Tweet
AS REPRESSIVE AS EVER
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/10/freedom_expression_azerbaijan
Oct 26 2010
NEARLY four months have passed since Hillary Clinton, the US secretary
of state, visited the oil-rich Caucasus state of Azerbaijan as part of
her tour of several former Soviet republics. As we wrote at the time,
her task was to mend fences with Ilham Aliev, Azerbaijan's president,
who was offended at not having been invited to a nuclear summit at
which Barack Obama had met the president of Armenia-Azerbaijan's
mortal enemy.
Azerbaijan matters to America both as an an important provider
of non-Russian oil and gas, and as a transit route for America's
troops to Afghanistan. But Mrs Clinton had to show that democracy is
not an empty word when America deals with authoritarian allies like
Azerbaijan. In her private meeting with Mr Aliev, she took up the case
of two bloggers, Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli, who had been jailed
for ridiculing the state in a widely circulated video clip featuring
a donkey at a press conference. In public Mrs Clinton referred to
what she called "the tremendous amount of progress in Azerbaijan."
Mrs Clinton's diplomacy may have been to subtle for Mr Aliev, as
the donkey bloggers remain in prison. Today, a new report [PDF]
by nine human rights organisations, including Article 19, Freedom
House and Index on Censorship, describes the situation with freedom
of expression in Azerbaijan as getting worse, ahead of parliamentary
elections on November 7th. So much for the "tremendous" progress and
the virtues of private diplomacy.
From: A. Papazian
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/10/freedom_expression_azerbaijan
Oct 26 2010
NEARLY four months have passed since Hillary Clinton, the US secretary
of state, visited the oil-rich Caucasus state of Azerbaijan as part of
her tour of several former Soviet republics. As we wrote at the time,
her task was to mend fences with Ilham Aliev, Azerbaijan's president,
who was offended at not having been invited to a nuclear summit at
which Barack Obama had met the president of Armenia-Azerbaijan's
mortal enemy.
Azerbaijan matters to America both as an an important provider
of non-Russian oil and gas, and as a transit route for America's
troops to Afghanistan. But Mrs Clinton had to show that democracy is
not an empty word when America deals with authoritarian allies like
Azerbaijan. In her private meeting with Mr Aliev, she took up the case
of two bloggers, Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli, who had been jailed
for ridiculing the state in a widely circulated video clip featuring
a donkey at a press conference. In public Mrs Clinton referred to
what she called "the tremendous amount of progress in Azerbaijan."
Mrs Clinton's diplomacy may have been to subtle for Mr Aliev, as
the donkey bloggers remain in prison. Today, a new report [PDF]
by nine human rights organisations, including Article 19, Freedom
House and Index on Censorship, describes the situation with freedom
of expression in Azerbaijan as getting worse, ahead of parliamentary
elections on November 7th. So much for the "tremendous" progress and
the virtues of private diplomacy.
From: A. Papazian