Pandemic crisis of power and society

The events that take place in Baku on June 7-8 could be called a new stage in the development of the conflict between society and the state.

The formal side of the two-day events is as follows: on June 7, the police rudely detained a resident of one of the districts of Baku, who ignored the authorities’ ban on leaving the house in connection with the coronavirus pandemic.

The detention caused discontent among the residents of the quarter, who expressed shouts and curses against the police, the dumping of garbage and plastic bottles from the balconies. The next day, special police forces conducted a demonstrative military operation in the quarter early in the morning,  snatched from their beds and took away 11 citizens, who were considered involved in the June 7 protest. The operation, which included physical violence against citizens, insulting their personality, was filmed by police and put on social networks, as an example of edification to all residents of the country.

What do we mean when we talk about a new stage in the development of the conflict between power and society? In past, there were many cases of grossly arrests and beating citizens in front of our neighbors, but we cannot recall the condemnation of police actions in such a massive way.

The current emotional, even somewhat aggressive reaction of the population indicates its readiness in the event of force majeure to challenge the state. This reaction was emotional, not planned. The reaction to this case of the entire community of the country, which includes various layers and classes of the population, was no less emotional and consolidated.

The state in the person of the police, which behaved unceremoniously and exponentially cruelly against citizens in a particular quarter, promptly more soberly assessed the situation and the explosiveness of the moment. This assessment and understanding of the seriousness of public indignation was expressed in the following: the detainees received minimal sentences, and were released at all, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported the punishment of one of the police officers, and an apology brought to one resident, and so on. The prosecutor's office began an investigation into the actions of the police. The violence campaign has been scaled down. Thus, the authorities proposed to draw the community.

However, all this was done at the level of statements that can be regarded as a desire to calm social passions. The authorities do not intend to retreat completely before society. President Aliyev, who spoke on television after the events, did not express his attitude to what had happened, which means that the police actions received political support at the top.

It would be superficial to say that the protest mood in society provokes fatigue from the pandemic and the restrictions that it carries, and at the same time a worsening of the financial situation of citizens and especially small and medium-sized businesses, employees, the illegal labor market. A pandemic can be seen as a catalyst for processes. On the one hand, it revealed the mistakes of the government, which were exposed by the low oil price; on the other hand, it showed the fatigue of society from hopelessness, ongoing crises, undisguised hypocrisy of officials.

Example, on June 9, television showed a story about a raid by police and television station employees on the subject of wearing masks by citizens. In one episode, a petty trader, ignoring the mask, in an open form, publicly sent a police officer to hell on a television camera. He is not a representative of the opposition and not a civic activist, such as, for example, Giyas Ibrahimov, who posted a protest against police violence on the facade of the house on June 9 and spoke with a megaphone on the roof of the house calling for citizens to resist. In 2016, Ibrahimov was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment writing "Happy Slave Holidays" on a pedestal to former President Heydar Aliyev; he was released early. This time he was sentenced to 15 days and was sent.

During the outbreak of the pandemic, the fall in oil prices during the crisis that started in 2015, the authorities did not offer the public a program of action. On the contrary, already at the initial stage of the deterioration of the pandemic-oil situation, President Aliyev on March 19, in an appeal to the people, threatened the opposition with reprisals in the event of an emergency.

The distance between the statement of March 19 and the events of June 7-8 shows that the government does not want to make any compromises, democratic changes in the country, the need for which has become an urgent issue of society. This is the contradiction between the parties. It will continue to grow if the authorities do not prioritize the interests of the average citizen of the country.

For this, it is necessary to proceed immediately a dialogue with civil society, which is an exponent and representative of public interests in general, on ways to overcome the crisis and create a state of social responsibility. Such dialogue can reduce the passions and open the way to public consensus. The authorities should have been warned against further attempts at imitations, since the imitations caused the crisis and did not allow getting out of its arms.