In the "law and order" handbook of Azerbaijan's police, you might think that "blogger" is a synonym for drug addicts or street bullies. On September 29, the police detained yet another blogger, Zaur Qurbanly, and, yes, on suspicion of possession of narcotics.
But maybe it makes sense to them. If Qurbanly was not high on something, then why would he be bashing the government and be involved in the Nida youth opposition movement? Was he not the guy handing out flyers with President Ilham Aliyev’s silhouette captioned “I Will Go in 2013 if You Join Nida”?
But that’s not the full list of the blogger’s heinous offenses, the thinking, no doubt, goes. He had the gall to criticize the government for making the poetry of President Aliyev’s elder daughter, Leyla, about her grandfather (the late President Heydar Aliyev ) a compulsory read in Azerbaijani schools.
Again, must be the drugs, Azerbaijani cops might say . . .
Granted, the police think they know what they're dealing with when it comes to bloggers. Back in 2009, there were those two foreign-educated intellectuals (who just happened to have criticized Aliyev's government online) picking a drunken fight with several men in a restaurant.
Then, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Baku was followed by an after-party of arrests of some troubled youth, who, again, had just happened to criticize the government online.
But that’s what blogging does to you -- alcohol, anger and drugs. Yet Azerbaijan, it appears, believes it has hit on an option for blogger rehab. It's called prison, and Baku is implementing treatment accordingly.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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