Azerbaijan: Attention turns to government-NGO relationship following president's return from Washington

Rovshan Ismayilov 5/03/06

During his recent visit to the United States, President Ilham Aliyev said his government would reach out to the non-governmental groups in an attempt to hasten Azerbaijan's democratization pace. For that pledge to be put into practice, both the government and NGOs will have to make adjustments in what to date has been an adversarial relationship.

Azerbaijani leaders have tended to view NGO activities warily out of apparent suspicion that civil society initiatives are a cover for an attempt to topple the government. Such suspicions were on display during the parliamentary election campaign last November, when officials took measures to hinder NGO participation in the electoral process. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

NGO representatives continue to complain about government restrictions. In particular, the government is keeping many groups in legal limbo by not taking action to officially register them. "Civil society groups, especially youth groups experience problems with registration," said Farda Asadov, the executive director of the Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation Azerbaijan. [OSI-AF is affiliated with the New York-based Open Society Institute, which also operates EurasiaNet].

Azerbaijani officials deny that the government is hampering NGO activity. Hadi Rajabli, an MP from the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party and chairman of parliament's Social Policy Committee, maintained that the government had corrected problems in the NGO registration process. "We do have more than 2,000 organizations and their influence [in the policy-making process] is confirmed by laws," Rajabli said. "Some organizations prepare draft laws and we discuss them in committees. But their opinion is not necessarily the absolute truth, and it is up to us whether we pay attention or not."

Rashid Hajily, director of the Baku-based Media Rights Institute (MRI), strongly disputes Rajabli's claim about improvements in the registration process. "The same registration difficulties exist now as before," Hajily said. "Authorities are very selective in the issue of the state registration of NGOs. For example, since November 2002 we [MRI] have applied for registration more than 10 times and have failed each time. The Ministry of Justice did not provide us with logical reasons of their refusal."

The registration issue will be one of the main benchmarks for measuring Aliyev's effort to improve government-NGO ties. Some NGO activists remain cautious about Aliyev's commitment. Over the past year, the "general state of democracy in Azerbaijan has taken a turn for the worst," argued Hajimurad Sadaddinov, the director of the Azerbaijan Foundation for Development of Democracy and the Protection of Human Rights. At a May 1 appearance in New York, sponsored by the International League for Human Rights, Sadaddinov claimed that government manipulation prevented him from winning during last November's parliamentary elections. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. However, he held out hope that, in the aftermath of his Washington visit, Aliyev will take steps to improve the country's civil society image. Specifically, Sadaddinov said he expected the government to release individuals classified by human rights groups as political prisoners.

Meanwhile, Asadov and other NGO representatives say that non-governmental organizations can do a few things to build trust and widen the channels of communication with the government. A top priority for NGOs should be improving the transparency of their operations. Given a shortage of funding in the domestic arena, many NGOs rely heavily on foreign grants and donations. At the same time, financial disclosure has been problematic. According to Azay Guliyev, an MP and head of the National NGO Forum, the country's roughly 2,000 registered NGOs received a collective total of $2.1 million in foreign grants and donations. But Guliyev believes the official figure drastically underestimates the real amount going to NGOs. Part of the problem is connected with the registration issue, as unregistered NGOs cannot issue officially recognized accounting reports. But other NGOs, for a variety of reasons, are not as open as they could be on the use outside funding.

Asadov said NGOs should also be more assertive in offering solutions to existing policy dilemmas, as well as engage in coalition-building to enhance their ability to influence policy debates. Unity would both raise organizations' public profiles and make NGOs more difficult for the government to ignore. NGOs "fail to establish a dialogue with the government in most cases due to the authorities' reluctance to communicate," Asadov said.

Despite the difficulties, Asadov said there have been a few instances of successful governmental-NGO cooperation, including the participation of an NGO coalition in the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). "Now we have NGOs working together with the government in the EITI commission, ensuring transparency of oil revenues," Asadov said. In general, he added, officials still seem reluctant to reach out to NGO representatives.

A particular problem area concerns youth-oriented groups. Asadov said many older, well-established NGO activists are reluctant to encourage the development of a younger generation of civil society advocates. "Due to limited funding, some organizations [NGOs] monopolize particular spheres, preventing some youth groups from participating," Asadov said.

Government harassment has been a far larger obstacle to the development of youth-oriented groups, NGO activists argue. Officials appear to be especially suspicious of youth activists' involvement in civil society-related projects, in part due to the prominent roles played by young people in Georgia's Rose Revolution in 2003 and Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Underscoring that suspicion was the 2005 arrest of Ruslan Bashirli, head of the Yeni Fikir youth group, on charges of conspiring to carry out a coup attempt. Human Rights activists say Bashirli is a political prisoner. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Bashirli's trial, which began in April, is closed to the public. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Some youth initiatives have managed to overcome official suspicion. For example, a Baku-based youth movement, Alumni Network, is pressing ahead with a campaign, dubbed the Future Does Not Come on Its Own, which strives to pressure the government into using profits from oil and gas exports to promote education. In particular, the group wants the government to fund 500 scholarships for deserving Azerbaijanis to study at top-notch universities around the world. "We want Azerbaijan to be a country of well-educated people, who will ensure the prosperity [of the nation] when oil production declines," said Emin Abdullayev, an Alumni Network leader. The group has gone so far as to prepare a draft presidential decree on the scholarship idea.

Another youth group, the American Alumni Association (AAA), has gained prominence by promoting public debate on several issues, including easing traffic congestion in Baku, education reform and the allocation of oil and gas revenues for the public benefit. Ramin Isayev, a Harvard University alumnus who currently works as a manager of a foreign oil company in Baku, is working on a draft policy paper concerning the utilization of energy revenue. The paper is based on a March 18 public hearing, sponsored by the group.

"With the inflow of huge oil revenues, our country has an opportunity to rapidly develop," Isayev said. "However, if we do not manage oil revenues and these opportunities in a wise manner, then we might miss these opportunities and disappoint our current and future generations."

"Since I am one of those few relatively more fortunate ones, who made a successful journey from a refugee camp [He is refugee from Armenia] to Harvard, I also feel great responsibility for making sure that more and more people in our country are able to fulfill their dreams – we may call this the American Dream, the Azerbaijani Dream – the dream of a normal human being," Isayev added. When finished, the group hopes the policy paper can assist in a broad NGO push to influence the government's State Oil Fund strategy. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Isayev, Abdullayev and other youth activists say they are driven not by political concerns, but by a wish to ensure the long-term prosperity of the nation. "I expect our policy paper be received very enthusiastically by the government, since we make only economic policy recommendations and we have no political agenda. This is a wonderful opportunity for our creative government officials as well, to build for the sake better future for all," Isayev said.

Editor's Note: Rovshan Ismayilov is a freelance journalist based in Baku. Havilah Hoffman, a EurasiaNet editorial assistant in New York, also contributed material to this report.

Posted May 3, 2006 © Eurasianet