The Azerbaijani authorities should immediately investigate the expulsion of an international election-training team from Nakhchivan and the beating of four women’s rights advocates there, Human Rights Watch said today. The events took place two weeks before Azerbaijan’s October 15 presidential elections.
“There can’t be free and fair elections when rights advocates are beaten and international voter educators are expelled,” said Rachel Denber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. “The authorities in Azerbaijan must act now to stop intimidation and interference in the presidential election process, and these abuses must be investigated.”
The incidents in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave wedged between Armenia and Turkey, follow months of harassment of political activists, journalists, and other civil society actors during the lead-up to the national elections.
The women’s rights advocates—including Novella Jafaroglu, chair of the Association for the Protection of Women’s Rights; Saadat Benaniarly, head of the Azerbaijan chapter of the International Society for Human Rights; and Sadagat Pashaeva, a staff member of the Association for the Protection of Women’s Rights—had set up the election-training team’s workshops for young voters in Nakhchivan. They had also been operating a women’s rights resource center in the enclave.
On September 25, Jafaroglu, Benaniarly and Pashaeva went to Nakhchivan to open Bizim Nakhchivan, the first independent newspaper in the enclave. The launch of the newspaper, founded by Jafaroglu, was attended by a number of international representatives, including officials from the U.S. Embassy and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Hours before a team of six Serbian election educators, who came to Nakhchivan on a project sponsored by the Open Society Institute, were to arrive on September 27, Jafaroglu, Benaniarly, Pashaeva and Melhat Nassibova, the director of the Nakhchivan human rights resource center, arrived at the center to find a group of about 50 women in front of the building. As the four got out of their vehicle, one of the women outside shouted at them, “Are you the ones who brought the Americans and the Europeans here? We need only Iran, because Iran feeds us?” The crowd of women then attacked the activists, beating them and pelting them with tomatoes. The four then ran into the resource center and called the police, who appeared only an hour later.
When police and security officials finally arrived, they advised the four that they leave Nakhchivan, saying they could not guarantee their security. The activists explained that they were expecting their Serbian guests and could not leave.
The next morning Jafaroglu, Benaniarly, and Pashaeva went to Nakhchivan airport, where they were again attacked. They were about to board their plane when a woman approached them and said, “Yes, leave, and never come back again!” She then began to beat the women. A crowd of others who had been lingering nearby soon joined in the beating. Saadat Benaniarly, one of the activists, told Human Rights Watch: “Novella was on the floor, and they were kicking her and throwing eggs and tomatoes at us, all of the contents of their bags. A woman was beating me, and I was holding on to a steel pipe, trying not to fall. Another woman came and started beating my head into the pipe. Sadaget [Pashaeva] had her head banged into the floor.” The women were beaten for about 15 minutes.
During the incident, government security personnel at the airport disappeared and did nothing to attempt to stop the beatings. Pointing to the unwillingness of the local authorities and the airport security personnel to come to their assistance, the women believe that the attacks were organized by the Nakhchivan local administration. The women filed a complaint with security officials in the capital, Baku.
Earlier this year, several Baku-based Azerbaijani human rights defenders endured numerous incidents of mob attacks, physical harassment and intimidation that appeared to have been instigated by the authorities. (https://www.hrw.org/press/2003/05/azer053003ltr.htm)
Also on September 28, the team of Serbian election educators were prevented from carrying out three scheduled workshops aimed at educating young voters. Police came to the training at the Nakhchivan resource center and ordered the participants to leave. They ordered a second team of Serbian election educators on the road to Ordubat to turn around. Security officials then told the observers that they would not be allowed to conduct their workshops or stay in Nakhchivan, and ordered them to leave the enclave, took them to the airport, and put them on a flight to Baku.
International aid workers were summarily expelled from Nakhchivan. In June 2003, Nakhchivan authorities expelled a Swiss development worker and his Azerbaijani counterpart who had come to investigate the tourism potential of the region, after the two were met at the airport by Melahat Nassibova, the head of the women’s resource center.
“The government should be facilitating election-monitoring, not attacking it,” said Denber. “This is particularly true for Nakhchivan, where fraud was rampant during the 2000 parliamentary elections.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Azerbaijani authorities to immediately investigate the attacks on the women’s rights advocates—in particular the role of local authorities in organizing or failing to prevent the attacks—and the expulsion of the Serbian election team from Nakhchivan. Human Rights Watch also called on the Azerbaijani authorities to take greater steps to create a presidential election climate free of intimidation and interference from local and national authorities.
