By IGOR SPAIC
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN)
Azerbaijan’s strongman President Ilham Aliyev, who is accused of violating human rights, will be this year’s recipient of a prestigious honour awarded to international leaders by a prominent Bosnian academic association.
Bosnia’s Klepsidra academic association has been criticised after announcing that Ilham Aliyev will be this year’s recipient of the annual award it gives to presidents and prime ministers.
Critics cited Aliyev’s poor human rights record in energy-rich Azerbaijan, which has jailed journalists and political opponents.
The International Award Isa Beg Ishakovic, which Klepsidra calls the most important honour in Bosnia and Herzegovina, bears the name of the Ottoman general of Bosnian origin who founded Sarajevo in 1461.
The recipient is decided each year by a committee consisting of eminent representatives of Bosnia’s academic community.
“The primary intention of the founders is that the International Award Isa Beg Ishakovic builds bridges and recognises true friends of all peoples and our society as a whole,” the chairman of the award committee, Ljubomir Berberovic, told local news website Klix on Thursday.
“A recognition for a statesman is also a recognition of the fundamentals of his country, its characteristics, culture and all of its citizens,” he said.
But news that Aliyev is to receive the award attracted criticism because of the allegations of corruption and crackdowns on freedom of speech that have regularly been levelled at his regime.
“He and his government officials have been running Azerbaijan as medieval feudalistic rulers,” award-winning Bosnian investigative journalist Miranda Patrucic told BIRN.
Patrucic has worked closely with Khadija Ismayilova, a well-known Azerbaijani investigative reporter who was arrested in 2014 after reporting on the hidden riches of the Aliyev family and jailed for alleged embezzlement and tax evasion, charges she said were fabricated.
“Members of this jury should be ashamed. Giving Aliyev an award for sharing our values is insulting to me as a Bosnian,” Patrucic said.
A European Parliament resolution in 2015 called on the Azerbaijani government to end its persecution of civil society and human rights organisations, and urged the unconditional release of jailed journalists and activists.
Aliyev denies that there are any problems with freedom of speech in Azerbaijan.
BIRN could not reach the International Award Isa Beg Ishakovic Committee for a comment about why Aliyev was chosen for the honour.
Local media reports said that Aliyev will travel to Sarajevo to receive the award, which would mark his first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina since its independence.
However no date for the visit has been made public so far.
Some of the previous recipients of the award have been Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and, posthumously, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.