Angry demonstrators in Cairo most definitely don’t have the right to vote in Azerbaijan. But officials in Baku seem to be acting these days as though they do.
Like many Azerbaijanis, Elnura Jivazade, a resident of the Baku suburb of Khirdalan, is watching Egypt’s political upheaval closely. But unlike most Azerbaijanis, Jivazade sees Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak each morning. His statue, a symbol of Azerbaijani-Egyptian friendship, stands in a Khirdalan park that she passes each weekday on her way to work.
The recent releases of two jailed bloggers in Azerbaijan raised hopes that President Ilham Aliyev’s administration might be adopting a more lenient stance on independent journalists.
Complete shock reigned in the Baku Court of Appeals on November 18 when the prosecution announced no objections to the release of imprisoned blogger and youth activist Adnan Hajizade. But the announcement was no mistake. After serving 16 months on charges of hooliganism, Hajizade is now free from prison.
In the aftermath of Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections on November 7, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said "the country needs to do much more to make progress in developing a truly pluralist democracy." Khadija Ismaiylova of RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service spoke about the vote and the future of democracy in Azerbaijan with Ambassador Audrey Glover, head of the OSCE's Office
With the preliminary results in, Azerbaijan’s November 7 parliamentary voting saw only one clear opposition candidate gain a seat in the country’s 125-member parliament. Independent election monitors say they observed numerous irregularities during the voting.
Each night in Azerbaijan, thousands of families are tuning in on television to watch the next installment in what has become a de facto smash hit series – debates involving the 688 candidates in the November 7 parliamentary elections.
With just over two weeks to go for Azerbaijan’s November 7 parliamentary vote, a race that pits Baku State University’s prominent rector against a onetime law professor is proving a test case for the maxim that a little education is a dangerous thing.
BAKU -- On the drive between Baku's international airport and the capital center, travelers are met by a brigade of sleek roadside signs advertising a company called SW Holding.
But as innocuous as the posters may appear, they represent a company that enjoys a near-complete monopoly over every aspect of airline service.
