APPEAL

OF INVITATION TO CAMPAIGN “FREEDOM FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS” TO EUROPEAN UNION

Dear Ms. Ursula von der Leyen,

Today, we appeal to the international organizations to inform you about more than 120 political prisoners in Azerbaijan, the lack of free media, the use of all kinds of police violence by the dictatorial regime. Thus, we want to convey the current situation to the international community to achieve the immediate release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Your support of these campaigns will help inform the world media and community about what is happening in our country.

Although the people of Azerbaijan, which twice created an independent state in the twentieth century, survived the Russian occupation, they could not escape the authoritarian regime of the Soviet-Russian school. Despite the intellectuals who want democratic principles (pluralism, free elections, freedom of assembly, free activity, etc.) to prevail in our country, the Aliyev regime, which came to power in 1993, has finally managed to turn our country into a monarchical structure. The power was transferred from father Aliyev to son Aliyev in 2003, and President Aliyev’s wife is the first vice president. Moreover, the constitution has been amended three times over the years, and the participation of one person in permanent elections has been legalized.

The undemocratic regime has even resorted to criminal measures to destroy the political opposition, the free press, and the critical position. To date, three publicist journalists Elmar Huseynov, Rafig Tagi, and Rasim Aliyev, who have criticized officials and the authorities in Azerbaijan, have been killed, and more than 50 journalists have been imprisoned at various times. Journalists’ private lives are videotaped and publicized for blackmail, they are banned from crossing the border, and they are subjected to torture and inhumane treatment. Over the past year, Afgan Sadigov, editor-in-chief of the “AzelTv” news portal, Polad Aslanov, founder of the “Xebereman” website, Elchin Mammad, editor-in-chief of the www.yukselish.info website, and bloggers Elchin Hasanzadeh and Ibrahim Turksoy have been prosecuted and arrested on trumped-up charges.

In total, there are currently more than 120 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Apart from journalists, people of faith, opposition party activists, and young bloggers are also political prisoners. Taleh Bagirzadeh, chairman of the Muslim Unity Movement, and other believers – Movsum Samadov, Abgul Suleymanov, and others – were also arrested.

At the same time, Elshan Alisoy, head of the “Sözçü” website and chairman of the “Karabakh Veterans and Invalids Public Union,” also faced a false accusation of a crime because of articles in connection with corruption at the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). On June 17, 2021, political activist Tahir Heydarov (Tahir Yangilan), who returned to Azerbaijan from Germany in 2020, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison on the trumped-up drug charge. The mysterious deaths of three people, who constantly criticized the Azerbaijani government, in 2021 also raise many questions. Vugar Rza, a member of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, was found dead in a lake in Belgium. In May, Bayram Mammadov, a former political prisoner known as a statue prisoner in Azerbaijan, was found dead in Turkey. Behind all this is the possibility that critics will be persecuted and destroyed by the regime. In recent days, blogger Huseyn Bakikhanov, who was under a disciplinary arrest in Baku, was found dead in his house in Georgia.

Along with this, wiretapping up to 1,000 political and social activists in Azerbaijan through the Pegasus program, designed in Israel to track terrorists, is widespread in the international arena. This, in itself, is not only the activity of public activists but also the dissemination and tracking of personal information.

At present, there is information that Baba Suleyman, a member of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, who was given a suspended sentence for his political activities, is followed and can be arrested at any time, as well as another member of the party, political prisoner Elzamin Salayev, ha some health problems due to a hunger strike.

Another issue in Azerbaijan is the government’s silence on violence against women and the inaction of the police. As a result, a woman Sevinj Maharramova was beheaded by her husband on August 3, 2021. Maharramova had earlier officially appealed to the police three times, and her photos of being beaten had been shared on social networks. The government of Azerbaijan has not yet signed the Convention on Prevention and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, adopted by the Council of Europe in 2011, and this stipulates that violence in this country will continue.

In 2017, 101 servicemen were identified as victims of torture in an investigation called “treason” against the military, and 11 were killed as a result of torture during the same investigation, while the death penalty has been abolished in Azerbaijan since 1998. Twenty-five of the tortured servicemen are currently in jail. Five servicemen killed as a result of torture were acquitted by a court decision. Ten employees of the Ministry of Defense were arrested for these tortures. The Committee Against Torture (CAT) released a report in April 2021 on torture against service members in 2017. The “Tartar case” is currently being discussed in our country. 

The non-democratic environment in Azerbaijan, which has lasted for years, is also known to the international community. Reports of international human rights organizations (Freedom House, Amnestey International, Human Rights Watch, Reporter Without Borders, etc.) include enough informatoin about the arrest, torture, intimidation of journalists, political party activists, civil society members, and social media representatives. It is not accidental that over the past three years, Azerbaijan has been ranking 168th out of 180 countries in the index of freedom of speech.                                                                                      

The Azerbaijani government is repressing family members and relatives of political refugees in order to silence them. Only the relatives of more than 60 members of our DAS have been repressed and threatened. They were threatened with dismissal, expulsion from the university, threats, and insults at police stations, administrative detention, and criminal proceedings.

Best regards,

 Vagif Ibrahimov,        

Assistant to the Chairman of “Elect Democratic Azerbaijan” (DAS) public and political organization Germany,