The Irish Times – Saturday, May 12, 2012
Baku pins hopes on Eurovision to boost image
– Rallying support: a demonstration in Baku last month against the
Eurovision being held in Azerbaijan despite its poor human-rights record
Two weeks before it hosts the song contest, Azerbaijan is ready for its
day in the spotlight – but some believe its gleaming capital is a
distraction from its darker side, writes *DANIEL McLAUGHLIN* in Baku
THE CITY OUTSIDE Khadija Ismayilova’s window is changing by the week. Oil
and gas from beneath the Caspian Sea are turning Baku from a post-Soviet
backwater into the Dubai of the south Caucasus, where the creations of
world-famous architects rise between boutiques offering exclusive fashions
and jewellery to Azerbaijan’s free-spending elite.
The country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, believes this transformation
deserves a wider audience than jaded oilmen, occasional visiting
dignitaries and Baku’s two million people.
And this month it will get it, when acts from 42 countries take to the
stage of the new Crystal Hall for the Eurovision Song Contest, watched by
an expected 125 million television viewers from the Caspian to the Atlantic.
Jedward and rivals will be part of a spectacle that, Azerbaijan’s rulers
hope, will fill a blank space on most people’s mental map of Europe with
striking images of Baku, so attracting more tourists and businessmen to the
city and boosting its bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
Ismayilova won’t be at the =80100 million Crystal Hall for the Eurovision
final on May 26th. But she knows better than most how Baku, and its
people’s lives, are changing. Her life was altered forever by an envelope
she received on March 7th. It contained six photographs of her having sex
and a note saying: `You whore, behave or you will be defamed.’
Ismayilova is Azerbaijan’s best-known investigative journalist, and her
articles and broadcasts for Radio Free Europe revealing the wealth and
corruption of the Azerbaijani elite have won international acclaim and
exposed how the Aliyev family and their allies run the country.
She is not the first journalist to be threatened in Azerbaijan, and some
have been beaten and jailed in apparent punishment for their work. Elmar
Huseynov, the chief editor of an opposition newspaper, was shot dead in
front of his home in Baku in 2005. His killers have not been found.
`I had to decide whether to be silent or go public,’ says Ismayilova. `And
so I went public. My anger was bigger than my fear. I didn’t want to stop
my work, and to stop would mean they had won.’
She has no doubt that the state security services were behind the
blackmail, and in a flat near her home she found wires leading to a
compartment where a hidden camera had filmed her; she is sure that her
telephone, email and meetings are monitored.
Ismayilova held a press conference to publicise the threats made against
her, and asked the police to investigate. A few days later, footage of her
having sex appeared on the internet, and state-controlled media denounced
her as `a loose woman, an alcoholic and other things’, she recalls.
Ismayilova says international outrage prompted officials to take a
reluctant stand on the issue, as the approach of Eurovision sharpened
concern about how Azerbaijan was seen abroad. The authorities called the
video `part of propagandistic campaign by subversive forces, who try to
violate stability in Azerbaijan, to damage the international image of the
country, to create tensions and confusion in society’.
`We have friends but also enemies in the world,’ says Ali Hasanov, a close
adviser to Ilham Aliyev and earlier to his father, Heydar, who in
succession have ruled the nation since 1993.
`Eurovision is, of course, a great event for the image of Azerbaijan, but
those countries that are against us have tripled or quadrupled their
efforts to destabilise and discredit Azerbaijan and the good things
happening here.’
When it is suggested that only the security services could have installed a
secret camera and filmed Ismayilova, Hasanov shoots back: `But security
officials of which country?’
Everywhere from taxi cabs to cabinet offices, conspiracy theories thrive in
Azerbaijan. Most involve Armenia, with which Azerbaijan is still
technically at war after a 1988-94 conflict, and which is boycotting
Eurovision after Aliyev said `our main enemies are Armenians of the world
and the hypocritical and corrupt politicians under their control’.
Azerbaijanis can seem paranoid, but they live in a tough neighbourhood. As
well as bordering Georgia and Turkey, Azerbaijan is hemmed in by Iran,
Armenia, Russia and the Caspian Sea, across which lies despotic
Turkmenistan.
Government supporters insist Azerbaijan is not in bad shape when you
consider its location, its history within Persian, tsarist and Soviet
empires, the `occupation’ of about 20 per cent of its territory by Armenian
forces and the displacement of up to a million of its people by war.
`We have a young population, a young democracy, which is developing very
quickly,’ says Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister. `We have
to be tolerant of criticism, but sometimes it is overplayed. I cannot
recognise criticism of free media and free expression when almost 100 per
cent of our people have access to the internet and can look at any media
they want. There is always room for increasing the fight against
human-rights abuses and strengthening rule of law. But as our late leader
Heydar Aliyev said, democracy isn’t an apple I can buy in a store. It is
a day-by-day process.’
The opposition were last month allowed to hold their first protest in Baku
for seven years. But Azerbaijan fares dismally in global rankings on press
freedom, democracy and corruption, and activists such as Jamal Ali believe
that any signs of a political thaw will vanish after Eurovision.
The 24-year-old musician was arrested on March 17th after insulting the
president and his late mother during a concert. He was jailed for 10 days,
during which he says police punched him and beat his feet with batons.
`It would have been much worse without the media attention on Azerbaijan
before Eurovision. They can jail you for five years for insulting the
president in public, so now I might leave the country. If I stay, after
Eurovision they could jail me for much longer,’ he says.
`I wanted to show that some people are not afraid to speak out. To show
that the government can’t just control me. Most people just keep their
heads down and try to look after their family and obey the rules. For 20
years, people have been taught that the Aliyevs are the kings and that’s it
– there’s nothing you can do. Whatever you try, you run into the fist of
the government. It’s all about the Aliyevs, their friends and their money.
I want people my age to see things could be different.’
Eurovision has the look of a ruling-family affair, with Aliyev’s glamorous
wife leading the organising committee and his son-in-law scheduled to sing
during a break in the contest.
Rights groups have also criticised the demolition of people’s homes during
a pre-Eurovision building programme. Officials insist that proper
compensation has been paid to all affected families.
`The government lost the war with Armenia, lost control of 20 per cent of
Azeri territory, lost the chance to make the country a proper free-market
democracy. They have failed in every single field,’ says Ismayilova. Now
the ruling family is basing its propaganda around Eurovision. They must
have a victory – even if it’s just a silly song contest.’
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0512/1224315955277.html