Hi All,
That’s all we have time for i’m afraid, but here’s a parting note from Emin.
Thank you very much for all your questions and comments. I hope that one day, journalists will not have to risk their lives or freedoms to be able to do their professional job in Azerbaijan. Maybe one day, President Aliyev will also understand that journalism is not a crime. Maybe. Maybe not.
Keep an eye on the New East network for more from Meydan TV on Azerbaijan in the future.
European games
Thank you for expressing your sympathies to the Azerbaijani people. Hosting the European Games cost Azerbaijan officially around 1.2 billion Euros. In reality the costs were even higher.
It was painful for me to see how much public money was wasted on necessary entertainment projects when disabled people, veterans of war, teachers, social workers earn monthly around 100 or 200 Euros. Azerbaijan does not have the infrastructure for good quality education, healthcare and social services, but we covered costs of sportsmen coming to Azerbaijan from the richest countries of Europe.
Human rights
Just have a question: Do you accept the fact, that a lot of countries uses the human rights as a tool to pressure on Azerbaijan, in order to achieve a loyalty from Azerbaijani government in economic matters?
I do not think so. The Azerbaijani government has proved that billions of dollars in oil revenues can give you immunity from the pressures of the international community. Western governments already have Azerbaijan’s economic loyalty, what the Azerbaijani government does not want to fight against is corruption.
Elections, Cannes and tap water
I have a few questions for this forum:
1. President Aliyev won his third election (after changing the law allowing him to run a third time) with 84% of the vote. Who were the 16% who voted against him? Since he won the two previous elections by 88% and 92% of the vote could this be a downward trend? And how did his wife win her seat in parliament with 94% of the vote even though she had never shown up once in the last 5 years?
2. I read that government workers were given ballots to cast pre-filled out by their office managers. They were instructed to return from the voting polls with the blank ballots given them at the voting station. If they did not return with the blank ballot they would be fired. True?
3. Does President Aliyev's 14 year old son own $75m of real estate in Dubai? If so, how did such a young boy become such a business tycoon? Maybe just good genes.
4. Is the 5 floor Azerbaijan Cultural Center building in Paris next to the Tour Eiffel, bought from the Hong Kong government for $50m and renovated for another another $50m, really a cultural center or the private residence for the president and his wife while visiting Paris? It seems to have many rooms not open for public functions and is hardly ever open except for a few special events during the year.
5. Who pays for those elaborate two week Azerbaijani cultural events held in Cannes every July and what is their purpose?
6. Is it true that even in 5 star deluxe hotels in Baku the tap water is not drinkable as is most tap water in the country because the government has never built a water purification plant even though they spend hundreds of millions on sports stadiums, carpet museums and concert halls including one for the Eurovision Song Contest? Is this health issue of dirty water a problem for the health of many people in the country? Does Baku pump all its raw sewage into the Caspian Sea because they never built a treatment plant and is this a reason none of the locals never swim in that sea?
7. Do citizens of Baku have to pay bribes to hospitals to get treatment?
8. Do Azerbaijani political lobby organizations in London regularly smuggle huge cash wads of sterling into the UK on flights from Baku and if so what do they use this cash for and why can they not just do normal bank transfers or use credit cards if their visits are for shopping?
9. Why did the fans at the football match in Baku on November 17, just 4 days after the Paris attacks, boo and cat call during the minute of silence held for the dead in Paris before the match between Azerbaijan and Moldova and why did nobody seem to notice even though it was broadcast live on TV ? You can see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH1CVNJi2yY
10. Why are there so many 5 star deluxe hotels in Baku being built even though almost all of them are 95% empty during the year? What is the business model there?
There are more questions but I understand your time is limited.
Emin replies:
- We should not take elections in Azerbaijan too seriously. What is taking place, could be called chair, table or shoes. Not elections. In 2013 the results were released one day before the vote on the central election commission’s official app – Meydan TV reported about it and the news went viral globally.
- When I was in jail, prisoners were lined up and given their ballot papers. They were not allowed not just to mark their choice, or even to open them up to see what was on the ballot paper – one prisoner who opened his ballot paper was beaten up in front of everyone.
- Maybe the Aliyevs have talents that we ordinary people, do not possess. who knows?
-
L’etat c’est Aliyevs. This is how they see it and this is how they behave. The luxury, extravagance of the presidential family is in stark contrast with the poverty and hard life experienced by ordinary Azerbaijanis.
- Cultural events representing Azerbaijan double up as PR for the regime.This is having devastating effect on culture. It is culture created to defend the dictatorship.
- You are absolutely right. Tap water is not drinkable in Azerbaijan. The government invests all its money in prestige projects as if they have complex of inferiority. But they do not understand that greatness of country can be measures in very small and tangible things like availably of basic social services, for example.
- Yes
- I have not seen it. But nothing is impossible.
- I have no idea.
- Money laundering, maybe?
Updated
Tony Blair
Kazakhstan decided to hire Tony Blair as an “official adviser.
Tony Blair Does PR for Repressive Azerbaijan
I can imagine it is an uphill battle for the journalists and others of Azerbaijan when the likes of current and former western leaders queue up to lend legitimacy to such repressive regimes.
Does the author have any thoughts regarding the influence of foreign leaders / nations on the situation in Azerbaijan?
Western countries have played very a negative role in Azerbaijan’s development by supporting Aliyev’s regime unconditionally. They benefitted from the smooth trade of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas to the west, who are suppressing democratic secular opposition, independent media and civil society at home.
They do not adequately support civil society groups, because they do not want to destroy their relationship with the government in Azerbaijan.
This weakens secular civil society and if and when the regime collapses, civil society may not be able to manage transformation well.
It is big strategic mistake to support the regime and abandon the democratic forces, but this is our reality.
Updated
Eurovision
Is old Alyevi really that bad? he put a good image on for Eurovision a few years ago and demonstrated a modern forward thinking country.
Organising the Eurovision song contest is not any sort of measurement to define how modern and forward looking it is. It was an investment in “bread and circuses”.
While many people in Azerbaijan and in the world enjoyed the song contest, many others lost their homes .
Many houses were torn down in order to prepare the competition.My friend Rasul Jafarov who organised campaign “Sing for Democracy”, the leading human rights defender Leyla Yunus and many others who spoke up for human rights and democracy around Eurovision song contest werejailed.
This is not my definition of modernity. President Aliyev likes to wear expensive western costumes and drive western cars, listen to western music, but when it comes democracy his views are quite medieval.
Updated
Hi All,
Emin has joined us now, please continue to post your questions in the comments or on Twitter (@GuardianNewEast) and we’ll get to as many as we have time for.
Thanks,
Khadija Ismayilov: letters from behind bars
Imprisoned Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was in a soundproof isolation booth in Baku’s court of appeal when she realised she had an opportunity to file her latest report on human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, Radio Free Europe’s Azerbaijani Service reports.
Knowing she could be silenced by the judge at any second, she hastily scribbled two sentences and pressed them to the glass:
On Sunday, underage detainees in Cells 63 and 64 of Bloc 2 were banging on the doors in protest. They were beaten and illegally moved into solitary confinement.
To mark the first anniversary of her imprisonment on Saturday, Ismayilova passed out another message through her family from women’s prison No. 4 in Baku – just one of the letters smuggled out during her year’s incarceration.
I am still on my journey... I continue my fight. As on the first day that I arrived in jail, I still have my smile and my sense of humour. At my trials, I feel as though I have been the winner.
In February she wrote:
It is not easy at all to move justice forward, but always worth trying. Even when the result is a failure, for the sake of justice, for our own sake, ‘what for’ is more important than ‘how’ and ‘when’.
In March, Ismayilova described how the authorities denied her visits from relatives and lawyers:
The fight between good and evil goes on, and the most important thing is that this fight should not end … Prison is not frightening for those trying to right a twisted scale, or for those who are subject to threats for doing the right thing. We see clearly what we must fight for.
The authorities have tried to stop Ismayilova filing reports from jail and most letters she has written have been seized.
On several occasions prison authorities have confiscated her notes – including trial material she was preparing for her defence.
Meanwhile, she is appealing against her conviction and says she is eager to adapt to life in prison No. 4. She wants to be housed with other prisoners so that she can document any rights abuses she encounters there.
I received a death threat from my president for criticising Azerbaijan – any questions?
Due to his career speaking out against the government – which included a video mocking the president’s penchant for German donkeys – Emin Milli is no longer able to call Azerbaijan home.
Milli and his colleague Adnan Hajizada, who became know as the donkey bloggers, spent 16 months in prison on “hooliganism” charges for their trouble.
According to rights monitors Freedom House, Azerbaijan has a dismal record when it comes to freedom of the press. The environment has deteriorated sharply in recent years, with violence and prison sentences the norm for opposition journalists.
Free Khadija
Investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova was arrested a year ago on Saturday, and later sentenced to seven-and-half years for “economic crimes” – charges she has said are politically motivated.
Previously Ismayilova had said that if an arrest was the price to pay for exposing human rights then it was worth it.
With Ismayilova and many of her contemporaries in jail, Azerbaijan hosted the inaugural European Games, has been an active member on the Council of Europe and set its sights on hosting a leg of the European Grand Prix in June.
@MeydanTV 's 4 journalists have not been officially allowed today to leave #Azerbaijan #TravelBan #EuropeanGames pic.twitter.com/DkEKGMuj0k
— Emin Milli (@eminmilli) June 30, 2015
Any questions?
Milli now runs an independent Azeri news site Meydan TV from Berlin where he has been afforded special protection, and Hajizada is studying in the US.
In a new film about his life in exile Milli emphasises the importance of independent media outlets in holding the “mafia-style government” to account.
He’ll join us for a live Q&A on Monday 7 December from 12pm - 1pm to answer your questions about Azerbaijan, being jailed and receiving death threats.
He can also answer questions about the work of his colleagues including Ismayilova.
Any questions? Post them in comments below or join us live on Friday. Alternatively you can tweet them @GuardianNewEast
Updated
I don't have a question, but I do wish to send my sympathies to the Azerbaijan people for being left to hang out to dry by UK, and the EU. Allowing the European Games to happen there has sadly said it all. All the best to you.
P.S. I do hope that one day the world will have true democratic leaders who will stand united against dictators and monarchies like Saudi Arabia.