A group of American experts and politicians have written an open letter to Secretary of State John Kerry expressing their concern over human rights in Azerbaijan.
“We are alarmed by the deteriorating human rights situation in Azerbaijan. Arrests and detentions of journalists, civil society and human rights activists, religious believers, and opposition figures have multiplied; Azerbaijan now has twice as many political prisoners as Russia and Belarus combined,” the letter reads.
They called on U.S.to impose a visa ban and asset freeze on senior Azerbaijani government officials responsible for and involved in gross human rights abuses, and to block trade promotion assistance—Export-Import Bank and OPIC support—to Azerbaijani state-owned entities.
“We believe that the United States should inform the government of Azerbaijan that it needs to take the following steps in order to secure withdrawal of these sanctions and avoid potentially more serious actions in the future:
- Release all political prisoners and those imprisoned for practicing their non-violent religious beliefs and grant them full political rehabilitation.
- Cease harassment and intimidation of family members of opposition activists, human rights defenders, and their lawyers.
- Respect the rights of journalists to do their job unhindered.
- End the campaign against domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations and stop the push for legislation that would restrict the activities and funding of NGOs.
- Create the conditions for free and fair parliamentary elections later this year.
- Permit foreign broadcasters to resume operations without fear of state harassment and raids.
We hope that Azerbaijan will succeed as a democratic state fully integrated into the international community. We hope that stronger ties will develop between Azerbaijan and countries in the West. We support efforts to resolve peacefully the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But none of this is possible as long as Azerbaijan continues down the authoritarian path it is currently on. The government of Azerbaijan cannot be both a respected member of the international community and a repressive, kleptocratic autocracy. It must choose.
