GibburtEsel Heinz’s trip to Baku
In June this year Adnan Hajizada, a video blogger from Azerbaijan, placed a video on YouTube. Dressed up as “Esel Heinz”, a German immigrant donkey, he explained the gathered press why he was so happy to migrate to Azerbaijan.
The mildly satirical movie was a reaction to a story in Azerbaijani media that the government payed exorbitant prices to import donkeys from Germany. No-one foresaw that it could cause a controversion…
Two weeks later Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli, a political activist, met with some friends in a local restaurant in Baku. Without any provocation from their side, the two of them were assaulted by two men. After the restaurant staff broke the fight and called the police, Adnan and Emin tried to file a complaint at the police station. In stead, they were taken into custody themselves, and are residing behind bars since that date.
This event is not a mere incident. In the past years several journalists and editors were victim of violence, imprisoned and even murdered. Until last summer the repression was limited to offline media, some analysts say the imprisonment of the two activists is intended by the government to discourage people to use the Internet for criticizing the government.
So far this tactic seems to fail, because the case of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada has gained attention by international organizations, media and blogs. There are several blogs following this case, my personal favorite is the blog Fighting windmills? Take a pill. It gives a personal yet informative account of the events, that I found rather touching to read.
More information about the ongoing events and a link to the campaign to free Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada can be found on the OL! Blog, and ofcourse here on Gibburt.com.
That’s horrible, but thanks for posting it, I did not read about this in the newspapers.
The sad thing is Lisa, neither did people in Azerbaijan.
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