Thread: Azerbaijan : Opposition Warns of Egyptian Scenario

Azerbaijan’s Opposition Warns of Egyptian Scenario
Samira Ahmedbeyli
12 Feb 11

Statue honouring Hosni Mubarak must come down, opposition leaders say.

As Hosni Mubarak’s grip on power faded in his own country, opposition leaders in Azerbaijan stepped up calls for a statue of the Egyptian president to be removed from their capital.

The opposition leaders drew comparisons between the situation in their own country and the wave of popular protests in Egypt, saying events in Cairo should serve as a warning to other authoritative regimes.

The statue of Mubarak was erected in 2007 in Khirdalan, a suburb of the Azerbaijani capital Baku, and a local school was dedicated to the Egyptian leader’s wife at the same time.

“As if we don’t have enough idols and dictators of our own,” Panah Huseyn, a member of parliament until the November 2010 election, said in a statement.

The opposition Democratic Party called for the Mubarak statue to come down.

“Leaving a monument to the Egyptian dictator in place does no honour to Azerbaijan, and the authorities must soon decide to dismantle it,” said a statement by the party, issued as protests in Cairo got under way.

Police are currently mounting round-the-clock at both the monument and the school.

“Events in Tunisia and now in Egypt must serve as an example or rather a warning to all dictators and authoritiative regimes which take no account of the will of the people,” the Democratic Party said. “At the same time, the people tormented by these regimes must realise the need to constantly pursue the fight for democracy and freedom.”

Ali Kerimli, head of another opposition group, the Popular Front Party, also warned of a repetition of the popular revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

The opposition movement in Azerbaijan has in the past tried to mount street protests to challenge the rule of President Ilham Aliyev.

During a parliamentary election in 2005 and a presidential ballot in 2003, police dispersed tens of thousands of protestors using tear gas, truncheons and water cannons.

No election in Azerbaijan has been deemed democratic by international observers since Ilham's father, the late Heydar Aliyev, came to power in the early 1990s.

Supporters of the Aliyev administration dismissed the opposition campaign against the statue. Miri Qambarov, formerly head of the official Azerbaijan-Egypt Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, said the monument should stay where it was.

“Many of the [Egyptian] rebels who took to the streets to cheer have no idea why they are protesting, or what they’re protesting against,” Qambarov said. “Similarly, some of our opponents who are demanding that the monument be dismantled are just using this opportunity to engage in meaningless, populist speeches.”

Even so, a new focus on corruption suggests the Azerbaijani government may be drawing some conclusions from the Egyptian unrest.

On January 27, the head of the presidential administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev, chaired a meeting of the national anti-corruption commission and promised that offenders would be penalised. Afterwards, a number of employees of various government ministries and committees were dismissed on corruption charges.

Corruption is in endemic in Azerbaijan, which the international watchdog Transparency International listed in 134th place out of 178 countries in its annual corruption ranking. Egypt was given a better score, at 98.

The sudden revival of interest in corruption was met with some scepticism in Azerbaijan.

“Although this state of corruption has persisted for a long time, not a single official has spoken about it,” Eldar Namazov, a political scientist and one-time adviser to Heydar Aliyev. “Former economic development minister Farhad Aliyev [dismissed in 2005] was the only one to take the initiative, and the result is that he’s now in prison.

“We can therefore say with confidence that the government’s recent dismissal of some staff members for corruption is a reaction to events in authoritarian Arab countries.”

Zardusht Alizade, head of the Caucasus School of Journalism and a leading political analyst, said developments in Egypt had been deeply disconcerting for the Azerbaijani authorities.

“They therefore decided to put on a show, ostensibly mounting a ferocious attack on corruption, rather than taking real steps in this direction,” he said.

However, Alizade expressed doubt that Azerbaijan was ripe for an Egyptian-style revolt.

“It’s true the opposition has become more active, but at this point rebellion or revolution is impossible,” he said. “Until authoritarian regimes are overthrown in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus... overthrowing the dictatorship will simply be impossible.”

iwpr.net

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE

AI Index: PRE 01/057/2011
11 February 2011

Azerbaijan must stop harassment of activists inspired by Egypt protests

Amnesty International has urged the Azerbaijani authorities to stop the harassment of activists, after two members of an opposition youth organization were apparently targeted this week for using Facebook to call for anti-government protests.

Jabbar Savalan, a member of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party's (APFP) youth group, has been jailed for two months pending trial on drugs charges after he posted on Facebook calling for a "Day of Rage" inspired by protests in the Middle East and North Africa.

Elcin Hasanov, also a member of the APFP youth group, was summoned by the police on 9 February, after he posted on Facebook calling for youth action against Jabbar Savalan’s detention. The police questioned him and told him to retract his comments and apologize. He has not done so.

"The authorities have already effectively muzzled much of the mainstream media. By clamping down on online activism they are silencing one of the few remaining platforms for the open discussion of critical views in Azerbaijan," said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International.

"These drugs charges could be being used as a pretext to punish Jabbar Savalan for his political activism. There is a striking similarity between his case and others in which the Azerbaijani authorities have brought drug-related charges against prominent critics."

Jabbar Savalan, a 20-year-old student, was arrested by police in the city of Sumgayit as he returned home from an APFP meeting on the evening of 5 February, the day after he had posted on Facebook calling for protests to take place in Freedom Square in the capital Baku.
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Police searched his home while he was at the meeting, claiming to be acting on an anonymous tip-off.

A month before his arrest Jabbar Savalan had reposted an article critical of Azerbaijan’s President on Facebook originally published in a Turkish newspaper. He had also taken part in an anti-government protest on 20 January.

Jabbar Savalan's lawyer said that police officers handcuffed him and forced him into a police car without searching him or giving a reason for his arrest.

He was later searched at the police station, where police say they found 0.74 grams of marijuana in his coat pocket. He was charged with "possessing narcotics with intent to supply."

On 7 February, Sumgayit District Court ordered Jabbar Savalan to spend two months in pre-trial detention. If convicted, he could face a prison sentence of up to three years.

Jabbar Savalan's family and friends say that he has no history of drug use. His lawyer has called for an independent drugs test to be carried out.

The evening of his arrest, Jabbar Savalan was interrogated without a lawyer and pressured into signing a confession which he later retracted.

Jabbar Savalan’s lawyer was only allowed to see him two days after his arrest. His family has not been allowed to visit him in detention.

"Amnesty International calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to justify Jabbar Salavan’s pre-trial detention or release him immediately, pending a trial in line with international fair trial standards," said John Dalhuisen.

Journalists and civil society activists in Azerbaijan are frequently subjected to threats, harassment and violence and prevented from carrying out their work, sometimes through the excessive use of force by police officers.

amnestyusa.org