subject: "Donkey process in Azerbaijan is laughable" [print this page] Late last month, a group of Azeri bloggers posted on the internet mocking his opus - a video in which a donkey holds a press conference in front of reporters nodding seriously.
Dressed in a loose gray suit Adnan Gadjizaadeh praises luxurious life that awaits donkeys in Azerbaijan. To his audience of young Azerbaijanis cosmopolitan who followed Gadjizaadeh comments on blogs and networks like Facebook, the video was a mischievous mockery of the government, which is subjected to severe criticism in the local media for having to pay exorbitant prices for goods imported from abroad donkeys.
26-year-old Gadjizaadeh and his companion, 30-year-old activist Emin Milli, were arrested last week in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. This event, according to their supporters, may be a signal to start the repressive actions against the online media. According to the authorities of Azerbaijan, these two young men attacked a group of men, although witnesses have disputed the allegations. Gadjizaadeh and Millie awaiting trial on charges of hooliganism, and they run from one to five years in prison.
According to the lawyer Gadjizaadeh, young people together with friends on Wednesday evening were in the restaurant and there were political disputes, when two strangers have interrupted their conversation and began to fight. Gadjizaadeh and Millie went to the police a statement about the attack, but the investigator opened a criminal case against them, the statement said counsel.
When American and German diplomats have expressed concern about the arrests, the authorities of Azerbaijan made on Tuesday with a sharp statement, urging "foreign embassies to stop interfering in the investigation" and describing the arrests as "an ordinary case of hooliganism," which has no political motive .
"At these sites in Azerbaijani society is not sympathetic, they do not raise much interest, at least, we will not notice it, - said a senior aide of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan, Ali Hasanov - I honestly never heard of these young people" .
In Azerbaijan, as well as throughout the region, as the collapse of press freedom becomes more and more Internet users. In circumstances where the Government of Azerbaijan in recent years strengthened its position thanks to exorbitant oil prices, opposition voices have almost disappeared from public life. Television, which is primarily funded by competing oligarchs, came under strict state control, and advertisers away from newspapers that criticize the government. In connection with this website, especially on foreign registered servers and inaccessible to block the authorities were "the ultimate source of information", as stated by a former journalist, 27-year-old Maharram Zeynalov.
Milly and Gadjizaadeh returned to Baku after studying at universities in Germany and the U.S., and ended up in a wide and diverse range of pro-Western oriented youth. Millie opened the online channel. Gadjizaadeh, who worked in the department of public relations company BP, has created a youth organization "Ol", and began studying videosatiroy, although his father, who is a prominent member of the opposition, warned his son, as far as it is dangerous.
"I always told him:" Be careful, son, be careful, "- says Hikmet Gadjizaadeh, who once served as ambassador of Azerbaijan in Russia - I told him about it. But in our situation, no one knows where the danger" .
Senior Project Manager of the National Endowment for Democracy (National Endowment for Democracy) Lanskoy Miriam (Miriam Lanskoy) - and the organization sponsored the motion Gadjizaadeh - said that the arrests came as a surprise, because their victims were well educated and relatively wealthy people who read the sources of information Internet.
"These authorities seem to say the cream of the youth society, that they can not express themselves, - said Lanskoy - Azerbaijan is trying to keep these young people. And this kind of a signal in her address."
