How a murder rocked a region

The abusive nature of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s regime, was dramatically thrust into the international spotlight ahead of the country hosting the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this year.

This week Aliyev and his cronies are once again facing pressure from around the world after giving a hero’s welcome, a house, a hefty pay-cheque and a promotion to Ramil Safarov- the Azerbaijani soldier who returned home from Hungary where he had been in jail since brutally murdering an Armenian eight years ago.

Safarov had been taking part in an English language course in Budapest during 2004, when he entered the room of a sleeping Armenian attendee called Gurgen Margarjan and hacked him to death with an axe. Safarov claimed that the horrific act was revenge for the two countries war over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which ran from 1988-1994 killing over thirty thousand people and forcing more than a million to flee their homes.

Tensions around Nagorno-Karabakh still run high. Sporadic clashes since the end of the war have frequently stoked fears of a return to full-scale conflict, with soldiers from both sides killed as recently as June this year. Aliyev’s public praise and celebration of Safarov’s actions will only heighten these fears, particularly in light of Armernian President Serzh Sargsyan’s response that “we are not afraid of killers, even if they enjoy the protection of the head of state.” NATO and the EU have been quick to register their concerns about the affect of the incident on what was already a seemingly lifeless peace process.

The Hungarian government, for its part, has also been deeply humiliated. Safarov was handed over on the condition that he would serve the remainder of his twenty-five year sentence in an Azerbaijani jail, yet he has received freedom, substantial rewards and compensation for the eight years that he was incarcerated. Armenia swiftly cut all diplomatic ties to Hungary, whilst opponents of the ruling administration aired claims that it was effectively paid off via the Azerbaijani purchase of Hungarian bonds.

Still, Hungary’s problems will pale into insignificance should the war of words between Armenia and Azerbaijan develop into something more serious…whcih it has every potential to. Ultimately the Aliyev regime’s jingoistic and provocative heralding of a cold-blooded murderer has raised the temperature in one of Europe’s most volatile regions. That, in the long run, could lead to far more bloodshed.

Technorati Tags: Armenia,Azerbaijan,Nagorno-Karabakhm Ramil Safarov,Gurgen Margarjan,Serzh Sargsyan,Ilham Aliyev,Hungary,axe,murder,war,conflict,EU,NATO

Eurovision and the terror behind the music

Cheesy, fun, cringeworthy, entertaining, bizarre, exciting……all descriptions of the Eurovision Song Contest that carry some merit.  But for hundreds of citizens in the Azerbaijani city of Baku, where the competition will be held in May, it has meant fear, intimidation, brutality and destitution.

A shocking new report from Human Rights Watch outlines in detail, through over one-hundred pages of interviews and testimony, how scores of residents have been forced from their homes, as the authorities rush to develop the area surrounding the brand new 25 000 seater Baku Crystal Hall.

Desperate to present a sparkling and redeveloped city to the fifty-six countries tuning in for the competition, Azerbaijan’s authorities have resorted to evicting local residents at hours notice before bulldozing their homes and leaving them with just tokenistic financial compensation.  Many have even suffered night-time demolitions which took place without any warning whatsoever:

“I woke up because the building was shaking, and I heard something I thought was thunder. I took the kids and went outside. [I went up to] the official in charge and asked him to give us time to take our belongings out. He looked at me and said, ‘Ok,’ but then in the next moment said to the bulldozer driver, ‘Knock it down!’”

In a number of cases, families have been held in police custody as demolitions were carried out and in twenty-four cases Human Rights Watch documented buildings being torn apart despite the fact that people were still inside, with authorities showing “wilful disregard for [their] dignity, health, and safety.”

Of course, whilst brutal such behaviour by the government of President Ilham Aliev is far from unprecedented.  Even in the year since the Eurovision Song contest was awarded to Azerbaijan, his thugs have continued their record of imprisoning and abusing those showing signs of dissent, including journalists and social media users.  A recent anti-government rally ended with a third of participants in jail and Amnesty International has used the publicity around the Song Contest to highlight the plight of fifteen Azerbaijani prisoners of conscience.

Major international competitions such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics and this year’s African Cup of Nations, held in Equatorial Guinea, have been used by abusive regimes to showcase themselves in positive light.  Invariably efforts to do so actively increase human rights violations, as the authorities seek to undertake rapid development and crush embarrassing dissent.  Whilst Aliev’s government may not be in the same league as Teodoro Obiang or the Chinese Communist Party when it comes to oppression, this pattern is clearly playing out in Azerbaijan ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest.  There will be terror behind the music.

Technorati Tags: Azerbaijan,human rights,Eurovision,Eurovision Song Contest,2012,evictions,Human Rights Watch,Baku,Baku Crystal Hall,Ilham Aliev,Teodoro Obiang,Beijing Olympics,Engelbert Humperdinck