Inter­na­tio­nal Support of Conscien­tious Objec­tors and Deserters

Azerbaijan: "When it comes to our ideas, we showed we are a real opposition"

Interview with anti-war activist

(08.10.2020) On 30 September, 17 Azerbaijani left-wing activists released an anti-war statement, calling for an end to the war and restoration of dialogue. Activist and researcher Bahruz Samadov was one of the signatories to the statement. “A fractious and divided society has suddenly been consolidated through the power of military action,” wrote Samadov in a recent column for OC Media. “The government, the opposition, and the de-politicised majority now espouse the same dominant narrative of a national duty to take back the country’s lost lands.” An activist with NIDA civic movement, he currently researches authoritarian stability and depoliticisation in Azerbaijan at Charles University, Prague. openDemocracy spoke to Samadov about anti-war sentiment in the country, how Karabakh is the main field of politicisation in Azerbaijan and the role of the Azerbaijani left.

Azerbaijan: Will regime implement alternative service commitment?

(28.04.2020) Ruling party deputy Siyavush Novruzov told parliament on 30 March that an Alternative Service Law should be adopted. Parliament’s Defence Committee is handling this, he told Forum 18. The government has not made public any draft. Azerbaijan committed to the Council of Europe to have alternative service by 2003 but failed to meet its obligation. Jehovah’s Witnesses say criminal cases against their conscientious objectors are not being pursued.

After pledging in 2001 to the Council of Europe it would have introduced a civilian alternative for those who cannot perform military service on grounds of conscience by January 2003, a senior ruling party politician told Azerbaijan’s parliament, the Milli Mejlis, on 30 March 2020 that an Alternative Service Law should be adopted. The brief remark by parliamentary deputy Siyavush Novruzov was widely reported in the media with no comment. The government has not yet made public any draft law.

EBCO criticises failure of European institutions to implement the right to co

Regression and political lack of interest

(14.02.2020) In its Annual Report on Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe 2019, the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) red-flags the multiple discriminations that conscientious objectors to military service continue to undergo in Europe. In the political context of a growing importance attached to European defence cooperation, armament projects and joint military operations, the right to conscientious objection to military service risks to be marginalized instead of being consistently perceived as a human right to be monitored and guaranteed.

Azerbaijan: Second 2018 conscientious objector conviction

(18.09.2018) For the second time in 2018, an Azerbaijani court has given a young conscientious objector a criminal conviction for refusing to perform compulsory military service. Agdam District Court handed 19-year-old Vahid Abilov a one-year suspended prison term on 6 September, and he will be under probation for one year. He is planning to appeal against his conviction. Three more similar cases might follow.