Authorities send news outlets instructions on how to cover events large and small. We obtained a cache of the messages.
Read more “Azerbaijan’s pro-government media: Just following orders”Azerbaijan’s pro-government media: Just following orders
Aliyev is turning into Saddam Hussein
In late September Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an article Nagorno-Karabakh: A Year of U.S. Failure in the South Caucasus.
Read more “Aliyev is turning into Saddam Hussein”Children of the President of Azerbaijan and the Dubai Real Estate Empire
At £ 400 a night, the Sofitel on the man-made Palm Jumeirah in Dubai is not cheap. Vacationers are drawn to the beachfront suites, 24-hour butler service, a choice of six outdoor pools and 500 meters (1,640 feet) of white sand reserved for guests.
Read more “Children of the President of Azerbaijan and the Dubai Real Estate Empire”Azerbaijani peace activists called for questioning
Narmin Shahmarzade wrote on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon that Giyas Ibrahimov was ‘taken away by a car’ and that she was notified by phone to present herself at a police station.
Read more “Azerbaijani peace activists called for questioning”Yet again Azerbaijan wants Interpol to help fight opposition
Desperate position of Aliyev requires him to act desperately. Recently, Azerbaijan send the request to Interpol to seize at least 3 members of Azerbaijan opposition.
Read more “Yet again Azerbaijan wants Interpol to help fight opposition”Azerbaijan’s Despotic Ruler Throws ‘Tantrum’ In Unprecedented Crackdown On Pro-Democracy Rivals
Facing growing public dissent over corruption, a mismanaged economy, his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and no progress in the country’s long-running conflict with neighboring Armenia, Azerbaijan’s strong-arm ruler Ilham Aliyev decided to crack down on the opposition.
Read more “Azerbaijan’s Despotic Ruler Throws ‘Tantrum’ In Unprecedented Crackdown On Pro-Democracy Rivals”Famous Talysh video blogger and Russian citizen sent to Azerbaijan for reprisal
In Russia – a new scandal involving the detention and expulsion from the country famous video blogger Elvin Isayev. The court ruled that the Russian passports obtained by Isaev in 2001 and in 2014 were not valid.
Read more “Famous Talysh video blogger and Russian citizen sent to Azerbaijan for reprisal”Criminal case launched against exiled blogger Ordukhan Teymurkhan
A Baku district court issued an arrest warrant against Netherlands-based Azerbaijani video blogger and social media activist Ordukhan Teymurkhan, Radio Liberty reported last Friday relying on a source from the Prosecutor’s Office.
Teymurkhan is charged under three articles of the criminal code relating to calls for terrorism, mass riots and attacks against the state, the sentence for which is up to eight years in prison.
Read more “Criminal case launched against exiled blogger Ordukhan Teymurkhan”
Political émigré who returned home to visit critically ill father arrested on drug-related charges (updated)
Azad Hasanov, Musavat party member and political exile living in Lithuania, has been arrested during a short return to his home country and charged with drug trafficking.
According to his lawyer, Osman Kazimov, the Khatai District Court sentenced him to four months in detention on drug-related charges. Under Article 234.4.3 (illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of sale of drugs), Hasanov faces between five and twelve years in prison.
To punish or pardon?
The number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan remains approximately the same from year to year. The president regularly signs pardon decrees but the “vacancies” on bunk beds in prisons are quickly occupied by newly-arrived opponents of the political elite of Azerbaijan.
The following is a Meydan TV report about how the possibility of pardon is used to manipulate political prisoners and how the prisoners themselves have become bargaining chips in the Azerbaijani government’s foreign policy.