Emin Milli (born 14 October 1979) is a human rights activist from Azerbaijan [1] who lives in exile in Germany. [2] He is also managing director at Meydan TV. [3] Milli is Azerbaijani.
Emin Milli (born 14 October 1979) is a human rights activist from Azerbaijan [1] who lives in exile in Germany. [2] He is also managing director at Meydan TV. [3] Milli is Azerbaijani.
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Milli was imprisoned in 2009 for two and a half years for his critical views about the government. He was conditionally released in November 2010, after serving 16 months of his sentence, in part due to strong international pressure on the government of Azerbaijan. From 2002-2004, Milli was director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and also advised the Council of Europe on more than 40 cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, many of whom were released following pressure from the Council. Prior to that, he was a coordinator for the International Republican Institute in Azerbaijan. He studied at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he wrote his dissertation on new media and Arab revolutions. [1]
On 8 July 2009, Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade were assaulted and severely beaten by two men in a restaurant in downtown Baku. [4] Milli and Hajizada went to file a complaint about the assault, but instead police detained them and opened a criminal case against both, who are charged with hooliganism. [5]
On 10 July 2009, Judge Rauf Ahmedov of the Sabail district court in Baku placed both of them in pretrial detention for two months. [6] [7] German Federal Commissioner for Human Rights Günter Nooke was in Baku during their trial and was the only one allowed to see Emin Milli for a few minutes after being kept waiting. [8] Subsequently, a higher court rejected their appeal. [9]
Reporters Without Borders, [10] Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, [11] and European Union, [12] as well as a number of foreign countries have strongly condemned Milli and Hajizade's arrest, while the case prompted protests from 18 officials of the University of Richmond, [13] where Adnan studied and from BP, [14] which employs him. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience. [15]
US President Barack Obama called on his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, to free imprisoned bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hadjizade when the two leaders had a bilateral meeting during the UN General Assembly session in New York on 24 September 2010. The White House said Obama urged Aliyev to free the two bloggers as part of an increased effort to protect human rights and implement democratic reforms. [16]
Investigation in Milli and Hajizade's case was concluded on 22 August and an additional charge was brought against them ("deliberately inflicting minor bodily harm"). [17] On 4 September, Judge Araz Huseynov presided over the preparatory session where a variety of defense motions, including one to have the charges dropped, another to permit media coverage of the proceedings and a motion to set the defendants free on bail for the duration of their trial were denied. [18] [19] After two months of court hearings both Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli were found guilty. Adnan was sentenced two, Emin two-and-a-half years of prison. [20]
Emin Milli has been only conditionally released in November 2010 and was not allowed to leave Azerbaijan until June 2011. [21] The New York Times covered some details of his life after his release. [22] He continued to be one of the most critical voices of dissent and campaigned internationally for release of all political prisoners in Azerbaijan. [23] [24] Milli has addressed the President Aliyev during Internet Governance Forum in November 2012 with the open letter telling the truth about real situation in Azerbaijan. The open letter was published in The Independent, [1] Le Monde Blog, [25] Tagesspiegel, [26] Gazeta Wyborcza [27] and Radio Azadliq. [28]
Milli started a news portal, Meydan TV, in 2013.
Rustam Mammad Ibrahim oghlu Ibrahimbeyov was a Soviet and Azerbaijani screenwriter, playwright and producer, well known beyond his home Azerbaijan and the former Soviet Union. He was the chair of the Cinematographers' Union of Azerbaijan and director of the Ibrus Theatre.
The National Assembly, also transliterated as Milli Mejlis, is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies and 25 were members elected by proportional representation; as of the latest election, however, all 125 deputies are returned from single-member constituencies.
Mehriban Arif qizi Aliyeva is an Azerbaijani politician and physician who is the vice president and First Lady of Azerbaijan.
International organizations have frequently alleged that Azerbaijan has violated human rights standards established in international law. Human Rights Watch issued a 2013 report accusing Azerbaijan of imprisoning and harassing political activists and human rights defenders. In 2019, Human Rights Watch called the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan "appalling", citing "rigid control" by the government, "severely curtailing freedoms of association, expression, and assembly", as well as "torture and ill-treatment" of journalists, lawyers, and opposition activists. According to Reporters without Borders, Azerbaijan ranks 167 of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index. A 2020 report by the U.S. State Department accused Azerbaijan of a wide variety of human rights abuses, including "unlawful or arbitrary killing", "heavy restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet", and "the worst forms of child labor".
Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev is the fourth president of Azerbaijan, serving in the post since 31 October 2003.
Baku Boulevard is a promenade established in 1909 which runs parallel to Baku's seafront. Its history goes back more than 100 years, to a time when Baku oil barons built their mansions along the Caspian shore and when the seafront was artificially built up inch by inch.
Azadliq Square, in Baku is the biggest city-centre square in Azerbaijan. It lies next to Baku Boulevard.
Adnan Hikmat oglu Hajizada is an Azerbaijani blogger and one of the founders of OL! Azerbaijani Youth Movement. He was employed as an internal communications officer at British Petroleum.
Major events of 2010 in Azerbaijan.
Khadija Rovshan qizi Ismayilova, also Ismailova, is an Azerbaijani investigative journalist and radio host who is currently working for the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, until recently as the host of the daily debate show İşdən Sonra. She is a member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
Most Azerbaijanis receive their information from mainstream television, which is unswervingly pro-government and under strict government control. According to a 2012 report of the NGO "Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS)" Azerbaijani citizens are unable to access objective and reliable news on human rights issues relevant to Azerbaijan and the population is under-informed about matters of public interest.
Rasul Jafarov is a lawyer and prominent human rights defender in Azerbaijan.
Intiqam Kamil oglu Aliyev is a human rights defender and lawyer in Azerbaijan.
Emin Rafiq oglu Huseynov is an Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activist. He was the chairman of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety. After he was forced into hiding to avoid arrest in Azerbaijan, Huseynov fled Azerbaijan and is in the process of attaining political asylum status in Switzerland.
Meydan TV is a Berlin-based Azerbaijani non-profit media organization. Founded by dissident blogger and former political prisoner Emin Milli in 2013, Meydan TV publishes news in Azerbaijani, English, and Russian. In May 2013, Meydan TV announced plans for broadcasting simultaneously through the Turkish Türksat communications. The word "meydan" means town square in Azerbaijani.
The Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan is the official military band service of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. It is part of the command structure of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan.
Polad Israyil oghlu Hashimov was an Azerbaijani military officer, National Hero of Azerbaijan and a major general who served as the Deputy Commander and the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army Corps of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.
2020 Baku Victory Parade was held on 10 December, in Azadliq Square, Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. It was held in honor of the Azerbaijani victory during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, officially described as the Patriotic War in Azerbaijan. The parade was held with 3,000 military servicemen who distinguished themselves during the war marched alongside military equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft, as well as Armenian war trophies, and Turkish soldiers and officers, while navy vessels performed maneuvers in the nearby Bay of Baku, and jets and helicopters flew above the city. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a key ally of Azerbaijan in the war, also attended the military parade as part of a state visit to Baku.
The Marine Infantry Battalion is a naval infantry military unit of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It serves in combat operations an amphibious assault force of the Azerbaijani Navy. It is currently based in Zığ. It's polygon is on Wulf Island in the Bay of Baku.
The 2020 Azerbaijani protests, also known within Azerbaijan as the Karabakh March, were series of civil protests from 12 to 15 July in various cities and towns in Azerbaijan. They erupted within the framework of the Armenian–Azerbaijani border clashes, and the protestors demanded full-scale war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.