Justice for Azerbaijan
Just watched ‘This world’ on the BBC and as is often the case with documentaries that expose human rights violations I feel angered and powerless by the experience. It was about Azerbaijan – one of those extraordinary Central Asian countries we hear about very infrequently, unless it’s from a comedian doing some sort of hapless foreigner character.
It followed the experiences of two young activists trying to bring about a peaceful revolution in the lead up to the elections in November 2005. These two likable young men, Murad and Emin, were inspired by similar peaceful movements in Serbia, Georgia and most recently the Ukraine. They even appropriated the colour orange in the hope of galvanising popular opinion against the government. The film showed just how difficult it was in a state under such a regime to make any sort of protest whatsoever. In what to my somewhat naive mind seemed on the surface to be a relatively developed country, dissent against the authoritarian government would not be tolerated even on a small scale. The police were, and still are, sanctioned to use brutal force against even the slightest hint of dissent. The sense of frustration that these men experienced was palpable. The fascistic leanings of the Azerbaijan government would seem obvious to any impartial observer. This film seemed to suggest that harassment and fear tactics were authorized by the party in order to mobilize the people into stage-managed pro-government rallies presided over by meat-headed thugs with megaphones. Songs about the ‘blessed homeland of Azerbaijan’ were sung with a distinct lack of enthusiasm by these poor souls as they dutifully trundled along the parade route.
Sadly, even though the European Council, the body responsible for regulating and overseeing a fair electoral process condemned the election last year, (which as this film showed was clearly rigged in the governments favour), the United States government still supports the regime and the fake result. So the opposition in Azerbaijan have a serious problem in that, unlike the instigators of the revolutions in the aforementioned countries that they wanted to emulate, the West by and large does not look favourably on their cause. Surprise surprise, the West is willing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses when oil and the ‘War on Terror’ are concerned.
After the European body announced their findings on the result the Government capitulated to foreign pressure and allowed the opposition party and its supporters to demonstrate for a meager ‘two hours’. This rally was attended by an estimated 30 thousand people and was deemed a success despite it having to come to an end so abruptly. With the eyes of the worlds press momentarily on Azerbaijan there was at last some cause for optimism. One of the results was the organisation of a further demo to build upon the momentum they had gathered. Unfortunately the worlds press were not present at the next one and the Azerbaijan authorities came down hard upon the crowds. The film captured shocking footage of savage beatings as the police broke up the crowd and tore down placards and banners for freedom. One step forward two steps back it seems.
One could not help but feel a profound sense of sympathy for Murad as, in the immediate aftermath of these awful events, he declared to the camera that “this is no longer about just freedom, human rights and democracy; this is about justice for the people - Justice for Azerbaijan”. So I write this post to express my solidarity with the opposition movement in that country, and in praise of an excellent and informative film.
This film and recent events in Nepal have made me think about democracy in general. On the day in which‘the worlds two most powerful men’ (George W Bush and Hu Jintao) met in the US, it has really struck home to me that fair democratic systems are the real anomalies in the world, and not so-called ‘rogue states’. Stating the obvious perhaps but still. Are the liberal Western European powers the only things even close to fair and representative democracies the world has? Or is it all just a sham and a swindle?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/4908406.stm