More Azeri Government Restrictions?

Azerbaijan journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, was arrested and thrown in jail in 2007 based on an article the government deemed as a terrorist threat, and some senior elite businessmen were afraid of an attack. November 17, 2008, Fatullayev filed a lawsuit suing the Foreign Minister because the Foreign Minister refused to tell Fatullayev the names of the men who found the article threatening.

This arrest was very unsettling for the United States. The United States perceived it as throwing a potential Azeri journalist in jail since he was not part of the NAP. This could be Azerbaijan’s government cracking down on the opposition, but since the government considered a possibility in rehearing Fatullayev’s case, it gave hope to the United States and other humanitarian organizations that Azerbaijan is not going to restrict the Azeri rights.

Another instance that makes the world nervous is the issue of the main opposition parties website, Azadliq. Azadliq had anti-Aliyev, which was making the government nervous. The intelligence agencies started to crack down on anti-Aliyev and those websites and people who discuss mobilization, protest, and opposition of the NAP. As it turns out, Azadliq’s website was attacked, then the archives of the whole website were deleted, allegedly down by Azeri intelligence.

This further asks the question if Azerbaijan is going to lose more rights with Aliyev’s second term, and if the government is going to turn into a more authoritarian government. This leads me to believe that the opposition is going to have a sudden mobilization by the opposition that the government is not going to expect. When it happens there will be harsh repression from the government, leading Aliyev to more power.


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