FREEDOM HOUSE:
FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2004
AZERBAIJAN
Political Rights: 6
Civil Liberties: 5
Status: Not Free
GNI per capita: $710
Population: 8,200,000
Life Expectancy: 72
Religious Groups: Muslim (93 percent), RussianOrthodox (3 percent), Armenian
Orthodox (2 percent),other (2 percent)
Ethnic Groups: Azeri (90 percent), Dagestani (3 percent),Russian (3
percent), Armenian (2 percent), other (2 percent)
Capital: Baku
Ratings Change: Azerbaijan’s status declined from Partly Free to Not Free
due to the holding of seriously flawed presidential elections in October and
a subsequent government crackdown on opposition supporters.
Ten Year Ratings Timeline [OMMITTED]
Overview
The October 15, 2003 presidential election marked the end of an era in
Azerbaijan, as the ailing President Heydar Aliev, who had long dominated the
country’s political life, withdrew from the race less than two weeks before
the vote. His son, Ilham, who was widely regarded as his father’s preferred
successor, was voted head of state in an election marred by systematic and
widespread fraud. The results of the poll sparked public protests and a
violent police crackdown, followed by the detention of hundreds of
opposition supporters.
After having been controlled by the Ottoman Empire since the seventeenth
century, Azerbaijan entered the Soviet Union in 1922 as part of the
Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Republic, becoming a separate Soviet republic
in 1936. Following a referendum in 1991, Azerbaijan declared independence
from the disintegrating Soviet Union.
In June 1992, Abulfaz Elchibey, leader of the nationalist opposition
Azerbaijan Popular Front, was elected president in a generally free and fair
vote. A military coup one year later ousted him from power and installed the
former first secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, Heydar Aliev, in
his place. In the October 1993 presidential elections, Aliev reportedly
received almost 99 percent of the vote. Azerbaijan’s first post-Soviet
parliamentary elections, held in November 1995, saw five leading opposition
parties and some 600 independent candidates barred from the vote in which
Aliev’s Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) won the most seats. In October 1998,
Aliev was chosen president with more than 70 percent of the vote in an
election characterized by serious irregularities.
In a widely expected outcome, the ruling YAP captured the majority of seats
in the November 2000 parliamentary election. The Azerbaijan Popular Front
and the Communist Party came in a distant second and third, respectively.
International monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe cited mass electoral fraud,
including the stuffing of ballot boxes and a strong pro-government bias in
state-run media. Despite widespread criticism of the elections, the Council
of Europe approved Azerbaijan’s application for membership just days after
the vote, a decision widely criticized by international human rights groups.
An August 2002 national referendum led to the adoption of a series of
constitutional amendments, some of which critics charged would further
strengthen the ruling party’s grip on power. One particularly controversial
amendment stipulates that the prime minister becomes president if the head
of state resigns or is incapacitated. Critics charged that the aging and
ailing Aliev would appoint his son, Ilham, prime minister in order to
engineer a transfer of power. Opposition groups and the OSCE charged that
the referendum was marred by fraud, including ballot-box stuffing,
intimidation of election monitors and officials, and inflated voter-turnout
figures of nearly 90 percent.
Throughout 2002, a number of demonstrations were held to demand various
political and economic changes, including Aliev’s resignation. In June, an
unarmed protestor was shot and killed by police in the town of Nardaran, the
first time that such a tragedy had occurred since Azerbaijan’s independence
more than a decade ago. The government blamed the riots on radical Islamic
groups, although residents insisted that the authorities used these
accusations as a pretext to repress dissent. In April 2003, 15 individuals
arrested in Nardaran in 2002 were found guilty of fomenting the unrest and
given prison terms or suspended sentences; during the year, the four
defendants who had been imprisoned were pardoned and released.
In the months preceding the October 15, 2003 presidential elections, the
political atmosphere was marked by uncertainty over Aliev’s declining health
and its ramifications for his reelection bid. The 80-year old Aliev, who had
a history of heart trouble, collapsed during a live television broadcast in
April and left Azerbaijan that summer to receive medical treatment in Turkey
and the United States. At the same time, government officials continued to
deny that his health problems were serious, and he remained the official YAP
candidate for the presidential election.
Heydar Aliev’s son, Ilham, was officially nominated as a presidential
candidate in June by a group of residents from the autonomous exclave of
Nakhichevan, the home territory of the Aliev family. He was appointed prime
minister in August, but took a leave of absence from his post just days
after being appointed so that he could legally run for president (the
election code prohibits a serving prime minister from running for
president). On October 2, the elder Aliev withdrew his candidacy in favor of
his son’s.
Final figures released by the Central Election Commission showed Ilham Aliev
defeating seven challengers with nearly 77 percent of the vote. His closest
rival, opposition Musavat Party leader Isa Gambar, received only 14 percent
of the vote, while six other candidates received less than 4 percent each.
According to OSCE observers, the election was marred by widespread fraud and
failed to meet international standards for democratic elections. Among the
irregularities noted were partisan election commissions favoring the
governing party and its supporters; the failure of authorities to adequately
implement a new electoral code; the use of flawed procedures to deny
registration to several potential candidates; serious flaws in the counting
and tabulation of votes; limitations on election observation by domestic
civic groups; and biased media coverage favoring Ilham Aliev.
Meanwhile, the authorities’ obstruction of many opposition rallies and the
beating and arrest of hundreds of opposition activists overshadowed much of
the campaign and election period. After violent clashes between security
forces and demonstrators in Baku on October 15 and 16, in which at least one
person was reportedly killed and several hundred were injured, the
authorities unleashed a crackdown against the opposition in which more than
600 people were detained. Among those arrested were opposition party leaders
and supporters who had not been directly involved in the preceding days’
violence, along with many election officials who refused to certify
fraudulent election results.
In a region of the world wracked by years of instability, the ramifications
of Ilham’s victory are being watched closely by both domestic and
international observers. A post-election challenge for Ilham, who is
described as lacking his father’s commanding presence, will be consolidating
his power base among the ruling elite. At the same time, Aliev is expected
to continue many of his father’s economic policies, including supporting the
lucrative Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, a key energy project for the West.
A lasting settlement for the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, over
which Armenia and Azerbaijan fought in the early 1990s, remained elusive
during the year. The region, which is formally part of Azerbaijan, is now
predominantly ethnic Armenian and effectively under Armenian control.
Several violations of the 1994 ceasefire occurred during the summer of 2003,
although they did not erupt into full-scale fighting.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties
Citizens of Azerbaijan cannot change their government democratically. The
country’s constitution provides for a strong presidency, and in practice
parliament exercises little independence from the executive branch. The
1993, 1998, and 2003 presidential and 1995 and 2000 parliamentary elections
were considered neither free nor fair by international observers. Amendments
to the constitution, adopted in a 2002 referendum, included a provision
replacing the proportional-representation system, under which one-fifth of
the members of parliament were elected, with single-mandate constituency
races, under which the remaining four-fifths of parliament were already
chosen. Opposition parties argued that the proportional system was the only
way for them to participate in elections, since most lack nationwide
organizations.
More than 40 political parties are registered. However, most opposition
parties are weak and are based on personalities rather than political
platforms, and they have been unable to unite in lasting alliances to
challenge the government. Hundreds of opposition activists and leaders were
detained by police in the weeks surrounding the October 2003 presidential
election.
Corruption is endemic throughout Azerbaijani society, with government
officials rarely held accountable for engaging in corrupt practices.
Transparency International’s 2003 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked
Azerbaijan 124 out of 133 countries surveyed.
Although the constitution guarantees freedom of speech and the press,
journalists who publish articles critical of the president or other
prominent state officials are routinely harassed and prosecuted, and
self-censorship is common. State-owned newspapers and broadcast media
reflect the position of the government. Independent and opposition papers
struggle financially in the face of low circulation, limited advertising
revenues, and heavy fines or imprisonment of their staff. In March, 400
delegates from some 170 print media outlets gathered to establish a press
council to address ongoing pressures faced by the country’s media. However,
an alliance of six other publications boycotted the meeting over concerns
that the selection of members to the council had not been conducted
transparently. Libel is a criminal offense. In early 2003, Elmar Huseynov,
editor-in-chief of the independent Monitor magazine, was convicted of libel
in connection with an article he wrote about the prevalence of corruption in
Azerbaijan, including comparisons of the government with the Sicilian mafia.
Huseynov has been targeted with legal harassment for several years over his
criticisms of government policies.
During the run-up and aftermath of the 2003 presidential election,
journalists suffered increased intimidation and attacks, including physical
assaults while reporting on political opposition rallies. Other restrictions
on the nonstate media included editorial interference and lawsuits for
criticizing government officials. Rauf Arifoglu, editor of the opposition
Yeni Musavat newspaper, was arrested for allegedly organizing public
demonstrations on October 16 and sentenced to three months in prison; he
remained in detention as of November 30.
The government restricts some religious activities of members of
“nontraditional” minority religious groups through burdensome registration
requirements and interference in the import and distribution of printed
religious materials. Islam, Russian Orthodoxy, and Judaism are considered
traditional religions, and their members can generally worship freely.
Some faculty members and students reportedly were pressured to support
governing-party candidates in the 2003 presidential election and were
instructed to attend pro-government events, according to an OSCE report. A
number of teachers were allegedly targeted for reduced work hours or
dismissal in connection with their membership in opposition political
parties, according to the 2003 U.S. State Department human rights report.
Security services are believed to monitor some telephone conversations and
Internet traffic, particularly of prominent political and business figures,
according to the U.S. State Department report.
The government frequently restricts freedom of assembly, particularly for
political parties critical of the government. Although a number of political
demonstrations took place without incident during the weeks surrounding the
2003 presidential election, local authorities frequently obstructed
opposition rallies and beat and arbitrarily arrested many participants of
unauthorized protests. Police assaulted dozens of party leaders,
journalists, and others at a peaceful campaign event on September 21 in
Baku. On the eve of the election, security forces attacked peaceful
protestors who had gathered in front of the headquarters of the opposition
Musavat Party. The following day, several thousand people gathered at an
unsanctioned rally at Azadliq Square in Baku to protest preliminary election
figures. After some of the participants began beating security officers and
damaging government buildings, police and military troops used excessive
force to disperse the demonstrators, killing at least one person and
injuring several hundred others. As of November 30, the government had not
arrested any law enforcement officials or announced the findings of an
investigation in connection with the violent disturbances.
Registration with the Ministry of Justice is required for a nongovernmental
organization (NGO) to function as a legal entity, and the registration
process has been described as cumbersome and nontransparent. Amendments
adopted in 2003 to NGO laws further complicated requirements for registering
grants. In 2003, several leading human rights defenders, including Eldar
Zeynalov, the chair of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan, were subjected
to harassment and intimidation believed to be state-sanctioned. Although the
law permits the formation of trade unions and the right to strike, the
majority of trade unions remain closely affiliated with the government, and
most major industries are state-owned. There is no effective collective
bargaining system between unions and management representatives.
The judiciary is subservient to the executive branch and is corrupt and
inefficient. Arbitrary arrest and detention are common, particularly for
members of the political opposition. Detainees are often held for long
periods before trial, and their access to lawyers is restricted. Police
abuse of suspects during arrest and interrogation reportedly remains
commonplace, with torture sometimes used to extract confessions. According
to a report by Human Rights Watch, law enforcement officials tortured many
of those detained in the post-October 2003 election crackdowns against the
political opposition. The group also documented many more cases of police
beatings during the 2003 presidential campaign than during the 2000
parliamentary election campaign. Local human rights groups maintain that
more than 100 political prisoners are held in detention throughout the
country. Prison conditions are reportedly harsh and even life-threatening,
with many inmates suffering from overcrowding and inadequate medical care.
Some members of ethnic minority groups, including the small Armenian
population, have complained of discrimination in areas including education,
employment, and housing. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azeris who fled the
war in NagornoKarabakh have been prevented by the Armenian government from
returning to their homes and remain in Azerbaijan, often living in appalling
conditions.
Significant parts of the economy are in the hands of a corrupt elite, which
severely limits equality of opportunity. Supporters of the political
opposition face job discrimination, demotion, or dismissal. In 2003, Human
Rights Watch documented more than 100 cases in which opposition supporters
or their relatives were fired from their jobs because of their opposition
activities. Traditional societal norms and poor economic conditions restrict
women’s professional roles; there are 12 women in the country’s 125-seat
parliament. Domestic violence is a problem, and there are no laws regarding
spousal abuse. Azerbaijan is a country of origin and a transit point for the
trafficking of women for prostitution.
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