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European Grand Prix Formula 1 started in Azerbaijan on June 17. The competitions have created great inconveniences for Baku citizens. The traffic on the race track and adjoining streets is stopped, Turan news agency reports.

At the same time, Azerbaijani bureau of RFE/RL writes that the chance to earn money by renting out balconies is one of the few ways for Baku citizens to gain some benefit from Azerbaijani authorities’ another attempt to become a world center of sports and entertainment.

The Azerbaijani government managed to build a 6-kilometer circuit in the heart of the city where only few people can afford a place in the tribunes. The tickets cost from 99 to 665 dollars and are affordable only for the Azerbaijani elite. 

Meanwhile, Turan notes that the officials seem to have forgotten about their attempts to preserve the old Baku regions, and they covered separate streets with a thick asphalt layer. It will let the bolides compete near the most beautiful city sights and medieval stone fortress; however, it “rejuvenates” the old region.
Motorsport.com writes that Formula One Group head Bernie Ecclestone does not pay attention to human rights defenders’ words. 

“The minute people tell me what human rights are then you can have a look at them and see how and when and where it applies. Do any of you know what human rights are?” Ecclestone said.

Meanwhile, international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement saying that for the second summer in a row, Azerbaijan is hosting a glitzy global sporting event against the backdrop of a massive crackdown against its own citizens. 

“Since 2014 Azerbaijani government has arrested and prosecuted dozens of journalists, lawyers, and political activists on trumped up charges to prevent them from doing their legitimate work of reporting and distributing information of public interest,” Jane Buchanan, HRW associate director of Europe and Central Asia Division, said.

According to Buchanan, although a number of individuals, including the investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, have been released in recent months, many others remain in prison, and arrests continue. Some of those released face restrictions on their work, including travel bans.

It is reminded that Formula 1 publicly states that it “is committed to respecting internationally recognized human rights in its operations globally.” However, on the eve of the race, Formula 1 Chief Bernie Ecclestone stunningly claimed that the group has a “100 percent” clear conscience on human rights in Azerbaijan.
“To live up to its stated principles and avoid being tarnished by association with ugly repression, the Formula 1 leadership needs to find its voice on human rights before Sunday’s checkered flag leaves Azerbaijan’s crackdown victims in the dust,” Buchanan highlighted.

The first Formula 1 round started in Baku, and in the very first turn, an accident took placewith 6 bolides crashing, Vzglyad.az reports.

In an interview with Day.az, the Australian Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo stated that there are many difficult turns on the track, and he did not understand how the accident happened.

Haqqin.az writes that on June 17, the 30-minute qualifying session of GP2 started in time, however, the drivers had hardly left the boxes when they had to go back immediately because of red flags.

There were problems with borders, which seriously damaged the tire-covers. The International Automobile Federation’s (FIA) inspection stated that it was necessary to conduct works for eliminating the curb (border) problems.

The Caucasian Knot reports that Baku citizens' opinions of the Formula 1 races differ. “In such situations, we did not need Formula 1 at all. We experienced two devaluations during the past year. Life has significantly worsened, especially for people who have credits in dollars. In such cases, it was better to direct the money spent on Formula 1 to the solution of the nation’s problems,” Baku citizen Samira Hasanadze told the website.
Citizen Sakit Mammadov thinks that the race is “another show.” “Our authorities like to engage in shows. They organize Eurovision or European Games, and now – the race. In any case, these events are not self-supporting, and as a result, the nation pays off,” Mammadov said.

The Formula 1 European Grand Prix will run in the heart of the Azerbaijani capital. The likes of Pharrell Williams, Chris Brown and Enrique Iglesias were slated to entertain race fans, helping to promote the ruling Aliyev family’s projection of the country as a happy, normal nation, Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova writes on the website of the Washington Post.

However, the journalist writes that Azerbaijan is a country that runs on corruption. Officials can be bought and sold, blind eyes can be turned and crimes can be overlooked if the price is right.

Ismayilova reminds her readers that the real reason she was in jail was that, as a journalist, she had investigated these same crimes by the Aliyev family.

 "In jail, I met a woman who had, for years, smuggled heroin between Iran and Azerbaijan. She ended up doing this because her husband had been ill and the hospitals had demanded bribes to treat him. She had been caught several times but managed to avoid prison until now,” Ismayilova writes.

According to the journalist, that woman never felt like protesting against prison conditions or the corruption that led her to smuggle drugs. She did not protest, as she was afraid.

The journalist notes that the woman was right. Money can buy criminals freedom or fewer years in prison. Political prisoners are not able to make these deals.

“My currency in prison could have been my silence. Basic rights would be granted to me in return for my promise to stop writing. I didn’t agree and continued writing even from prison. Publication of my articles resulted in searches, interrogation and even more restrictions on my communications. Before and after every meeting with my lawyers and family, I was strip-searched. Every single note and piece of paper from these meetings was scrutinized, despite legal guarantees of confidentiality,” Ismayilova notes.

The Azerbaijani authorities are desperate to put forward the image of Azerbaijan as a liberal, pluralistic country. “Meanwhile, they spend money the country doesn’t have (falling oil prices have dramatically affected incomes) on international sporting mega-events with which they aim to dazzle the world. I wonder whether Pharrell Williams and the other entertainers in Baku this weekend for the Grand Prix will pause to ask ordinary Azerbaijanis whether they are happy, or whether they want to see such prestige events in a country that has failed to establish a basic medical insurance system for its citizens,” Ismayilova writes.

Meanwhile, the website of the Mexican newspaper El Financiero writes that the Formula 1 European Grand Prix is held in Azerbaijan against the backdrop of human rights crisis. 

It is noted that in April 2015, the Formula 1 management signed a deal, according to which the race will be held in countries that “respect human rights.”

However, the human rights situation in Azerbaijan is not in conformity with that statement at all. International human rights organizations repeatedly noted in their reports that the Azerbaijani authorities arrest journalists and activists and put obstacles in the way of non-governmental organizations’ (NGO) activities.

“President Ilham Aliyev’s regime limits access to information. There have always been such problems in the country since the proclamation of independence in 1991,” Manuel Ferez, Geopolitics expert on the Caucasus and Middle East, stated.

It is also reminded in the article that earlier, huge international events, like Eurovision Song Contest 2012 and European Games 2015, were organized in the country. Now the Formula 1 Grand Prix is held there.

Meanwhile, Reid Standish writes on the website of the influential American journal Foreign Policy that independent media outlet Meydan TV is hoping the street race will expose the world to more than Baku's architecture, by using the race track as a guide to Azerbaijan's endemic corruption, deteriorating press freedom, and beleaguered human rights activists. 

 According to the article, the Aliyev regime cares deeply about its image abroad - especially in the West - and the auto race is widely believed to be a pet project of the president. The government of Azerbaijan is known as one of the biggest-spending foreign lobbies in American and European politics.

It is reminded that according to investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, such events are an avenue for government corruption at home. In her opinion, the authorities make money of all that. "The Aliyev family owns restaurants and hotels, it is essentially a money-laundering opportunity,” she said.

European Gran Prix is held in Baku from June 17 to 19. Earlier, a number of international media outlets and human rights organizations stated about the inadmissibility of holding Formula 1 in Azerbaijan due to the authorities’ repressions against the civil society, persecution of human rights defenders, independent journalists, and other critics of the regime. Journalist Molly Scott wrote on New Internationalist website that Azerbaijan’s government ignores its citizens’ basic rights, and tha Formula 1 fans should demand to cancel the race scheduled for Baku in 2016. International news agency Reuters noted that the sporting extravaganza began to irritate the Azerbaijani society in conditions of serious economic crisis.