Europe Plus

WHEN AN autocrat who is intolerant of dissent
begins to see spies and traitors around, it is a good time to be alert.
Now is such a moment in Azerbaijan, the oil-rich but liberty-starved
former Soviet republic in Central Asia. The regime of President Ilham
Aliyev has imprisoned one of the country’s most outspoken advocates for human rights, Leyla Yunus, and her husband, Arif, a historian. The charges: treason, fraud, tax evasion and illegal business activities.

Ms.
Yunus is director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy in Baku, a
human rights organization, and, in addition to her work defending
political prisoners, she has been at the forefront of attempts to bridge
the country’s long hostility with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
She organized exchanges and confidence-building efforts between Azeri
and Armenian intellectuals, and this apparently provided the pretext for
the absurd charge of espionage. The government had refused to
officially register her institute, making it more vulnerable to the kind
of arbitrary and capricious prosecution that is underway.

Ms.
Yunus and her husband were blocked at the Baku airport on April 28 and
prevented from leaving the country. Their passports were confiscated.
They were repeatedly interrogated but defiantly refused to cooperate
until their passports are returned along with their freedom. On July 30,
Ms. Yunus was detained on her way to a conference. Her husband was also
charged and put under house arrest. But he, too, was jailed on Aug. 5
when on the way to deliver a food parcel to her in prison.

For years, Ms. Yunus has spoken out loudly about human rights abuses in Azerbaijan. The response of the country’s strongman ruler, Mr. Aliyev, has been to emulate
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, gradually turning the screws on
critics through arrests and repressive legislation that narrowed the
space for civil society to survive. Another human rights activist, Rasul Jafarov, was also arrested recently, and dozens of others have been detained for political reasons in recent months.

Mr. Aliyev may think he is being clever by silencing critics while a
crisis in Ukraine has distracted world attention. But that’s what is
different from Soviet times. It is no longer possible to hide such
uncivilized behavior. The arrests have drawn wide protests from human
rights groups and other nongovernmental organizations. Ms. Yunus wrote
an open letter from her jail cell, referring to “jackals of the regime” and declaring: “You could not withstand our words. You responded with violence.”

It is beyond comprehension how Mr. Aliyev can carry out such repression at a time when Azerbaijan is chair of the committee of ministers of the Council of Europe,
the continent’s leading human rights organization. Mr. Aliyev clearly
craves respect abroad. But his actions deserve condemnation. Leyla and
Arif Yunus should be freed immediately. If they are not, perhaps the
Council of Europe should ask how long it can tolerate a chairmanship by a
nation that does not respect even the basic tenets of human rights and
rule of law.

http://www.washingtonpost.com

A couple from Sumgait, 39-year-old Elchin Alimuradoglu and his
32-year-old wife Jala Salakhova morning committed self-immolation in
front of the Administration of the President.

In this way, they protested against the demolition of their homes,
despite the decision of the Sumgait Court to ban the demolition.

The spouses doused themselves with gasoline and set on fire in spite of
the strict guard in the area. Immediately after the incident, security
officers extinguished the flames, but the two people are seriously
burned and were taken to the burn center of Hospital No 5.

Location of the incident was cordoned off by police and journalists were not allowed there.

Turan was told at the Baku Ambulance Station that the woman has burns
of the torso and legs and the man has burns of the back, 2-3 degrees.

The state of both is characterized as serious.

The first time such an act of protest took place in the past year by a
veteran of the Karabakh war Zaur Hasanov, protesting against the
demolition of his commercial facility on the outskirts of Baku. As a
result of his injuries, he died in hospital a few days later. The
authorities paid his family 100,000 manats.