Azerbaijan’s peace activists face harassment, and a reckoning

While the outbreak of war sparked an outburst of nationalism and hatred in Armenia and Azerbaijan, a handful of voices on each side instead chose to advocate for peace. In Azerbaijan in particular, these figures have suffered heavy social media harassment, including death threats, and in some cases pressure from the authorities. A new word was coined: “novarçı,” or “no-warist,” referring to the “no war” Facebook profile image that many of them used.

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Without emphasizing the fact of Aliyev’s crimes, Yerevan gives him additional reasons to continue terrorist activities

The reason for the inspiration of the Azerbaijani leadership is the passivity of the Armenian leadership. The first Ombudsman of Armenia Larisa Alaverdyan expressed a similar opinion to NovostiNK.

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Life in Azerbaijan’s Digital Autocracy: ‘They Want to be in Control of Everything’

This May, three top OCCRP editors flew to Ankara to meet a woman they hadn’t seen in years. Khadija Ismayilova is Azerbaijan’s most renowned investigative journalist, a longtime colleague, and a close old friend: practically family. For her pioneering work, she had spent 18 months in prison and five more years under a travel ban. But now she was finally free.

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Azerbaijan Tortures, Murders Armenian Prisoners of War

April 24 marked the 106th anniversary of the 1915–23 Armenian Genocide, which Ottoman Turkey committed. This genocide resulted in the systematic extermination of around 1.5 million Armenians. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan—with Turkey’s full support—continues its ethnic cleansing of Armenians on their indigenous land in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the South Caucasus.

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