In June 2015, Azerbaijan’s capital Baku will host the first ever European Games under the umbrella of the European Olympic Committees. Controversy already surrounds this new sporting venture. Over the last twelve months, a wave of arrests of key critics, including human rights activists, election monitors, lawyers and investigative journalists, has almost entirely silenced Azerbaijani civil society.
During this interactive session, our panelists will explore the relationship between sport and human rights, examining the argument that Azerbaijan is using such high profile events to whitewash its image amidst criticism from domestic human rights activists as well as international bodies regarding its human rights records. Panellists: Emin Milli, Azerbaijani activist, former political prisoner and co-founder of Meydan TV
Gulnara Akhundova, Azerbaijani human rights defender, and programme manager at International Media Support Giorgi Gogia, senior researcher on Azerbaijan at Human Rights Watch. -02D-
Politics
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Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) Alexander Bastrykin arrived in Grozny, where he held a meeting on the investigation of the crash of the plane "Azerbaijan Airlines".
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On 28 December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
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On December 28 president of Ukrain called to the president of Azerbaijan İlham Aliyev.
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The preliminary investigation into the case of Russian oligarch and former "state minister" of the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh, Ruben Vardanyan, has been completed. According to a joint statement by the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Security Service of Azerbaijan, Vardanyan has been charged under the following articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code: Article 100 (planning or waging aggressive war), Article 107 (deportation or coercion of the population), Article 109 (persecution), Article 112 (deprivation of liberty in violation of international law), Article 113 (torture), Article 114 (mercenary activities), Article 115 (violating laws and customs of war), Article 116 (violating laws and customs of war), Article 214 (terrorism), Article 214-1 (financing terrorism), Article 218 (organization of a criminal community), Article 228 (illegal trafficking in weapons), Article 270-1 (creating threats to aviation safety), Article 278 (violent seizure of power or violent retention of power, violent change of the constitutional order of the state), Article 279 (creation of illegal armed formations), Article 318 (illegal crossing of the Azerbaijani state border).
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