The Government of Azerbaijan should immediately order its security forces to cease the use of violent force against peaceful protesters and free those arbitrarily detained without charge after mass arrests, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation said today.
At least 200 people were arrested and dozens beaten on 2 April 2011 when security forces shut down a largely peaceful ant-government protest in the capital city of Baku. According to a statement released by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs on 4 April, 17 activists and organisers were arrested in the days leading up to the protest.
CIVICUS partners in the country said leaders of opposition political parties, journalists and members of civil society organisations were among those detained. Currently authorities continue their crackdown on civil society in Azerbaijan, promising to halt another planned protest slated for 16 April.
"Assembling in order to protest is a normal part of life in a democracy," said Will Lasky, Eurasia Coordinator at CIVICUS. "Sadly, the Azerbaijani authorities do not seem to understand this. They have obligations to the people of Azerbaijan under the Constitution and international law which must be upheld."
According to Dr Leila Alieva, President of the Baku-based think tank Center for National and International Studies and a CIVICUS partner, citizens of the oil rich nation on the Caspian Sea were calling for fair elections and for the resignation of the current President Ilham Aliyev whose power she said was maintained by an observably flawed democratic process. Dr Alieva said the protest was inspired by the recent events in the Arab world.
"The major slogans chanted at the recent protests were - Democracy and Resignation," she said.
The current demonstrations come at the head of two decades of civil society's thwarted attempts at exercising basic freedoms.
Dr Alieva cites the role played by plain-clothed security officers in trumping up the 2 April protest, using brutal tactics to turn a peaceful protest into something resembling a riot. "There were a lot of people in plain clothes (security) who were arresting people, and I believe these were the ones who broke the windows, because obviously the protesters were too well organised to do it," said Dr Alieva, who also cited allegations of police brutality connected with the arrest of opposition leaders. "There was a press conference by the activist Khaliq Bahadir, who explained that he and Tural Abbasli (head of the youth branch of the opposition Musavat Party) were severely beaten in the head police office of the Yasamal district," she said.
The recent events mark a continuation of protests calling for the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev which have occurred throughout his presidency and that of his father who was elected in 1993. Similar protests were staged after the widely criticised elections of 2003 which brought Aliyev, the son of the former president Heydar Aliyev, to power. Previously, Ilham Aliyev was the vice president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan.
Aside from the brief flowering of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 1918 to 1929 and then from 1992-1993, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijani civil society has struggled to assert its right to assemble, to protest and to speak freely. Illustrative of this is the infamous 2010 case of the 'Donkey Bloggers' when two youth activists were sentenced to two year jail terms in connection with their satirical video that criticised the government's alleged spending of US$41,000 importing two donkeys.
Another issue and area of thematic overlap consistently raised by civil society is the role oil plays in suppressing the democratic process. Dr Alieva said that economic interests must be acknowledged in the democratic process.
"I think that the events in the Arab world prove that one cannot get away with ignoring the waning legitimacy of leaders for the sake of pragmatic interests. One way or another, this will show itself in a much more ugly and damaging way for the very same business interests,"she said.
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global movement of civil society dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society across the world.
For more information please contact:
Rowena McNaughton ( rowena.mcnaughton@civicus.org), Media Officer
or
Will Lasky ( will.lasky@civicus.org), Eurasia Project Coordinator
Tel: +27 11 833 5959
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