Presidential Elections in Azerbaijan 2013

The presidential elections in Azerbaijan, as well as pre-election process, were accompanied with diverse violations of human rights and fraud. The High Representative and the Commissioner Catherine Ashton and Štefan Füle noted of continued pressure on opposition activists, civil society and independent media. A list of human rights defenders outlined 142 cases of politically motivated detention and imprisonment targeted for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association. Even pre-election campaigns were full of violations of basic rules. Azerbaijan’s state-controlled broadcast media rarely shows opposition figures. State-owned or controlled TV stations were failing to fulfill their role as a public service broadcaster, did not provide balanced programming and equal minutes to all candidates. Moreover, three independent media outlets which have been relegated to the Internet since a 2009 ban took them off the air – the Azerbaijani services of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Voice of America – have been accused by the Central Election Commission of being in “propaganda mode” during the campaign period – presumably for daring to cover the opposition’s campaign activities, and not just the president’s. Electoral commission accidentally published results showing a victory for Ilham Aliyev, the country’s long-standing President, a day before voting. The latter which showed that Mr Aliyev had received 72.76 per cent of the vote compared with 7.4 per cent for the opposition candidate, Jamil Hasanli. The app displayed information about how many people voted at various times during the day.

The last but not the least. When Aliyev came to power in 2003, and when he was re-elected in 2008, there was a two-term limit on the Azerbaijani presidency. This limit was removed through a Constitutional referendum in 2009. Hasanli and his supporters argue, however, that the changes do not apply retroactively to Aliyev, but should apply instead to his successor, meaning he does not have the right to run for a third term. 

Having this non-fertile background for democracy building and establishing rule of law it was obvious that the elections itself would be a great disaster.

It was not just an election fraud or some minor violations in different polling stations, but there was a big governmental fraud machine working with the involvement of police officers brings election box full of bulletins , agents of National Security Ministry (KGB) kidnapping independent observers, High rank military officers pushing the soldiers insight their units to vote for Aliyev and show the bulletins, prison officers torturing and humiliating the prisoners who disobeyed to vote for Aliyev, teachers calling the parents of the pupils and telling to come and vote, workers of companies owned by Governmental elites (Baku Sewing Factory voted twice time), "centurions" responsible for bringing 100 votes for Aliyev, private companies such as Socar transporting the same people from one polling station to another making the hazardous electoral “carousel” come true, commission authorities dropping

dozens of already filled bulletins into election boxes, pressuring people to vote for Aliyev, pressuring independent observers and withdrawing them from polling stations, closing their eyes on the fact that more than one people are entering the election cabins.

As you see it's just not violation of some individuals, but it is a well designed and structured program where everyone had their rolls and duties. 

Liberal Youth Network of the South Caucasus, as regional liberal youth community, being interested in the fairness and legitimacy of presidential elections in the member countries, stating the importance of protection of freedom of speech and human rights, has been focusing on the presidential elections in Azerbaijan.

As the concerned communities have noticed, the government with 142 political prisoners and a bunch of violations of basic electoral rules, organised expected illegal elections with political repressions.

We urge the international communities and interested parties to keep their attention on the possibilities to find a basic solution for fair and legitimate elections organisation in the region, as well as the international observers to call the things by its real names.

Welcome address by Jiri Schwarz for the liberal youth !

Chairman of the MPS 2012 Organizing Committee 

Dear friends of liberty and individual responsibility,

It will be immense pleasure to welcome you at the greatest festival of classical liberal thinking under the auspices of the Mont Pelerin Society. This distinguished society for the defense and cultivation of principles of individual liberty will have its General 2012 Meeting in Prague from Sunday, September 2^nd, to Friday, September 7^th. The capital of the Czech Republic is a charming city, even more so at the end of summer. The stable and sunny weather with temperatures pleasant for sightseeing has inspired us 

to offer you rich pre- and post-conference travel program. It will enable us to present you some Bohemian rarities and you will have opportunity to discover that there lie many more treasures beyond the mysterious medieval Prague. In this you will follow in the footsteps of such greats as the German poet and polymath Johann Wolfgang Goethe who sang praises for the western Bohemian spas in his Marienbad Elegies.

The Mont Pelerin Society General Meeting 2012 in Prague offers an inspiring and rigorous program focusing on both fundamental and topical issues challenging the current Euro-Atlantic civilization. Governments have begun to grow again at the beginning of the 21^st century, public affairs have started to be preferred to private ones once again and the politicization of societies has increased in comparison with the era following the demise of Communism and the Berlin Wall collapse towards the end of last century. Challenges which spurned the foundation of the Mont Pelerin Society 65 years ago are reasserting themselves again, albeit in modified forms. Such are the serious issues to be analyzed by our invited speakers. Their list is a guarantee of highest quality contributions with original ideas, stimulating deep intellectual discussion.

Three full conference days will be followed by a day-trip to the famous Karlovy Vary spas (Karlsbad) and will culminate at Prague Castle, seat of Holy Roman Emperors and Kings as well as Czechoslovak and Czech Presidents, where we will be hosted by Professor Václav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic and a distinguished member of the Mont Pelerin Society. Do not hesitate and take the opportunity to be part of this intellectual event unparalleled in the 2012 calendar!

You may be interested to note that Prague already hosted the Mont Pelerin Society once in the past: The same conference hotel was the venue also for the 1991 MPS Regional Meeting with the general topic “In Search of a Transition to a Free Society”. I am sure that especially those who participated then will now avail themselves of the opportunity to compare and evaluate the changes that Prague and the Czech Society have undergone over the two decades.

All necessary information about registration, travel, accommodation, the conference program and other useful information about Prague and Czech Republic can be found on this website. Should you have any additional questions or requirements, do not hesitate to contact the Organizing committee (info@mps2012.org). All staff, the Center for Politics and Economics (CEP) and the Liberalni Institut (LI) are doing their utmost for complete satisfaction of the Mont Pelerin Society Members and their partners and guests, to make your stay in Prague and the Czech Republic most rewarding.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I am sincerely looking forward to seeing you in Prague.

Mont Pelerin Society General Meeting 2012 Prague

Program of the Mont Pelerin Society General Meeting 2012 in Prague

I appreciated the atmosphere of trust, mutual understanding and respect.

by Asya Malamyan

One of the Armenian participants of the seminar on Lessons of Liberalism in Bazaleti, Georgia, Asya Malamyan, is sharing with us her impressions and opinion about the event and the liberal atmosphere there. From the first day she was actively engaged in the exciting working process of the groups and as a result currently Asya is one of the new active members in LYNC and will contribute to the works of our youth initiative. We warmly welcome Asya and other new members from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, who joined LYNC after Bazaleti.

LYNC team

From 29th of June till the 1st of July in Bazaleti Lake, Georgia took place a seminar dedicated to Liberalism: Communication and Governance, organized by German Friedrich Naumann Foundation in cooperation with VVD (Dutch Liberal Party) and LYNC(Liberal Youth Network of the South Caucasus). As a participant, I must mention, that the event was organized in the highest level. The trainers were very professional and the topics were covered for one hundred percent. In the agenda we had such topics as liberal values, strengths of liberalism, weaknesses of liberalism, principles of consensus, social media etc.

The training sessions were full of new information, knowledge and fun, as well as theory and practical exercises.

Team building games were playing very important role for fulfilling the workshops that we had in our agenda. They both helped us to get to know each other better and to raise the trust among participants.

One thing that was especially appreciated by me was the atmosphere of trust, mutual understanding and respect. Participants were from South Caucasus region: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan. Though this region is considered to be a conflicting one, not even a single case of misunderstanding was noticed among participants. Despite the political and economic instability in the region liberal youth of all three countries managed to work in very diverse groups and successfully complete all the workshops.

Besides the knowledge and a lot of fruits for thought that this seminar gave us, let’s not forget about the real fun we had in Bazaleti. These 4 days were unforgettable not only in the context of knowledge, but also in human relationship, friendship, trust through diversity, tolerance and respect of that is different. Frankly speaking this was my first “tête-à-tête” interaction with participants from our region. It was rather strange for me. Especially when in this kind of seminars I used to stay with members of our (Armenian) team, but this time I was sharing a room with a very nice Azerbaijani girl, Yegane, and that was very interesting. The way almost all of the participants were dancing under Armenian national music – qochari and Azerbajani music in a bus on our way back was really amazing. This was our first but hopefully not the last teamwork together.

STAY OPEN FOR OTHER COUNTRIES, OTHER PEOPLE, BRIDGING CULTURES.

The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Dutch: Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie:VVD) is the liberal political party in Netherlands.The VVD is a member of the worldwide network of liberals, Liberal International (LI), the European Liberal and Democratic and Reform Party, (ELDR), the European Liberal Forum (ELF), the Alliance of Liberals dan Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP), and the Liberal South East European Network (LIBSEEN).

This time this liberal family’s trainers with FNF organized an interesting seminar on Lessons of Liberalism. Some of the LYNC members were also participating in this event. One of the VVD representatives was Friso Rip, VVD international officer. Below is the interview with him, by Lilit Melkonyan - member of LYNC international relations group.

Is this your first time in the South Caucasus?

No, I’ve been in South Caucasus before, I was in Georgia, and it was again another project with Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

What do you know about LYNC?Have your read about our organization?

I’ve heard about LYNC before coming to Georgia, I know that it was finally created in Bakuriani and its regional organization which also shares the ideas of liberalism. It’s like our project of regional network in North Africa, so partly I imagine how you have started.

So are you informed about the liberalism problems in this region?

Somehow. I see that Georgia is in better position than Armenia or esp. Azerbaijan from liberal perspectives. Like every international officer I’m aware of general problems of the region, about the youth’s difficulties of expressing their liberal ideas, approaches. I can understand the importance of LYNC and the difficulties you face taking into consideration the regional conflicts.

Knowing this, what suggestions would you have regarding the activities of LYNC (or the other liberal youth organization in the region)?

LYNC should involve more members. More people you have, more political conveys your message, more power you have. As much active members LYNC has, as powerful it is. When you are network, it is very important to connect more people, to educate more young people, to have more people ready for liberal changes.

Talk a bit about your system values /let it be human, world values.

The most important for me, especially in liberalism is responsibility. Individual responsibility is the core message of liberalism for me. I think it just lets other people become what they want. I am responsible for my decisions, my way and I can’t make another person become what I want.

How do you develop your thinking? What was your path of development?

Staying open for other countries, other people, bridging cultures.

What teamwork tools do you have/use in your organization, which ones you would like to share with LYNC?

If you have good manifesto, than most work is done.It’s important to concretize what you want, to be agreed on it. Keep talking to each other, stay open, involve yourself with others.

Do you see any opportunity of cooperation between VVD and LYNC?

In general every cooperation depends on how inclusive you want to be. If you have the same goals, vision, or how alike they are. Are you sharing the same goal? If you are professional network, than it’s a good platform to share your knowledge, experience. I think all the liberal organizations should and are cooperating. We have something to learn from LYNC and could share our experience of networking with LYNC, for example LYNC also can cooperate with liberal network of North Africa, on which we are working now. In general I like the idea of LYNC, I think in future we will have more joint events and projects.

WE ARE EQUAL, BUT NOT THE SAME.

The liberal values are based on respect for each individual, because we are equal but not the same. You will have the possibility to develop, but whether you reach your goal or not is up to you, the help you organise and the opportunities you create. This is the basic responsibility you have for your life. Liberals will help other people who cannot help themselves, yet we try to help you to reach an independent life. We have to be tolerant if we give other people the same rights we would like for ourselves. And be careful that liberal values don't change in conservatism but evaluate the values and reflect on them on a regular basis.

Ivo Ten Hagen

1. Where are you from, which organization and what is your ideology? What was your development path?

You met me in my role as a trainer for the VVD, a Dutch liberal party. Just after my graduation I became a member because I thought that the party could use some of my not active support. They asked me to become a representative in my city of Boskoop, Netherlands and then I started following trainings and lectures about the party, politics and professional skills. I became an active member and started to give the trainings myself, which I've done for the past ten years.

2. Have you ever been in the South Caucasus before and in which countries? How aware you are about the liberalism problems in our region?

VVD international asked me to conduct a training in Georgia in May last year. It was my first visit to  the South Caucasus and it touched me to see the struggle you are having to express basic freedoms which are so natural in our country that I hardly think about it. I think it changed my way of looking at the world and of the way I give trainings.

3. What do you know about LYNC, have you read (heard) about our organization? What suggestions do you have regarding the activities of LYNC (other youth organizations in the region)?

LYNC started at one of my trainings, so I feel a bit like a founding father. It was nice to see the hard work you all have done. The best development for LYNC is to be an open community, where people can discuss or just watch what is going on. Don't link yourself to parties so you can stay independent.

4. Do you see any opportunity of cooperation between VVD and LYNC? How do you usually treat the opportunities to work with the youth organizations?

VVD and LYNC will have a relation for a long time, because the VVD is committed to help liberal movements all over the world. But we give only training or advise, you have to go your own way, even if we don't like it. It's your development in your region.

5. What teamwork tools do you have?

Teamwork is about trust, responsibility and a strong will to let others succeed. Be open and positive and the world looks brighter.

6. Do you feel yourself a citizen of a certain country? 

As I mentioned before, I'm a member of several community's and I have several roles. I'm Boskoper, Dutch, European and world citizen. I'm a father, a husband and maybe someday a math teacher. There are times when those memberships collide, but I survive because I want to look at an honest man in the mirror. 

7. From a liberal point of view do you think no borders between states is an Utopia?

A world without borders is not my dream. Borders give people a sense of security. It is nice to feel at home in your country. Government should be as close to people as possible. But borders can be open for people to trade or to move. In my dream the world works together, trade together and exchange culture.

Cologne Cathedral was a magic, after more than 400 stairs now I am ready to survive without elevator.

What impressions do you have from the BuKo Congress?
I was impressed by seeing such a big motivation and wish of young people to make smth important in their country. I liked their method of discussions, the atmosphere of freedom and democratic decisions. It was really very good example of democratic congress and interesting young people, who care for their organization so much, that stayed until late hour in order to make right decisions.

What did you take with you home from BuKo?
The way of questioning, the style of congress in general. It was very effective from the point of active participations of BuKo members, it's another way of giving opportunity to the members to feel that they are very important part of Julis in general. I like it and already think About adopting this style in our congress.

What was especially useful for you as a LYNC member?
The meeting with international staff , where we had a chance to present LYNC, I got good friends and people with whom we will cooperate in future. And I liked the BuKo book, which they've printed before the congress and sent to delegates, I think it's useful tool and this experience needs to be used in case of LYNC too.

What kind of contacts and networking did you make at BuKo?
Meeting Julis young activists, who are already active on international,  was a good  achievement for us, because besides people, who had visited South Caucasus, we talked with other people, who had never been to the South Caucasus region but were interested to help us in our projects. For me it was just great to met there Alexander Plahr, the president of LYMEC, I'm sure now he'll be active in South Caucasus too.
And old good friends from IFLRY, who already helped us with smart ideas connected to our future activities. I can't miss LHG, their international officer's great input to our work in general, I'm really happy that he was there and we had a chance to have another meetings with him in Düsseldorf.

This event was very successful for LYNC, it was full of great ideas, good examples, important contacts and positive feedback.That was great. And I need to write again, Cologne Cathedral was a magic, after more than 400 stairs now I am ready to survive without elevator.

LYNC Fruitful trip to Germany. Julia and Yegane share their impressions.

Two of LYNC Team delegates Yulia Muzhichenko and Yegane Hajiyeva share their opinion about the trip to JuLis BundesKongress. Particularly, Yulia mentions that the congress was well organized and very interesting. Everyone had a chance to speak up and there was a good atmosphere of discussion there. She has gained a lot of experience in the field of debating and would like to use this format of congress in Georgia later some time. In her words, that was very useful to get to know the point of view of the European citizens. Yulia also values the opportunity to meet the LYMEC president, also Ivo Thijssen and Andreas Goffin, who share a lot of experience with the LYNC delegates.

Yegane shared that she  was impressed with the amount of information regarding future partnership with LYNC and local political party. Yegane emphasized the unique opportunity to start a friendship with the liberal youth of different European countries. It was a good chance to present the perspectives of LYNC to develop network in the South Caucasus countries, tell about the tools and methods of possible support for triggering peace process in the region.