US' call to respect human rights in Azerbaijan ‘only evokes irony’ of official Baku

Azerbaijan’s government must respect its citizens’ universal rights, the press service of the US Department of State said in response to Voice of America radio station’s question about the detained relatives of the Azerbaijani opposition journalists Ganimat Zahid and Emin Milli, according to the news portal Haqqin.az. 
 

“We are deeply concerned about the restrictions imposed on the peaceful civilians, and the journalists and civil activists’ arrests. We call on the government of Azerbaijan to respect its citizens’ rights and provide their right of freedom of expression,” the statement reads. The Department of State has repeatedly raised the issue to the high-ranking representatives of the Azerbaijani government and called on them to respect the country’s commitments regarding the protection of the free press, the statement says.
 

APA information agency reports that the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev, commented on the statement of the Department of State. He said the Department of State pursues the aim to interfere in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs. The US’ portrayal itself as a ‘global custodian’ of human rights ‘only evokes irony’, Hajiyev added.
 

The information agency Turan reports that Azerbaijani Popular Front Party Youth Committee’s board member Nurana Suleymanzade was summoned to the Surakhani district police on 30 July 2015. The deputy head of the police station made a verbal warning to the activist saying it was not permitted to criticize the authorities on Facebook. “The deputy head of the district police called me and warned me not to write statuses about Ganimat Zahid, Emin Milli and Natig Adilov. I was released after that,” Suleymanzade told Turan. 
 

According to the report, the police officers went to the APFP activist’s home the day before. They asked her parents about her political position and the status supporting Emin Milli where the activist had complained of the Azerbaijani authorities’ lawlessness, pressures on Emin MIlli for his journalistic activities and bogus drug charges against his brother-in-law Nazim Agabekov. Suleymanzade had also expressed her indignation at the authorities’ actions against the relatives of other well-known journalists, Ganimat Zahid and Natig Adilov.
 

“The president of the country, Ilham Aliyev, untiringly declares about the freedom of press and expression in the country. Those who have not witnessed the political period of the 1937, can see its continuation in 2015. Now people are threatened and their families are subjected to moral tortures for using their right of freedom of expression and speech,” the activist wrote.

In late July 2015, Azerbaijani political migrant in Germany, head of the online media project Meydan TV, Emin Milli, said his wife’s brother had been arrested in Azerbaijan on drug charges. He claimed all those pressures were Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s attempts to silence him personally.  
 

A few days earlier, the relatives of the editor-in-chief of the Azerbaijani opposition newspaper Azadlig and host of the program “Azerbaijan hour”, Ganimat Zahid, were detained on similar charges in Azerbaijan. Zahid is currently an immigrant in France. “Not being able to reach me, they try to blackmail me by arresting my relatives,” Ganimat Zahid said.
 

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