Activists doubt Azerbaijan`s opening up through sport

Baku: Sport and politics do mix when the Azerbaijan hosts of the first European Games are accused by rights groups of putting on the "Games of Repression."

"These Games could be an opportunity to express oneself, but we cannot do anything, the police are everywhere," said young Azeri rights activist Bahruz Samedov.

The Azerbaijan government, using its considerable oil and gas wealth, has used the European Games, which have brought 6,000 athletes from across the continent to Baku, as a kind of opening up to the world. Amnesty International have called the event the "Games of Repression" however.

Samedov, an emaciated 20-year-old languages student, walks easily enough through the streets of Baku without being stopped but he says that is not the reality and he is watched constantly by the police.

However, the power of modern communications is the most powerful weapon for Samedov and about 300 opposition members in the Nida organisation, whose Facebook page has 50,000 followers.

His goal is to denounce human rights violations, police violence, random arrests and misinformation under the government of Ilham Aliyev, who replaced his late father Heydar Aliyev in an election in 2003 and has since been re-elected three times, each time amid questions about the vote.

Whilst accusations of human rights infractions are legion Aliyev has not closed Twitter, Facebook and other forms of internet communication unlike other governments in the region.

The Azerbaijan government is also, according to foreigners who have lived here for several years, more liberal than neighbouring Russia on homosexuality.

This is of little import to Samedov and his fellow crusaders however.
"We want to change the daily life of the people and maybe the regime," said Samedov.

"What I want is change. We want democracy, freedom of expression. A normal life," he added.

Moments later he joined fellow Nida members in a small apartment set in a courtyard. One of them is Shirin Tire, a blogger with a fearless reputation in his home country.

His speciality is to put on line videos denouncing police violence.

"Here, when the police receive orders, they can attack everybody, including family members," said Tire.

"If it is necessary they can do it in a brutal manner," added Tire, backing his statement with a video of police beating protesters.

The risks that Samedov and Tire run are reflected in the prison sentences handed down in May 2014 to eight other Nida members.

They received between six and eight years behind bars for public order offences, and for possession of drugs and arms.

"It is like the Soviet Union," observed Samedov.

"In this country, there is a line drawn in the sand and if you cross it, it is over for you.

"You can do nothing, you cannot find work. If you continue on your activism path and you become popular, it is prison."

One such example is elderly sports professor Elchan Gassanov, who was imprisoned for a year in 2011 after being arrested at a protest march.

He said he has been unable to find a job in the past 10 years because of his political activism and that he is forbidden to leave the country.

"Freedom in Azerbaijan does not exist," said Gassanov, seated by a chimney which bears the photos of imprisoned activists.

"We don`t have the right to speak, we cannot do anything, it is a joke.

"Today, everyone is in prison, even those who help the activists, like their lawyers.

"I will not watch the Games because I refuse to watch state television," added Gassanov, who says there are 82 political prisoners when Amnesty say there are just 20.