Federal Lezghi
National and Cultural Autonomy

EurasiaNet: Azerbaijani opposition already understands that West will not help to democratize the country and relies on itself

Democratization activists in Azerbaijan are increasingly pessimistic about what they describe as the West’s lack of support for reform and the protection of basic rights in the energy-rich South Caucasus country. The soured mood follows a new wave of arrests of youth activists, the closure of the Western-funded Free Thought University, an alternative education center, and a scandal over offshore companies reportedly linked to President Ilham Aliyev’s family, the Azerbaijani journalist Shahin Abbasov wrote on EurasiaNet.org.

 

The author notes that although the arrests and university closure have sparked statements of concern from international human rights activists and Western governments, the alleged offshore activities have not.

 

“An October 2012 decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) not to adopt a resolution calling for the release of alleged Azerbaijani political prisoners, along with a report about Baku’s alleged use of “caviar diplomacy” to woo PACE deputies added to the unease,” the publication reads.

 

Murad Gassanly, director of the London-based Azerbaijan Democratic Association-UK thinks that there is little, if any, support for the Azerbaijani pro-democracy movement in the West. “The US and Europe have considerable interest in preserving the status quo in Azerbaijan,” he said.

 

One of the Aliyev administration’s most vocal critics, formerly jailed blogger Emin Milli, went a step further, recently claiming on Facebook that the “silence of the international community at this moment is a crime!”

 

“It is naïve to expect that the international community will solve the democratization problems of Azerbaijan,” commented Erkin Gadirli, a leader of the Republican Alternative (REAL) group. “Each country tries to satisfy its own interests, then the interests of its allies and only then, all remaining issues,” he said.

 

Such a duality of interests should come as no surprise, underlined longtime opposition leader Ali Kerimli, head of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan. “We should rely on our own resources … in order not to get disappointed later,” he said.

 

Author of the article sees an irony in the fact that the President Aliyev also recently called for self-reliance in political affairs. At an April 14 cabinet meeting, Aliyev repeated the familiar theme that Azerbaijanis “know better how to rule our country.” and “do not want interference by foreign powers.”

 

In the meanwhile Baku-based blogger Ali Novruzov, an activist for the OL youth group and former coordinator of the Free Thought University, believes that self-reliance already has begun. As an example he brings the recent unsanctioned protests in Baku against the non-combat deaths of Azerbaijani soldiers, or the January crackdown on protesters in the regional town of Ismayilli targeted locals. According to him it means that the understanding that changes have to come from the inside is growing.

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Panorama.am

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