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PAST EVENT: Azerbaijan – 20 Years of Independence and the Struggle for Democracy

Date: Tuesday 20 Oct
Time: 6-7.30pm
Venue: Committee Room 6, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
To attend please RSVP to: [email protected]

By kind invitation of Paul Flynn MP, the Henry Jackson Society is pleased to invite you to a discussion with John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director of Amnesty International, Murad Gassanly, co-founder and Acting Director of Azerbaijan Democratic Association, UK, and Michael Harris, Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship. John, Murad and Michael all have extensive experience in this area and will be addressing the key questions now facing Azerbaijan. Can the situation in Azerbaijan change? Is there hope for a democratic transformation and economic justice? What can Britain (Azerbaijan’s chief foreign investor) and the wider international community do to facilitate progress?”

John Dalhuisen is currently a Deputy Programme Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International. He has previously worked as a researcher on discrimination in Europe and also on the Caucasus.

Murad Gassanly is a British-Azerbaijani political activist, co-founder and Acting Director of Azerbaijan Democratic Association, UK. In the 2005 parliamentary elections he served as a senior political advisor to the Azerbaijani opposition coalition “Azadliq”.

Michael Harris is a human rights lobbyist. He is Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship and lobbies for the Libel Reform Campaign, a campaign to liberalise England’s defamation laws. He has worked behind the scenes on investigative journalism into political corruption.

Azerbaijan: Journalist’s relatives beaten, home demolished

Relatives of an Azerbaijani journalist were severely beaten while they attempted to prevent his house from being demolished by heavy machinery. Idrak Abbasov’s house was targeted for demolition amid accusations that it had been built illegally. The attack on 9 September was carried out by security personnel from the state-owned Binagadi Oil Company, whose activities were being investigated by the reporter. Abbasov’s family were beaten with clubs during the attack, and three of his relatives were admitted to hospital. Video footage here.

Azerbaijan: Reporter abducted, forced to cross Iranian border

A journalist claims he was kidnapped and expelled from Azerbaijan. Yafez Hasanov, an Azerbaijani correspondent from Radio Azadliq, part of Radio Free Europe, was in Naxcivan investigating the death of airport technician Turaz Zeynalov, when he was abducted by three men. The suspects — who were driving a vehicle similar to those used by government security officials — told him that if he returned to Naxcivan, it would “cost him.” The men branded Zeynalov, who died after being summoned to the National Security Ministry, a “traitor.” Hasanov was taken to the Iranian border and told to return to Baku via Iran, where RFE is considered an illegal organisation.