Azeri Report
BAKU. June 16, 2014: Leyla Yunus, prominent Azerbaijani dissident and human rights activist staged an act of protest in the middle the session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Baku. On June 16, NATO Parliamentary Assembly launched its 86th Rose-Roth Seminar titled “South Caucasus: Challenges and Opportunities” attended by the senior government officials of Azerbaijan, including Ogtay Asadov, the speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament. The seminar was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan. Leyla Yunus attended the seminar with the posters showing the pictures of the political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Before the start of the seminar, Leyla Yunus circulated an appeal by the Center of Resistance Against Repression, the human rights organization focusing primarily on the issues of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Using the fifteen-minute coffee break during the seminar, Leyla Yunus addressed the participants of the activity with a brief message highlighting the human rights problems in the country.
Leyla Yunus told the NATO seminar participants that while the seminar participants discussed cooperation and security in Azerbaijan, this country is led by a criminal regime which has 130 political prisoners in its jails. Leyla Yunus then mentioned the names of the several political prisoners and briefly introduced the history of their persecution to the seminar participants. “You should be ashamed,” said Leyla Yunus speaking to the participants of the NATO seminar in Azerbaijan. Speaking to the newspaper “Azadlig” after the seminar, Leyla Yunus described her encounter with Matthew Bryza, the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, currently known as a personal friend of the Azerabijani dictator Ilham Aliyev: “Matthew Bryza was to deliver a speech. But he also supports this regime. Matthew Bryza was looking in the other direction [when Leyla Yunus was speaking]. I told him, why you don’t look in my direction. You supported this regime while you served as ambassador, and you are still supporting it. This regime will not last. I said the entire session is dedicated to Karabakh problem. How can you talk about the resolution of this conflict? All of you are talking about peoples’ diplomacy. Our institute has been working together with our colleagues from Armenia on the peoples’ diplomacy since 2005. I talked about Rauf Mirgadirov (prominent Azerbaijani journalist currently jailed by the Azerbaijani government under the bogus espionage charges – ed.) about the charges of espionage against him.”
Leyla Yunus told the newspaper “Azadlig” that she also addressed the members of the Armenian delegation congratulating them with obtaining such a “valuable spy” as Rauf Mirgadirov, who received an international award as a prominent journalist. Leyla Yunus finished her speech by saying the following: “Please have your coffee and I know that you understand that supporting this government (the Azerbaijani government –ed.) is a crime.”