Azerbaijan: a Mafia State By Elmar Chakhtakhtinski

[Yervant1]

Azerbaijan: a Mafia State

 

Azeri Report

February 22, 2013

 

By Elmar Chakhtakhtinski

 

Have you ever wondered how life would be in a nation entirely

overtaken and ruled by an organized crime cartel? Take a look at the

present-day Azerbaijan and you will see a telling example of such

country. The recent events there indicate a complete transition from a

post-Soviet republic into a feudal mafia state, ruled by a gang of

unsavory, backwards, criminal-minded characters.

 

The insightful US diplomats in Wikileaks cables

(http://azerireport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2506)

have already described the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as

someone who resembles, interchangeably, Sonny and Michael Corleone

brothers from the famous mafia movie trilogy "The God Father". As if

trying to prove this point, the day-to-day behavior of top Azerbaijani

officials increasingly seems to emanate straight from the plots of

gangster movies.

 

Consider the following facts and judge for yourself:

 

- One leading ruling YAP party official and a member of the national

parliament, Siyavush Novruzov, has recently said that a certain

dissident does not deserve to be assassinated by the regime because

`he is not important enough'. It is very revealing that his very first

reaction was not that of a statesman saying "Azerbaijani government

never would do such a thing", but rather a mobster questioning the

"worthiness" of a prospective target for an assassination.

 

- Another parliament member from the ruling party, Gular Ahmadova, was

caught on hidden cam videos trying to sell a seat in the parliament

for a million dollar bribe and, appearently, she was merely acting as

a dealer for the head of Presidential Administration Ramiz

Mehdiyev. Forget about elections falsifications: here the parliament

seats are up for sale to aspiring wiseguys who want to join the

criminal syndicate's inner circle.

 

- One of the key witnesses on those videos, Sevinj Babayeva, who had

been on the run ever since the online release of the videos, was found

dead in Turkey under mysterious circumstances (`whacked'?).

 

- A local governor in Ismayilli region owned a hotel where he and his

relatives had been running an illegal brothel. This became known to

broader public after local residents, angry at the increasingly brazen

behavior of the governor and his gang, burned down his house and that

hotel during the uprising in January this year.

 

- In order to prevent the Council of Europe (CE), of which Azerbaijan

is a member, from issuing unfavorable resolutions about Azerbaijan's

miserable record on human rights and democracy, the Aliyev regime

implemented its own action plan, dubbed `Caviar diplomacy'. designed

to bribe CE officials with caviar and other lavish gifts. The

legitimate states, even authoritarian ones, have to bother with

diplomatic efforts, sanctions and counter-sanctions, and other

political headache. But mafia always chooses to circumvent these

unnecessary formalities and resolve its problems by deploying its own,

much `simpler' methods: if we can't make you shut up, we will buy your

silence.

 

- A leader of a pro-government party, a well-known attack-dog of the

regime, Hafiz Hajiyev, has offered a $12,000 reward to any person who

would cut the ear of the famous Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli.

Mr. Aylisly fell out of favor with the regime after writing a

pro-Armenian novel where he also portrayed the regime's founder Heydar

Aliyev (the father of the current `God Father' President Ilham Aliyev)

in a very negative light. The executive secretary Ali Akhmadov and

others from the ruling YAP party have questioned Aylisli's ethnic

identity, demanded tests on his DNA to check if he is a hidden

Armenian, and called for the expression of public hatred towards

him. Their calls were heeded at the government sponsored `protest

rallies' culminating in calls for `death to Aylisli' and burning of

the writer's books. The word "mob", indicating a primitive,

rough-crowd mentality of organized crime groups, would, indeed, be a

very appropriate term to describe these acts of Azerbaijan's ruling

gang.

 

- And, of course, more and more evidence is surfacing about the

president Aliyev's family owning an endless list of offshore secretive

business holdings and undeclared properties within the country and

abroad. This is matched by the similarly shadowy possessions of his

oligarch-ministers who act as heads of family clans within the mafia

enterprise.

 

Add to this the fact that all branches of government in Azerbaijan

lack any pretense of legitimacy due to the total falsification of each

and every election for the past twenty years - and you will get a

complete picture of what kind `state' Azerbaijan is.

 

President Ilham Aliyev's recent speech, made after the Ismayilli riots

mentioned above, is very instructive. Don Aliyev's appearance before

his associates - ministers, governors and other top officials - can

only be classified as "State of the Mafia' address.

 

The Ismayilli uprising was sparked by a traffic accident, after which

one of the parties, the son of the governor, started shouting at and

insulting the people in the other car and the local residents that

gathered around them to help. Therefore, in an angry tone, Ilham

Aliyev warned the heads of the clans - his high level state officials

- that they better restrain their children and not display so brazenly

all the loot they collect by plundering the country. He offered

himself as an example of modesty, apparently forgetting the lavish

annual mass celebrations held for his own birthday, and millions of

state money spent on his long-dead father's birthday `flower

festivals' and his controversial monuments erected around the

world. Perhaps he meant himself as a role model of a mafia boss who

succeeded in hiding most of the wealth he stole from the public eye.

 

`No more acts of hooliganism [by children of state officials] will be

tolerated... Those committing such acts will be arrested and their

fathers fired!', he exclaimed. But don't ask whether and why this

`hooliganism' was fine up untill now, and what the law says about

it. And never mind that firing a father from his government job for

the trespasses of his son might be outside of legal framework. The God

Father appoints them and he is entitled to get rid of them when he

pleases. No need to bother with such formalities as justifying the

state prosecutor's charges, court proceedings, due process, rule of

law. The Boss decides everything: who gets arrested, at what exact

time certain crimes stop being OK, and who gets fired from their

posts.

 

On the other end of political spectrum, parents are already being

punished for the actions of their adult children. Police has recently

raided the homes of leading opposition youth activists' parents to

take away their hand-woven carpets, old TVs and other possessions as a

fine for their children's participation in pro-democracy protest

rallies. Again, a typical mafia-clan approach "if you go against us,

we will get you and your family".

 

All these bizarre, despicable events have taken place within a span of

past several weeks, in the 21st century Azerbaijan - a country called

a "strategic US ally', `an EU partner', a participant in NATO's

`Partnership for Peace' program, a member of the Council of Europe,

the host of Eurovision song contest and European Olympics, and, in the

words of one US Congressman Gerry Connolly, `a role model' for other

countries.

 

 

Elmar Chakhtakhtinski is a chairman of Azerbaijani-Americans for

Democracy (AZAD), a non-profit US organization promoting support for

democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan.

[MosJan]

tsavalin iyn e vor sa menak azerineri mot che, iyl mi sharq naxkin sovetakan petutyunerum, yerkri yev mardkats anun poxeq tsankatsatsov yev xndrem nuyn patmutyun e....

[Yervant1]

tsavalin iyn e vor sa menak azerineri mot che, iyl mi sharq naxkin sovetakan petutyunerum, yerkri yev mardkats anun poxeq tsankatsatsov yev xndrem nuyn patmutyun e....

So true!

[Yervant1]

Aylisli Controversy Reveals the True Face of Aliyev Regime

 

Azeri Report

February 18, 2013

 

By Elmar Chakhtakhtinski

 

The controversy around the Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli's recently

published novel "Stone Dreams" came amidst increased political

tensions and social unrest in the country. And although it created a

socio-political storm of its own, the uncivilized and hateful

over-reaction to this book does not collectively represent the

Azerbaijani society. It only reveals the real character of the ruling

Aliyev regime and its minions, unmasking their intolerant, feudal and

reckless nature.

 

Delayed reaction

 

To be sure, Aylisli's work touches upon an extremely sensitive subject

of the still unresolved Karabakh war, with very deep and fresh wounds

on both sides. The book is focused on the horrors that befell the

Armenian victims of the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic conflict. However,

terrible atrocities had been committed on both sides. Many argue that

failing to mention thousands of Azerbaijanis massacred by Armenians

and the tragic exile of about a million Azerbaijani refugees distorts

the real narrative. Aylisli has responded to this criticism by saying

that in his attempt to send a reconciliatory message to the other

side, as an Azerbaijani writer, he felt compelled to write about the

suffering of Armenians, and he hopes that an Armenian author would

write similarly about the tragic fate of Azerbaijani

victims. Regardless of the author's intentions, one can understand why

most Azerbaijanis would strongly disagree with his one-sided portrayal

of the events and the historical background around them.

 

But to set the record straight: there was no real mass "grass-roots"

outrage over this book in Azerbaijan. It was published in December

2012 in a popular Russian literary magazine and largely went unnoticed

in Azerbaijan. Then came Azerbaijan's "hot January", with an

anti-government uprising in Ismayilli region, a violent economic

protest in capital Baku's Bina suburb and an unusually large rally in

downtown Baku organized by pro-democracy youth groups calling for an

end to killings and abuses of soldiers in the national army. Only

after all these events had shaken the governments control over the

situation, a mass campaign, clearly orchestrated by the authorities,

against Akram Aylisli and his pro-Armenian book began in all of its

fury.

 

Orchestrated campaign

 

Consider the following facts:

- The party offering a $12,000 reward for cutting the writer's ear is

a well-known pro-government puppet group

- The country's corrupt dictator, Ilham Aliyev, has himself led the

public crusade against the author by issuing a decree that deprives

Aylisli from his highest state awards and a special presidential

pension

- The fascist remarks against the author, such as raising questions

about his ethnic identity, proposals to "check his DNA" to see if he

is an Armenian, calls to strip him of Azerbaijani citizenship and

deport to Armenia, were made by the ruling party's top officials and

its leading members in the parliament

- The authorities fired his wife and son from their state jobs after

the book was published

- It is the same state-controlled media, usually busy demonizing

dissidents and opposition activists and praising the ruling family,

that now promotes hate and violence against the author

- All book burnings and `protest actions' calling for "death to

Aylisli" were organized by the ruling YAP party's youth movement and

other groups under the government's own patronage and sponsorship

- In Aylisli's own village, in Nakhchivan region, where the local

despot Talibov's henchmen prevent gathering of more than 3-4 people

for any unsanctioned events, even casual past-time gatherings, the

government had to bus in people from other villages and towns to stage

a "protest by the local residents" against the author

 

All other demonstrations in Azerbaijan, calling for democracy,

freedom, human rights or simply expressing people's dissatisfaction

with the current conditions are always brutally attacked and dispersed

by the police. The participants are routinely beaten, fined and

jailed. But these hateful government-sponsored rallies against the

writer met no resistance from the security forces and no one was

detained or even forced to disperse.

 

Without mentioning all of the above facts and without clearly stating

that all the stone-age, hate-filled responses to the novel are

invariably tied to and totally controlled by the ruling Aliyev regime,

any reporting on this issue would be incomplete and misleading.

 

Diversionary tactic

 

There is another, a little more subtle but easily recognizable

dimension in this story: the state-sponsored campaign against Akram

Aylisli is diversionary in its character. By stirring hatred around

the book, the government tries to distract attention from the biggest

real problem facing Azerbaijan - the ruling regime itself. Unable and

unwilling for twenty years to answer people's demands and end

pervasive corruption, respect basic freedoms and rights and provide

minimal levels of social justice, the government decided to divert the

popular anger towards the novel's author and the Karabakh issue it

touches upon.

 

Once again, it proves that the ruling regime in Azerbaijan, and

perhaps in Armenia, is not really interested in finding a solution to

the Karabakh conflict. Instead, they use it as a convenient excuse and

hide behind it when their trespasses and faults on all other fronts

become evident. This is done with such consistency that one even

wonders why would this government ever want to loose the perfect cover

of `Karabakh problem' that helps it to stay in power?

 

Dangerously reckless

 

The disturbing conclusion is that to keep its grip on power, the

Aliyev government seems ready to gamble with anything else it holds in

its hands.

 

Any responsible government, seriously thinking about the peaceful

solution to the Karabakh issue, where Azerbaijanis and Armenians again

would have to live side-by-side as Azerbaijani citizens, would never

purposefully raise tensions to this degree and promote such level of

public, ethnically-motivated hatred. But expression of public hatred

was exactly the ruling party's marching order to its foot soldiers, as

expressed by its executive secretary Ali Akhmadov right the beginning

of the witch-hunt against the writer. That the anti-Aylisli campaign

shatters any hopes for a dialog and reconciliation does not seem to

bother the Azerbaijani authorities at all. Neither do they appear to

be worried about destroying the country's already poor international

reputation by pursuing their shameful and backward crusade against a

fiction book.

 

Can such a reckless regime be trusted not to risk the renewal of

hostilities, if it saw a military adventure as the only way to save

itself from a popular revolt at home?

 

There is a dire need for a decent and responsible government in Baku

that is willing and capable to address the long-lasting issues facing

the nation, including the Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan needs a

leadership that is not pre-occupied with pillaging the country's

riches and that would not sacrifice the national (and international)

interests in order to stay in power. For that, its citizens will have

to free themselves from this utterly corrupt, thoroughly repressive

and, as Aylisli affair revealed, disgustingly intolerant and

intellectually barbaric Aliyev dictatorship.

 

The Azerbaijani state propaganda machine and its Western apologists,

mainly consisting of lobbyists, paid "experts" and some sold-out

politicians and diplomats, have been for a long time selling a fake

image of the Aliyev regime as a "tolerant, pro-western, modernizing,

reliable US ally'. The scandal around Aylisli's "Stone Dreams" blows

into dust this fairy-tale. Hopefully the US government and

policymakers will take a due notice.

 

 

Elmar Chakhtakhtinski is a chairman of Azerbaijani-Americans for

Democracy (AZAD), a non-profit US organization promoting support for

democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan.

[Yervant1]

11:15 09/03/2013 » Region

Emin Milli: U.S. and British governments threaten their own military and economic interests by supporting Aliyev

 

 

U.S. and British governments are threatening their own military and economic interests in Azerbaijan by supporting Aliyev, the Azerbaijani blogger former "prisoner of conscience" Emin Milli told in an interview with Radio Liberty.

 

U.S. and British governments so far have supported the Aliyev regime because Aliyev provided oil and gas and invested a lot in these countries. The international community’s civil-society institutions have not only underfunded democratic civil society in Azerbaijan, they have also funded so-called "gongos," pro-Aliyev nongovernmental organizations. USAID, for instance, recently gave $1.5 million to an NGO whose head also chairs the Azerbaijani parliament’s legal committee, which initiated the law to fine people participating in peaceful protests.

 

“Everything Azerbaijan’s democratic movement is doing now and all the changes that will happen this year will take place not thanks to Western support, but despite Western support to Aliyev’s regime. All we want from the international community at this stage is for the international media to pay more attention to what is happening in Azerbaijan and for the U.S. and British governments to realize that they are threatening their own military and economic interests in Azerbaijan by supporting Aliyev,” the blogger added.

 

Milli says, Aliyev has always presented himself as a guarantor of stability in Azerbaijan. Now, he is becoming a guarantor of increasing instability.

 

“His father kept some space open for the opposition -- there were always five or six members of the opposition in parliament and he would meet opposition newspaper editors. He pretended there was a dialogue. Things are very different now. There has not been a single opposition member in parliament since 2010, new laws have been adopted to fine people for participating in peaceful but unsanctioned rallies, the financing of nongovernmental originations has been made almost impossible,” he said.

 

Another issue is the situation in the army, he said and added that every year, about 100 soldiers die in the Azerbaijani Army, but only about 15 of those die on the conflict line with Armenian armed forces. The others die because of corruption and mismanagement in the army.

 

“People became so tired and so frustrated. You cannot trust courts, you cannot trust the law, and everything has become more expensive. People don’t have jobs in the regions. That’s why people started taking to the streets,” the blogger said.

 

Azerbaijani bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade were arrested in July 2009. They were charged for hooliganism and sentenced to 2.5 and 2 years imprisonment. Experts believe that the arrest of bloggers has been associated with their social activities and, in particular, with the movie about corruption in Azerbaijan, which they placed on the Internet.

 

International human rights organization Amnesty International recognized Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizadeh "prisoners of conscience", and many international human rights organizations, as well as the OSCE and the Council of Europe joined to request to release bloggers from jail. Despite the threat of arrest, Millie returned from London to Azerbaijan.

Source: Panorama.am

[Yervant1]

http://asbarez.com/App/Asbarez/images/asbarez_01_460x101.jpg

Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

 

European Parliament to Censure 9 for Azerbaijan Trip

http://asbarez.com/App/Asbarez/eng/2014/02/EU-Parliament.jpg

The European Parliament building in Strasbourg

BRUSSELES—The European Parliament ethics committee is set to censure a group of nine lawmakers who are suspected of accepting favors from Azerbaijan during an electoral observation mission there in October last year, the EurActive.com news portal reported Tuesday.

Kriistina Ojuland of Estonia, Jacek Włosowicz of Poland, Slavi Binev of Bulgaria, Jirí Maštálka of the Czech Republic, Ivo Vajgl of Slovenia, Alexandra Thein of Germany, Hannu Takkula of Finland, Oleg Valjalo of Croatia, and Nick Griffin of the UK all flew to Azerbaijan last October to monitor the elections.

However, they purportedly “forgot” to tell Parliament that they had been invited by the Azeri government and did not declare the trip on their website, as required by the Assembly’s new code of conduct.

The committee is also questioning whether the European Parliament members were rewarded for this task, on top of the paid trip.

After their mission, the group produced a report describing the elections as “free and fair.” Embarrassingly, their assessment was radically different from that of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which found “serious problems” related to freedom of expression and assembly.

In a report published in November, the European Stability Initiative, a think-tank, had already rung the alarm about the way the Azeri elections were being monitored more generally.

According to the European Parliament’s new code of conduct, adopted last July, any kind of present, invitation to a football game, show or trip must be mentioned on the lawmaker’s website if its price exceeds 150 euros.

“We are happy to see that the European Parliament actually is doing something about the caviar diplomacy snaked in Brussels,” said European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (ANCA Europe) Executive Director Bedo Demirdjian. “I hope they will open their eyes on falsifications of history and facts that are being committed by Azerbaijan.”