It was reported in the past week that the country’s most popular human rights activist and newspaper editor, Khilal Mamedov, had been arrested by the Azeri authorities on alleged charges of drug possession. Azerbaijan police officials were said to have found 5.8 grams of heroin on Mamedov’s person while 28.3 grams of the substance was found in his residence. If convicted Mamedov faces three to 12 years imprisonment.
Mamedov’s Background
Mamedov of course gained notoriety as one of the creators of the “Who are you? Come on, goodbye?” video which went viral in May of this year on Twitter and was then adopted by Russian Anti-Vladimir Putin groups as their campaigns’ theme tune. Mamedov has championed the cause of the Talysh, who are a minority ethnic group in Southern Azerbaijan, a region which borders northern Iran. The Talysh are said to be often marginalised by and not adequately represented by the Baku – the country’s administrative capital – based government. An attempt by the Talysh to secede from the Baku government in 1993 was quelled by the authorities.
The Government’s Ulterior Motives
The human rights group, Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) has denounced the arrest of Mamedov calling it a politically motivated act on the part of the government. The IPD appear to suggest that the arrest is intrinsically linked to Mamedov’s human rights activism. Leila Yunus, the organisation’s head, in calling for the release of Mamedov stated: “Khilal Mamedov had authority among the Talysh minority, and officially Baku doesn't favour them." She added: “His arrest is a direct pressure on national minorities in Azerbaijan.”
The fears of human rights activists that the arrest is politically motivated are justified as the government has previous form in terms of stifling voices of protest. Mamedov’s newspaper’s previous editor, Tolishi Sado died in prison in 2010, two years into his 10-year prison sentence for allegedly spying for Iran, charges which most observers denounce as trumped up at best and fantasist at worst.
Government’s Defence
The government for its part has of course denied that the arrest was in any way linked to Mamedov’s activism. The Azeri Interior Ministry deputy spokesperson Ekhsan Zaidov informed the press in the aftermath of the arrest that it had no connection to the protest video or Mamedov’s professional activity, that is his human rights campaigns. Rest assured, the government’s protestations have mostly fallen on the deaf ears of those it seeks to convince otherwise about the reasons for the arrest of the prominent human rights campaigner.
A Government of Contradiction
The proverbial giving with one hand whilst taking away with the other seems to apply to the Azeri government’s recent actions. On the same week on which Mamedov appears to have been made the subject of trumped up charges, the Ilham Aliyev-led government granted amnesty to about 64 prisoners and human rights activists. Aliyev is currently serving a second term as President following an election victory in October 2008, an election which was boycotted by the main opposition parties and which many Western observers denounced at the time as fundamentally flawed. A referendum held in March 2009 effectively removed the constitutional limit on the number of terms which an acting President could serve thus paving the way for Aliyev to be ‘President for Life’.
Sound-off
What remains clear is that despite the occasional overtures made by Aliyev to placate his Western critics such as sanctioning the release of some unjustly held prisoners, his assault on human rights and the concept’s proponents show no signs of abating in the immediate future. The regime may have silenced Sado and is presently on its way to silencing Mamedov but what the government appears to underestimate is the hydra-like nature of the Azeri opposition which defies any easy solution.
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