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“I am writing from a windowless, smelly, damp, dirty and muggy cell, packed with insects and cockroaches. The conditions in the detention facilities are atrocious, the cells are crowded with mostly innocent people, including more than 200 prisoners politicians. I am one of them.”
It has been more than a year since the arrest of Azerbaijani academic Gubad Ibadoghlu, an outspoken anti-corruption researcher and critical government critic.
On July 23 last year, Dr Ibadoghlu and his wife were on their way to meet young pro-democracy activists when their vehicle was surrounded by four unmarked cars.
After ramming the back of their vehicle, 20 plainclothes officers forced the couple out of the car, before beating them and forcing them into separate cars.
According to Azerbaijani authorities, the arrest was part of an operation against a terrorist organization and he was accused of producing and selling counterfeit money.
After being denied medical care, his type 2 diabetes and hypertension worsened in prison, and his health deteriorated rapidly.
His daughter, Jala Bayramova, says it was almost impossible to send or receive correspondence from her father while he was in the Baku detention center.
In March this year, his lawyers managed to slip a letter through security.
Jala Bayramova read it at the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly.
“I have been an outspoken critic of the systemic corruption surrounding Azerbaijan’s ruling elite. Azerbaijani authorities have abused the criminal justice system to target me for my peaceful criticism and dissidence. My dire prison situation is putting my life at risk. Therefore, only urgent action is needed to save my life in prison. Otherwise it will be too late, I will most likely be the next victim after Navalny.”
Given that his work focuses primarily on exposing corruption within Azerbaijan’s government and that he relies almost exclusively on fossil fuel revenues, both his family and human rights groups believe his trial will be delayed until Azerbaijan hosts this year’s COP-29 climate summit.
In Azerbaijan’s neighbor Georgia, human rights expert Giorgi Gogia knows the situation all too well.
The associate director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division has spent decades covering human rights abuses in the region.
According to him, although the human rights situation in Azerbaijan has been abysmal for over a decade now, it has significantly worsened since November last year, shortly after the country was announced as a host of COP29.
“And in the last year or so, we have seen a further escalation, at least 20 journalists from the remaining three independent online media outlets – we’re not talking about media outlets, online media outlets – have been arrested in recent months or otherwise face prosecution They arrested some NGOs or other very outspoken activists. One of them, as you well know, is Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu.
In an interview with BBC senior international correspondent Orla Guerin in 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev flatly rejected claims that Azerbaijan has no free media.
ALIYEV: “Why do you think people in Azerbaijan don’t have a free media and opposition?”
GUERIN: “Because that’s what independent sources in this country tell me.”
ALIYEV: “What independent sources?”
GUERIN: “Many independent sources.”
ALIYEV: Tell me which one.”
GUERIN: “I certainly couldn’t cite the sources.”
ALIYEV: “Oh, if you can’t name it means you’re just making up stories.”
GUERIN: “So you say that the media is not under state control.”
ALIYEV: “Not at all.”
GUERIN: “And there is a vibrant free and media opposition.”
ALIYEV: “Of course.”
GUERIN: “Where do I see it?”
ALIYEV: “You can see it on the Internet. You can see it everywhere.”
GUERIN: “But not in newspapers. I mean, NGOs are subject to repression, journalists are subject to repression.”
ALIYEV: “Not at all.”
GUERIN: “The critics are in prison.”
ALIYEV: “No, not at all.”
GUERIN: “None of this is true.”
ALIYEV: “Absolutely false, absolutely. We have a free media.”
Ranked 154th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, Azerbaijan’s government is believed to be deeply entrenched in opaque and corrupt deals with oil and gas companies around the world.
Transparency International Australia CEO Clancy Moore says the regime’s arrests have a chilling effect on democratic discourse in the country.
“The Aliyev family has been in power since 1993. Originally it was Heydar, then his son, Ilham, took over. More recently, in the last elections, the political party won 92% of the votes in apparently fair and free elections. So this is a very authoritarian regime.”
Located in the South Caucasus region, Azerbaijan became the site of the first industrially drilled oil well in 1847.
In 1899 it produced half the world’s oil volume.
With a large number of high-level oil and gas industry executives on Azerbaijan’s COP-29 organizing committee, the government’s vested interests have left many concerned about the legitimacy of their commitments.
An honorary professor of regulation and global governance at the Australian National University, Howard Bamsey has spent much of his career as a climate change diplomat.
In his opinion, the involvement of fossil fuel investors in climate negotiations is not necessarily a terrible thing.
“You could argue that they’re bringing the interests of oil producers to the table. And you could say that, well, oil producers are a very big part of the problem, so that’s a bad thing. Or you could argue that if they don’t it is done If oil producers don’t come to the table, they won’t take any action. There is no incentive to be part of the solution, so the truth probably lies somewhere in between.
However, concern also revolves around Azerbaijan’s commitments to expanding its fossil fuel industry, with recent pledges to double gas exports to Europe by 2027.
The oil and gas industry still dominates the country’s economy, with fossil fuels accounting for 98% of its energy mix and at least 90% of all exports.
Earlier this year, state oil company SOCAR expanded its partnership with Russian oil giant Gazprom.
Furthermore, major energy company BP has heavily invested in the country.
As of 2022, BP has invested more than $126 billion in projects in Azerbaijan and launched another major oil production facility there this year.
Clancy Moore says the industry’s silence on Dr Ibadoghlu’s arrest has been disappointing.
“I think another really important point to remember is that Dr. Gubad has spent his life sitting around the table interacting with large multinationals and governments. He has been a board member of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative for at least six countries sat around that table, including European ones, but also large oil and gas companies such as Total and BP. So why would they be willing to sacrifice theirs? own interest personnel to access oil and gas revenues while someone like Gubad is in prison, is over the line (over the fence), to be honest.”
With thousands of foreign journalists expected to attend the COP-29 summit, Giorgi Gogia says the intense media crackdown in Azerbaijan is raising concerns about how journalists covering the event will be treated.
“One thing is clear: strong rights in respect of climate action really require full and meaningful participation of civil society in climate negotiations as Azerbaijan is president of COP 29. Now they have promised to ensure inclusive participation. Will Azerbaijan do it? I have my doubts, but they have the obligation to ensure and have undertaken the obligation to ensure inclusive climate action. However, the actions for now do not give much hope for such a conference.” .
Gogia says it is important for the international community to hold Azerbaijan accountable before the summit.
“We are at the height of another repression in Azerbaijan – it’s not news in any way because we’ve seen it in the past too – Azerbaijanis, the remnants of Azerbaijani civil society are struggling to survive. And it’s really important that everyone has a voice , whoever can influence this situation, should use that influence and voice to engage with the authorities to ensure that those who are unjustly imprisoned are free and that civil society inside and outside the country can freely participate in COP 29 for a ambitious climate action.”
Before his arrest, Dr. Ibadoghlu was working on an article investigating and exposing a scheme whereby Azerbaijan resold Russian gas to the European Union in an attempt to replace sanctions.
He is currently under house arrest and the trial is suspended indefinitely.
While Azerbaijan characterizes this year’s COP-29 summit as the first “COP for peace”, Dr. Ibadoghlu’s letter states that the international community must not ignore the government’s actions.
“All Azerbaijan’s claims about investing in green energy are lies and you all know this because its economy is built on oil and gas. It is just a facade designed to hide the fact that Azerbaijan has no intention of abandoning fossil fuels or their The European Commission and the European Parliament should give priority to human rights, democracy and the fight against corruption during bilateral cooperation with the government of Azerbaijan. Human rights should not be downplayed, they are not in sale.”