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Center for National and International Studies

 

FB Digest@VoxPOPULI

27.07.2020

The Armenian attacks on Azerbaijanis  abroad, continued persecution of activists, in particular the arrest of Fuad Gahramanli, and then Mammad Ibrahim and Sarva,  statement by the intellectuals of the country and  from exile in protest against repressions of the Popular Front Activists.

FB community actively discusses the spill over of the conflict to the foreign states and clashes between the two Diasporas in Brussels, Los Angeles, Russia, Ukraine. It reports the rallies in Prague, but it went without incidents. The human rights defender and the REAL activist Rasul Jafarov reports that 3 victims of attack by Armenians in Los Angeles appealed to the police and now they are investigating the cases. He appraised  the move and advises  others in Brussels follow the example.It analyses the causes of the clashes and concludes that unresolved conflict now threatens stability in other states too. Khadija Ismayil stresses the indifference of the participants of the fighting to their image. Azerbaijani were unfairly portrayed as bad guys from the very beginning, when the conflict was misleadingly put in the “religious” context, while Armenians rely on their celebrities to keep the positive image. “Nobody is punished for misdeeds, peacekeepers are trying to benefit from the conflict, the governments  and Russia get income from corrupt military deals, the mirror is broken and the image is getting worse and worse. Time to stop the conflict” she concludes. Ganimat Zahid reports that as he watched on the video one Azerbaijani was attacked by 7-8 Armenians who each were beating him. He confesses that it reminded him the beating and tortures of the opposition activists in Bandotdel. He urges everyone to keep attention to Azerbaijan, as the fate of the country is resolved in the country itself not abroad. We are under threat both in the country, and abroad- he concludes. Gultakin Hajibeyli of NC comments that the reason why Azerbaijanis are killed both in Karabagh and abroad is the absence of the “owners’ of the country, as it does not belong to the people. The human rights defenders characterize that attacks on the Azerbaijani citizens abroad is a “ hate crime: and should be properly investigated and punished by the local state organs, and appeal to the victims not to respond to this in a similar way. Activists also stress that the violence against Azerbaijanis proves that the true reason for the Karabagh war is not about self-determination of nation, but the ideology based on hatred to Turkic speaking and other national groups. Everyone speaks that all this is a purposeful provocation on the side of some Armenia Diaspora to get a similar response from Azerbaijanis and to prove the “story” about their uncivilized nature. Ordukhan Babirov discloses the identity of one of the Azerbaijanis being beaten on the video as Hikmet from Nakhichevan and blames the head of Nakhichevan authorities Vasif Talybov and president Aliyev for the incident, as they forced people emigrate in searches for subsistence earnings. One of the immigrants to Germany is quoted saying that he does not get involved in the clashes, and does not respond to the attacks because the battles should be won at the front, not in the streets.  Many comment that Armenians abroad by attacking rally participants both made a mistake and arranged a provocation and the Azerbaijani young people’s patience and restraint in response to that is a good sign. They appeal to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to make sure people do not respond to provocations and that the issue is dealt with by the law enforcement organs of the respective countries.  Bakhtiyar Hajiyev argues that Azerbaijan is experiencing a serious leadership crisis. He explains it by the fact, that the community is complex now, is highly agitated and leaders are afraid to take responsibility to lead the crowd, s there is a need in adaptive leadership. He finds it suspicious that the government does not make the same appeals to the people not to respond to the provocations of Armenian Diaspora, and suggests that it is beneficial for them as this way they re-direct people’s dissatisfaction from themselves to the response to provocations abroad. The PFP activists, journalists, lawyers, leaders in exile – all call the population to resist the provocations and keep calm. Jamil Hasanli reports that the US Ambassador Earl Litzenberger in Baku was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan on the fact of beating the Azerbaijanis during the Karabagh rally. He comments that while the ambassador most probably had a convincing response to that he might have asked in turn why the Azerbaijani government has given tortures to his own people, who were giving support to the national army? Hasanli asks the question whether the government wanted to distract attention by the events in the front line by calling it a victory and whether the lives of the killed national military were worth it? He states that this fighting was meaningless, as did not liberate any lands from the occupation  and only resulted in victims– first time the general was killed and 12 high level military. Shahveled Chobanoglu comments that the best answer to the Armenian aggression and hostility will be changes inside the country -first of all establishment of justice, and besides it economic and military strength, the improvement of the international status and image, self-governance of the society. He states that the country and people need justice, rule of law and human rights. He further stresses that while there are people in Armenia who want peace with Azerbaijan, majority agree to be the tool in the hands of Russia and has not done any step towards civilized neighborly relations- and this is in fact quite tragic. Azerbaijanis have no less problems , but he calls them to take correct steps and not to respond to the provocations but to build a just society and system. Some report the OMON raid at the trade objects of Azerbaijanis in Moscow and that they were shut down. The Fb users discuss and comment on the shooting of two Azerbaijani students Azer Abbasov and Nijat Karimov-in Kiev, Ukraine. Bakhtiyar Hajiyev suggests that these aggravation is stirred by the Russian provocative fake news, including warning of possible provocations against Armenians in Kiev, Kharkov and Zaporozhye. The clashes abroad attracted attention to the role of ambassadors and caused criticisms of their lack of professionalism, because their position are either used to send someone in “exile” or use the nepotism networks to advance their careers. Tofig Yagublu sent his assessment of the Aliyev policies of repressions from prison, as reported his daughter, who talked to him on the phone, where he argues, that the government is an interested party in this persecution, because it is

The journalist report about planned joined military Turkish-Azerbaijani exercises  as a response to the RussiaArmenia ones.

The continued repressions against the Popular Front Party continue to be the topic of high concern for the Fb users. Ali Karimli reports the arrest of the PFP activist Fuad Gahramanli from his home. Khadija Ismayil reports arrest of 18 people in Iranian Azerbaijan for their protest against the Armenian aggression She also calls  arrests in Baku the indication of the next paranoia of  Ilham Aliyev about the coup d’’etats. She calls the situation as another crisis of human rights and calls for the following actions: an urgent reaction of the UN,OSCE, Council of Europe and other organizations, an urgent mission on fight with tortures, independent commission of the UN on investigation of the abuse by the government of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jamil Hasanli attracts attention to the fact that since last year the Aliyev’s portrait is in the Atlanta Human Rights Museum among 5 world kleptocratic dictators. He put him in the historical context comparing his policy to that of Stalin, or the current ones- Kaddafi, Mugabe, the Assads and makes the parallel between the last events in the Parliament with the case of burning Reichstag in Germany in 1935. He lists fake and trumped up charges against the PFP activists and considers that the charges of “taking over” the parliament at the 14th July rally is a logical continuation of “ Nardaran case”, Fatulla Gulen case, “money trafficking case” against Gozel Bayramli and Afghan Mukhtarli, “ money laundering case with the purpose to overthrow power” of Saleh Rustamli etc. He states that recently Azerbaijanis are experiencing hard days- in their country being persecuted by the government, while being attacked by the Armenians radical-bandits. He argues that if there were PFP activists involved in breaking in the Parliament building there would be videos from the street cameras, but they were not submitted to the court. He informs, that the day when the merciless attacks took place in Brussels and LA, they have given severe tortures in Bandotdel to the activists of PFP Ayaz Maharramli and Ramid Naghiyev, as well as for the first time brought the charges of the “ spreading the virus threatening lives of others” against the son of the PFP activist Mammad Ibrahim. Rabiyya Mammadova – a feminist activist– writes about her sense of humiliation and helplessness, deeply apologizing to Fb community, because she cannot protest other than right a status on FB, due to the quarantine  while her friends are being arrested, given tortures. FB reports about the prosecutor’s searches in the apartment of the detained PFP activist Bakhtiyar Imanov. Gultakin Hajibeyli argues that the governemnt’s objective is to finish with opposition in the country, eliminate PFP and ti turn Azerbaijan first into Uzbekistan and then into Turkmenistan and for that created the performance called Karabagh. But it will not succeed because the global situation is changing and not in favor of dictatorships. One journalist suggests that there will be more arrests, as the there was a request from the Investigation Agency to the Bar Association of 30 more legal defenders. National Council issued a statement in relations of the last arrests  targeted at the Popular Front Party, which they called “the operation on destruction” of the party. The arrests started after the official speech of the president Aliyev on the 15th July and ether were reports that detained were giving fake confessions against themselves and their family members under the tortures and violence of the employees of the interior. Obviously, the authorities are trying to get “confessions” against the party leader Ali Karimli. The statement says that in order to stop this campaign for the full suppression of the political freedoms and elimination of alternatives aimed at strengthening the rule of the family there should be a direct pressure on the president Ilham Aliyev and calls both the society and international community to support PFP facing this repression.  Gunel Safarova, the young politician, sued the MP Fazil Gazanfaroglu for slander and insults of herself. The ADR movement ( the leader Gubad Ibadoglu) published a statement calling the Azerbaijani migrants to keep calm and not to get provoked by the other party ( Armenians)  and stay devoted to the peaceful way of assembly, to get organized according to the laws of the country where they reside and conduct their struggle within the civilized forms. The PFP activist Mammad Ibrahim was arrested again. Afghan Mukhtarli, who was in the cell in the previous arrest spoke very highly of him and his high authority among prisoners due to his courage to criticize the official policies and protecting rights of the poor and discriminated prisoners. That’s why the last day of his imprisonment they “ discovered” a big knife under his pillow and brought new charges against him, so he stayed for another 6 months. They tolerated him only 1 year out of prison and now arrested him again

Corruption  and poor governance remains the highly shared topic. People share an information, that villagers collected food, cigarettes, water and brought it to the troops in Tovuz region and has given it to police, which in turn stole 4 blocks of cigarettes, food and sold it, so there is a conflict there. The policeman is the son the chair of the election commission of the 106 election district Babek Huseynov. Gubad Ibadoglu reports the case of the state contract on assessment of the water resources of the country signed with the Dutch company Deltares in 2014. The meeting of the president with the ministers disclosed that the implementation of the project stopped due to the absence of finances. 2mln was supposed to be given by the Ministry of Emergencies, 3 mln by Azerenerji and the rest – by the budget. He comments that this is a pure sabotage, if there was no financing and it was not even reported to the president, but it is also clear that it was blocked by the bureaucrats who were stealing the water balance and who continued to steal water resources for 6 years. The result is hard, as it created drinking water deficit in Neftchala and Sumgayit and it will be resolved only by November. Will people tolerate it for so long? Altay Geyushov comments that the main problem leading Azerbaijan to its death step by step is corrupt feudalism, all the other problems result from this one. The FB community discusses the new Education Minister Emin Amrullayev, who is a graduate of the Columbia University, and praise his both professional  qualifications and personal integrity. Habib Muntazir however comments, that all the regional educational institutions , including schools and even kindergartens are under the control of the  heads of the regional executives. The textbooks are under the control of the Presidential administration. He concludes that while the system is as described above, even if the new minister is an angel, there will not be any benefit from his appointment.


July 28, 2020







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