Statement of Post-Soviet Peace Initiative on the repressions against peace activism in Azerbaijan At the end of August this year, Bahruz Samadov, a researcher, civil activist, political analyst and participant of many peace-building projects was arrested in Azerbaijan on the charges of treason.
Several other activists were subjected to serious pressure and harassment. We see these events as an attempt to attack peace activism in the region.
Bahruz Samadov is known as one of the most uncompromising opponents of a „military solution“ to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Without access to the materials of the criminal case, we can judge the crime he is accused of only by articles and reports in pro-government media, which claim that Samadov
worked for the Armenian special services. We consider such statements absurd. Moreover, the official propaganda rhetoric and accusations against Bahruz and other peace activists portray any form of communication between citizens of Azerbaijan and Armenia as collaborationism, and opposition to
military actions or refusal to demonize the „enemy“ as national treason. We also note that such rhetoric is increasingly characteristic of states directly or indirectly involved in any armed conflict and aims to marginalize peace workers. Politics, the media, and popular culture are dominated by the idea of just war and military victory (i.e., the complete violent subjagation of the
opposing side) as the most effective and the only proper way to achieve peace. The few antimilitarists, pacifists, and supporters of peace are portrayed at best as naive idealists, and at worst as enemies of the nation, while the calls for compromise and dialogue between the conflicting parties and for compassion for all victims are condemned as expressions of weakness.
As an internationalist peace initiative, we see what is happening as an extreme danger and an attempt to intimidate all supporters of peace. Peace work is threatened with totalitarian destruction. We observe the dissipation of the possibility of peace as:
● a good neighbourly coexistence of people free from hatred and fear, blatant social inequality and neocolonialism, imperialism and nationalism, revanchist and militaristic sentiments and any manifestation of cruelty;
● a coexistence built on mutual assistance, trust and respect for human life, and not on the desire for social, cultural, political or economic domination.
We express our solidarity with Bahruz Samadov and other peace activists who are subjected to pressure and persecution in Azerbaijan and in other countries. We call on international human rights organisations and various public groups and organisations to stand up for them in order to save not
only the future of individual activists, but also the peace work itself and the right to freely express opinions that differ from the state-sponsored and hegemonic ones.
Considering that in November 2024, Azerbaijan will host the UN COP29 conference, which will discuss the environmental fate of the planet, it is worth asking a question to the government of this country and other countries that will participate in the conference: how can international environmental concerns ignore political repression, militarism and aggression? Is it possible to talk about climate justice, while ignoring justice in its other manifestations? We advocate for a future in which people can breathe freely not only literally, but also figuratively – without inhaling fear and hatred.
PSPI
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