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<\/a>The authorities in Azerbaijan are upset with ESI.<\/p>\nLast week a presentation was given in Oslo at the invitation of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, one of the leading human rights organisations in Scandinavia. It was a call to European democrats to resist the capture of the Council of Europe by autocratic regimes. It advocated a campaign for a Europe without political prisoners:<\/p>\n
The capture of the Council of Europe<\/a> Power Point presentation (Oslo)<\/a><\/p>\n There were many other speakers at this event, which focused on safeguarding international institutions against authoritarian abuse.<\/p>\n Bill Browder, Head of the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Campaign, spoke about “My struggle to get off the Interpol arrest order list.”<\/p>\n Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot\/Zona Prava (“Law Zone”) stressed the importance of not forgetting political prisoners in Russia.<\/p>\n Jago Russell, Chief Executive, Fair Trials International spoke about abuse by Interpol.<\/p>\n Gunnar M. Ekel\u00f8ve-Slydal from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee spoke about “Traditional values” as a way of undermining respect for human rights.<\/p>\n There are human rights abuses in many countries. There are problems in many international institutions. And yet the recent capture of the Council of Europe by Azerbaijan remains a remarkable story with deeply troubling implications.<\/p>\n Elkhan Suleymanov does not agree. Once upon a time Elkhan Suleymanov was an official in the Soviet Ministry of Culture in Baku. Today he coordinates Azerbaijani policies towards the Council of Europe as member of its Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). Suleymanov has hosted many PACE parliamentarians in Baku<\/a> in recent years. He has been less friendly towards anyone concerned about human rights.<\/p>\n A few days ago he made a statement to the press<\/a>:<\/p>\n “On the eve of May 14th when Azerbaijan will take over the chairmanship to the Committee of Ministers, high-level body of the Council of Europe, the campaigns of several traditional anti-Azerbaijani organizations against our country extended.<\/p>\n As usual, European Stability Initiative, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch and others among these organizations are particularly distinguished.”<\/p>\n A press release was distributed in English, German and French<\/a>:<\/p>\n “Elkhan Suleymanov said the letter writing campaign by the European Stability Initiative, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch over the issue of political prisoners has “dynamically strengthened” in recent months with the aim of unfairly pressuring Baku. “The goal of anti-Azerbaijani forces is to bring the issue of “political prisoners” again onto the agenda \u2026”<\/p>\n He also added<\/a>:<\/p>\n “European Stability Initiative didn’t calm down and spread a new material on May 5th after the decision on the visit of CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland to Baku in May was announced. The organization called the relations between Azerbaijan and Council of Europe a game of cat and mouse, didn’t refrain to influence, even make pressure on Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland reminding that he was also the Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and urged him “to address the issue of political prisoners due to commence in May of the chairmanship of Azerbaijan in the Committee of Ministers”.”<\/p>\n Elkhan Suleymanov is right.<\/p>\n This is a campaign. It is aimed to bring the issue of political prisoners back onto the agenda. And we do want to encourage leaders in democratic Europe to defend the core values which the current regime in Baku rejects.<\/p>\n Mr. Jagland’s visit<\/strong><\/p>\n ESI wrote<\/a> recently:<\/p>\n “We hope that Mr. Jagland will achieve something next week. We hope that the game of cat and mouse that Azerbaijan has been playing with political prisoners will come to an end.”<\/p>\n Mr. Jagland’s visit, once postponed, is now rescheduled for this week.<\/p>\n Recently thirty NGO leaders, journalists, activists and lawyers from Azerbaijan wrote<\/a> to Mr. Jagland to point out how bad things are. PACE’s first rapporteur for political prisoners in Azerbaijan (2001-2003), former Belgian parliamentarian George Clerfayt, also sent a letter to Mr. Jagland<\/a> warning about current trends.<\/p>\n We hope that Mr. Jagland will not only go to Baku to congratulate the new chair of his organisation. It is not enough to express concern either. He should insist that political prisoners are actually released this month.<\/p>\n The time to play along with Baku’s version of Cat and Mouse<\/a> has to come to an end.<\/p>\n In recent weeks all leading human rights organisations in Europe have pointed to an awful paradox: one of the most egregious human rights violating regimes in Europe \u2013 in the same league as the regime in Belarus \u2013 has taken over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe. And no other member of this organisation has said a word.<\/p>\n Reporters without Borders<\/a>. Freedom House<\/a>. Amnesty International<\/a>. Human Rights Watch<\/a>. All have expressed their concern.<\/p>\n ESI has sent out a newsletter<\/a> on this one month ago. We have since sent out newsletters in nine more languages with our Open Letter<\/a> to members of PACE.<\/p>\n We have been quoted in recent weeks by many respected media across Europe. The Economist<\/a>. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung<\/a>. Media in Norway<\/a>. In Italy<\/a>. In Bosnia<\/a>. In Austria<\/a>. The BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n This Sunday a long article appeared in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung:<\/p>\n Politische Gefangene? Hier doch nicht! (Political Prisoners? Certainly not here!)<\/a>.<\/p>\n In recent weeks presentations were given in New York<\/a>. In Oslo<\/a>. In Kiev<\/a>. ESI’s work on this has been strongly supported by the Open Society Foundations.<\/p>\n And this is only the beginning.<\/p>\n Elkan Suleymanov is right about one aim of all this activity: to call on everyone who \u2013 for different reasons \u2013 has not spoken out strongly in defence of human rights in Azerbaijan to do so now.<\/p>\n It is a colourful group. It sees Azerbaijan as a petrol station in a bad neighbourhood, doomed to be run by a gang of thieves, because the only alternative is anarchy.<\/p>\n We do not agree. There is no reason why Azerbaijani citizens should not enjoy the same rights as citizens in other Council of Europe member states.<\/p>\n In fact, Azerbaijan has never been more European than earlier this month. On their last day in court, on 5 May 2014, eight young activists with names hard to pronounce by Western leaders, held up a mirror to the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n In their final statement NIDA activists, on hunger strike, about to be sentenced to 6 to 8 years in jail, linked their non-violent activism to the long and proud history of Soviet dissent \u2013 the very dissent that the father of current president Ilham Aliyev, Heydar, had worked to repress as a Soviet KGB general.<\/p>\n
\n Oslo, 13 May 2014<\/a><\/p>\n