The Azerbaijani opposition has survived, even though the civil society has been significantly repressed, writes independent researcher and College of Europe alumnus Valentin Luntumbue in The New Eastern Europe magazine, adding the Ukrainian and Georgian examples suggest Ilham Aliyev’s power is shaken, they will be ready to act.
The author describes the Azerbaijani government as “one of the most restrictive regimes on the European continent,” that introduced a series of laws and regulations affecting NGOs, their funding and activities over the recent years, resulting in an unprecedented crackdown on the NGO sector between 2014 and 2016.
The author reminds that most of the prominent members of Azerbaijan’s civil society ended up behind bars or in exile. Even though some activists like the journalist Khadija Ismayilova, human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, or human rights activists Anar Mammadli and Rasul Jafarov have been released, their criminal records remain in place, and in the case of Intigam Aliyev, his travel ban as well. To this day, there are still around a hundred political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
“Azerbaijan is a “captured state” – a concept fathered by the IMF to describe a form of...
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