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  • Azerbaijan: Attention Turns To Government-NGO Relationship Following

    AZERBAIJAN: ATTENTION TURNS TO GOVERNMENT-NGO RELATIONSHIP FOLLOWING ALIYEV'S RETURN FROM WASHINGTON
    Rovshan Ismayilov

    EurasiaNet, NY
    May 3 2006

    During his recent visit to the United States, President Ilham Aliyev
    said his government would reach out to the non-governmental groups in
    an attempt to hasten Azerbaijan's democratization pace. For that pledge
    to be put into practice, both the government and NGOs will have to
    make adjustments in what to date has been an adversarial relationship.

    Azerbaijani leaders have tended to view NGO activities warily out
    of apparent suspicion that civil society initiatives are a cover
    for an attempt to topple the government. Such suspicions were on
    display during the parliamentary election campaign last November,
    when officials took measures to hinder NGO participation in the
    electoral process. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    NGO representatives continue to complain about government
    restrictions. In particular, the government is keeping many groups in
    legal limbo by not taking action to officially register them. "Civil
    society groups, especially youth groups experience problems with
    registration," said Farda Asadov, the executive director of the
    Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation Azerbaijan. [OSI-AF is
    affiliated with the New York-based Open Society Institute, which also
    operates EurasiaNet].

    Azerbaijani officials deny that the government is hampering NGO
    activity. Hadi Rajabli, an MP from the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party and
    chairman of parliament's Social Policy Committee, maintained that the
    government had corrected problems in the NGO registration process. "We
    do have more than 2,000 organizations and their influence [in the
    policy-making process] is confirmed by laws," Rajabli said. "Some
    organizations prepare draft laws and we discuss them in committees. But
    their opinion is not necessarily the absolute truth, and it is up to
    us whether we pay attention or not."

    Rashid Hajily, director of the Baku-based Media Rights Institute
    (MRI), strongly disputes Rajabli's claim about improvements in the
    registration process. "The same registration difficulties exist now
    as before," Hajily said. "Authorities are very selective in the issue
    of the state registration of NGOs. For example, since November 2002
    we [MRI] have applied for registration more than 10 times and have
    failed each time. The Ministry of Justice did not provide us with
    logical reasons of their refusal."

    The registration issue will be one of the main benchmarks for
    measuring Aliyev's effort to improve government-NGO ties. Some
    NGO activists remain cautious about Aliyev's commitment. Over the
    past year, the "general state of democracy in Azerbaijan has taken
    a turn for the worst," argued Hajimurad Sadaddinov, the director
    of the Azerbaijan Foundation for Development of Democracy and the
    Protection of Human Rights. At a May 1 appearance in New York,
    sponsored by the International League for Human Rights, Sadaddinov
    claimed that government manipulation prevented him from winning
    during last November's parliamentary elections. [For background see
    the Eurasia Insight archive]. However, he held out hope that, in the
    aftermath of his Washington visit, Aliyev will take steps to improve
    the country's civil society image. Specifically, Sadaddinov said he
    expected the government to release individuals classified by human
    rights groups as political prisoners.

    Meanwhile, Asadov and other NGO representatives say that
    non-governmental organizations can do a few things to build trust
    and widen the channels of communication with the government. A top
    priority for NGOs should be improving the transparency of their
    operations. Given a shortage of funding in the domestic arena,
    many NGOs rely heavily on foreign grants and donations. At the same
    time, financial disclosure has been problematic. According to Azay
    Guliyev, an MP and head of the National NGO Forum, the country's
    roughly 2,000 registered NGOs received a collective total of $2.1
    million in foreign grants and donations. But Guliyev believes the
    official figure drastically underestimates the real amount going to
    NGOs. Part of the problem is connected with the registration issue,
    as unregistered NGOs cannot issue officially recognized accounting
    reports. But other NGOs, for a variety of reasons, are not as open
    as they could be on the use outside funding.

    Asadov said NGOs should also be more assertive in offering solutions
    to existing policy dilemmas, as well as engage in coalition-building
    to enhance their ability to influence policy debates. Unity would both
    raise organizations' public profiles and make NGOs more difficult for
    the government to ignore. NGOs "fail to establish a dialogue with
    the government in most cases due to the authorities' reluctance to
    communicate," Asadov said.

    Despite the difficulties, Asadov said there have been a few instances
    of successful governmental-NGO cooperation, including the participation
    of an NGO coalition in the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative
    (EITI). "Now we have NGOs working together with the government in
    the EITI commission, ensuring transparency of oil revenues," Asadov
    said. In general, he added, officials still seem reluctant to reach
    out to NGO representatives.

    A particular problem area concerns youth-oriented groups. Asadov said
    many older, well-established NGO activists are reluctant to encourage
    the development of a younger generation of civil society advocates.

    "Due to limited funding, some organizations [NGOs] monopolize
    particular spheres, preventing some youth groups from participating,"
    Asadov said.

    Government harassment has been a far larger obstacle to the development
    of youth-oriented groups, NGO activists argue. Officials appear to
    be especially suspicious of youth activists' involvement in civil
    society-related projects, in part due to the prominent roles played
    by young people in Georgia's Rose Revolution in 2003 and Ukraine's
    Orange Revolution in 2004. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
    archive]. Underscoring that suspicion was the 2005 arrest of Ruslan
    Bashirli, head of the Yeni Fikir youth group, on charges of conspiring
    to carry out a coup attempt. Human Rights activists say Bashirli
    is a political prisoner. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
    archive]. Bashirli's trial, which began in April, is closed to the
    public. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    Some youth initiatives have managed to overcome official suspicion.

    For example, a Baku-based youth movement, Alumni Network, is pressing
    ahead with a campaign, dubbed the Future Does Not Come on Its Own,
    which strives to pressure the government into using profits from oil
    and gas exports to promote education. In particular, the group wants
    the government to fund 500 scholarships for deserving Azerbaijanis to
    study at top-notch universities around the world. "We want Azerbaijan
    to be a country of well-educated people, who will ensure the prosperity
    [of the nation] when oil production declines," said Emin Abdullayev,
    an Alumni Network leader. The group has gone so far as to prepare a
    draft presidential decree on the scholarship idea.

    Another youth group, the American Alumni Association (AAA), has
    gained prominence by promoting public debate on several issues,
    including easing traffic congestion in Baku, education reform and
    the allocation of oil and gas revenues for the public benefit. Ramin
    Isayev, a Harvard University alumnus who currently works as a manager
    of a foreign oil company in Baku, is working on a draft policy paper
    concerning the utilization of energy revenue. The paper is based on
    a March 18 public hearing, sponsored by the group.

    "With the inflow of huge oil revenues, our country has an opportunity
    to rapidly develop," Isayev said. "However, if we do not manage oil
    revenues and these opportunities in a wise manner, then we might miss
    these opportunities and disappoint our current and future generations."

    "Since I am one of those few relatively more fortunate ones, who
    made a successful journey from a refugee camp [He is refugee from
    Armenia] to Harvard, I also feel great responsibility for making sure
    that more and more people in our country are able to fulfill their
    dreams - we may call this the American Dream, the Azerbaijani Dream
    - the dream of a normal human being," Isayev added. When finished,
    the group hopes the policy paper can assist in a broad NGO push to
    influence the government's State Oil Fund strategy. [For background
    see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    Isayev, Abdullayev and other youth activists say they are driven
    not by political concerns, but by a wish to ensure the long-term
    prosperity of the nation. "I expect our policy paper be received
    very enthusiastically by the government, since we make only economic
    policy recommendations and we have no political agenda. This is a
    wonderful opportunity for our creative government officials as well,
    to build for the sake better future for all," Isayev said.

    Editor's Note: Rovshan Ismayilov is a freelance journalist based in
    Baku. Havilah Hoffman, a EurasiaNet editorial assistant in New York,
    also contributed material to this report.
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