THE TWO FACES OF AZERBAIJAN’S GOVERNMENT
Argument
Azerbaijan’s leaders like to pretend that they’re friends of the West.
Time for a reality check.
By Altay Goyushov
Altay Goyushov is a faculty member at Baku State University
(Azerbaijan) and currently Reagan-Fascell Fellow at the National
Endowment for Democracy.
December 6, 2014
Azerbaijan’s most famous investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova
is the latest in a long list of Azerbaijani activists to become
political prisoners. Ismayilova, a journalist with Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, has just been sentenced to two months of
administrative detention on charges of driving a fellow reporter
to attempt suicide, following, an accusation that observers called
“ridiculous.” Ismayilova, a long-term critic of the government who has
published numerous reports about official corruption, was denounced
as a “traitor” by the head of the presidential administration Ramiz
Mehdiyev in a lengthy anti-American treatise that appeared a day
earlier.
The article denounces United States democracy assistance efforts as
undermining foreign states, and refers to domestic civic organizations
as a “fifth column.” Mehdiyev attacks Ismayilova by name, accusing
her and her collaborators of devising “anti-Azerbaijan programs” that
are “the equivalent of working for foreign security services.” In
November, Ismayilova was prevented from participating in a Helsinki
Commission hearing on corruption where she was supposed to testify,
and earlier in the year she was accused of leaking information to U.S.
intelligence officials following a meeting with U.S. Senate staffers.
Ismayilova’s current predicament serves as a perfect illustration of
Azerbaijan’s two-faced policy towards the U.S.
Ismayilova’s current predicament serves as a perfect illustration
of Azerbaijan’s two-faced policy towards the U.S. The government of
Azerbaijan has been bankrolling Western lobbyists and think tanks in
order to convince policymakers in the U.S. and Europe that it is a
credible and democratic partner. At home, however, the government’s
actions tell a different story. During the past few years, the regime
in Baku has systematically destroyed independent institutions such
as the media, political parties and, most recently, non-government
organizations — all under the guise of safeguarding against Western
influence. (The photo above shows U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
welcoming the Azerbaijan defense minister to Washington last August.)
This is especially ironic, considering that these things are happening
in a country that was once proud to call itself the first secular
Muslim democracy in the world. In 1918, a few months after Russia
was taken over by the Bolsheviks, Azerbaijan declared its independence.
Local leaders of a firmly liberal-democratic bent formed a government
backed by the majority of parliament. President Woodrow Wilson
described meeting “with a very dignified and interesting group of
gentlemen who were from Azerbaijan,” noting that they “talked the
same language that I did in respect of ideas, in respect of liberty,
in respect of conceptions of right and justice.” The men he referred
to were the founding fathers of the first Azerbaijani Republic.
Although a Bolshevik takeover ended the brief independence of
Azerbaijan two years later in 1920, the collapse of the USSR in 1991
paved the way for Azerbaijan to regain its sovereignty once again.
Azerbaijanis once again showed a strong desire to build a secular
democratic system and to become part of the free world. In 1992 the
last Soviet-appointed leader of Azerbaijan was forced to flee to
Moscow in a popular uprising. Former Soviet dissident and political
prisoner Abulfaz Elchibey was elected the nation’s new leader.
Sadly, this attempt to restore democracy in Azerbaijan did not last
long: the freely elected president of Azerbaijan was overthrown in a
Russian backed military coup a year later. The former KGB general and
Soviet Politburo member Heydar Aliyev seized advantage of the turmoil
to seize power. Although President Aliyev continued cooperation with
the West in the spheres of energy, security, and counterterrorism,
his power gradually grew more and more authoritarian.
When President Aliyev’s young and well-educated son Ilham replaced him
in in a highly contested election in 2003, many believed Azerbaijan had
a chance to revive its democratic legacy. Those hopes have steadily
faded, and over the past two years the situation has deteriorated
dramatically.
The ruling elite has clearly set out to destroy the last remnants of
free media, civil society, and liberal political opposition.
The ruling elite has clearly set out to destroy the last remnants of
free media, civil society, and liberal political opposition.
This crackdown has been accompanied by an ambitious lobbying campaign
in Western capitals, one that encompasses policymakers, government
officials, the media, and think tanks. The aggressiveness of these
efforts have drawn international and Western media attention. In July
2014, for example, the Houston Chronicle disclosedthe funding of a
visit to Baku by U.S. lawmakers, who attended a conference sponsored in
part by the SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s national oil company. Last September,
theNew York Times published detailed evidence of the Azerbaijani
government’s intimate relationship with a U.S.-based lobbying firm and
several think tanks. A few days later, Radio Free Europe ran a piece
shedding light on Brenda Shaffer, a visiting researcher at Georgetown
University who has used the media to promote the Azerbaijani government
as a partner of the West without disclosing that she had served in
the past as a SOCAR advisor.
To U.S. and European audiences, Azeri officials plead for support
against neighboring Russian and Iran and assistance in overcoming the
vestiges of Soviet rule. In this guise, the Azerbaijani government
likes to claim that it is still on the path to Europe. Meanwhile
Azeri officials and members of the ruling party are telling audiences
at home a rather different story. “Recently the US has shifted from
being a country that fights terrorism into a country that supports
terrorism,” said Ali Guseinli, the chairman of the Legal Affairs and
State Reform Committee of the Azerbaijani parliament.
Officials of the ruling party justify the crackdown at home by
arguing that Western support for democracy is a neo-imperialist ploy
intended to dismantle the statehood of developing nations, which must
be protected against “agents of the West.” State-controlled media,
members of parliament, and government officials point to Western
powers as the real cause of instability in the region, accusing them
of masterminding the Arab Spring, the Color Revolutions, the crisis
in Ukraine, and ISIS.
Pro-government media accused IREX, a highly regarded organization
that supports media development and people-to-people exchanges, of
“pursuing the interests of Azerbaijani enemies.” Ultimately, the group
was pressured to leave the country. Official interference has led
Peace Corps to discontinue its programs in the country as well. In the
wake of the crackdown, former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard
Morningstar also received targeted, verbal attacks from a top Azeri
official. According to independent activists, there are now more than
90 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
These instances are of a piece with a wider campaign of repression
that features new legislation designed to strangle civil society,
criminal investigations, and the freezing of bank accounts of both
international and local NGOs. Leaders of youth organizations have
been jailed and travel bans on pro-democracy activists imposed.
This ferocious government crackdown of recent weeks comes at a time
when pro-democracy youth activists have gained momentum. Liberal local
initiatives like the Free Thought University and other youth groups
have been closed due to their popularity. These initiatives have become
primary targets of the regime, which intensified its repression while
the world was preoccupied with the conflict in Ukraine.
The demolition of local democratic movements is all the more
disconcerting because it paves the way for extremist religious groups
to fill the vacuum.
The demolition of local democratic movements is all the more
disconcerting because it paves the way for extremist religious groups
to fill the vacuum. Azerbaijan’s authoritarian rulers, whose fragile
legitimacy fuels its subversion of independent voices, are apparently
interested in having Islamic radicals as their principal opponents.
The specter of such opponents allows the regime to make the case for
its own ostensible indispensability to Western governments.
Moreover, by portraying pro-democracy activists as subversives and
traitors who serve the interests of Western imperialists, authoritarian
regimes in fact repeat and strengthen the discourse of ISIS and other
radical groups.
There is no doubt that the West has a vital interest in preserving
good relations with Azerbaijan. It’s a secular Muslim country that
cooperates on diversifying energy routes and a broad range of security
issues. But, in an environment where basic human rights are denied,
anti-western propaganda is flourishing, and democratic voices are
stifled, local extremist groups will find fertile ground to take root.
As such, the West has cause for concern.
In cracking down on peaceful activists and reformers, the regime
in Baku argues that it is taking steps to ensure stability. They
have this exactly wrong. By eliminating moderate voices in society,
Azerbaijan’s leaders set the stage for anti-Western environment
that will serve as a breeding ground for radical Islamists, who
pose a grave security threat to both the region and the West. For
these reasons, it is essential that the U.S. and EU underscore that
the West’s full cooperation with Azerbaijan is contingent upon its
adherence to democracy and human rights standards.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
From: Baghdasarian
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/12/06/the-two-faces-of-azerbaijans-government/