It is time for democratic nations across the world, including the US to stop ignoring the threat Azerbaijani President Aliyev’s corrupt authoritarianism poses to freedom and democracy in the region. The official Twitter account of the Freedom House tweeted this based on the reference of the American “National Interest” newspaper about the regime of Ilham Aliyev.
The article published on October 22 states that Azerbaijan is the most corrupt country, in contrast to neighbors Armenia and Georgia. There is also a reference to the scandalous revelations in the “Pandora” documents. Politically, Azerbaijan remains an authoritarian dictatorship.
Western states have ignored Aliyev’s corruption and repression because of the political and economic interests.
In the National Interest article there is also a reference to the 44-day war. It is mentioned that in Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijan used Israeli drones against both civilian and military targets to turn the tide of the war after ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh rebuffed the initial Azerbaijani invasion.
More recently, Aliyev’s cooperation with and tolerance for Syrian jihadi mercenaries, whom he used in his fight against Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians, raise questions about his outlook.
