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SILENCING DISSENT IN AZERBAIJAN: SEXUAL BLACKMAIL AND DREADFUL BLAME SHIFT
By Elmar Chakhtakhtinski
http://azerireport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3550&Ite mid=48
March 26, 2012
On March 7, the campaign against free speech in Azerbaijan reached
a new low when Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Khadija
Ismayilova received a letter containing intimate photos of her. The
photos were accompanied by a brief note threatening defamation if she
"did not shut up." After Ismayilova went public with the threat, an
online video appeared depicting the female reporter having sex with
her boyfriend shot by a hidden camera placed in her bedroom. The
reaction of Azerbaijani authorities and pro-government circles to
these events raises serious questions about their culpability and
indicates a troubling trend of a cynical blame shift in attacks on
journalists and dissidents.
Khadija Ismayilova is well known for her investigative work on high
level corruption, including articles exposing secretive business
fortunes of President Aliyev's family. Some of those facts were vividly
described in the recent CNBC documentary "Filthy Rich: Kleptocracy"
that premiered on February 23. The documentary exposed the Aliyevs
as corrupt rulers of an oil rich country of seven million people.
This is not the first time that Ismayilova has been subject to public
criticism and attacks by the ruling regime. Articles in pro-government
press have accused reporter of betraying her country and speculated
about her Armenian ancestry (Azerbaijan has been locked in a bitter
ethnic-territorial conflict with Armenia). According to Wikileaks
reports, in 2009, President Ilham Aliyev personally complained about
her to US diplomats. There are also precedents of sexual blackmail
against other journalists. An opposition Azadliq newspaper editor's
sex video was broadcast on the Aliyev-owned Lider TV in 2010. Another
journalist, Aqil Khalil, was accused by authorities of having had
homosexual relations with the person who physically attacked him.
Naturally, many saw the latest sex blackmail as part of an orchestrated
campaign by the government to silence the journalist. A kind of payback
for her professional activities and a vivid illustration of the moral
character and worldview of the regime's leaders: you expose our abuse
of power and dirty money, we sneak into your bedroom and post a sex
video of you. Justice served.
How many more home and hotel bedrooms in the country are wired and
can anyone at all feel safe without their clothes on in Ilham Aliyev's
Azerbaijan? These are some of the questions that both the locals and
foreign guests might be asking, especially on the eve of the upcoming
Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Baku in May this year.
But Ismayilova showed commendable courage, publicly holding the
government responsible for the attacks and vowing to continue her
investigative work. The events drew a firestorm of international
criticism, with almost every major media advocacy and rights group
calling on Azerbaijani government to investigate the incident and
stop harassment of journalists. All sections of Azerbaijani society -
from liberal democrats to atheists, and even religious conservatives -
expressed support for Khadija.
One notable exception was the silence of authorities and the
continuing anti-Ismayilova campaign by pro-government media. To add
insult to the injury, few days after she received the threat letter,
the ruling party's official newspaper Yeni Azerbaijan published a
character assassination article calling her a "frequent visitor of
bars and clubs" known for her "affection to alcohol and fast-living",
and accused her of making fun of traditional Azerbaijani women. A
day after the sex video appeared, a pro-government Sahil newspaper
wrote that Ismayilova "attained the freedom she always wanted" and
described details of intimate scenes from the video and how to find
it on the web.
Only after seeing how the attacks backfired with the international
and domestic outrage and the journalist's own refusal to back-down,
the head of Presidential Administration's Information Department, Elnur
Aslanov, issued a statement condemning the "invasion of private life".
As insincere and unconvincing this belated denunciation may sound, more
troubling still is the shift of responsibility to "subversive forces,
who try to violate stability in Azerbaijan, to damage international
image of the country, to create tensions and confusion in the
society", as Mr. Aslanov put it. He did not name those "forces",
but an article in one of the biggest pro-government online news
sites, news.az, speculated about pro-Iranian groups being behind the
letter and video. The website issued a chilling warning saying that
"those forces will not stop there", thus hinting further, much graver
repercussions for Ismayilova.
Such a warning eerily reminds past instances when those critical of
government were murdered and the blame was put on religious extremists
or external groups. In 1997, a prominent historian and parliament
member Ziya Bunyadov, one of very few who dared to publicly challenge
President Heydar Aliyev (father of the current president), was murdered
at the entrance of his apartment. The official investigation placed
the responsibility on an obscure Islamist group with no presence
in Azerbaijan.
In 2005, Elmar Huseynov, perhaps the most vocal regime critic of the
time, was shot to death in front of his apartment building. A citizen
of neighboring Georgia was officially blamed for the killing and that
person remains at large.
In November 2011, journalist Rafig Tagi was stabbed to death by an
unknown assailant. Pro-Iranian forces were said to be the culprits.
Just as in previous cases, no murderer has been caught or convicted
so far. An increasing number of people wonder whether the real reason
behind the murder was Tagi's short-story "Tapdagıstan, Laplandia"
which seemingly mocked President Ilham Aliyev and his dictatorial
outlook.
The identity of murderers will not likely be known as long as
Azerbaijan remains a corrupt authoritarian regime without an
independent judiciary. But one thing seems to be certain: the world
needs to keep a close watch as critics of the Aliyev regime face
serious dangers to their lives and dignities.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By Elmar Chakhtakhtinski
http://azerireport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3550&Ite mid=48
March 26, 2012
On March 7, the campaign against free speech in Azerbaijan reached
a new low when Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Khadija
Ismayilova received a letter containing intimate photos of her. The
photos were accompanied by a brief note threatening defamation if she
"did not shut up." After Ismayilova went public with the threat, an
online video appeared depicting the female reporter having sex with
her boyfriend shot by a hidden camera placed in her bedroom. The
reaction of Azerbaijani authorities and pro-government circles to
these events raises serious questions about their culpability and
indicates a troubling trend of a cynical blame shift in attacks on
journalists and dissidents.
Khadija Ismayilova is well known for her investigative work on high
level corruption, including articles exposing secretive business
fortunes of President Aliyev's family. Some of those facts were vividly
described in the recent CNBC documentary "Filthy Rich: Kleptocracy"
that premiered on February 23. The documentary exposed the Aliyevs
as corrupt rulers of an oil rich country of seven million people.
This is not the first time that Ismayilova has been subject to public
criticism and attacks by the ruling regime. Articles in pro-government
press have accused reporter of betraying her country and speculated
about her Armenian ancestry (Azerbaijan has been locked in a bitter
ethnic-territorial conflict with Armenia). According to Wikileaks
reports, in 2009, President Ilham Aliyev personally complained about
her to US diplomats. There are also precedents of sexual blackmail
against other journalists. An opposition Azadliq newspaper editor's
sex video was broadcast on the Aliyev-owned Lider TV in 2010. Another
journalist, Aqil Khalil, was accused by authorities of having had
homosexual relations with the person who physically attacked him.
Naturally, many saw the latest sex blackmail as part of an orchestrated
campaign by the government to silence the journalist. A kind of payback
for her professional activities and a vivid illustration of the moral
character and worldview of the regime's leaders: you expose our abuse
of power and dirty money, we sneak into your bedroom and post a sex
video of you. Justice served.
How many more home and hotel bedrooms in the country are wired and
can anyone at all feel safe without their clothes on in Ilham Aliyev's
Azerbaijan? These are some of the questions that both the locals and
foreign guests might be asking, especially on the eve of the upcoming
Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Baku in May this year.
But Ismayilova showed commendable courage, publicly holding the
government responsible for the attacks and vowing to continue her
investigative work. The events drew a firestorm of international
criticism, with almost every major media advocacy and rights group
calling on Azerbaijani government to investigate the incident and
stop harassment of journalists. All sections of Azerbaijani society -
from liberal democrats to atheists, and even religious conservatives -
expressed support for Khadija.
One notable exception was the silence of authorities and the
continuing anti-Ismayilova campaign by pro-government media. To add
insult to the injury, few days after she received the threat letter,
the ruling party's official newspaper Yeni Azerbaijan published a
character assassination article calling her a "frequent visitor of
bars and clubs" known for her "affection to alcohol and fast-living",
and accused her of making fun of traditional Azerbaijani women. A
day after the sex video appeared, a pro-government Sahil newspaper
wrote that Ismayilova "attained the freedom she always wanted" and
described details of intimate scenes from the video and how to find
it on the web.
Only after seeing how the attacks backfired with the international
and domestic outrage and the journalist's own refusal to back-down,
the head of Presidential Administration's Information Department, Elnur
Aslanov, issued a statement condemning the "invasion of private life".
As insincere and unconvincing this belated denunciation may sound, more
troubling still is the shift of responsibility to "subversive forces,
who try to violate stability in Azerbaijan, to damage international
image of the country, to create tensions and confusion in the
society", as Mr. Aslanov put it. He did not name those "forces",
but an article in one of the biggest pro-government online news
sites, news.az, speculated about pro-Iranian groups being behind the
letter and video. The website issued a chilling warning saying that
"those forces will not stop there", thus hinting further, much graver
repercussions for Ismayilova.
Such a warning eerily reminds past instances when those critical of
government were murdered and the blame was put on religious extremists
or external groups. In 1997, a prominent historian and parliament
member Ziya Bunyadov, one of very few who dared to publicly challenge
President Heydar Aliyev (father of the current president), was murdered
at the entrance of his apartment. The official investigation placed
the responsibility on an obscure Islamist group with no presence
in Azerbaijan.
In 2005, Elmar Huseynov, perhaps the most vocal regime critic of the
time, was shot to death in front of his apartment building. A citizen
of neighboring Georgia was officially blamed for the killing and that
person remains at large.
In November 2011, journalist Rafig Tagi was stabbed to death by an
unknown assailant. Pro-Iranian forces were said to be the culprits.
Just as in previous cases, no murderer has been caught or convicted
so far. An increasing number of people wonder whether the real reason
behind the murder was Tagi's short-story "Tapdagıstan, Laplandia"
which seemingly mocked President Ilham Aliyev and his dictatorial
outlook.
The identity of murderers will not likely be known as long as
Azerbaijan remains a corrupt authoritarian regime without an
independent judiciary. But one thing seems to be certain: the world
needs to keep a close watch as critics of the Aliyev regime face
serious dangers to their lives and dignities.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress