Anything turkey can do, we can do better...

[Steph]

From: BBC World Service


Last Updated: Friday, 4 May 2007, 19:42 GMT 20:42 UK

Journalists jailed in Azerbaijan
By Matthew Collin
BBC Caucasus correspondent


Two journalists in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan have been jailed after publishing an article that some Muslims said insulted Islam.

Samir Sadaqatoglu and Rafiq Tagi, from Sanat newspaper, were sentenced to four and three years in prison respectively, for inciting religious hatred.

It is the latest in a series of jail sentences for journalists in energy-rich Azerbaijan.

Campaigners accuse the government of a clampdown on freedom of speech.

Fatwa issued

The case inspired angry demonstrations in both Azerbaijan and neighbouring Iran.

A leading Iranian cleric issued a fatwa calling for the journalists to be killed.

The article, published in a small-circulation newspaper, compared European Christian values to those of Islam and some Muslims believe it insulted the Prophet Muhammad.


Authorities say there are no problems with free speech in Azerbaijan as long as journalists obey the law

During the trial, radical Muslims also protested in the courtroom, demanding the death sentence.

Azerbaijan is a secular Muslim state with large oil and gas reserves.

It is also a Western ally that has troops serving with US forces in Iraq.

After the sentence, an official at the American embassy in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, expressed concern about the case.

She said that while the US did not share the sentiments expressed in the article, the prosecution was another example of unnecessary limits on freedom of expression.

Press freedom campaigners have often criticised Azerbaijan's government for what they say are its attempts to silence dissenting voices.

Seven journalists are now in prison in the country, but authorities say there are no problems with free speech in Azerbaijan as long as journalists obey the law.

[Kharpert]

there are no problems with free speech in Azerbaijan as long as journalists obey the law.

The irony is just delicious.

[Steph]

The irony is just delicious.

Yeah, you can just taste it.

[Steph]

Azerbaijan – one of the most dangerous OSCE member-states for journalists
18.05.2007 13:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ OSCE representative on issues concerning free media Miklos Haraszti condemned pressure on mass media in Azerbaijan. He said journalism profession is not safe in Azerbaijan. “It contradicts commitments taken in front of the OSCE. During recent times we have fixed five cases of imprisoning journalists. Some of them were detained in the court room as soon as the first instance court ruled verdicts,” he underlined.

Miklos Haraszti stated that Azerbaijan has turned into one of the most dangerous OSCE member-states for journalists. “Some time ago I had a meeting with President Aliev. I told him that the idea of his advisers to increase discipline among journalists aimed at forming more ethic atmosphere in this field through repression is catastrophically wrong. Only freedom of speech and self-regulation of the press will result in increasing professionalism. It’s a pity that despite my calls to the President of Azerbaijan, politicians of the country to be more tolerant towards media, Azerbaijan does not observe international standards. I hope authorities will cancel the article “On slander”, which supposes criminal responsibility,” the OSCE representative informed, BBC reports.

[Joseph]

It's the Armenians fault again!!! With every day that passes, the Azeris solidify themselves and the stupidest motherf*ckers on the face of the planet

Azerbaijan tops the charts for number of imprisoned journalists

23 May 2007 [10:01] - Today.Az

The number of Azerbaijani journalists in prison has reached a record high over the past month, even while one senior government official maintains that the country's leadership is doing everything possible to respect press freedom.


Azerbaijan currently has the highest number of arrested journalists among all of the 56 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Miklos Haraszti, the organization's special representative for media freedoms, told Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in April. As if to underscore that status, the Paris-based media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders recently included the Azerbaijani leader on its list of so-called "Media Predators."

Since then, the number of imprisoned journalists has risen from five to seven. Most recently, on May 16, opposition newspaper Muhalifat editor Rovshan Kebirli and correspondent Yashar Agazade were sentenced to two years and six months in prison for allegedly slandering the president's uncle, Jalal Aliyev. The correspondent had described Jalal Aliyev as "the most corrupt person in Azerbaijan" with control of the country's largest trading center, AMAY. Aliyev demanded evidence for the charges, which the newspaper did not provide.

International human rights and media watchdog organizations, the United States, and the European Union have repeatedly urged the Azerbaijani government to release all imprisoned journalists and to adopt legislation that would ban the criminal prosecution of media representatives.

Government officials assert that criticism of their stance on media rights is off-target. In remarks to journalists on May 3, Ali Hasanov, head of the presidential administration's political department, asserted that "after Ilham Aliyev took office [in 2003], he solved all problems with media freedom."

"A few facts related to some journalists cannot be equated with the situation in the country as a whole," Hasanov added. Imprisoned journalists, however, were excluded from a May 8 parliament amnesty for prisoners granted at the suggestion of the president's wife, parliamentarian Mehriban Aliyeva.

Reporters Without Borders appears to be in the presidential administration’s firing line. Hasanov claimed that the organization "is working under the Armenian lobby's influence ," and has been "fighting against [Azerbaijani ally] Turkey for a long time." Given this perceived bias, officials in Baku tend to disregard the group's assessments.
The criticism of international organizations is unlikely to die down soon. Late on May 20, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, citing violation of fire safety standards, moved to shut down the offices of Realniy Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, two newspapers often critical of the Aliyev administration. The papers' publisher and editor-in-chief, Eynulla Fatullayev, was recently sentenced to two-plus years in prison for slander. Intervention by local journalists, human rights activists and American and British diplomats stopped the closure, the pro-opposition news agency Turan reported.

A rally by local journalists has been tentatively scheduled for June 14 in Baku to protest the recent imprisonments of reporters.

Perhaps the highest profile instance of press repression involves Fatullayev, who was arrested on April 20 on charges of slandering internally displaced persons from Khojali, a town in Nagorno Karabakh. The suit was filed by Tatiana Chaladze, chairwoman of the Committee for Protection of Refugees, a Baku-based non-governmental organization. In an article entitled "Karabakh Diary," Fatullayev published a statement by an Armenian army officer who said that Armenian forces had kept open an exit corridor for civilians during a bloodbath in 1992, remembered in Azerbaijan as the Khojali massacre. The article also reported that escapees from Khojali confirmed the existence of such a corridor. Chaladze demanded evidence that the town's former residents had confirmed the existence of a corridor. Fatullayev was also charged for reportedly stating in an online discussion forum that chaotic Azerbaijani gunfire had killed some Khojali residents. The publisher maintains that both accusations are a political response to Realniy Azerbaijan’s sharp criticism of President Aliyev's rule.

Helping to stir the press freedom controversy was a brutal beating of the editor of Gundelik Azerbaijan on the day of Fatullayev's sentencing. The editor, Uzeir Jafarov, was hospitalized as a result of injuries suffered in the attack. He claims that a police officer who attended Fatullayev's trial was among his assailants. The charge has not yet been investigated.

The arrest of Sanat newspaper reporter Rafik Taghi and editor Samir Sadagtogulu focused on a similarly sensitive topic, the role of Islam. On May 4, the two received three and four-year prison sentences respectively, for the publication of a 2006 article that described Christian values as more progressive than Islamic values. Charges were brought by the general prosecutor's office for "inflaming religious conflict."

Baku analysts have trouble explaining possible reasons for the government's apparent hard line toward journalists. The country's opposition is weak and fragmented, they note, and the presidential elections are still a year off.

The April 27 decision to grant a broadcast license to private television and radio company ANS after months of delay is cited by Azerbaijani reporters as the only recent sign of tolerance of media outlets that diverge from the government's viewpoint.

Shahin Hajiyev, editor of the pro-opposition Turan news agency, which has had its own property dispute tussle with officials, sees the issue as part of a larger malaise concerning democratization. "It is not only a media problem," commented Hajiyev. "It is a problem with the general situation with democracy in Azerbaijan."

By Rovshan Ismayilov

[Joseph]

AZERBAIJAN TOPS THE CHARTS FOR NUMBER OF IMPRISONED JOURNALISTS
5/22/07

Print this article Email this article

The number of Azerbaijani journalists in prison has reached a record high over the past month, even while one senior government official maintains that the country’s leadership is doing everything possible to respect press freedom.

Azerbaijan currently has the highest number of arrested journalists among all of the 56 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Miklos Haraszti, the organization’s special representative for media freedoms, told Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in April. As if to underscore that status, the Paris-based media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders recently included the Azerbaijani leader on its list of so-called "Media Predators."

Since then, the number of imprisoned journalists has risen from five to seven. Most recently, on May 16, opposition newspaper Muhalifat editor Rovshan Kebirli and correspondent Yashar Agazade were sentenced to two years and six months in prison for allegedly slandering the president’s uncle, Jalal Aliyev. The correspondent had described Jalal Aliyev as "the most corrupt person in Azerbaijan" with control of the country’s largest trading center, AMAY. Aliyev demanded evidence for the charges, which the newspaper did not provide.

International human rights and media watchdog organizations, the United States, and the European Union have repeatedly urged the Azerbaijani government to release all imprisoned journalists and to adopt legislation that would ban the criminal prosecution of media representatives.

Government officials assert that criticism of their stance on media rights is off-target. In remarks to journalists on May 3, Ali Hasanov, head of the presidential administration’s political department, asserted that "[a]fter Ilham Aliyev took office [in 2003], he solved all problems with media freedom."

"A few facts related to some journalists cannot be equated with the situation in the country as a whole," Hasanov added. Imprisoned journalists, however, were excluded from a May 8 parliament amnesty for prisoners granted at the suggestion of the president’s wife, parliamentarian Mehriban Aliyeva.

Reporters Without Borders appears to be in the presidential administration’s firing line. Hasanov claimed that the organization "is working under the Armenian lobby’s influence," and has been "fighting against [Azerbaijani ally] Turkey for a long time." Given this perceived bias, officials in Baku tend to disregard the group’s assessments.

The criticism of international organizations is unlikely to die down soon. Late on May 20, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, citing violation of fire safety standards, moved to shut down the offices of Realniy Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, two newspapers often critical of the Aliyev administration. The papers’ publisher and editor-in-chief, Eynulla Fatullayev, was recently sentenced to two-plus years in prison for slander. Intervention by local journalists, human rights activists and American and British diplomats stopped the closure, the pro-opposition news agency Turan reported

A rally by local journalists has been tentatively scheduled for June 14 in Baku to protest the recent imprisonments of reporters.

Perhaps the highest profile instance of press repression involves Fatullayev, who was arrested on April 20 on charges of slandering internally displaced persons from Khojali, a town in Nagorno-Karabakh. The suit was filed by Tatiana Chaladze, chairwoman of the Committee for Protection of Refugees, a Baku-based non-governmental organization. In an article entitled "Karabakh Diary," Fatullayev published a statement by an Armenian army officer who said that Armenian forces had kept open an exit corridor for civilians during a bloodbath in 1992, remembered in Azerbaijan as the Khojali massacre. The article also reported that escapees from Khojali confirmed the existence of such a corridor. Chaladze demanded evidence that the town’s former residents had confirmed the existence of a corridor. Fatullayev was also charged for reportedly stating in an online discussion forum that chaotic Azerbaijani gunfire had killed some Khojali residents. The publisher maintains that both accusations are a political response to Realniy Azerbaijan’s sharp criticism of President Aliyev’s rule.

Helping to stir the press freedom controversy was a brutal beating of the editor of Gundelik Azerbaijan on the day of Fatullayev’s sentencing. The editor, Uzeir Jafarov, was hospitalized as a result of injuries suffered in the attack. He claims that a police officer who attended Fatullayev’s trial was among his assailants. The charge has not yet been investigated.

The arrest of Sanat newspaper reporter Rafik Taghi and editor Samir Sadagtogulu focused on a similarly sensitive topic, the role of Islam. On May 4, the two received three and four-year prison sentences respectively, for the publication of a 2006 article that described Christian values as more progressive than Islamic values. Charges were brought by the general prosecutor’s office for "inflaming religious conflict." [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Baku analysts have trouble explaining possible reasons for the government’s apparent hard line toward journalists. The country’s opposition is weak and fragmented, they note, and the presidential elections are still a year off.

The April 27 decision to grant a broadcast license to private television and radio company ANS after months of delay is cited by Azerbaijani reporters as the only recent sign of tolerance of media outlets that diverge from the government’s viewpoint. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Shahin Hajiyev, editor of the pro-opposition Turan news agency, which has had its own property dispute tussle with officials, sees the issue as part of a larger malaise concerning democratization. "It is not only a media problem, "commented Hajiyev. "It is a problem with the general situation with democracy in Azerbaijan."


Editor’s Note: Rovshan Ismayilov is a freelance journalist based in Baku.

Posted May 22, 2007 © Eurasianet

http://www.eurasianet.org

[Joseph]

Jewish community of RA: God forbid Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh from Azeri goods
16.06.2007 15:47 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Jewish community of Armenia has published an open latter, expressing its deep anger in it at the statements of Meir Bruk, the Chief Rabbi of European Jews of Azerbaijan. Head of the Jewish Community of Armenia Rimma Varzhapetyan, Chief Rabbi of Armenia Gershon Meir Burshtein and President of “Menora” cultural center Villy Veiner have undersigned the latter. The PanARMENIAN.Net brings the whole text of the letter.

“Baku based “Zerkalo” newspaper published G. Inandj’s article in its June 12, 2007 edition, where the other cites his interview with Meir Bruk, the Chief Rabbi of the European Jews of Azerbaijan. The above-mentioned article was also posted on the Internet. “Armenia is weak spiritually and economically, since there is no place for tolerance and indulgence there,” these are his words, which are placed in the preamble of the article.

“If the “opus” were introduced only on behalf of Inandj, we would not pay attention to it. There is a lot of dirt in Azeri press addressed to Armenia and it is impossible to react all of them.

It is another question, when the spiritual leader of Jews of Azerbaijan is busy with it, and not for the first time, by the way. It is not proper for him to talk profusely about political subjects, including the situation of Jews in Armenia and the State’s attitude towards them. He speaks about such subjects, where he is quite an ignoramus, of course if he does not realize a certain well-paid order from above. However, let’s analyze concrete statements made by Mr. Bruk.

1…”Heidar Aliev is the author of the modern ideology of tolerance in the process of building the state,” end of the quote. It looks like, because of his young age or may be inadequate education Mr. Bruk does not remember or does not know that continuing the policy of his predecessors on the leading posts of the country the “father of tolerance” used to do everything in order to make minority nations (fortunately, significantly lesser the Jews) either fully assimilate or leave their original places of residence. Let us not go into details. But it would be good if Mr. Bruk familiarized himself with statistic data on population of Azerbaijan at the moment, when the republic was first established at the beginning of the last century and now.

Where are the greater part of Lezghins, Ayrums, Karapapakhs, Kurds, Tats, Talyshs and other national minorities of Azerbaijan, not to mention the Armenians of Nakhichevan? Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh would suffer the same fate, Nagorno Karabakh, which Mr. Bruk calls on to return Azerbaijan. Or may be Mr. Bruk is not aware of Heidar Aliev’s statement when he occupied the post of the First Secretary of the Communist Party. Then he said that one of his major goals on the post of the First Secretary was to liberate Karabakh from Armenians. Not so bad “father of tolerance”. And today we witness the “tolerance policy” carried out by the successor of the father, Ilham Aliev. As a vivid example is the cruel murder of the Armenian officer in Hungary by idiot Safarov, who has become a national hero in Azerbaijan. Fortunately, the world community has adequately condemned this act of violence.

For Mr. Bruk to know, even during the heaviest times of the community regime Armenia was among the few republics, where there wasn’t any place for anti-Semitism and where people treated well the national minorities –Russians, Jews, Kurds, Ezyds, Greeks, Assyrians and other nations, among them Azeris.

And verbiage of Bruk that there are few Jews in Armenia because there aren’t any conditions for national and religions tolerance in that country, are at least illiteracy. Even if we take the figure (200) presented by Mr. Bruk for the Jewish population of Armenia, which he has spun out of thin air, it does not speak in his favor. How can we understand the fact that in case of actual absence of Jews in Armenia and national and religious tolerance there are officially registered four Jewish public, religious and cultural organizations in the republic, which are recognized by all world Jewish organizations. Here we have a working synagogue headed by the Chief Rabbi of Armenia. The Chief Rabbi of Azerbaijan must know this fact taking into account his the post he occupies.

2… “Armenians see the economic and political prosperity of Azerbaijan and there is nothing left for them than to take that model as an example”, end of quotation. Not so bad example. Only a quite waning man may think that Armenia or another country may take as an example the political model of Azerbaijan. Doesn’t Mr. Bruk know the opinion of the European Parliament on countless violations of democratic bases and human rights committed by Azerbaijan, the continuing political and judicial prosecutions of any kind of dissent?

And of course God forbid Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh from goods that Mr. Bruk promises them in case if Armenia returns Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan. Nobody here has forgotten Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku, and Karabakh. People in other countries, including Israel too remember those “goods”.

We think that the wise Rabbi has forgotten that his and our mission is in peacekeeping and helping our countries to settle the accumulated problems on the level of popular diplomacy, and not in compressing the complex relations between the two neighbors, which are intense and without it. Our mission is not to become marionettes in the hands of certain political and financial bosses.

At the end we’d like to draw the attention of the whole European community, public and religions International Jewish Organizations that Jews of Armenia are deeply irritated at the above-mentioned article. We think that similar statements made by an official religions leader, Mr. Bruk, are of quite provocative character, they promote ethnic discord and are contrary to the tolerance policy declared by those organizations. We hope that actions of Mr. Bruk will receive adequate evaluation and condemnation.”