The defense plans to appeal the verdict in higher instances till the European Court of Human Rights. International community has strongly condemned the case as political one and Amnesty International has already adopted the bloggers as "prisoners of conscience."

Emin Milli, 30, and Adnan Hajizade, 26, were assaulted and beaten while dining in a downtown Baku restaurant and then detained for hooliganism on early July this year.

Note: this piece was posted with a back date

However, the new government in Baku fell – various narratives talk of it as either a coup, or a national salvation. Hikmat Hajizade was dismissed from his post and recalled home. And then, it happened in Baku, when the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan was assaulted and severely beaten while walking in the street of its capital – somewhere in downtown in 1993.

Now, after sixteen years, history is repeating itself once again: this time it is Hikmat Hajizade’s son Adnan who was assaulted and severely beaten together with his friend Emin Milli while dining in a downtown restaurant. Yet, what ended for Hikmat Hajizade with injuries and possibly, bitter pains, has ended for Adnan with additional two-month pretrial detention and plus, a hooliganism charge promising up to 5 years in jail. Not an adequate perspective for a University of Richmond alumnus and BP employee, and a pioneer of video-blogging in Azerbaijan. Neither for his friend, Emin Milli – former country director of Friedrich Ebert Foundation and former Council of Europe consultant.

Back in 1993, when Hikmat Hajizade was assaulted and beaten, the country was embroiled in a bitter chaos, partly a fault of incompetency of the government once he represented. Baku’s major street fights and last armed uprising were to be subdued two years later – I still recall those bullet sounds in my neighbourhood. Now, the country enjoys a stability and oil revenues have created some sense of prosperity – however, the state of freedoms seems to change in a worse direction – sixteen years ago, a father would be beaten, but now, a son is not only beaten, but is also jailed and can face an endarkening prison sentence.

Democratic activism is a long tradition in Hajizade family, as well as the state of being assaulted and beaten for their activities – the only new element here is the fact that Adnan Hajizade now is being tried for both. Below – is the interview of Adnan Hajizade’s father to RFE/RL Azeri service, with English subtitles.

Living in an increasingly restricted society, failed by traditional media and broadcasting tightly controlled by the government, Internet users in Azerbaijan have embraced new media and social networking sites like Facebook as last refuge. Their usage of these online tools for communication and networking, mobilizing and news sharing, as well as advocacy and activism has resulted in what one blogger has effectively called Republic of Facebook .

Below are the excerpts and the summary of his blog post reproduced by the kind permission of the author.

Published in a start-up blog titled Bakrabo4iy , the post starts with a short retreat to the Soviet times:

In the USSR, the people were discussing politics in kitchen, sitting on white greased stools. Trusted friends would gather in the evenings and would have freethinking conversations. Without anxiety and fear that someone can spy on them, ideas of communism would be criticized harshly.

In Azerbaijan, everything is virtual and ironic nowadays. It is Facebook that plays the role of underground kitchen. The social networking site created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 to connect young people and transformed into something like global Classmates all over the world, it has become almost the last bastion of freedom in Azerbaijan.

Then the writer gives a description of internet users in Azerbaijan dividing them into two loose groups. The first group, according to the post, consists of the majority with low educational level and poor Internet skills, who use those skills to meet mostly their material and physical desires. Then, there follows a description of the minority:

The second group of people in Azerbaijan is traditionally supposed to be abnormal. These unique smart guys and gals can be met only in Facebook. The majority of them know several languages and almost all speak English. All of them have higher education. Many studied abroad. They are liberals, democrats, intellectuals, cosmopolitans and objectivists.

The activities of this minority in Facebook are jokingly labeled ‘hooliganism’ by the author in an apparent hint to the ‘hooliganism’ charges that the arrested bloggers are indicted of.

What today happens in Facebook can be compared only to the Matrix. As if you live in a fine and fluffy world where opposition may revolt from time to time. And you do not pay any attention to them. It was always like that, and thus, it is sound and reasonable. So was always, it is self-evident.

But then you enter Facebook and see that quite affluent and successful people talk about those acute problems, which you already knew about, but could not accept their existence – all of these were beneath the fog for you. As if Morpheus has called you, appointed a meeting and gave a pill. Take it if you want to learn the truth, don’t take if you don’t. A choice is yours.

And here comes the Republic of Facebook:

Facebook is the non-existing Republic of Crimea of Vasily Aksyonov – the great writer had created an utopian republic not grasped by the red army and moving on his own way of development.

However, it is not correct to consider Facebook as a political hobby group. Facebook is an avant-garde, non-conformism, objectivism, talent, tolerance and the most important – honesty.

Jacobin Club of the pacifists.

However, in judiciary practice, such defendants usually get released on bail or end with a house arrest. According to law expert Erkin Gadirli, two months of pre-trial detention is the maximum period that a law-breacher can receive, and this type of detention is usually conditioned with disturbing criminal past of detainees, their liaisons inside and outside of the prison, as well as degree of their dangerousness, possibility of their escape, degree of graveness of the crime, etc. Surely, with no criminal records or behaviour, Emin and Adnan recieved the harshest verdict possible.

Even visiting German Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid, Günter Nooke was not allowed to attend the trial. The Chairman of Sabail District Court Justice Gulzar Rzayeva refused to let in Günter Nooke or anybody else by pointing out that the trial is held behind closed doors in accordance with Azerbaijani laws. While around 150 supporters of Emin and Adnan, as well as residents of neighborhood, international and local NGO representatives, foreign diplomats and Mr. Nooke waited outside at the tightly closed door of the court house, the court sentenced both activists to two months of detention in presence of indicted and their lawyers, but refusing to listen to witnesses and bringing in the ‘victims’ of the alleged hooliganism act.

During these two months while Emin and Adnan are in detention, the investigation has to be concluded and their case brought before the judge. If the investigation is not concluded, their detention period can be extended for additional two months. While detained, they won’t be able to receive any guests, instead of their lawyers. They will be held in a new detention center in a town of Kurdokhani, a small town in an hour’s drive from Baku.

Emin Milli is one of prominent civil society activists in Azerbaijan and helped to forge a powerful but flexible Alumni Network (AN) – an incredible pre-Facebook era social network and strong mobilization force for country’s youth.  Four days ago, on 4th July, Emin was a speaker in a Heinrich Böll Foundation roundtable dedicated to a democratization process in Azerbaijan, where he strongly criticized the Azerbaijani government for its anti-democratic practices.

Adnan Haji-zadeh is one of the founders of OL! Youth Movement, a liberal entity that declares the principles of modernity, non-violence and tolerance. Adnan himself is a pioneer of video-blogging in Azerbaijan and is famous for his video reportages covering problems and challenges of youth and posted in Youtube.

Baku based Institute of Reporters’ Freedom and Safety has called Emin and Adnan’s arrest ‘politically motivated’. Visiting Deputy Secretary of U.S. State Department, James Steinberg has told RFE/RL Azeri Service that they keep this issue under constant attention, while Günter Nooke warned that this incident ‘can create a scandal beyond the borders of Azerbaijan’ and ‘damage her image’.
 

Yesterday, on 9 July, representatives of civil society and youth groups, as well as political parties have held a ‘protest forum’ to both inform the society about the incident and coordinate activities aimed at release of Emin and Adnan. While attending it, I found it characterized with ‘overcrowded hall, furious speakers, plenty of civil society and party leaders, foreign press [and] no local TVs’. Indeed, opened with an angry tirade by forum chair and veteran human rights activist Leyla Yunus, the ‘protest forum’ went through fierce discussions and bitter accusation of all responsible for this incident.

Participants decided to sign an open appeal to the President of Azerbaijan to help release Emin and Adnan, while Leyla Yunus herself sent an open letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs (temporary link).

The German ambassador talked about irony of the incident –on 10 July, the German Human Rights Commissioner was due to visit Azerbaijan and it was scheduled that Emin Milli would be his interpreter. However, as the forum managed to learn from informed sources, on 10 July, Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada were to stand trial for ‘hooliganism’ charges at Sabayel District Court of Baku.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has started to tell their own version. Ministry spokesman Sadig Gyozalov has disclosed the names of the ‘sportsmen’ who have "been beaten" by  the activists and acknowledged that they were detained and afterwards released. They are Babek Huseynov (b.1983) and Vusal Mammadov (b.1984), both from Karabakh refugees. Asked why they were released, Gyozalov has answered that if it is needed, they will also be detained. however, ‘the case was opened not per persons, but per fact, and the perpetrators were Emin Abdullayev and Adnan Hajizada‘ cites him local news website.

Moreover, in his response to Radio Azadliq, Gyozalov has claimed that the incident was ordinary hooliganism. ‘It should not be politicized’. And what follows afterwards is an astonishing and extraordinary story:

These 5-6 people were sitting in the restaurant and making noise, thus breaching the rules. Those two people – Huseynov and Mammadov – tried to calm them down, called them to obey the rules. ‘Any other person, including me, who has a conscience, would do the same. This is the root of the conflict. These people [Emin and Adnan] have beaten those people [Huseynov and Mammadov], injured them. This is an act of hooliganism happening on everyday basis‘.

According to witnesses, two suspicious ‘sportsmen’ entered the restaurant, approached Emin and started to beat him while ‘telling’ him that he ‘criticizes the government too much’. When Adnan tried to help Emin, he was also attacked and beaten. According to Radio Azadliq, Emin received several injuries and cut in his leg while Adnan’s nose was broken.

After being severely beaten, Emin and Adnan applied for police assistance and medical expertise, and the police also detained the perpetrators. However, with a surprise turn, both perpetrators were released, and instead, Emin and Adnan were declared main suspects in ‘hooliganism’ act. Refused to meet their lawyer and relatives, both of them were detained for a period of up to 48 hours with a possible investigation and trial afterward. Moreover, they were transferred to Khatayi District Temporary Detention Center handcuffed.

Emin Milli is one of the prominent civil society activists and helped to forge a powerful but flexible Alumni Network (AN). An incredible pre-Facebook era social network and strong mobilization force for country’s youth was both a framework into which almost whole youth activities could be fit, and a ‘primary chaos’, particles of which then evolved into various youth organizations and movements of Azerbaijan. Four days ago, on 4th July, Emin was a speaker in a Heinrich Böll Foundation roundtable dedicated to a democratization process in Azerbaijan, where he criticized the Azerbaijani government strongly.

Adnan Haji-zadeh is one of the founders of OL! Youth Movement, a liberal entity that declares the principles of modernity, non-violence and tolerance. Adnan himself is a pioneer of video-blogging in Azerbaijan and is famous for his video reportages covering problems and challenges of youth and posted in Youtube.

Proclaimed on 28 May, 1918 and overthrown by Russian Bolsheviks on 28 April, 1920, ADR maintained a true democracy: gave a suffrage to the women (1919) and the youth, long before the main European nations did; created a truly democratic parliament, where assigned MP quotas to almost all ethnic minorities, and even gave special representation to workers’ unions; and made preparation to summon the Constituent Assembly (alas, interrupted by the Russian Bolshevik invasion). Besides, ADR remained strictly committed to the parliamentary form of government, where the Council of Ministers was accountable to the parliament, and was dismissed in the case if it lost the confidence of the majority of MPs.

While all state, public and private TV channels preferred to broadcast exclusively cultural content with concerts and patriotic songs, Azeri youth and youth movements decided to mark the anniversary with various flash mobs. Throughout the city, young people wore T-Shirts with a letter of ADR initials and posed for photographs in groups to form a full picture – "A.D.R."

Some members of OL! Youth Movement drew an interesting graffiti dedicated to ADR:

And young members of oppositional parties paid a traditional visit to a remote Bakuvian village of Novkhani to lay flowers in front of a statue of Mammed Amin Rasul-zadeh, one of the founders of ADR. Despite Rasul-zadeh’s a prominent role in establishment and policies of the first Azerbaijani republic, his memory is in official exile in Azerbaijan. While his name was stripped from Baku State University (which he helped to found) and from school textbooks, and his image removed from national banknotes, the place in downtown where it was planned to erect a statue of him recently was occupied by a huge fountain.

Political Analyst based in Baku, Ilgar Mammadov has taken his daughter to the same fountain – in his words – to the statue of Rasul-zadeh that doesn’t exist.

However, as his 5-year-old daughter was waving Azerbaijani flag near the fountain, at least 8-9 policemen approached them and tried to prevent from further actions near the fountain.

Police has also harassed the youth who were engaged in flash mobs. As Ilgar Mammadov reports in his blog, police have detained three young people who had themselves photographed in ADR t-shirts near Baku’s famous Maiden Tower. According to Radio Free Euope/ Radio Liberty, this was not a single case – police have detained members of at least three youth movements, and it seems indiscriminately, as they have also rounded-up some people not engaged in flash mobs. Vugar Safarov from AN Network has told RFE/RL Azeri Service that they were detained while walking in downtown:

Policeman has approached us and demanded our IDs, and we gave them. Then they took us to 9th Police Division of Sabayel District. When we asked for the reason, they told us that they are investigating the reason. After a while one policemen said that we were planning a picket, thus they have detained us. One guy asked what picket is and the policeman answered that a flower picket. We declared that we were just marking the holiday. And they answered us that we should go and mark the holiday with a party.

This is not the first time when Baku police arrest young people while walking in the streets. 18 days ago they had arrested a group of youth who was trying to lay flowers in front of State Oil Academy, where a shooter gunned down 12 people, mostly students, before killing himself. The Government had refused to declare a mourning day in honour of the victims and proceeded with millions-dollar-worth Holiday of Flowers in honour of late Azeri president Heydar Aliyev, who is also the father of the incumbent Azeri President. When hundreds of youth and students took the streets to express their protest, police detained around 50 people, and just dispersed the protesters by force.

While foreign heads of states have sent their congratulations to the Azerbaijani government, "the young citizens of Azerbaijan" weren’t forgotten either. The International Federation of Liberal Youth issued a statement congratulating Azeri youth with the anniversary of ADR and expressed its support for "the liberal and democratic young people of Azerbaijan in their struggle for a more free and just society, as they are the rightful heirs of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic."

Also, three Secretary-Generals of the Young European Federalists, European Liberal Youth and International Federation of Liberal Youth respectively have posted in Facebook a photo of theirs wearing T-shirts with ADR initials. As one young Facebook user noted in exitement, this was the best Independence Day gift ever

Here we are!

When I opened my mailbox today – to my surprise – I encountered an email from a friend, which alerts about what seems a similar-schemed expulsion. According to information disseminated by Dalga Youth Movement the head of its Southern Regional Office Parviz Azimov has been expelled on charges of participation in an alleged fight from Lankaran State University, where he was a senior student.

This is what Dalga Youth Movement forwarded through emails:

The head of the south regional office of Dalga Youth Movement Parviz Azimov has faced various prosecution and pressure by university authorities due to his articles and current acitivities. Finally, on February 27th he was expeled from Lankaran State University with false accusation. We would like to remind that, Parviz Azimov studies at the fourth grade at above-mentioned university and has not had any problems so far. University authorities, who could not find any evidences about his education, orginazed false sabotage against him. They accused him in alleged fight at the university and expeled him.

As Dalga Youth Movement we urgently request to stop this illegitimate act, to restore Parviz Azimov’s education at the university, and we want people who organized this sabotage against him apolagize. We state that we will use any possible means to restore justice and to defend Parviz Azimov’s rights. We call everybody to support us in our way of defending the law and human rights. We demand the related organs to fulfill their duties.

And here is the post by Eric, Parviz’s teacher at one journalism course. Reading it you once again understand what all this “fight” is about:

Parviz was one of my best students while I was in Azerbaijan. He was the only one of my students to actually produce articles about corruption in the nation’s education system. I had quite a few students who spoke about it – but naturally it was a very daunting subject to tackle. Many of my students were still studying at universities – so really digging into this subject could be dangerous for their academic careers.

As it was for Parviz.

When he first suggested writing about corruption at the university, I cautioned him about taking on the subject. To do it right would be difficult, and would certainly anger important people. Nonetheless, he was resolute – and for his final project he wrote both blog entries and a long newspaper article on the subject – an article that named names. I was more nervous than he about publishing the article.

I don’t think it was one article that caused the university to finally kick him out. Parviz is one of those students that is challenging or infuriating, depending on your perspective. Once he grabbed hold of an issue, he didn’t let go – the mark of really excellent journalist. This time, Parviz obviously infuriated enough people at the university to close that door to him.

He has great talent and energy – so I don’t worry about him finding some position that suits his interests. But to be honest, I do worry about his personal safety. Azerbaijan is a dangerous place for journalists who challenge the system. A number of journalists have been mysteriously assaulted and murdered in Azerbaijan in recent years. Currently, Uzbekistan is the only European or Central Asian country that has more journalists behind bars than Azerbaijan, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And last not least, here is re-posting of Parviz’s newspaper article (in Azeri), about corruption in Lankaran State University, which is titled "Open bazaar in closed rooms". I suppose it is the article that Eric mentions.