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"After the European Games in Baku, people across the world will know that Azerbaijan is in Europe," Azerbaijani Sports Minister Azad Rahimov declared. The motivation was clear for Azerbaijan's multi-billion dollar effort to host the first European Games – the government wants to put the country on the map, writes Rayhan Demytrie, BBC South Caucasus correspondent.

With 6,000 European athletes competing in 20 sports at newly-built venues in the capital Baku, the official cost of the game stands at $1.2bn. But the real figure may be much higher. The Olympic Stadium alone cost more than $600 million. Moreover, Azerbaijan is covering travel and accommodation costs for all the athletes. To complete the party atmosphere, the transportation ministry announced that participants would enjoy free rides in hundreds of London cabs bought especially for the Games, Demytrie writes.

But, as the journalist writes, the European Games are being held against the backdrop of falling oil prices and the value of the national currency depreciating by a third. “When the majority of Azeris are finding it hard to make ends meet, all these lavish expenses are really irritating people," says Arastun Orujli, the head of the Baku-based East-West research centre. For the government the subject of the European Games has the highest priority. This is PR for the government. But from the economic point of view the Games are totally unprofitable, he highlights.

According to the article, a deadly fire in a high-rise Baku block of flats killed 15 people and injured dozens in May. The fire was caused by highly-flammable cladding material used to resurface more than 200 Soviet-era buildings in Baku. The fire was followed by the Azerbaijani users’ angry reaction on the social media. Numerous caricatures appeared online, mocking the government's obsession with the European Games, and accusing it of prioritizing image over safety. One depicts the mayor of Baku pointing at the building on fire with the caption: "I've lit the biggest Olympic torch."

Arastun Orujlu says the surface cladding is part of the government's practice of hiding the real appearance of how things are. The expert brought the example of a new road from Baku airport. Along the road the authorities have built a wall, which is lit at night and looks rather nice. “But the main objective was to hide poverty behind those walls, and to create an illusion of prosperity and development," Demytrie cites Orujlu.

Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights; Michel Forst, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human-rights defenders; and Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, published an article on the website of the organization Open Democracy. Athletes will rely on free and fair competition at the European Games. Yet outside the stadium there is no free competition of ideas and they can take a stand, the experts write.

The authors of the article hope the athletes, struggling for medals, will also stand up to halt the crackdown on human rights defenders occurring in the country. In recent years, and particularly during the last 12 months, expressing dissent or scrutinizing the powerful has become a very risky business in Azerbaijan. “A great number of journalists and human rights activists have been under immense pressure and lost their freedom at the hands of a political system intolerant of criticism,” the international experts write.

According to the article, the most symbolic case of the government crackdowns is that of Rasul Jafarov, the head of a non-governmental organization. He organized a campaign called ‘Sing for Democracy’ in the run-up to the Eurovision Song contest, which Azerbaijan hosted in 2012. He had planned to organize a new campaign called ‘Sports for Rights’ ahead of the European Games to support democracy through sport. Instead, he has spent the last ten months in detention on charges that defy all credibility. In April he was sentenced to 6.5 years of imprisonment for tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of authority.

Leyla Yunus—one of Azerbaijan’s most renowned human-rights defenders and one of three finalists for the latest European Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought—is also spending her days in pre-trial detention, charged with state treason, fraud, forgery and tax evasion. She is living in clear distress and with serious health conditions such as diabetes, Hepatitis C, and kidney problems. Her husband, Arif, is also since August 2014 in a prison of the Ministry of National Security. The couple have not been allowed to meet since their arrest, the publication reads.

Khadija Ismayilova, a prominent investigative journalist won in April 2015 two prestigious awards for her reports on corruption and for her fight for freedom of expression. She learned the news in Kurdakhani prison, where she has been kept since December, 2014. Initially accused of inciting suicide, new bogus charges of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of authority were brought against her in February. On 14 May, 2015 her pre-trial detention was extended for three more months, the independent experts write.

“This wave of repression also targets foreigners. Journalists, members of non-governmental organisations and UN officials have also experienced first-hand the callous arsenal of intimidation, harassment and obstruction the Azerbaijani authorities have put in place to stifle criticism,” the article reads.

The representatives of the international organizations highlight that they have co-operated with these activists and journalists over the years and know them well. They are far from being criminals. The reality is that the rule of law has been twisted to justify repression: criminal prosecutions have been initiated to punish those who dissent; legislation has been introduced to restrict the activities of non-governmental organizations; the police have been used to repress peaceful protesters. Practically all the partners of human rights organizations have been detained, subjected to pressure or have fled the country as a consequence of the reprisals the authorities orchestrated against them.

The Azerbaijani opposition party Musavat issued a statement calling on the European leaders not to take part in the opening ceremony of the first European Games in Baku, news portal Caucasian Knot reports.

Still in 2014, Musavat made a decision to call on European states’ leaders not to take part in the opening ceremony of the Games if political reforms were not made in the country and the political prisoners were not freed, the statement of the party reads, according to Caucasian Knot.

“Sadly, our calls remained unheeded. The Azerbaijani authorities ignored them. The human rights situation deteriorated ahead of the European Games, the political prisoners were not freed, and the politically motivated arrests are going on. With such behavior – gross violations of human rights, failing to provide with fundamental freedoms and release the political prisoners – the authorities actually create serious grounds for the international community to boycott the European Games,” Musavat’s statement reads.

Elman Fattakh, the Deputy Chairman of party Musavat, told Caucasian Knot correspondent that while the European Games are held under the auspices of the Olympic movement whose key ideas are the freedom and the respect for the human dignity, the Games in Azerbaijan are held against the backdrop of human rights violations, criminal persecution and imprisonment of dozens of activists, human rights defenders and journalists. “The European leaders must not be indifferent towards the trampling of the European democratic values,” he said.

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