Human Rights Activist: «The Authorities Themselves Speed up Sanctions against Azerbaijan»

The half-hearted March pardon obviously caused resentment not only of local civil society. The issue of sanctions against the Azerbaijani authorities was returned to the agenda.

The Helsinki Commission of the US Senate demands the release of political prisoners from Azerbaijani prisons - about 150 people. Most of them are declared prisoners of conscience. The commission urged the Azerbaijani government to immediately release political prisoners and respect its international obligations to the OSCE in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law: ‘It's disappointing that President Aliyev released only a small number of political prisoners out of several hundred pardoned on the eve of Novruz. States that are members of the OSCE must respect freedom of speech, including the freedom to exchange information and opinions without the intervention of government bodies. The Azerbaijani government must fulfill its obligations by freeing oppositionists, civil activists, journalists and religious leaders who are currently in prison for the peaceful exercise of their rights. This would be especially true in the case of the former presidential candidate Ilgar Mammadov,” the commission's Chairman, Senator Roger Wicker said.

And the head of the Helsinki Commission Chris Smith noted that after the pardon the well-known Azerbaijani human rights activists, journalists and dissidents stayed in prisons where they were subjected to violence and ill treatment: “I call upon President Aliyev to respect human rights and democracy norms in his country and immediately release all prisoners of conscience,” said the Congressman.

“Local and international organizations have been distributing statements for a long time with an appeal to the Azerbaijani authorities to release political prisoners,” the human rights activist Oktay Gulaliyev told Turan. “However, the authorities do not want to hear these appeals. This was proved by the last order of pardon, as out of more than 160 political prisoners, only four were included in the list. Naturally, neither local nor international organizations are satisfied with this. The Azerbaijani authorities react inadequately to the appeals of international organizations. Instead of fulfilling their obligations to EITI, the Azerbaijani authorities withdrew from the coalition and, in their opinion, got rid of their duties. However, all this does not shy away from the eyes of international organizations. If the demands for releasing political prisoners, protecting human rights and ensuring the proper functioning of democratic structures are not met, the West can resort to serious measures, including sanctions against Azerbaijan. I think that sanctions can be applied, as the Azerbaijani authorities themselves are preparing the ground for this. Gradually, calls and demands to the Azerbaijani authorities will grow and eventually lead to sanctions.

The authorities have always tried to deceive the West by promising to fulfill their obligations and release political prisoners. However, they do not keep their promises and conduct new arrests. One example of this is the arrest of Mehman Huseynov, a blogger widely known both in the country and abroad. His arrest means challenging the just demands of Western organizations, which are forced to respond with sanctions. There is no government in the world that does not fear sanctions. Azerbaijan is a very small country that does not have enough opportunities to remain isolated from the whole world. The Azerbaijani authorities, of course, are afraid of sanctions, and they just want to show the opposite. I think that in the event of a serious threat of sanctions, the authorities will have to make some reforms,” Gulaliyev said.

“The issue of sanctions can return to the agenda and sanctions can be used as a means of international pressure on Azerbaijan,” the human rights activist Bashir Suleymanly told Turan. “We have always demanded once and for all to put an end to the problem of political prisoners in the country. This requires political will. International human rights organizations, including the US Helsinki Commission, are also concerned about this problem and their statement shows that they intend to resume the campaign of pressure of 2014-2015 for the release of political prisoners. It is expected that if the Azerbaijani authorities persist, the issue of sanctions can be considered by the US Senate. This will depend on the activities of the new administration of the White House. Obviously, the new administration has not yet discussed political issues with the Azerbaijani authorities, including issues of democracy. After these negotiations, it will be possible to say more precisely how the issue of political prisoners will be resolved. We and Western organizations expected the release of political prisoners. More than once it was said that in March a big pardon was expected. Even the number of political prisoners that were included in the lists was called. It's about 27 names. The expectations were not justified and therefore sanctions are being used as a means of pressure on the Azerbaijani authorities.

The authorities, probably, have calculated the response steps to these calls for sanctions. Time will show what kind of answer this will be,” Suleymanli stressed.

In 2016, the Azerbaijani President pardoned 148 prisoners on the days preceding Novruz, including 15 political prisoners. This year, Ilham Aliyev pardoned more than 400 people, but only four political prisoners were released.  -0-