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After one authoritarian regime in Ukraine was toppled, America tries to overpower another dictatorship in the region – Russia with the help of small satellite dictatorships like Azerbaijan, arrested Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova writes in her letter published on the website of the project to support human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan - Report on Human Rights and Freedoms.

The journalist writes that the world is no longer naive enough to turn a blind eye to such playing with moral values. The corrupt Azerbaijani regime is well prepared to gain from this game. While there is a boycott of Russia, the Aliyevs are ready to offer oil and gas to desperate European suppliers. This brings more money, not only to the Azerbaijani budget that is going through its own crisis due to declining oil prices, but also to the personal budget of the corrupt Aliyev regime.

“And when Azerbaijan becomes an indispensible energy partner, the world is ready to forget about its lack of democracy, political prisoners, human rights issues, etc. When the regime is visited by European and American officials, no criticism or even a call to release political prisoners had been made (at least publicly) during these visits. No matter that the targeted groups, the NGOs that were shut down, the activists arrested, were all linked to EU and US organizations,” Ismayilova writes pointing out to US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s visit during which there was no public mention of RFE/RL shutdown and prosecution. She praised the fake dialogue show of Ilham Aliyev with pocket opposition, while the regime put forward another set of accusations against RFE/RL radio and Khadija Ismayilova.

The journalist stresses that she has expectations from democratic institutions and countries, though their inaction hurts. She reminds that before she got arrested she made it clear that she does not want any bargaining or private diplomacy for she does not believe in human rights advocacy behind closed doors. She wants public and loud speeches.

“’Thanks’ to the ‘privacy’ of their efforts, the Council of Europe and OSCE helped the Azerbaijani government to silence all critics and create a false show of human rights,” she writes.  

In her letter she notes that she faces ridiculous charges. RFE/RL, although it is a non-commercial entity and registered accordingly, is portrayed in Ismayilova’s charges as “illegal entrepreneurship.” The prosecutors claim that Ismayilova is an illegal entrepreneur, as she was supposed to be registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to have the right to work as a journalist with foreign media (although as a freelancer).

Ismayilova highlights that these are the new charges, all related to her work with RFE/RL as a bureau chief and freelancer. Previously there was a charge of driving someone to suicide. The alleged victim later disappeared after saying publicly he would not participate or testify against her any more.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani information agency Turan published the letter the journalist sent to RFE/RL. 

“They put a flower and a bar of chocolate in the cell. This is how the penitentiary congratulated the three women kept in jail on their 8th March,” Ismayilova wrote. She thinks the Penitentiary could have congratulated the women in a different way, publishing the statistics of the prosecution of women.

According to Turan, the journalist herself describes the portrait of the detained women in the following way: Southern region - mainly convicted under Article 234 (illegal drug trafficking); those convicted for early marriages and criminal negligence; women forced into committing a crime by men; prisoners of love and jealousy.

“When 20 years ago we the journalists were writing about the problems of the Southern region and early marriages, then the current results are objective,” Ismayilova writes. She says that now those problems are also common in the Northern region, and they will soon spread all over the country.