{"id":165132,"date":"2014-09-02T12:24:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T12:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/article\/while-the-world-is-distracted-azerbaijan-cracks-down-on-human-rights-activists\/"},"modified":"2021-10-29T12:06:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T08:06:20","slug":"while-the-world-is-distracted-azerbaijan-cracks-down-on-human-rights-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/while-the-world-is-distracted-azerbaijan-cracks-down-on-human-rights-activists\/","title":{"rendered":"While the world is distracted, Azerbaijan cracks down on human rights activists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n By Rachel Denber for
\n
\n Human Rights Watch
\n <\/a>
\n .\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n \u201cArif, my darling!\u00a0After 36 years of our life together, we are now in different cells. In different places.\u201d These are words Leyla Yunus wrote last week to her husband from a prison in Baku, the capital of oil-rich Azerbaijan.
\n <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\n Last month police
\n
\n arrested
\n <\/a>
\n \u00a0Leyla, one of the country\u2019s most prominent human rights defenders, on treason and other charges. Six days later police
\n
\n arrested
\n <\/a>
\n \u00a0her husband, Arif, a historian and public figure in his own right, as he was taking the medicine and food she needs to control her severe diabetes.\n<\/p>\n

\n In the two decades I\u2019ve known and worked with Leyla and Arif, Azerbaijan has had some serious human rights problems. But even as government repression worsened in the past two years, nothing could really prepare me for the shock of Leyla and Arif behind bars, in sweltering cells, lacking medicine, food, and fresh air. Or the shock of Intigam Aliyev, the country\u2019s top human rights lawyer,
\n
\n arrested
\n <\/a>
\n \u00a0a week later on bogus tax-related charges. Like Leyla and Arif, he is in his 50s and in ill health. Or Rasul Jafarov, a charismatic human rights defender, who turned 30 in prison last week, shortly after his
\n
\n arrest
\n <\/a>
\n \u00a0on similar tax charges.\n<\/p>\n

\n Rasul, Intigam, and Leyla had been working together on a list of people the government has imprisoned on politically motivated charges. In the past two years that list has grown quite long, as the authorities have
\n
\n arrested
\n <\/a>
\n \u00a0dozens of bloggers and other social media activists, political activists, journalists, and human rights defenders on a host of flimsy charges. Now Rasul, Leyla, and Intigam are themselves on the list. The authorities are sparing no effort to coerce others to testify against Leyla, and to run a malicious smear campaign against them.\n<\/p>\n

\n The authorities no doubt hope to cut off the head of the country\u2019s human rights movement, silencing its voice and intimidating its followers. They\u2019re also busy cutting off its legs, ruthlessly blocking funding to independent groups. In the past few months, banks have frozen the accounts of at least 12 groups and their leaders, citing a highly suspicious criminal investigation into their foreign donors and the local branches of foreign groups.\n<\/p>\n

\n The government also refused to register grants obtained by those groups (until recently a legal requirement), keeping the groups from drawing on them. In just three weeks, three leading independent groups have essentially been forced to close, while a number of others are facing imminent closure. At the same time, several dedicated activists have fled the country or are in hiding.\n<\/p>\n

\n With the world\u2019s attention fractured by so many simultaneous crises, including in nearby Ukraine, it\u2019s no surprise the Azerbaijani government would try now to deal a decisive blow against its critics. The United States and European Union, which usually engage Baku on human rights, are distracted.\u00a0 Perhaps the Kremlin\u2019s assault on Russian independent groups was irresistible inspiration.\n<\/p>\n

\n But the timing is also sadly perverse. Azerbaijan
\n
\n holds
\n <\/a>
\n \u00a0the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Europe, Europe\u2019s intergovernmental human rights body. The makers of this crackdown must be laughing themselves all the way to its headquarters in Strasbourg.\n<\/p>\n

\n They might also think the country\u2019s hydrocarbon wealth and geostrategic location will shield them from any political or diplomatic consequences. Here\u2019s where they can be proved dead wrong.\n<\/p>\n

\n Azerbaijan is a founder and board member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a prominent international coalition that aims to promote government openness in natural resource management. It brings together governments, businesses, and independent groups \u00a0to promote open public debate, especially in resource-rich countries like Azerbaijan.\n<\/p>\n

\n Azerbaijani officials love to boast their involvement in this initiative as evidence of the country\u2019s purported commitment to transparency and successful battle against corruption.\u00a0 Yet groups directly involved in this effort are
\n
\n among those on the brink of being forced to close
\n <\/a>
\n , and their leaders have told us they greatly fear they\u2019ll be arrested next. \u00a0The governments and businesses involved in this initiative should stop this glaring hypocrisy and immediately call for Azerbaijan\u2019s suspension.\n<\/p>\n

\n A few years ago, Arif Yunus showed my colleague letters people had sent him and Leyla. The envelopes had no address, just their names and \u201cBaku, Azerbaijan.\u201d The post office knew where to deliver them. People all over Azerbaijan wrote to Leyla. Try as it may to sever the head and legs of Azerbaijan\u2019s human rights movement, the government will never succeed in spiking its heart and soul.\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month police arrested Leyla, one of the country\u2019s most prominent human rights defenders, on treason and other charges. Six days later police arrested her husband, Arif, a historian and public figure in his own right, as he was taking the medicine and food she needs to control her severe diabetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhile the world is distracted, Azerbaijan cracks down on human rights activists - MEYDAN.TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/while-the-world-is-distracted-azerbaijan-cracks-down-on-human-rights-activists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"While the world is distracted, Azerbaijan cracks down on human rights activists - MEYDAN.TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last month police arrested Leyla, one of the country\u2019s most prominent human rights defenders, on treason and other charges. 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