A new wave of arrests targeting the LGBTQ community in Azerbaijan has brought renewed attention to the country’s poor human rights record. On April 1, as many as 15 gay and transgender people were reportedly rounded up in Baku. This latest raid is reminiscent of a larger crackdown in September 2017, which saw dozens of LGBTQ people arrested in the capital.
According to the Rainbow Europe index – compiled by advocacy group ILGA Europe – Azerbaijan is currently ranked the lowest of 49 European countries for achievement of LGBTQ rights. The country places even lower than Russia (ranked 45th in 2019), where authorities in the federal subject of Chechnya have been accused of carrying out brutal anti-LGBTQ violence on a cyclical basis since 2017.
Although Azerbaijan legalized homosexuality in 2000, the queer community continues to face discrimination and official persecution. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s European integration is continuing apace. Despite a case about the 2017 police raids open against Azerbaijan in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), negotiations on a new E.U.–Azerbaijan agreement are pushing ahead – and could even be completed by mid-May.
“Violation of public order, offenses to public morality”
Two years on, the number of LGBTQ people detained in the September 2017 raids remains unclear. While UN experts reported 80 detainees, independent media outlet Eurasianet gathered information on about 46 individuals taken into custody. Rights groups in Azerbaijan reported that at least 100 members of the LGBTQ community were detained.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani authorities claimed that from September 15–30 “appropriate measures” were taken in the name of “public order and security.” They maintained that the arrests were made in response to disturbances due to sex work in Baku, and concerns about public health.
Azerbaijan’s Minister of the Interior Ramil Usubov even attempted to justify the arrests in a letter to the Council of Europe’s then Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks.
According to him, only 83 “sexual minority representatives” “were detained for violation of public order, offenses to public morality and willful insubordination to legal requirements of police officers.” 56 of the detainees were held in administrative detention for periods ranging from 5 to 30 days, 18 were fined and 9 persons received notices, the letter claims.
The detainees were also sent to medical facilities for examinations, which allegedly revealed 32 people with sexually transmitted diseases.
“The only purpose of detention of the above-mentioned persons was to detect and prevent any facts which cause discontent of population [sic] as well as to protect public health, sanitary and epidemiological wellness, public order, security and morality,” the Interior Minister wrote.
International organizations, however, told a different story. Experts from UN Human Rights stated that they had received “credible reports of human rights abuses against gay and transgender people, including arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment, torture and forced medical examinations in detention.”
Detainees allegedly informed UN experts that they had suffered “beatings, humiliation, electric shocks and forced shaving, partly to coerce them to incriminate themselves or disclose the names of acquaintances.”
One victim of the crackdown told RFE/RL that after Baku police arrested him, he was subjected to “repeated rapes and abuses until he passed out.” He served a ten-day sentence, during which he was also beaten, humiliated and tortured with electric shocks. Upon his release he fled to Turkey, saying his life in Baku had been destroyed.
“After those events, everyone who had been arrested fled to go pretty much anywhere else: Georgia, Russia, Turkey,” said one victim in an interview with Berlin-based Azerbaijani media organization MeydanTV. “I fled to Turkey. We appealed to different organizations and embassies to go to a European country where homosexuals could live peacefully, but they didn’t respond. They didn’t even reply to our letters.”
“Worsening situation for LGBTI groups in the region”
These human rights abuses are reminiscent of violations that have been taking place in the neighboring Chechen Republic since January 2017. Although homosexuality is legal in the Russian Federation, the Chechen authorities have since persecuted members of the LGBTQ community on an ongoing basis through abductions, detentions, torture and even extrajudicial killings.
Renewed detentions in January 2019 have led rights groups like the Russian LGBT Network to resume evacuations from the region, as male and female victims are once again reporting “cruel and violent torture” at the hands of the Chechen authorities.
Amnesty International has reported a “hardening” in attitudes towards LGBTQ rights groups in former Soviet Republics ever since Russia instituted its “gay propaganda law” in 2013. “The extent of Russian influence and the reach of its media has played a significant role in further worsening the situation for LGBTI groups in the region,” explained the organization’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia, Denis Krivosheev.
Despite the ECHR ruling against Russia’s “gay propaganda law” as discriminatory and homophobic, other countries in the region have also attempted to pass their own versions of the legislation.
Comparisons to Chechnya have also fueled claims that international inaction is enabling ongoing human rights violations in the region. But while the Chechen authorities continue to act with outright impunity, Azerbaijani law enforcement are taking a different approach.
“History of systematically abusing the LGBT+ community”
On 2 April 2019, Minority Azerbaijan – the country’s only online LGBTQ rights publication – reported that as many as 15 LGBTQ people had been arrested in Baku. Just like in 2017, individuals were detained, fined and subject to forcible medical examinations.
This time, however, the police had changed tactics. One detainee reported being lured to a hotel to perform sex work, where he was arrested by police. Others claimed that the police were using the Internet to “hunt” transgender individuals. Some were taken from their homes.
Independent watchdog organization Freedom House issued a statement on the arrests April 3, highlighting “Azerbaijan’s history of systematically abusing the LGBT+ community” and calling on the authorities to stop the new wave of arrests.
According to Freedom House, the latest detentions were mainly aimed at transgender sex workers. While some were fined, or sentenced to 30-days arrest, at least one person was charged with “minor hooliganism,” the organization reported.
Although illegal in Azerbaijan, prostitution is an administrative rather than criminal offense, punishable only by fine.
Euro Parliament to “Closely Monitor” Azerbaijan Prior to New Agreement
For Baku’s LGBTQ community, the renewed arrests sparked fear of roundups comparable to September 2017. The Council of Europe has also expressed concerns, especially since this is not the first crackdown.
“We are disturbed about what appears to be targeted harassment of a vulnerable group for some of whom, in a very hostile environment, sex work is a means of survival,” said a written statement from the Council issued on April 10.
The declaration also included the signatures of 41 Council of Europe Ministers, who called upon the Azerbaijani authorities to halt detentions immediately and conduct investigations into police actions.
In 2018, Azerbaijan’s human rights record appeared to hamper the country’s ongoing efforts to strengthen ties to the European Union. Unlike Russia, Azerbaijan is included in the European Neighborhood Policy – a framework that promotes E.U. integration. The European Parliament even adopted conditions stating that they wouldn’t ratify any agreements to strengthen ties with Azerbaijan unless the country respects fundamental E.U. values and rights.
European Parliament last addressed human rights conditions in Azerbaijan in January of this year. In response to a crackdown on dissent, MEPs reminded Azerbaijan of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, especially given ongoing negotiations for a new agreement with the European Union.
“The European Parliament will closely monitor the situation in the country throughout the negotiations prior to deciding whether or not to give its consent to the agreement,” said the press release.
But according to Atlantic Council Research Fellow Maxim Eristavi, renewed persecution of LGBTQ people is unsurprising given the international response up until now. “[The] New round of anti-queer raids by [the] Azerbaijan government is [a] direct consequence of lack of international action over the 2017 anti-LGBT+ pogrom,” he wrote on Twitter.
On 26 February 2019, 25 members of the LGBTQ community arrested during the 2017 police raids filed a case against Azerbaijan in the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR has requested written information from both the victims and Azerbaijan’s government.
Photo: Ghvinotsdaati