Recent legislative efforts in Azerbaijan to protect the privacy of President Ilham Aliyev and his family are coming at the expense of investors, both foreign and domestic.
Azerbaijan has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest and has obtained a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Now officials in Baku seem intent on raising the country’s profile as an international donor.
With two weeks to go until Azerbaijan hosts the Eurovision 2012 Song Contest, official preparations are wrapping up in Baku. But the Azerbaijani government is not the only party getting ready for the event. Civil society activists are hard at work, too.
In the run-up to next month’s Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, the Azerbaijani authorities have relaxed the draconian restrictions on public demonstrations that have been in place since November 2006, i.e. before the reelection of President Ilham Aliyev for a second presidential term.
Azerbaijani writers and civil society activists are expressing concern about what they describe as dwindling space for public discourse on the role of Islam in Azerbaijan.
On the eve of an Amnesty International report that takes Azerbaijan to task for restrictions on individual liberty, Azerbaijani legislators on November 15 imposed stiff state controls on religious activity. Political analysts see the government’s meddling in the realm of faith as an effort to limit neighboring Iran’s ability to influence Azerbaijani affairs.
