Azerbaijan Human Rights and the Media
Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, summer 1993
Courtesy Oleg Litvin, Azerbaijan International
Ethnic conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis has
resulted in widespread human rights violations by vigilante
groups and local authorities. During the Elchibey period, the
minister of internal affairs was replaced after admitting to
numerous human rights abuses. Lezgins in Azerbaijan have
complained of human rights abuses such as restrictions on
educational opportunities in their native language
(see Smaller
Ethnic Minorities
, this ch.). In the early 1990s, Amnesty
International and Helsinki Watch cited numerous cases of
arbitrary arrest and torture, including incidents since Aliyev
assumed power in 1993. These organizations and several
governments protested against the arrest and beating of hundreds
of APF and other political and government officials and raids on
APF offices, all after the change of government in mid-1993. At
one point, Isa Kamber, a former speaker of the Melli-Majlis, was
seized in the legislative chamber and held for two months. In
late 1993, other APF officials were reportedly arrested for
antigovernment activity, and Aliyev asserted that APF members
were plotting an armed uprising against him.
Based on these and other incidents, in late 1993 the
international human rights monitoring group Freedom House
downgraded Azerbaijan to the rank of world states adjudged "not
free." Nevertheless, Aliyev has proclaimed Azerbaijani adherence
to international human rights standards, and in December 1993 he
signed the CSCE Paris Accords on democracy and human rights.
News media censorship and other constraints on human rights,
tightened after Aliyev came to power, were eased somewhat in
September 1993 with the lifting of the national state of
emergency. In the face of a growing political crisis in late 1993
caused by heavy military losses, however, many in the Azerbaijani
government urged Aliyev to declare another period of emergency
rule. Instead, he announced several measures to "tighten public
discipline," including curfews and the creation of military
tribunals to judge military deserters and draft evaders.
In late November 1993, the legislature refused to pass an
Aliyev-backed press bill restricting news media freedom in the
name of ensuring national unity. Nevertheless, efforts to
restrict the media continued, and passage of a law on military
censorship in December 1993 raised concerns among journalists
that new restrictions would be imposed on a broad scale. At the
end of 1993, the only newspaper publishing house, Azerbaijan, was
under government control. The state was able to curtail the
supply of printing materials to independent publishers because
most of those items came from Russia. Meanwhile, rising prices
cut newspaper and magazine subscriptions by over 50 percent in
early 1994. Television, the preferred information source for most
Azerbaijanis, was controlled by the government, which operated
the only national television channel.
Data as of March 1994
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