Azerbaijan

Elmira Ismayilova is Azerbaijani. But ask her native land and she will tell you Yerevan.

The Armenian capital is where her grandparents and great-grandparents lived for decades, the city where she became an actress, got married, and raised children.

But despite her family’s deep roots in Yerevan, Ismayilova says she was always aware she was viewed as an outsider.

Hilal Mamedov, who is currently on trial in Baku on charges of spying for Iran, fuelling inter-ethnic hatred, and illegal possession of drugs, has been awarded the Azerbaijan Institute of Peace and Democracy’s Isakhan Ashurov Prize in recognition of his human rights engagement.

Harsh suppression of opposition protests. A crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs. And a formal request to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to downgrade its Baku office.

BRUSSELS -- The European Commission has presented its annual European Neighborhood Package, detailing political and economic development in its six eastern neighbors, as well as countries in the southern Mediterranean.

The package will be a key factor in determining how much EU funds that will be granted to the individual member states later this year.

Russia is rankling President Ilham Aliyev’s administration in Azerbaijan by backing a new lobbying group that is stacked with Diaspora power-brokers. Officials and analysts in Baku believe the Kremlin is trying to find a way to meddle in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs.

Azerbaijani blogger Emin Milli is a rising star in his country’s rapidly growing opposition movement. He is widely known as the "donkey blogger" for his role in a now-famous video lampooning President Ilham Aliyev’s government -- a video many believe was the real reason he was recently jailed for 16 months.

The government of Azerbaijan, backed by activists abroad, is engaging in a campaign to gain international recognition of the 1992 massacre of over 400 Azeri civilians by Armenian forces in the village of Khojaly during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The International Olympic Committee’s proposal to boot wrestling from the 2020 Summer Olympic Games is creating waves in the South Caucasus, especially in Georgia, where the sport is known for producing medals and glory.

Azerbaijan’s efforts to host the European Olympic Games  and other high-profile international events show that Azerbaijani leaders yearn to be taken seriously in European Union capitals. But that doesn’t mean Baku is willing to listen to Brussels.

With eight months to go before Azerbaijan holds a presidential election, a series of recent initiatives suggests citizens are becoming more politically active, and Facebook, along with other social networking platforms, is shaping up as a campaign wild card.