May 7-10, the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation arranged a party leadership visit to Brussels for the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA). The goal with the visit was to strengthen the party’s contacts with European institutions and politicians. NIPA is an opposition party to the Azeri dictatorship and since many years a member of the International Democrat Union (IDU). One of the party’s goals for its international cooperation is to become an observer member of the European People’s Party (EPP). (more…)
New Thematic Page about Azerbaijan
May 2nd, 2012 Azerbaijan |The Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation has resently launched a thematic page aboutAzerbaijan called Democracy for Azerbaijan. Developments in Azerbaijan causes concern regarding human rights but also the political opposition’s ability to operate.
The thematic page is meant to serve as information hub for facts about Azerbaijan.
Go to Democracy for Azerbaijan
The Foundation has also organized two seminars on Azerbaijan
in Örebro on March 16 (in English)
in Stockholm on April 27 (in Swedish)
The Foundation has also published an interview report (March 2012) about the developments Azerbaijan.
Hans-Gunnar Adén (left) and Gunnar Hökmark
MEP Gunnar Hökmark who recently visited Azerbaijan in his role as chairman of the Policy Committee of Euronests Parliamentary Assembly and Hans-Gunnar Adén, former ambassador to Azerbaijan participated on Friday in a seminar on developments in Azerbaijan. An interested crowd of about 30 people had gathered to listen and ask questions.
Hans-Gunnar Adén started out referring to a number of international index that “classify” Azerbaijan as unfree and as a dictatorship. He noted that the Azerbaijani society rather go backwards than forwards in terms such as human rights. (more…)
NIPA Demands Investigation into Beating of Journalist
April 20th, 2012 Azerbaijan | News | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)On April18, 2012, Azerbaijani journalist Idrak Abbasov was severely beaten by guards from Azerbaijan’s state oil company when he tried to film the demolition of houses by company employees in the village Sulutapa. The demolition seems, as numerous buildings in Azerbaijan, to have been expropriated to make way for new government projects. A number of international journalist organizations, such as Reporters without Borders and PEN, have protested against the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA) of the democratic opposition. NIPA is the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation’s cooperation partner in Azerbaijan.
(more…)
In 2011 European Stability Initiative published the report Generation Facebook in Baku. Please visit the homepage of ESA for further reading about Azerbaijan and analysis about the developments in the country.
“Visit the Political Opposition When Visiting Baku!”
April 11th, 2012 Azerbaijan | News | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)
It is disturbing that President Aliyev seems to have changed his mind in regards to Azerbaijan’s cooperation with the EU. Earlier he talked about a wish to become members of the EU in the future. Today he wants his country to be an ally of the EU. It looks like he wants to have the advantages of geopolitically belonging to the West but not wanting to abandon the “privileges” of a dictatorship”, said MEP Gunnar Hökmark who recently visited Baku as chairman of the Policy Committee of Euronests Parliamentary Assembly.
He explains that the Azerbaijani government doesn’t want to comply with the requirements the EU imposes on a democracy. (more…)
Report on Azerbaijan prior to Eurovision Song Contest
March 16th, 2012 Azerbaijan | Seminars | Uncategorized |
Thomas Gür holds up the JHS-report on Azerbaijan. To his left,Fuad Muxtarli and to his right Gerald Knaus.
The Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation has during the last ten years been supporting democracy in Azerbaijan. An authoritarian state in which the political opposition only can work within the narrow conditions of the regime. The foundation’s partner in the country is the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA).
Due to the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Baku on May 26, the JHS arranged a seminar at the Moderate Party’s Annual Conference for Regional and Local politicians in Örebro on Mars 16 and presented a new report on the political situation in the country. Fuad Muxtarli, former international secretary for the opposition party NIPA and Gerald Knaus, chairman of the think tank European Stability Initiative (ESI) participated in the discussion, led by Thomas Gür, senior advisor to JHS.
The ESI will in the end of Mars release a report on the political situation in Azerbaijan and the regime’s relation with the Council of Europe. The report will be available on www.esiweb.org
The seminar on Azerbaijan was well-attended and even more people watched it live on the web.
The conversation focused on the roll of the political opposition and its possibilities to work under President Aliyev and his authoritarian regime. How journalists are persecuted and use self-censorship was also discussed, as was the election frauds taking place on various levels. “You almost can’t believe that it is true,” was one of the comments on how the regime operates in silencing critical voices.
New Report: Azerbaijan – in the Shadow of a Dictatorship
March 15th, 2012 Azerbaijan | Reports | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)
An interview report written by Elisabeth Precht, Head of Information at the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation.
Read or download the report (pdf)
Eurovision Song Contest – in the Shadow of Dictatorship
February 8th, 2012 AzerbaijanOn May 26, the Eurovision Song Contest will be organized in Baku, Azerbaijan. The former Soviet state is today led by an authoritarian president. The legal system has serious defects and arbitrary arrests of political opponents are not uncommon.
Since 2003 the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation collaborates with the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA), one of several opposition parties allowed to operate within very narrow limits.
At the Sverigemöte in Örebro, Sweden, on March 16 the Foundation will organize a seminar on Azerbaijan. Panelists are Fuad Muxtarov from Baku, active in politics, and Gerald Knaus, Chairman of European Stability Initiative, based in Istanbul. A report on Azerbaijan will be presented.
Education about Democracy in Azerbaijan
February 1st, 2012 Azerbaijan | Education | News | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)
Swedish MP Elisabeth Bjornsdotter Rahm in Baku
On January 27-29, the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation in cooperation with the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan, NIPA, arranged two conferences in the Azeri capital Baku. NIPA is a democratic opposition party against the country’s dictatorship.Friday 27, a conference for female politicians took place and was opened by the Swedish MP Elisabeth Björnsdotter Rahm, who held a speech on “International Cooperation and the Importance of Women in Politics.” Jeyran Ansar, from NIPA’s political council spoke on the future of NIPA’s women’s organization. Gustaf Stenlund and Clara Wahren, both working as press staff at the Swedish Moderate party participated as well.
During the week-end, youth politicians met to discuss forms and methods of youth involvement in Azeri politics. The discussions focused on how to reach out in social media and how to organize a youth organization efficiently. The Azeri participants witnessed on the difficulties and risks that faces many young political activists in their country.
Azeri visit to Brussels
November 25th, 2011 Azerbaijan | Education | News | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)
Ali Orujov, Yusif Baghirzade, Kristina Lutz, Elshan Mustafayev, Fuad Mukhtarov and Arzukhan Ali-Zada
On 21-24 November, the leadership of the oppositional National Independance Party of Azerbaijan visited Brussels, to build contacts, knowledge and exchange ideas.
The visit program included meetings with Moderate Party members of the European Parliament, the Swedish Ambassador to the EU, deputy secretary general of the European People’s Party and the European External Action Service’s expert on Azerbaijan. Some of the issues on the agenda were the challenges regarding democratic development and freedom of the media in Azerbaijan,and the conflict over Nagorno-Karabach.
Göran Lennmarker interviewed by the Azeri Press Agency
September 2nd, 2011 Azerbaijan | In the Media”It is easy to start a war, but it is difficult to end one”
Göran Lennmarker, chairman of the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation.
Read the interview by the Azeri Press Agency (APA) in English
Read the interview by the Azeri Press Agency (APA) in Russian
September 5-9, 2011 a delegation from the Azeri opposition party NIPA is visiting Stockholm, Sweden. The program – organized by the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation – includes meetings at various levels within the Moderate Party, the Foreign Ministry and the Municipality of Haninge.
The Azeri web based political magazine Pozisiya.com describsd the visit as follows:
“After an invitation from the ruling party Conservatives, has AMIPs Chairman Yusif Baðýrzadə, party secretary Arzuxan Əlizadə, international secretary Elþən Mustafayev and member of the party executive Sadiq Həmzəyev, started a five-day official trip to Sweden. According to the AMIP’s press office to” Pozisiya.com “the party leadership that during this official visit, which lasts between 5 and 9 September, to coincide with the Moderates’ party secretary. during the trip, they will also have meetings with the Swedish foreign minister’s adviser, Vice-President, members of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee as well as in our country renowned Goran Lennmarker, former chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and rapporteur on Nagorno Karabakh and other executives.
Translation: Thomas Gür
One in a series of anti-regime protests, inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, was held on Sunday 17 April, in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. The rally was carried out despite comprehensive measure taken by the police and security services.
The protests were organized by Public House, an umbrella organization that unites the democratic opposition and that was established in protest to the parliamentary election results in November of 2010. The National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA) is one of four parties in Public House. (more…)
Three conferences were held in cooperation with the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA) in the Azeri capital Baku on 15-17 April. The overall topic was the post-election situation in Azerbaijan.
The participants were party members of the NIPA; from the regions on the conference’s first day, from the Youth Organization on the second and party members from Baku on the third. (more…)
The Azerbaijan’s elections on November 7, 2010, did not mark meaningful progress in democratic development, said the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/ Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR). Cooperation partners of the Hjalmarson Foundation noted that “in many voting places the election committee told people whom they should vote for. In several places committee members themselves put numerous ballots in the boxes.”
“The Central Election Commission said that with 90 percent of the vote counted, Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaycan (New Azerbaijan) Party increased its share in the 125-seat parliament to more than 70 seats. Candidates loyal to the regime appeared to have taken all the rest of the seats”, writes Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. (more…)
Spring School on the Principles for a Free Society
May 20th, 2010 Azerbaijan | Belarus | Education | Georgia | UkraineOn May 7, 2010 the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation arranged Spring School, i.e. a youth conference on ideology based on the book “Principles for a free society” by Dr. Nigel Ashford. The participants came from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia and Sweden. The conference took place on the island of Muskö in the Stockholm Archipelago.
Dr. Nigel Ashford spoke on the subject of freedom and democracy. Guest speakers from the Moderate Party ran sessions based on further chapters in Dr. Ashford’s book. Gustav Blix and Walburga Habsburg Douglas, both Members of Parliament from the Moderate Party, spoke with reference to globalization and the Eastern Partnership.
The participants were very engaged in the discussions – topics ranging from tolerance and human rights to free enterprise – and were also in charge of presentations of the political situation in their own countries. The participants agreed that they learned a lot from the classes at the conference, and expressed appreciation regarding the possibility to make friends with people from the other countries.
