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SINGING IN AZERBAIJAN - BUT NOT FOR DEMOCRACY
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/singing-in-azerbaijan--but-not-for-democracy-7737804.html
Saturday 12 May 2012
The country is in a fervour as it prepares to host Eurovision - but
activists say the party is just a smokescreen for human rights abuses
Shaun Walker Baku
Azerbaijan's Ell and Nikki, who won Eurovision last yearGetty Images It
does not take long to notice that Azerbaijan is hosting the Eurovision
Song Contest.
Baku Airport is emblazoned with advertisements for the competition,
which will take place a fortnight from now, as is almost every taxi
and bus in the city, along with many of its buildings. The gleaming,
25,000-seat concert hall, built especially for the contest, has been
completed on time and was opened by the President himself last week,
and hardly a day goes by without breathless items on the evening news
extolling the upcoming event.
Not for Azerbaijan the flippant attitude that Eurovision is a carnival
of kitsch that should be taken as a bit of a joke. Here, it is deadly
serious business, and a chance for the country's rulers to show the
progress that this small, oil-rich nation has made in the two decades
since it won independence from the Soviet Union.
But rights activists say that the government, led by the authoritarian
president Ilham Aliyev, is using the contest to deflect criticism
from the country's appalling human rights record, and are calling
on the singers and delegations who will descend on Baku later this
month to speak out publicly.
Khadija Ismayilova knows all about what happens if you get on the wrong
side of President Aliyev. A campaigning reporter for Radio Liberty,
she has uncovered several corruption scandals linked to Mr Aliyev's
family, including a report released this week providing evidence that
the first family has benefited financially from the construction
of the Eurovision stadium, using a number of shell companies and
opaque schemes. Last month, as she was researching the story, she
received a letter with stills from an intimate video in which she
was an unwitting participant - someone had broken into her house and
installed a hidden camera in the bedroom.
"It warned me that if I didn't stop my investigations, they would
publicise the video," she says. "They were calculating on me
being ashamed and going quiet. But they miscalculated." Instead of
acquiescing to the blackmail, she went public with it, and vowed
to continue uncovering corruption. The video was published online,
and government-backed newspapers wrote stories attacking her and her
"loose morals", dangerous in conservative Azerbaijan.
Ms Ismayilova is not the only one to suffer in the cause of
Eurovision. For many of the residents of the area around the site
of Crystal Hall, the Eurovision venue, the contest has ruined their
lives. According to Zohrab Ismayil, who has authored a report on
forced evictions in Baku, 281 families have been kicked out of their
homes to make way for construction directly linked to Eurovision. The
government paid them compensation at several times below market rate,
he says. "They managed to spend more than $700 million on construction
for the event, but couldn't find the money to pay proper compensation
to people who were kicked out of their homes onto the street."
The forced evictions are not just related to Eurovision, with an
estimated 4000 houses demolished in Baku alone over the past three
years as some of the money from Azerbaijan's huge oil reserves is
spent on new construction. Award-winning journalist Idrak Abbasov
has attempted to publicise demolitions in his village of Sulutepe,
just outside Baku. Last month, he was given a savage beating by
security officers from the state oil company when he attempted to
video them knocking down houses in the suburb of Sulutepe where he
lives. He is now out of hospital, but his broken ribs mean he is
still unable to walk, and he spends his days reclining on a maroon
sofa in his parent's small house. He has also lost sight in one eye
after the attack. Strewn over a chair is a fluorescent yellow jacket,
emblazoned with the word "Press" and caked in dried blood - he was
wearing it when he was attacked.
"They are not giving people any compensation at all, simply telling
them they have built houses illegally on land belonging to the state
oil company," says Mr Abbasov. "They were attacking houses with
bulldozers that still had people's belongings in them. People were
screaming and shouting, and I was filming it."
Security guards attacked him and continued to beat him for 15 minutes
while he was unconscious, say witnesses. "It is pretty clear that their
goal was to kill me." Previously, Mr Abbasov's father was assaulted
and put in hospital, stones have been thrown at his house and car, and
his six-year-old son was run over in suspicious circumstances. Nobody
has been charged with any of the attacks.
"The government is spending huge sums of money to show Europe that
people in Azerbaijan are happy," says Rasul Cafarov, a pro-democracy
activist who runs Sing for Democracy, a campaign set up to ensure
that the performers who fly in for Eurovision will know exactly what
kind of country they have landed in. "Our message is clear: please
don't close your eyes to the negatives. Try to meet with the family
members of political prisoners, opposition members, and people who
have been forcibly evicted from their homes."
Some of the contestants have promised support, says Mr Cafarov, who
hopes that the government will be given a "nasty surprise" from the
stage. "It is an event to unite countries and communities and bring
understanding," said a spokesperson for Eurovision, which is likely
to strongly discourage contestants from speaking out. "We believe
strongly that Eurovision is not political."
But activists say that the government was the first to politicise the
contest, by making Mehriban Aliyeva, Mr Aliyev's wife, the head of the
Preparation Committee. She is an MP with the ruling party and one of
the most powerful people in the country. "Accusing us of politicising
it when the First Lady is constantly appearing on TV promoting it
and they are using it for propaganda goals is just ridiculous," says
Mr Cafarov. Ms Aliyeva's role is not the only link between the ruling
family and the contest - the President's son-in-law, a budding pop star
who has little trouble getting plenty of airtime on state-controlled
radio, will be singing at the contest's Opening Ceremony.
Numerous investigations have linked Azerbaijan's top officials to
allegations of huge corruption, including £30m of property in Dubai
apparently purchased by Mr Aliyev's 11-year-old son. Officials from
the Presidential Administration have either denied or refused to
comment on all the allegations against them.
There is no danger that the properties of Baku's ruling class will
be bulldozed, like the homes of so many of their citizens have been.
However, says Mr Abbasov, the attacked journalist, a fear of losing
their own property abroad could be a catalyst for the government to
be fairer with ordinary people. "If there was real pressure from the
West at events like Eurovision, then of course the ruling clan would
get scared," says Mr Abbasov. "If there was a threat that all their
millions and all their villas and properties in Europe could be taken
away from them, they would think again."
"It's a joke to have Eurovision in a country with a rights record like
Azerbaijan's," says Ms Ismayilova. "It would be really great to hear
some kind of message from the stage from some of the contestants,
to remind the regime here that Europe is a set of values, not just
a song contest."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/singing-in-azerbaijan--but-not-for-democracy-7737804.html
Saturday 12 May 2012
The country is in a fervour as it prepares to host Eurovision - but
activists say the party is just a smokescreen for human rights abuses
Shaun Walker Baku
Azerbaijan's Ell and Nikki, who won Eurovision last yearGetty Images It
does not take long to notice that Azerbaijan is hosting the Eurovision
Song Contest.
Baku Airport is emblazoned with advertisements for the competition,
which will take place a fortnight from now, as is almost every taxi
and bus in the city, along with many of its buildings. The gleaming,
25,000-seat concert hall, built especially for the contest, has been
completed on time and was opened by the President himself last week,
and hardly a day goes by without breathless items on the evening news
extolling the upcoming event.
Not for Azerbaijan the flippant attitude that Eurovision is a carnival
of kitsch that should be taken as a bit of a joke. Here, it is deadly
serious business, and a chance for the country's rulers to show the
progress that this small, oil-rich nation has made in the two decades
since it won independence from the Soviet Union.
But rights activists say that the government, led by the authoritarian
president Ilham Aliyev, is using the contest to deflect criticism
from the country's appalling human rights record, and are calling
on the singers and delegations who will descend on Baku later this
month to speak out publicly.
Khadija Ismayilova knows all about what happens if you get on the wrong
side of President Aliyev. A campaigning reporter for Radio Liberty,
she has uncovered several corruption scandals linked to Mr Aliyev's
family, including a report released this week providing evidence that
the first family has benefited financially from the construction
of the Eurovision stadium, using a number of shell companies and
opaque schemes. Last month, as she was researching the story, she
received a letter with stills from an intimate video in which she
was an unwitting participant - someone had broken into her house and
installed a hidden camera in the bedroom.
"It warned me that if I didn't stop my investigations, they would
publicise the video," she says. "They were calculating on me
being ashamed and going quiet. But they miscalculated." Instead of
acquiescing to the blackmail, she went public with it, and vowed
to continue uncovering corruption. The video was published online,
and government-backed newspapers wrote stories attacking her and her
"loose morals", dangerous in conservative Azerbaijan.
Ms Ismayilova is not the only one to suffer in the cause of
Eurovision. For many of the residents of the area around the site
of Crystal Hall, the Eurovision venue, the contest has ruined their
lives. According to Zohrab Ismayil, who has authored a report on
forced evictions in Baku, 281 families have been kicked out of their
homes to make way for construction directly linked to Eurovision. The
government paid them compensation at several times below market rate,
he says. "They managed to spend more than $700 million on construction
for the event, but couldn't find the money to pay proper compensation
to people who were kicked out of their homes onto the street."
The forced evictions are not just related to Eurovision, with an
estimated 4000 houses demolished in Baku alone over the past three
years as some of the money from Azerbaijan's huge oil reserves is
spent on new construction. Award-winning journalist Idrak Abbasov
has attempted to publicise demolitions in his village of Sulutepe,
just outside Baku. Last month, he was given a savage beating by
security officers from the state oil company when he attempted to
video them knocking down houses in the suburb of Sulutepe where he
lives. He is now out of hospital, but his broken ribs mean he is
still unable to walk, and he spends his days reclining on a maroon
sofa in his parent's small house. He has also lost sight in one eye
after the attack. Strewn over a chair is a fluorescent yellow jacket,
emblazoned with the word "Press" and caked in dried blood - he was
wearing it when he was attacked.
"They are not giving people any compensation at all, simply telling
them they have built houses illegally on land belonging to the state
oil company," says Mr Abbasov. "They were attacking houses with
bulldozers that still had people's belongings in them. People were
screaming and shouting, and I was filming it."
Security guards attacked him and continued to beat him for 15 minutes
while he was unconscious, say witnesses. "It is pretty clear that their
goal was to kill me." Previously, Mr Abbasov's father was assaulted
and put in hospital, stones have been thrown at his house and car, and
his six-year-old son was run over in suspicious circumstances. Nobody
has been charged with any of the attacks.
"The government is spending huge sums of money to show Europe that
people in Azerbaijan are happy," says Rasul Cafarov, a pro-democracy
activist who runs Sing for Democracy, a campaign set up to ensure
that the performers who fly in for Eurovision will know exactly what
kind of country they have landed in. "Our message is clear: please
don't close your eyes to the negatives. Try to meet with the family
members of political prisoners, opposition members, and people who
have been forcibly evicted from their homes."
Some of the contestants have promised support, says Mr Cafarov, who
hopes that the government will be given a "nasty surprise" from the
stage. "It is an event to unite countries and communities and bring
understanding," said a spokesperson for Eurovision, which is likely
to strongly discourage contestants from speaking out. "We believe
strongly that Eurovision is not political."
But activists say that the government was the first to politicise the
contest, by making Mehriban Aliyeva, Mr Aliyev's wife, the head of the
Preparation Committee. She is an MP with the ruling party and one of
the most powerful people in the country. "Accusing us of politicising
it when the First Lady is constantly appearing on TV promoting it
and they are using it for propaganda goals is just ridiculous," says
Mr Cafarov. Ms Aliyeva's role is not the only link between the ruling
family and the contest - the President's son-in-law, a budding pop star
who has little trouble getting plenty of airtime on state-controlled
radio, will be singing at the contest's Opening Ceremony.
Numerous investigations have linked Azerbaijan's top officials to
allegations of huge corruption, including £30m of property in Dubai
apparently purchased by Mr Aliyev's 11-year-old son. Officials from
the Presidential Administration have either denied or refused to
comment on all the allegations against them.
There is no danger that the properties of Baku's ruling class will
be bulldozed, like the homes of so many of their citizens have been.
However, says Mr Abbasov, the attacked journalist, a fear of losing
their own property abroad could be a catalyst for the government to
be fairer with ordinary people. "If there was real pressure from the
West at events like Eurovision, then of course the ruling clan would
get scared," says Mr Abbasov. "If there was a threat that all their
millions and all their villas and properties in Europe could be taken
away from them, they would think again."
"It's a joke to have Eurovision in a country with a rights record like
Azerbaijan's," says Ms Ismayilova. "It would be really great to hear
some kind of message from the stage from some of the contestants,
to remind the regime here that Europe is a set of values, not just
a song contest."