My personal blog, my thoughts.
On 19 December, the Baku Court of Appeal upheld a ruling to block access to a number of independent news websites in Azerbaijan. The failed appeal had been brought by Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani service, Azadlig (“Liberty”), and the unrelated Azadlig newspaper.
Read more “Azerbaijani court upholds blocking of independent news websites”
On 20 November, lawyer Yalchin Imanov’s legal practice was suspended by a decision of Azerbaijan’s Bar Association, Imanov told Meydan TV. The Bar Association took the action in response to a complaint from the Penitentiary Service against Imanov, who is known for defending political activists.
On 10 August, Azerbaijan’s Bar Association received a complaint about Yalchin Imanov from Ogtay Mammadov, deputy chairman of the Penitentiary Service. In the complaint, the Penitentiary Service accused Imanov of circulating false information in the press. Specifically, the complaint refers to allegations of torture made against the Penitentiary Service by Imanov’s client Abbas Huseynov, deputy chairman of the Muslim Unity Movement. The Penitentiary Service denies the allegations.
Read more “Bar Association suspends human rights defender’s legal practice”
The arrest of an Azerbaijani journalist in Ukraine marks a fresh instance of free-media-wary Azerbaijan having a critical reporter apprehended outside its borders.
Fikret Huseynli, who survived a beating and stabbing in his native Azerbaijan a decade ago, was arrested on October 14 at Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv as he was about to board a fight to Dusseldorf. He managed to alert his friends about his situation via Facebook before Ukrainian police took him into custody. A local court must still consider Azerbaijan’s extradition request, Ukrainian rights activists report.
Read more “Azerbaijan: Seeking to Arrest Critical Journalists throughout the Ex-USSR”
JUST PAST 7 p.m. on May 29 in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, an independent journalist, Afgan Mukhtarli, called his wife from a cafe to say he was coming home. She asked him to buy bread, according to a friend of the journalist who was at the cafe. The friend departed, but Mr. Mukhtarli never made it home. A day later, his wife discovered he was in neighboring Azerbaijan, in jail. Fearing persecution as a journalist, Mr. Mukhtarli had fled Azerbaijan two years earlier. In a brazen example of a police state reaching beyond its borders, Azerbaijan apparently dragged him back.
There is a video of the “Top 10 worst dictators that are still in power.” Video content producer and syndicator WatchMojo of Canada published the infotainment on “leaders who hold on to power with iron fists.” WM claims 8.8 billion all-time video views and 15 million subscribers, one of YouTube’s major channels.
Read more “Aliyev in Top 10 tyrants in power”
There were plenty of Azeri commentators and officials who criticized Armenian President Serge Sarkisian’s speech at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last week, but I did not come across any Armenian commentators or government leaders who attacked Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s ugly speech on Sept. 20.
Read more “Aliyev Lies Before the Whole World at UN General Assembly”
Recently there were two serious scandals one of which was related to the issue of the territories of Artsakh and the other issue is related to the adoption of a concept on developing the Russian language in Armenia.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to resolve claims brought by the Azerbaijani government that have hampered its news reporting inside the country for almost three years, the RFE/RL reports.
WASHINGTON—The full U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee adopted a series of provisions as part of its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) foreign aid bill on Sept. 7, specifically calling for continued aid to Artsakh and increased assistance to Armenia ($20.7 million), and also imposing weapon and travel sanctions on Turkey and Azerbaijan. Those provisions were supported by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Read more “Senate Panel Adopts Measures Supporting Artsakh and Armenia, Sanctioning Ankara and Baku”
Two French journalists accused by Azerbaijan’s government of defamation for calling the country a “dictatorship” appeared for a hearing at a French court Tuesday, in an unusual case that activists call an effort to export censorship, AP reported.
Read more “French journalists in court accused of defaming Azerbaijan”