Statue of a Dictator (Aliyev Clan)

[Yervant1]

PanArmenian, Armenia

March 20 2018

Aliyev stands on site of leveled Armenian church to threaten Yerevan

http://media.pn.am/media/issue/253/253/photo/253253.jpg

March 20, 2018 - 10:56 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - When making territorial claims against Armenia for the second time in the past month, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev was standing on the spot where once an Armenian church used to rise.

Addressing the Azerbaijanis on the beginning of Novruz, Aliyev said a big part of the territory of present-day Armenia “is the historical Azerbaijani land.”

It is noteworthy that Aliyev was standing in front of the Maiden Tower where the Armenian church of the Holy Virgin was standing up until 1990, blogger, journalist Sedrak Mkrtchyan said in a tweet.

The church was built in 1797 or 1799 at the foot of the Maiden Tower, a fortress in Baku. According to a diplomat working in the Azerbaijani capital in 1992, the church was demolished in the wake of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Now, there is an empty space at its former site near the Maiden Tower.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/253253/Aliyev_stands_on_site_of_leveled_Armenian_church_to_threaten_Yerevan

[Yervant1]

PanArmenian, Armenia

March 30 2018

Journalist critical of Azerbaijan shot in France

http://media.pn.am/media/issue/253/697/photo/253697.jpg

March 30, 2018 - 17:50 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - A gunman shot and gravely wounded an exiled Azeri journalist and killed his wife near the southern French city of Toulouse on Friday, March 30, in an incident the local mayor said appeared to be a settling of political scores, Reuters reports.

Rahim Namazov was an outspoken critic of the Azeri political leadership and served time in prison before seeking exile in France in 2010.

In a video posted on YouTube in December that year, Namazov said he was jailed after writing stories about brutality against soldiers in units of the Azeri military. He said he had spent six months in solitary confinement.

“It’s the journalistic profession, the father of a family and the freedom of the press that has been attacked today,” Karine Michelet-Traval, the mayor of Colomiers where the shooting occurred, said in a statement.

In separate comments to La Depeche newspaper, she said: “You can’t help but think this was a settling of scores.”

Namazov’s wife was killed in the shooting. A police source said she had been shot in the head, apparently at close range. Witnesses spoke of hearing multiple gunshots, local media reported.

The local prosecutor is due to make a statement at 16h00 (1400 GMT).

Human Rights Watch said last year the Azeri government continued its crackdown on dissenting voices and that reports of torture persisted. It also said independent media outlets faced harassment and closure and critical journalists faced threats and intimidation aimed at silencing them.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/253697/Journalist_critical_of_Azerbaijan_shot_in_France

[Yervant1]

Washington Post

April 12 2018

Azerbaijan’s president prefers pop stars to democracy

By Editorial Board April 10

RULE ONE of the Dictator’s Handbook: Allow no one else to seriously challenge you in an election. Rule Two: Spend enough of your nation’s treasure to lure a popular Western entertainer to distract from Rule One. Previously, President Ilham Aliyev, son of a strongman who inherited his father’s distaste for democracy, enticed Lady Gaga to perform, then Mariah Carey. Now Mr. Aliyev has booked pop star Christina Aguilera for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix on April 28.

That will be just 2½ weeks after Wednesday’s presidential election. Mr. Aliyev has so thoroughly suffocated democracy in Azerbaijan that he will certainly win a fourth term by a wide margin. The campaign is entirely uncompetitive. Two opposition parties are calling for a boycott. Mr. Aliyev moved up the election date by six months, perhaps in order to get it out of the way before the auto race, which presumably will be more competitive than the political one.

Mr. Aliyev has never hesitated to spend lavishly to dress up his shoddy reputation. Last year he gave away hundreds of free apartments to Azerbaijani journalists; one leading editor said it was akin to a bribe. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of news organizations, in a report titled “The Azerbaijani Laundromat,”documented how Mr. Aliyev and others in the Azerbaijani elite used overseas shell companies to hide “a secret slush fund to pay off European politicians, buy luxury goods, launder money, and otherwise benefit themselves.” Then there was the bacchanal sponsored by Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference in Baku for 10 members of the U.S. Congress and 32 staff members, who received silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs.

If Ms. Aguilera has time, she may want to poke around Azerbaijan’s jails. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Azerbaijan ranks among the worst jailers of journalists in the world, with at least 10 imprisoned when its last survey was completed in December. She might also want to set aside some time to get a reality check on Azerbaijan from Khadija Ismayilova, a courageous journalist who endured a prison term for the “crime” of her hard-hitting investigative reports about Mr. Aliyev’s family wealth. Or, perhaps Ms. Aguilera could visit Ilgar Mammadov, a prominent alternative voice to Mr. Aliyev who was arrestedmore than five years ago shortly after announcing he would challenge the president in the 2013 elections. Mr. Mammadov was accused of inciting violence and sentenced to seven years in prison after a faulty trial. The European Court of Human Rights found his detention illegal. He is still locked away.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/azerbaijans-president-prefers-pop-stars-to-democracy/2018/04/10/bb60a25a-3c1b-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b9886a1b1e80

[MosJan]

can't say much to aliyev today, we have one just like him in our homeland

[Yervant1]

PanArmenian, Armenia

July 14 2018

Azerbaijan declares Belarusian-Armenian blogger wanted (video)

http://media.pn.am/media/issue/257/889/photo/257889.jpg

http://static.pn.am/images/video_ico.gif July 14, 2018 - 16:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Belarusian blogger with Armenian roots, Vladislav Mosesov, commonly known as Vlad Maga, announced in a video message that Azerbaijan has started a persecution against him after he visited the country.

“Yesterday Azerbaijan declared me wanted. I have already left my country, but I can’t reveal where I’m going for security reasons,” the blogger said.

“I ask all the countries that consider me an ally to take measures with regards to my situation. My life is in danger. They are following me at every turn.”

He added that if he fails to reach out 3 days after the video message, something bad has happened to him.

Earlier, Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin revealed that Vlad had managed to travel to Azerbaijan and find the house in Ganja (Kirovabad) which belonged to his parents before they fled the Armenian pogroms.

After visiting Azerbaijan, the blogger went to Armenia and Karabakh. Threats against him began after he published a video about his trip to Azerbaijan.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/257889/Azerbaijan_declares_BelarusianArmenian_blogger_wanted

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

people are looking for him. he should move to Armenia Artsax noone will fine him ther.

but then if azeris place him under wonted list, in any EU country he will be captured and send to azerbujan

[MosJan]

but his youtube channel is making money original video 617,553 views X $0.05, 153,469 views X $0.05

[MosJan]

his  in  Armenia 

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

The fake sultan of azveristan is at it again, barking incessantly. How many years of barking would that be? Who cares let him bark!

Arminfo, Armenia

Nov 6 2018

Ilham Aliyev: Every scenario is possible in settlement of the Karabakh conflict

Yerevan November 6

Marianna Mkrtchyan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again spoke about any means for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Thus, Aliyev, at a meeting with representatives of the public and artists from the Agdam region, once again assured that Azerbaijan from a military point of view is a powerful state not only in comparison with Armenia, but also on a global scale. He pointed to the intention to further build up military power, expressing the conviction that this is one of the most important factors for negotiations. "Unfortunately, the norms of international law are completely ignored. We will achieve what we want. We demand justice. We demand that our historical lands be freed from invaders, and they will be freed. The Azerbaijani state will continue to take all necessary measures to achieve this sacred goal. I hope that the leadership of Armenia, having correctly analyzed the situation in the region, will soon withdraw its occupying forces. Otherwise, any option is possible and we are ready to any scenario", Aliyev said.

At the same time, he tried to raise the moral and psychological spirit of his own society by praising the events of April 2016, when the armed forces of Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military aggression against Artsakh. Aliyev said that the April battles are the glorious history of Azerbaijan, a great historical victory. At the same time, he assured that in the course of these events, tens of thousands of hectares of territories were liberated. "The April battles are our big victory, a manifestation of the irreconcilable spirit of Azerbaijan.

At the same time, he assured that it was in April 2016 that a "Armenia'3 regime "was dealt a powerful blow." I have repeatedly said that the regime of Armenia the criminal junta should be condemned by the entire global community. I said that people who govern Armenia are the leaders of the regime of the criminal junta. Now the Armenian people themselves state this. That is, at present, the Armenian people speak and see everything that we talked about. The changes that have taken place in Armenia this year mean the complete collapse of their aggressive policy, this is first. Secondly, these events indicate that our policy gives results. I have repeatedly said, I want to say today, there is no need to hide it, we will further isolate Armenia from all regional projects, using all means, restore our territorial integrity. The new leadership of Armenia should not repeat the mistakes of the former criminal regime, it should soon through negotiations withdraw the occupying forces and allow the citizens of Azerbaijan to return to their native, historical, ancestral lands. The sooner they understand this, the better it will be for them, for the region. Once again I want to say that we do not intend to put up with such a situation, the norms of international law fully support our position, historical justice is on our side, "Aliyev once again tried to convince his people.

At the same time, the leader of the state with just a century-long history spoke about the age-old centuries- old belonging of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. At the same time, he tried to justify that allegedly, as a result of the chaos, the events that occurred in Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, Armenia, with external support, allegedly managed to conquer some of the Azerbaijani lands, while not mentioning that during these times Karabakh people fought for its existence and independence, and was able to avoid complete extermination. "But two years ago we demonstrated that we could liberate and liberated our lands by military means. As a result of a successful operation we carried out this year in the Nakhijevan direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, more than ten thousand hectares of land passed under our control, including heights of strategic importance. Today we fully control strategic communications, roads, including roads in Armenia, communications leading to Nagorno-Karabakh, "Aliyev said.

 

[Yervant1]

Commentary

Another Azeri Scandal: Aliyev’s Daughters

Try to Buy $76 Million London Home

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The British Guardian newspaper exposed in its Dec. 21, 2018 issue the
latest financial scandal involving the daughters of Azerbaijan’s
President Ilham Aliyev.

Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva sought to purchase two luxury Knightsbridge
apartments in London for $76 million using a secret offshore company.
The price included $4 million to convert the properties into a single
home. The apartments are located near the garden of Buckingham Palace,
according to The Guardian’s reporter Luke Harding.

In a 2016 article, The Guardian reported that Aliyev’s daughters had
set up in 2015 a secret offshore company in the British Virgin Islands
to manage their multi-million dollar property portfolio in Britain.

The two daughters are shareholders in Exaltation Limited, incorporated
in 2015 with the purpose of “holding UK property.” The offshore
company was set up by the London law firm of Child & Child which
claimed falsely that the Aliyev women “had no political connections.”
This information was exposed when the Panama Papers, the secret
database of the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the
international media.

Aliyev’s daughters, according to The Guardian, have “amassed vast
personal business empires. They own luxury apartments in the UAE, as
well as interests in telecoms and gold mining. It was already known
that Leyla Aliyeva owned a $22 million mansion on Hampstead Lane in
north London.” In addition, the Aliyev family has luxury apartments
around the globe worth over $140 million and these are just the known
properties, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project. The Aliyevs also own an apartment valued up to $8 million
overlooking the Speakers’ Corner of Hyde Park (London), nine
waterfront mansions in Dubai valued at $44 million, a dacha near
Moscow worth at least $37 million, and a $1.1 million villa in an
exclusive neighborhood in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

Under British rules, the Aliyev daughters are classified as
“PEPs”—politically exposed persons—making them subject to greater
scrutiny and due diligence checks by banks. The Guardian reported that
the law firm of Child & Child did not declare the two women’s
high-profile status to the British government. On the official form
asking if they are PEPs, the law firm checked the “no” box instead of
“yes.”

Another British lawyer, Derrick French, “set up a second clandestine
Panamanian trust called UF Universe Foundation, “which controlled a
majority stake in Ata Holding, one of Azerbaijan’s biggest
conglomerates,” according to The Guardian. Ata Holding, established in
2003, was owned by “Azerbaijan’s minister of taxes, Fazil Mammadov,
with a secret controlling stake in the $600 million conglomerate. Ata
Holding owned “two major banks, construction firms and Baku’s
five-star Excelsior hotel, with Pres. Aliyev’s three children.”

In 2005, the control of UF Universe Foundation changed hands. Pres.
Aliyev’s three children, Leyla, Arzu and their brother Heydar, who at
the time was just seven, had a combined 50 percent interest in the
trust. Their mother Mehriban was the “protector,” an anonymous role
giving her control over the Foundation. The other “protector” was
Mammadov with a 30 percent share. Ata’s chairman, Ahmet Erentok,
received only 15%. In 2007, UF Universe Foundation was closed down,
but Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva were listed as the majority owners of Ata,
via another Panamanian firm, Hughson Management, Inc. Javad Marandi, a
close associate of Pres. Aliyev, had introduced the Aliyeva sisters to
the law firm Child & Child, the British tribunal was told. Attorney
Khalid Sharif, senior partner of Child & Child, then set up on behalf
of the two sisters, Exaltation Limited, a British Virgin Islands firm.

In the case of the attempt by Pres. Aliyev’s daughters to purchase the
$76 million property in London, a British disciplinary tribunal fined
Sharif $57,000 and $51,000 in costs for failing to carry out
money-laundering checks and breaching his professional code.

After the contract was signed, the Aliyeva sisters began to pay the
purchase price of the two London apartments in installments,
transferring $13 million. However, “the deal ‘unraveled’ in 2016 after
their ownership was exposed,” according to The Guardian.

Not surprisingly, The Guardian newspaper revealed that “Leaked US
diplomatic cables suggest President Aliyev is Azerbaijan’s richest
person”.

[Yervant1]

One more defeat for the fake sultan!!!!!!!!!

Arminfo, Armenia

Feb 7 2019

Tatevik Shahunyan The UN Commission rejected complaint of Azerbaijan against Armeniahttp://arminfo.info/mcgallery/20161221114933%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B7-%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8-1.jpg

ArmInfo.The UN Economic Commission for Europe rejected the complaint of Azerbaijan from 2011 against Armenia. Head of the Office for International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Vahram Kazhoyan, wrote about this on Facebook. "After eight years of "battles" as a result of the negotiations, we recorded a victory today on a very important issue for Armenia within the framework of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a transboundary context.

In 2011, Azerbaijan submitted a complaint against Armenia, which, however, on all the provisions was refuted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia at several hearings over 8 years. Today, the Economic Commission for Europe formally made a decision based on the facts we have presented. The commission found that Armenia fully fulfills its obligations under the Convention, and the complaint of Azerbaijan is unfounded, "the diplomat explained.

http://arminfo.info/full_news.php?id=38983&lang=3

 

 

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Sept 9 2020

Azerbaijani folk writer: There are only smart and intelligent Armenians on television channels

23:51, 09.09.2020

Folk writer of Azerbaijan Chingiz Abdulayev is outraged by the illiteracy of most of his compatriots.

“Today an interview with Lukashenko was broadcast. It is stated everywhere that they are the leading journalists of Russia. Two of the four journalists — Simonyan and Babayan — are editors-in-chief. The speakers on Russian television channels are Kurginyan, Sarkisov, Shakhnazarov, Poghosyan, Keosayan, and the list goes on. Don’t dare to tell me about their lobbying. They are smart, intelligent and talented people who have good command of Russian. We Azerbaijanis have the opposite examples. Compare the speeches of Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan in Russian or English. Is there any need for comments?

Let’s talk about Azerbaijani nationalists. “Let’s close Russian schools” — we have been hearing the wrathful squeals many times. Calm down. We Azerbaijanis don’t even see anyone on foreign TV channels, and those who appear on TV channels have very bad command of Russian. I can’t even say anything good about Azerbaijanis speaking English on English-language TV channels, even though the number of Azerbaijanis with command of English is growing. Dear local illiterates, knowing your native language is a necessity and can’t even be discussed, but a small country like ours needs thousands of people who at least have excellent command of Russian, English, French and Arabic.

We Azerbaijanis don’t just need reporters who have command of languages. We need officers who have command of foreign technical equipment, artist and scientists who will present their culture and science to the world, and finally, we need politicians. We Azerbaijanis don’t have a lobby not because somebody is standing in our way. Our stupidity, backwardness, inferiority, envy and ignorance — these are the main enemies, and this is seen in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and in international affairs, and in foreign and domestic policies. As one of the local ‘figures’ said, “we dreamed of liberating ourselves from the Russian language, how can we liberate ourselves from the English language”. Of course, dreaming is not harmful. But perhaps we can do the opposite and increase the number of schools in different languages and make our children learn second and third languages. Perhaps then we won’t remember others’ lobbying when we see two Azerbaijanis appear on our television screens, even though, really, dreaming is not harmful…” the writer declared, reports haqqin.az.

https://news.am/eng/news/601349.html

[Yervant1]

Here is Azeries great contribution to society! HATE and more HATE.

News.am, Armenia

Sept 21 2020

Tragedy in Azerbaijan: Colors of Armenian national flag 'detected' in school textbooks

20:23, 21.09.2020

A serious tragedy is being played out in Azerbaijan after the colors of the Armenian national flag were ‘detected’ in school textbooks.

In response to the commotion on social networks, the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan deemed it necessary to refute the possibility of a tragedy. The ministry told APA that the colors of the Armenian national flag can’t be detected in any school textbook or other book, as posted on social networks. “All books are considered publishing products, and censure over materials to be published isn’t allowed during preparation of the particular materials, in accordance with the legislation. The client of a publishing product can be any legal or natural person,” the statement of the Ministry of Education reads.

The colors of the national flag of Armenia are red, blue and orange, and it is hard to picture a children’s textbook without those colors.

Earlier, a video showing Azerbaijani kindergarten teachers teaching children to hate Armenians was posted on the Internet.

https://news.am/eng/news/603297.html

 

[Yervant1]

The hate continues!!!!!!! No surprises here.

Public Radio of Armenia

Sept 24 2020

French Mayor receives threats from Azerbaijanis

Bourg-les-Valence Mayor Marlene Mourier reveals in a Facebook post she received threats from Azerbaijanis in August this year.

“Enough is enough! In Bourg-lès-Valence, we have no lessons to learn from Azerbaijan, a “petro-dictatorship” ranked 168 out of 180 by Reporters Without Borders,” she says.

In a lengthy post the Mayor says “when it comes to threats and intimidation against me, Azerbaijan is at its best.”

“After putting me on a blacklist in 2014, then sending me a bailiff in my town hall in 2016 to demand that I put an end to all friendly relations with the residents of the city of Shushi in Artsakh. It was in 2018 that I had to face a lawsuit brought by the state of Azerbaijan before the administrative court with the aim of invalidating the friendship charter that I signed on October 5, 2014 with Shushi, a historical capital of Artsakh, “she says.

’ ̀ ’̈ ! Trop, c’est trop ! À Bourg-lès-Valence, nous n’avons pas de…

Gepostet von

Marlène Mourier

am

Mittwoch, 23. September 2020

The Mayor makes it clear, however, the friendship charter challenged by Baku remains valid and that no one can prejudge the final decision of the Council of State.

“Today I am once again the subject of threats and intimidation to which I will not give in, let alone the dictator in Baku or even his allies in Turkey. Indeed, three Azeri henchmen came to town hall on August 25 to order me to withdraw within an hour the Artsakh flag which flies alongside the flags of our twin cities with which we maintain friendship links,” Marlene Mourier says.

She notes that fifteen minutes later an official of the Azerbaijani Embassy called her deputy, trying to intimidate him undemanding that the Artskh flag be withdrawn.

“Azerbaijan, Aliyev and his associates must come to terms with the idea that friendship cannot be decreed or annulled and that Bourcans have esteem and consideration for the residents of Shushi and for the people of Artsakh, in general,” teh Mayor stresses.

According to her, “Bourg-lès-Valence is not a land of conquest but a land of resistance.”

“Here in France, in Bourg-lès-Valence, displaying the Artsakh flag is an act of solidarity with a people that Azerbaijan threatens daily with annihilation, demonstrating to the world that its only stated ambition is to complete the genocide of the Armenians of 1915 whose executors of yesterday are their allies today,” she notes.

“Neither Bourg-lès-Valence, nor its mayor, Marlène Mourier, will be under the orders of the Baku dictatorship!” she concludes.

https://en.armradio.am/2020/09/24/french-mayor-receives-threats-from-azerbaijanis/

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Yervant1

[Yervant1]

Panorama, Armenia

Jan 20 2021

Polish politician offered 50,000$ to cancel publication of a brochure on Azerbaijani war crimes in Karabakh

 

 

Polish politician Tomasz Lech Buczek says that Azerbaijan has offered 50,000$ for canceling the publication of brochure on Azerbaijani war crimes against Armenians in the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Buczek has shared the screenshot of a message received from an Azerbaijani social media user, reading: ""The Azerbaijani government will give you $50,000, if you don't publish the publication about Azerbaijani crimes. If interested, please post a photo of Baku on January 25th on Facebook."

"President Aliyev probably heard about my publication?" My response to Baku is: "Release the Armenian prisoners of war," Buczek wrote in an accompanying message to the screenshot.

To note, Buczek earlier organized a fund-raising campaign for publishing the brochure. He said that the brochure would be the world's first printed publication on Azerbaijan's war crimes against the Armenian population in Karabakh in 2020.

The publication specifically details the tortures and inhuman treatment of Armenian war prisoners held in Azerbaijan.

President Alijev probably? heard? about my publication. I received a proposal for not publishing Azerbaijani war crimes...

Posted by Tomasz Lech Buczek on Tuesday, January 19, 2021

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2021/01/20/Buczek-Azerbaijani-war-crimes/2438643

[Yervant1]

The Calvert Journal

Jan 22 2021

The Aliyev influence: how nepotism and self-censorship rule Azerbaijan’s art scene

Heydar Aliyev Center. Image: Istvan under a CC licence

While the Azerbaijani government channels money into contemporary art to reshape the country’s international image, independent artists face two options: self-censorship or exile.

22 January 2021

Text: Lucía de la Torre

On 2 October, 2020, days after war erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a giant Azerbaijani flag rolled down the facade of Baku’s YARAT Contemporary Art Space. The gallery, one of the main contemporary art venues in the Caspian capital, posted a picture of the building on Instagram, alongside the newly ubiquitous hashtag #KarabakhisAzerbaijan. Later that month, Turkish-born Kurdish artist Ahmet Öğüt, whose exhibition No Poem Loves Its Poet had been on show at YARAT since late May, asked for the politically-charged banner to be taken down and declared in a statement: “I refuse to allow my work to fall prey to political instrumentalisation”.

YARAT refused to take down the flag or the Instagram post, and instead decided to terminate Öğüt’s exhibition on 29 October, three weeks earlier than planned. In a comment under the post, the art gallery said that the flag was simply “a sign of support to our country and to our nation”.

The early cancellation, however, is just one example of how Azerbaijan’s apparently thriving art scene conceals something darker: a deeply nepotistic environment which routinely suppresses dissident voices while crafting an international image of Azerbaijan as a free, art-loving nation.

 

Artists like Öğüt, who are unwilling to support or ignore institutions’ political stances, soon see themselves falling from favour. “Over many years, as an artist, I have worked many times in conflicted areas, and have responded to the local situation with nuanced and challenging artworks,” the artist wrote on social media. “YARAT Contemporary Art Centre circulated, on social media, an image of the banner of my exhibition, next to the national flag covering the facade of its building along with a politically-motivated statement, which have nothing to do with my independent vision or the content of my exhibition.”

 

The incident raised eyebrows in art publications worldwide, many concerned over the interference of political ideology in the case. It is not the first time that the country has attracted attention for the wrong reasons. Governed by President Ilham Aliyev and Vice-President and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, the Azerbaijani government has been repeatedly criticised by human rights’ groups for ongoing censorship, a poor human rights record, and rampant corruption. And, like many nearby authoritarian regimes, members of the President’s family are known to own most of the country’s major businesses, earning them millions of dollars since the fall of the USSR and situating Aliyev amongst the world’s richest oil billionaires

In Azerbaijan, where the arts scene is heavy-handedly controlled by the country’s political elite, nepotism and the interference of political ideology run deep

Yet while monopolising business may be commonplace in scores of heavy-handed regimes, the Azerbaijani government’s bid to control contemporary art is just as fierce, and uses the same techniques which have seen Aliyev family members in commercial places of power.

YARAT, the gallery at the centre of the October flag incident, was founded by Aida Mahmudova, an artist, curator, and VP Mehriban Aliyeva’s niece. When interviewed by Forbes in 2015, Mahmudova, who was described as “evasive” when asked about YARAT’s links to the government, said that although the gallery receives technical support from the state, it is independent. However, Baku’s Marriott Hotel, which is allegedly connected to Aliyev’s daughters Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva according to reporters for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), is one of YARAT’s main partners.

Mahmudova is also the director of another of Azerbaijan’s main contemporary art galleries: Baku’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). The museum was founded by Mehriban Aliyeva in 2009, and is funded by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation (of which Mehriban Aliyeva is the President and Leyla Aliyeva the Vice-President), a charitable organisation created in memory of the former president of Azerbaijan and father of current president Ilham Aliyev. Elsewhere in Baku, another star venue on Azerbaijan’s cultural scene is the Heydar Aliyev Center. Completed in 2012, the building was designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid. The current director of the Heydar Aliyev Center is Anar Alakbarov, a former assistant to the Vice President of Azerbaijan and current assistant to the President.

 

The Azerbaijani government’s monopoly over smaller art galleries is no less thorough. The Qiz Qalasi Gallery, an art venue in Baku with a branch in Berlin, is headed by Emin Mammadov, who also works as Art Curator for the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. Between 2012 and 2014, Qiz Qalasi Gallery held Fly to Baku. Modern Art of Azerbaijan, a travelling exhibition supported by the Heydar Aliyev Centre that toured European capitals, where Mehriban and Leila Aliyeva hosted lavish inaugurations attended by European government officials and diplomats. In November 2020, the gallery launched Armed with the Arts, an exhibition allegedly meant to promote peace after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war, while, similarly to YARAT, openly supported the position of the Azerbaijani government and used politically-charged, bellicose language. Kicik QalArt Gallery, a project of the Art ex East Foundation and another important smaller-scale venue in the capital, although now closed, used to be owned by Olivier Mestelan, a Swiss art collector and financier. Mestelan used to sit on the board of Ataholding, an open joint-stock company that managed Atabank, one of the biggest commercial banks in Azerbaijan, now bankrupt and owned by the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF). According to an investigation carried out in 2011 by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, Mestelan was also claimed to be the treasurer of three offshore Panama-based companies linked to Azerfon, a Baku-based telecommunications company with links to Arzu and Leyla Aliyeva.

In light of their far-reaching involvement, the question is why the Aliyev family is so keen to embed themselves in contemporary art. Lesley Gray, a scholar researching the development of the contemporary art scene in the Arab Gulf and Caspian Sea region, explains how Azerbaijan and other countries use contemporary art as a tool to reshape the country’s international image. “Museums –– and contemporary art museums and organizations in particular –– have the potential to convey, simultaneously, both unique identity and global belonging. Inclusion in a global art movement, such as contemporary art, conveys modernity in a subtle but prescient way –– to be part of the global contemporary art world is to be part of the global elite,” she wrote in a 2017 paper.

Ultimately, Azerbaijan is not innocently interested in cutting-edge art — its Caucasian neighbours, Georgia and Armenia, with comparably fewer resources, have more diverse creative scenes with a rising number of independent initiatives. Instead, much like other oil-rich, authoritarian countries like Qatar and the UAE, Azerbaijan’s hopes to use art as a tool to attract international attention for something other than imprisoned journalists and crackdowns on free speech. By creating an international image as fervent art supporters, the Azerbaijani government masks how it has tirelessly worked to eliminate its independent arts scene, which now operates at a very small scale, online, or in exile. By supporting the flow of public money and oil wealth into art venues and projects — the most prestigious run by members of his own family — the Aliyev family has reaped a number of benefits: earning a global name as art-lovers, wiping out “problematic” creative _expression_ at home by ensuring influence with those who control funding, and using this to ensure that local art institutions align with their ideological agenda.

The Azerbaijani government’s investments in contemporary art locally are also a bridge to increasing its influence abroad. As Gray says, “art and cultural projects are used, both at home and abroad [...] as a form of soft or “subtle” power to enhance political legitimacy and relevance”. Mehriban Aliyeva, through the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, has shelled out generous sums for cultural institutions such as The Palace of Versailles, Paris’ Louvre Museum, and the Vatican Museums. while the Friends of Azerbaijani Culture Foundation, a non-governmental charity which she founded in 1995, routinely organises art exhibits abroad.

 

Such spending reaps real-life rewards. In 2004, Mehriban Aliyeva was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, a laurel given in recognition of her actions to promote international cultural exchanges. Later, in 2010, Aliyeva received a gold medal from UNESCO for her “efforts in establishing an intercultural dialogue.” Over the years, Azerbaijan has had a particularly favorable relationship with the UN body — in October 2015, at the petition of Mehriban Aliyeva, UNESCO hosted an exhibition ironically called Azerbaijan — Land of Tolerance at its Paris headquarters. At the opening, when a journalist asked Aliyeva whether the title of the exhibition lived up to the reality in Azerbaijan, considering the country has “many political prisoners in jail”, Aliyeva denied this and turned her back while security guards pushed the journalist away. The relationship was particularly favorable between Mehriban Alliyeva and Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO between 2009-2017. Their relationship came under scrutiny in 2017, when Kalin Mitrev, Bokova’s husband, was investigated by the Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor in relation to media publications about payments made by Azerbaijani companies to his accounts. Bokova then wrote a letter to The Guardian defending the rightfulness of her relationship with Azerbaijan, but never spoke openly about the money allegedly received by her husband or her stance towards Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses

But ultimately, such international praise for the Aliyev government contradicts its real-life record on art. In 2011, Azerbaijan censored its own entry to the Venice Biennale, the world’s most high-profile showcase of contemporary art, by hiding the work of one of its own artists under a piece of cloth. Moscow-based artist Aidan Salakhova’s work Waiting Bride, which showed a woman in a black veil from head to foot, and another sculpture, which showed the Black Stone of Mecca contained in a vagina-shaped marble frame, were hidden under a white cloth. The government later claimed that the artworks were “damaged during transport”, while senior sources at the exhibition clarified that the works were censored for being considered offensive to Islam..

 

Many independent artists, whose work does not reach Baku’s government-owned, high-profile art venues, have similar stories of censorship — although most refuse to speak publicly. The strongest voice in Azerbaijan’s independent art scene comes from Art for Democracy, an online platform founded by a group of independent artists and human rights defenders to showcase their work and raise awareness about repression in Azerbaijan.

“Almost all artistic venues and spaces are run or controlled either by someone who is close to the government, or directly by the authorities. It inevitably impacts independent art in a negative manner, because artists don’t have many options; they either need to accept the unwritten rules that restrict the full independence of the artist or they just should stop their activities,” a member of Art for Democracy told The Calvert Journal.

 

Ironically, perhaps most telling is that the number of cases of repression have dramatically declined in recent years. Artists, aware of the risk they face, either conform to the taste of the First Lady if they want to make a living, leave the country, or stop making art altogether.

 

“Artists don’t have many options; they either need to accept the unwritten rules that restrict the full independence of the artist or they just should stop their activities”

 

“The alternative art scene exists mostly on the internet,” said the representative of Art for Democracy. “Currently, I could claim that there is no really independent space or scene for alternative or independent art.” However, in Azerbaijan, where the government routinely shuts down websites, including all social media sites during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, online displays of art are not free of censorship. Azerbaijani artist Gunduz Aghayev found himself facing pressure from the authorities after he began sharing political cartoons online as a protest against injustice. He was excluded from art venues, and after constant persecution, left Azerbaijan in 2014. “If your political views are in opposition, you are already excluded from all projects as a problematic object. For this reason, artists try to work without touching on political issues,” he says. “In the last years of my life [in Azerbaijan], I only showed my works on social networks. I started doing digital political art. However, still I could not continue living in the country.”

It is this trend — self-censorship and exile — which is most perhaps most damaging of all to Azerbaijani art. Independent art plays a decisive role driving social and political change, and it has the power to challenge authoritarian discourses. While recent leadership changes in the Ministry of Culture hold a glimmer of hope, small initiatives and venues apprehensively emerge, and the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war will surely bring about changes in the arts scene, full creative freedom remains a distant goal. Yet as long as artists remain in fear, it remains almost impossible for real, large-scale artistic opposition to breathe.

“Creative organisations are a minority, and the source of funding for these organizations is almost entirely tied to the political elite,” says Aghayev. “For this reason, there is a certain red line in art. This line should not be crossed.”

https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/12455/azerbaijan-contemporary-arts-scene-political-elite-baku

[Yervant1]

Russian Archbishop of Azerbaijan Makes
Anti-Armenian Remarks to Please Aliyev
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Archbishop Vladyka Alexander, the head of the Diocese of the Russian
Orthodox Church in Azerbaijan, gave an interview last month to Jayson
Casper of Christianity Today, shamelessly spewing Azeri propaganda,
badmouthing Armenians and praising Azerbaijan. He spoke more like a
spokesman for the dictator Ilham Aliyev than a man of God. This is a
clergyman who would not hesitate to sell his soul to the devil for the
right price! It is not surprising that Azerbaijan’s Embassy in
Washington, D.C., immediately posted his interview on its Facebook
page.

Abp. Alexander started the interview by stating: “1,500 years of
separation between the Eastern Orthodox church and the Armenian
Apostolic church has complicated relations. We have holy books and
traditions in common, but we are not in fellowship.”

The Russian Archbishop knowingly lied by stating that “Azerbaijan has
a high level of multicultural acceptance and preserves its religious
monuments. The Armenian churches and libraries in Baku are kept safe.
In the case of a peace agreement, these can be used again, as they
should.” Abp. Alexander is wrong. There are no functioning Armenian
churches in Baku.

Strangely, the Russian Archbishop accused “Armenians of lying to
themselves.” He said that Armenians “are very sorry they had to leave”
Azerbaijan. The Archbishop must have forgotten about the massacres of
innocent Armenians by Azeris in Sumgait, Baku and other parts of
Azerbaijan.

When asked if he would be willing to make a phone call to Catholicos
Karekin II, the Russian Archbishop sarcastically replied: “I don’t
have his phone number [smiling].”

In response to the interviewer’s question about the Armenian Genocide,
the Russian Archbishop lied again by stating: “When the word genocide
is used, we should be very careful. We have very sad facts about the
actions of Armenian forces on the territory of Azerbaijan. We have
thousands of Azerbaijanis killed by the Armenian side, so to whom
should we address the word genocide?” He then added, “Azerbaijanis do
not have hate in their heart,” forgetting the beheadings of Armenians
by Azerbaijani soldiers during the recent war, not to mention the
earlier massacres in Sumgait and Baku.

Christianity Today mentioned that early in the recent Artsakh war, the
Russian Archbishop “signed an Azerbaijani interfaith letter
congratulating President Ilham Aliyev on his military victories.”

In response to these anti-Armenian remarks, the Primate of the Western
Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, Archbishop Hovnan
Derderian, sent a harshly-worded letter to the Russian Orthodox
Archbishop criticizing him for his false allegations:

“Responding to your interview with Christianity Today Magazine would
be considered a waste of time and effort, for it would be replying to
an individual who lacks humility, knowledge of history, attempts to
distort uncontestable historical facts, but above all, distorts the
TRUTH. Furthermore, your arrogance is quite astonishing for a shepherd
of Christ, the Lord.

“You speak of finding ways to live together. We certainly agree that
both parties should find ways to live together. Yet when a country,
that committed the Armenian Genocide a century ago by killing
1,500,000 innocent Armenians, rejects to accept the obvious facts, and
in addition to that openly supports Azerbaijan, it is hard to find
ways to live together. Moreover, when the same country leads the war
operations of Azerbaijan, sends its special forces, recruits thousands
of radical Islamists to kill Christian Armenians, it becomes difficult
to reconcile. When the leader of that country vows to ‘continue to
fulfill the mission that our grandfathers carried out for centuries in
the Caucasus again’ (Recep Tayyip Erdogan—July 24, 2020), attempts at
reconciliation are questioned, don’t you think?

“You state that Armenians have hatred toward Azerbaijan. When an
Azerbaijani army officer axes a sleeping Armenian army officer to
death and is later pardoned by the President of Azerbaijan, freed from
his sentence, and is granted the status of ‘Hero’ of Azerbaijan by the
same president, I ask you the definition of hatred. On May 26, 2020,
the European Court of Human Rights said it ‘found that there had been
no justification for the Azerbaijani authorities’ failure to enforce
the punishment of Ramil Safarov and in effect grant him impunity for a
serious hate crime.’ Isn’t hate in its purest form the deliberate
circulation of videos on social media of Azeri soldiers assassinating,
skinning and beheading Armenian prisoners of war amidst celebration?

“Your contention is that ‘Azerbaijan has a high level of multicultural
acceptance and preserves its religious monuments. The Armenian
churches and libraries in Baku are kept safe.’ How can you state such
a thoughtless claim when there is video evidence of purposeful
destruction of Armenian cross stones in Nakhichevan, carried out
systematically to permanently erase all traces of Armenian heritage
from the region?

“You speak about the Catholicos of All Armenians not doing enough to
make peace. Let me remind you that in 2010, His Holiness Karekin I
travelled to Azerbaijan, met with Allahshukur *****zade [Grand Mufti
of Azerbaijan] and President Ilham Aliyev for peace talks in Baku.

“Replying to your interview responses is futile indeed, for the lack
of respect for history and the truth is quite evident.”

These are strong words from one clergyman to another. I suggest that
other Armenian clergymen and Catholicos Karekin II write letters to
Patriarch Kirill, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in All of
Russia in Moscow, who has exclusive jurisdiction over Russian Orthodox
Christians in Azerbaijan, complaining about Archbishop Alexander’s
shameful statements.

Amazingly, on June 25, 2017, Archbishop Alexander was awarded a medal
of honor from the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in
Moscow for his significant contribution to the promotion and
strengthening of interreligious dialogue. Patriarch Kirill, in his
congratulatory message, commended Archbishop Alexander for carrying
out his task with “special tact and diplomatic skills … in the land
[Azerbaijan] where representatives of different religions and
nationalities live side by side.”

Obviously, after making such false statements about Armenians,
Archbishop Alexander has failed in his ‘interreligious’ duties.
Patriarch Kirill should be urged to take away the medal that he was
awarded.

It is understandable that Archbishop Alexander is trying to please the
dictator of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. However, a man of God should not
tell lies for any reason, under any circumstance. Patriarch Kirill
should tell Archbishop Alexander to apologize for his lies, and if
not, he should strip him of his religious rank.

[Yervant1]

Panorama, Armenia

Feb 12 2021

Azerbaijani woman tells Turkish journalist she would decapitate 20 Armenians and not care about it

19:01, 12.02.2021

The bestial response of an Azerbaijani woman who answered a Turkish journalist’s question on the street has sparked great reactions in Turkey.

The Turkish journalist, who was conducting a survey from passersby on the streets of Istanbul, asked a woman what crime she would commit, if she knew that she wouldn’t be punished, and in response, the woman said she would decapitate 20 Armenians and not care about it. Surprised, the journalist asked the woman where she was from, and the latter said she was from Azerbaijan.

Turkish-Armenian Member of Parliament Garo Paylan has already filed a lawsuit against the Azerbaijani woman wishing to decapitate Armenians.

https://news.am/eng/news/628517.html

[Yervant1]

When will the criminal liars stop lying?

Public Radio of Armenia

Feb 18 2021

Azerbaijan unhappy with Armenia’s plans to exhibit carpets from Shushi Museum, seeks UNESCO support

Azerbaijan has urged UNESCO to react to Armenia’s plans to hold an exhibition of carpets from the Shushi Carpet Museum.

The country’s Culture Ministry says the carpets were “illegally taken out of Shushi on November 1.”

The Ministry claims Armenians have not been historically engaged in carpet weaving and describes the exhibition as “a manifestation of misappropriation.”

Carpets made in Artsakh will go on display at the National Museum-Institute of Architecture after Alexander Tamanyan on February 20.

The carpets are from the private collection of Vardan Astsatryan, founder of the Shushi Carpet Museum and were taken out of the city on November 1, 2020.

The oldest of the items to be exhibited is 350 years old.

The Shushi Carpet Museum was founded by Vardan Astsatryan in 2011 and opened its doors to public in 2013.

 

 

https://en.armradio.am/2021/02/18/azerbaijan-unhappy-with-armenias-plans-to-exhibit-carpets-from-shushi-museum-seeks-unesco-support/

 

[Yervant1]

OCCRP
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Azerbaijan Loses Three Human Rights Cases in One Day
Written by Kelly Bloss
Feb.23, 2021


Azerbaijan lost three cases in front of the European Court of Human
Rights last week and will have to pay 282,850 euro (US$344,122) to the
plaintiffs for violating their rights.

In one case, the government was ordered to pay 234,000 euro ($284,690)
to 18 people whose gardens have been years ago unlawfully sold to
President Ilham Aliyev’s then relatives.

In 2007, a year after Aliyev’s eldest daughter Leyla married pop-star
Emin Agalarov, a presidential order dismantled the so-called Garden
Exploitation Department which leased plots of land to residents.

The city of Baku then handed over 30 hectares of seafront land the 18
plaintiffs had leased in the Nardaran neighborhood of Baku to the
municipality, disregarding the contracts the 18 had signed years
before with the dismantled institution.

The municipality then sold the land to the Crocus Group, a company
owned by Emin’s father, Azerbaijani-born Russian billionaire Araz
Agalarov, who was the president of the company, while Emin was the
vice-president. Emin and Leyla divorced in 2015 but Emin’s company
meanwhile built a luxurious resort called Sea Breeze at the disputed
land.

The 18 residents took their complaints to the court and after
years-long procedures in Azerbaijan, the case ended up in 2009 at the
Strasbourg-based Court of Human Rights. Judges ruled on Thursday that
the rights of the plaintiffs were violated and ordered the government
to pay each of the 18 residents 10,000 euros ($12,166) in material
damages and 3,000 euro ($3,649) in moral damages.

Lawyer Sevinj Aliyeva wrote on her Facebook page that she was
approached by a representative of the Crocus Group who offered to
reward her if she drops the case.

“It is true that the sum of the compensation is not so big compared to
what Crocus Group earned with Sea Breeze, but for poor families,
especially during this pandemic, the compensation will be welcome,”
she wrote.

The other case Azerbaijan lost to two political prisoners, Mammad
Azizov and Shahin Novruzlu. The two were members of NIDA, a
non-governmental organization, and were arrested in 2013 on drugs,
weapons and rioting charges after a series of demonstrations against
deaths of soldiers in the Azerbaijani army in non-combat situations.

Azizov was in 2014 sentenced to seven years and six months and
Novruzlu to six years in prison, but both were released the same year
following a presidential pardon.

The court in Strasbourg ruled that the government has to pay 43,500
euros ($52,913) to them as compensation for illegal pre-trial
detention.

The third case concerns a man who has been illegally detained after
the pre-trial detention the court ordered ended. Ildar Rustamovich
Fayzov is to get 5,350 euros ($6,505) from the government, according
to the ruling.

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13919-azerbaijan-loses-three-human-rights-cases-in-one-day__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!9_DAGVPOCGNe7-OwL8Yr6Elby7nyqlallkjpBid_x3Kv5oJXn6k5IPCKp3ZsLQ$