Suicide Brings Azerbaijan’s LGBT Community Out of the Closet

The suicide of a gay rights activist in Azerbaijan is prompting the country’s LGBT community to become more assertive in fighting for civil rights.

Moscow Murder Investigation Stokes Anti-Russian Sentiment

Public anger is building in Azerbaijan over Russia’s rough treatment of an ethnic Azeri accused of murder. The incident likely will scuttle any chance, however remote, that Baku will join the Moscow-led Customs Union.

In Azerbaijan, Putting Inauguration Ahead of the Vote

A man who declined to campaign in the weeks before Azerbaijan’s presidential election on Wednesday is already gearing up for his inauguration ceremony.

In Azerbaijan, a Presidential Campaign in Name Only?

There are three weeks to go before energy-rich Azerbaijan’s presidential vote on Oct. 9, but a race is nowhere to be seen. No political ads adorn the capital, Baku, and no candidate spots are running on private TV channels. The incumbent strongman, 51-year-old Ilham Aliyev, is not even bothering to run an active campaign.

Opposition Journalists in Azerbaijan Face Free-Flat Conflict

In Azerbaijan, opposition journalists have long been beaten, blackmailed and some even killed. But now, it appears a few are being bought.

OP-ED: EU and Azerbaijan, Setting the Record Straight

At a cabinet meeting in mid-July, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev lashed out at the European Parliament for supposedly conducting a “dirty campaign” against Baku. The shrill tone of Aliyev’s comments indicates that European pressure on Azerbaijan to respect basic rights is stinging the Aliyev administration.

OP-ED: A Double Standard Won’t Do for Baku

Kseniya Sobchak, a well-known Russian political activist and social butterfly, is an outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But, curiously, she seems to be taking a much softer line on Azerbaijan’s authoritarian-minded ruler, Ilham Aliyev.

The West Disappoints Azerbaijan Government Critics

Democratisation activists in Azerbaijan are increasingly pessimistic about what they describe as the West’s lack of support for reform and the protection of basic rights in the energy-rich South Caucasus country.

Azerbaijan’s Israel Diplomatic Trip Tweaks Tehran

Azerbaijan in late April crossed a self-imposed “red line” in its relations with southern neighbour Iran by dispatching Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on a visit to Israel, Tehran’s arch-foe. Reasons for the timing of the move are not clear, but, so far, Tehran appears to be biding its time with a response.

Muffled Call for Peace Rises in the Caucasus

Sixty-year-old Irina Grigoryan's voice is drowned out by the merry noise of 230 children waiting for their lunch. Director of kindergarten N3, located in Stepanakert, capital of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR) deep in the Caucasus, Grigoryan smiles tolerantly at the din.

OP-ED: Azerbaijan and Iran: A Soft-Power Struggle?

There's a coffee shop in an out-of-the-way part of Baku where the walls are covered with illustrations from an early 20th century satirical magazine called Molla Nasreddin. The magazine represents a bygone era, when Azerbaijan was a font of new cultural trends in the Muslim world, pioneering such issues as female emancipation, anti-clericalism, anti-colonialism and labour rights.

In Arms in a Forgotten War

A Soviet-era 4x4 snores down the muddy road to the front line. It’s another foggy day in the flatlands east of the borders of the tiny and once autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sandwiched between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

OP-ED: How Deep Are Azerbaijan-Israel Relations?

There has been much speculation surrounding Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel, including reports that Israeli warplanes might use Azerbaijani airfields as support bases during a potential attack against Iran. The reality of the bilateral relationship is not so dramatic, as it is pragmatic.

Can Facebook Become Substitute for Live Azeri Opposition Protests?

They’ve battled police in the streets and they’ve challenged authority the courts. Now, faced with staggering increases in fines for unauthorised demonstrations, Azerbaijani opposition activists are turning to Facebook to get their messages out.

Q&A: “They Demanded I Behave. I Decided Not To”

Khadija Ismayilova has been threatened with blackmail by her own government. She has been branded an "enemy of the state", mainly for her exposés of official corruption.

AZERBAIJAN: Baku Mulls “Green Tax” on Corporate Polluters

Azerbaijani officials appear to buy into the idea that taxation policy can be an effective way of managing the environment.

AZERBAIJAN: Signs Point to Russia’s Departure from Gabala Radar Base

It may look like just a 27-year-old radar station in a remote stretch of northern Azerbaijan. But, in reality, Gabala is all about Baku’s desire to assert its own weight as a regional power – even against its onetime patron, Russia.

Poets Caught in Political Web

As two young Azeri poets enter their 11th week in detention in Iran, efforts to secure their release are not losing steam, nor are political tensions between the two countries.

After the Curtain Call, a Crackdown Begins

As the attention of the world faded away from Azerbaijan after the recent Eurovision song contest, police began targeting some young activists and a journalist involved in protests here last month.

Azerbaijan and Israel: The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend

As the showdown over Iranian nuclear ambitions intensifies, political analysts in Azerbaijan are urging the government to deepen the country's ties with Israeli and Western security structures.