on civil society."
WATCH: Tom Malinowski On Baku's Crackdown On Civil Society
In addition to arrests, Azerbaijani prosecutors have raided a number of so-called foreign entities, including nongovernmental organizations like IREX, the National Democratic Institute, and Oxfam.
All three NGOs were subsequently shut down. IREX, which operates in 125 countries promoting democratic reforms, became the latest to end operations in September after Baku authorities froze its bank assets as part of what prosecutors called a "criminal investigation."
RFE/RL editor-in-chief and co-CEO Nenad Pejic condemned the raid of the Baku office as a "flagrant violation of every international commitment and standard Azerbaijan has pledged to uphold."
"The order comes from the top as retaliation for our reporting and as a thuggish effort to silence RFE/RL," he added.
"This is not the first time that a regime has sought to silence us, and we will continue our work to support Azeris' basic right of free access to information and to report the news to audiences that need it."
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Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
Azerbaijan's 4th Municipal Elections
23.12.2014
Azerbaijan is holding nationwide local elections today, 4th since it gained independence in 1991.
Around 37,000 people submitted their candidacies for 15,035 seats at the municipalities across the country for the total of 1607 municipalities.
The party with a leading number of candidates is the ruling party of New Azerbaijan with 13,400 registered candidates. The party, which comes next is the Motherland party with 159 candidates. In total there are candidates from approximately 30 political parties. Major opposition parties, like The Popular Front Party, are not taking part in this elections by blaiming the authorites for unfair electoral conditions.
Already in the early morning hours vote rigging and ballot stuffing was observed at many of the precincts across the country.The journalists were prevented from filming the violations and in some cases thrown out of the polling stations. Officials at the Central Election Commission insist that the voting is going without serious irregularities.
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Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
It's stupid by aliev regime.Originally posted by Mher View PostWhy is Azerbaijan buying up sporting events? - video
these monkeys are hosting 4 Euro2020 games -_-
I don't know how this nonsense is supposed to work if Armenia qualifies
He's got (not only him but lot of azerbaijanis) self and whole country estim issues. Like any caucasian, craving for prestige and a show off.
They think that this kind of money show offs will raise their country's standing. But in reality this events will only raise international awareness of human rights issues, warmongering policies and social inequality there, just like eurovision did.
In most of reportings from there at that time the views were negative about this issues. Also they highlighted Artsakh conflict internationally (good for us).
At the time of eurovision contest public in azerbaijan became more polarised socially as thees luxuary spenditures bipassed most of them.
Regimes like aliev's in other countries try to stay out of international limelights. Quiet, isolated and out of critisim, or external influences.
Taking into account diminished oil revenues, I say "go ahead aliev, waist your money on things like this as much as you can, let the whole world come and see what's happening in here. No matter how much caviar you feed them they still gonna see and ask your people and us about what's really going on".
This things do not make things easier for baku in Artsakh issues. Noboy is going to say "yea lets give Karabakh to Aliev because he is so generous".
Generally, azeris know how to become a laughing stock royally. This is going to be another one in line.Leave a comment:
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Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
Alieve is trying to look more important internationally then he really is..nothing new.
Originally posted by Mher View PostWhy is Azerbaijan buying up sporting events? - video
these monkeys are hosting 4 Euro2020 games -_-
I don't know how this nonsense is supposed to work if Armenia qualifiesLeave a comment:
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Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
Why is Azerbaijan buying up sporting events? - video
these monkeys are hosting 4 Euro2020 games -_-
I don't know how this nonsense is supposed to work if Armenia qualifiesLeave a comment:
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Re: Azerbaijan - Internal Political Affairs
Baku in the USSR? Azerbaijan could be set to abandon West and head East
The arrest of an Azeri journalist last week is a warning to Israel that its strategic alliance with the oil-rich state may be on shaky ground.
By Anshel Pfeffer
Dec. 12, 2014 | 5:29 PM
Azerbaijan isn’t a friendly country for journalists who ask too many questions. Dozens have been arrested in recent years, and 20 are currently in prison. Others have been forced underground or into exile. Last year, when I visited investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova at her Radio Azadliq workplace in Baku, I was surprised to see how openly the journalist – the biggest thorn in the side of the regime – operates. “We are part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the U.S. State Department,” one of her colleagues explained. “It gives Khadija a level of immunity that other journalists don’t enjoy.”
Ismayilova spoke with anger of how the authorities had hounded her following a series of investigations revealing how the family of President Ilham Aliyev had amassed massive wealth through the embezzlement of Azerbaijan’s oil and natural gas sales.
She was particularly bitter at what she saw as the way Western governments ignored the human rights situation in her country. “Aliyev’s police planted hidden cameras in my apartment and filmed me having sex with my boyfriend. When I didn’t give into their threats, they posted the video online. We may be a secular society, but this is still a conservative Muslim country. You can imagine what that did to my family,” she said.
Ismayilova was arrested last week. She is to be charged with pressuring her ex-boyfriend and driving him to suicide, and is facing a seven-year prison term. However, no one is under any illusion that she is being prosecuted for anything other than her journalism and politics.
In addition to her investigations, in recent years she has become the main contact between civil society organizations in Azerbaijan and human rights groups abroad supporting the pro-democracy movement. It seems that Ismayilova’s U.S. immunity has run out.
Aliyev is not content with Azerbaijan’s commercial ties with a West eager for oil and gas – he wants respectability, too. That’s why he’s spent millions on lobbying and public relations, including sponsorship of Spanish soccer side Atletico Madrid (last season’s Champions League finalist). Western leaders are happy to trade with him, but less keen to be seen with him in public.
Three months ago, President Barack Obama criticized Azerbaijan’s human rights record in a public speech. Aliyev seems to feel that, after years courting the West and even entertaining the idea that Azerbaijan could join the European Union, it’s time to turn back toward Russia (his father, the previous president, was secretary general of the Azerbaijani Communist Party until the Soviet Union disintegrated and the country achieved independence).
Ismayilova’s arrest is seen by many in Baku as a breaking point in Aliyev’s attempts to align Azerbaijan with the West. In an interview he gave two weeks ago to a Russian news channel, he accused the West of having encouraged the emergence of the Islamic State with its “policies in the Middle East over the last decade.”
His words echoed the Kremlin’s position that the United States and European Union are responsible for the rise of ISIS (also known as ISIL) by supporting the rebels fighting the Bashar Assad regime in Syria.
Until very recently, Azerbaijan saw President Vladimir Putin’s Russia as a hostile force trying to undermine its pro-Western policy and supporting neighboring Armenia in the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Now, Aliyev is praising Moscow and saying that “Azerbaijan and Russia are two neighboring friendly countries which are developing together and are ready to face world challenges.”
Energy field
One country that should be concerned by Azerbaijan’s seeming disenchantment with the West is Israel, which has built a strategic alliance in recent years with Aliyev’s regime, few details of which have been published.
According to foreign reports, Israel has conducted intelligence operations against Iran from neighboring Azerbaijan, and sold it weapons systems, including drones and radar. Israel doesn’t disclose details of its arms deals with Azerbaijan, or if the military and electronic equipment it supplies is used only for defense purposes against Iran and Armenian separatists or is used to suppress the regime’s internal opposition as well.
Another strategic dimension to the Israel-Azerbaijan relationship is in energy. Most of the oil used in Israel is purchased from Azerbaijan, pumped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, and from there in tankers across the eastern Mediterranean.
The Azerbaijanis have close ties to Turkey and are interested in building a new pipeline, along with the two countries. However, this project has yet to materialize due to the prolonged diplomatic crisis between Jerusalem and Ankara.
Azerbaijan had a long period of tension with its Iranian neighbor, despite the fact that millions of Azeris live in Iran (even Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is half-Azeri).
There is an intense rivalry between the Islamic Republic and the former Soviet Republic, and competition for oil markets. In recent years, both countries have accused each other of aggression.
Azerbaijan claimed that Iranian cells were planning to carry out terror attacks against Israeli targets in its territory. And last August, Iran claimed to have shot down an Israeli drone launched in Azerbaijan (though the footage the Iranians showed was old and filmed in Lebanon).
A low point in the relationship was in 2012, when Azerbaijan hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku and Iran accused it of holding an “immoral” and “unIslamic” event, even recalling its ambassador for a few months. (Ironically, Azerbaijan had won the 2011 event with a song called “Running Scared.”)
Recently though, there’s been a thaw between the two countries. Iranian President Hassan Rohani visited Baku last month, and has now met Aliyev four times this year. The assumption in Jerusalem is that the rivalry between the two countries isn’t over and the Azerbaijanis will still prefer the strategic alliance with Israel.
Ismayilova, a staunch atheist, believes – like many Azerbaijanis – that Iran is financing and supporting Islamists in her country. In her interview with Haaretz last year, she warned the West and Israel from relying on the Aliyev regime to maintain a secular Azerbaijan and block the Islamists. “Don’t think you’re more clever than the Iranians. In the end, we will also have Iran here and everyone will lose.”
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