TuralSardar100.jpg-Why is Azerbaijan still invited to meetings of the Council of Europe and the UN, while Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is being banned from international podia? This was one of the central questions during the seminar ‘Azerbaijan after November 6th elections: Still in the Aliev regime’s strong grip’ on November 29 in the Human Rights House in Oslo. Natig Alaskarov, Azerbaijani opposition member in exile, right, and Tural Sardar, son of son of opposition leader Sardar Jalaoglu, left, shed their light on the recent development in the former Soviet state on the seminar that was organised by the Human Rights House Foundation and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.  (07-DEC-05)
 
-Azerbaijan is not any closer to democracy than it was 10 years ago, said Berit Lindeman of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. According to election observers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the November 6 elections were -a step in the right direction. The elections were far from perfect, but Azerbaijan is a young democracy and it takes time to build up a democracy. Democratic principles need time to germinate in people’s heads and institutions and regulations need time to mature. Lindeman, however, did not consider the elections in Azerbaijan -a step in the right direction. According to her, Azerbaijan’s democracy is not going anywhere.  

Paper democracy
Berit_Lindeman 100.jpg-The problem, Lindeman, right, said, is that there simply isn’t enough will for democracy and democratic elections in Azerbaijan. The country can best be characterised as a so-called ‘managed democracy’. Democracy as a system is verbally extolled and the legal framework satisfies all the conditions for a good system, but in practice there is widespread suppression and election rigging. The Azerbaijani democracy is nothing more than a paper democracy.  Ane Tusvik Bonde of the Human Rights House Foundation, reminded to the widespread arrests of members of the opposition before the election of November 6 as distinct from mass arrests after the 2003 presidential elections. This time the arrests did not only take place in the capital Baku, but also in the regions. Also youth movements were stricken.

Normal
Democracy as a practice is about much more than only elections. Both freedom of expression and freedom of organisation are required and neither of the two is there in Azerbaijan. This was illustrated during the November 26 demonstrations that were brutally crushed by police forces, injuring tens of people, among them women and children. Footage of the police violence was shown on the seminar. According to Natig Alaskarov, who is a member of the Azerbaijani opposition, living in exile in Norway, this is the everyday reality in Azerbaijan. -Innocent people, who are trying to use their basic human rights, are arrested and jailed. Tural Sardar, who is the son of Azerbaijani opposition leader Sardar Jalaoglu, was disappointed in the fact that official condemnations of the extensive police violance, for example by the Norwegian government, did not come off. -Why is Azerbaijan still invited to meetings of the Council of Europe and the UN, while Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is being banned from international podia?

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From left to right: Natik Alaskarov, Maria Fremming (translator), Ane Tusvik Bonde and Berit Lindeman. Photo: Ralph Pluimert, HRH

What can be done?
Alaskarov and Sardar wondered how Aliev can continually get away with the continuing repression of his people. The answer, according to Alaskarov, might lie in the fact that the West benefits from the stability Aliev brings to the country. This stability secures the steady leverage of huge amounts of the raw material the whole Western world is dependent on: oil. Alaskarov and Sardar said the EU should start acting towards Azerbaijan and go beyond giving verbal reprimands to Aliev’s regime. And so should the United States. Lindeman added that the corporate world, which is via Azerbaijan’s oil production well presented in the country, could use its influence in a more responsible way. Former Minsister of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan, Avay Kuliev and ex-parliamentarian Pirimkuli Tanrykuliyev, who attended the conference gave conclusively supporting speeches.

The OSCE report on the parliamentary elections in Aserbaijan can be downloaded here:
http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2005/11/16889_en.pdf
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee: www.nhc.no