Azerbaijan 2023: A look back at the year
2023 in Azerbaijan
2023 can be called a controversial year in Azerbaijan. It was a defining year of the restoration of the country’s territorial integrity, for the first time since independence. The end of the year was marred by the arrests of independent journalists and political activists. Environmental problems and a diplomatic conflict with Iran have also left their mark.
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The main events in Azerbaijan in the past year 2023 originate from the end of the year before last. On December 12, 2022, an action of Azerbaijani eco-activists began on the Lachin road, near the town of Shushi, which lasted more than five months.
Events on the Lachin road
The activists protested the extraction of minerals in the part of Karabakh controlled at the time by Russian peacekeepers and their illegal export to Armenia.
As a result of the action and the resulting closure of free access from Armenia to and from Karabakh, work on Karabakh ores came to a halt. The movement of civilians was facilitated by the Red Cross and the Russian contingent.
In late March 2023, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense reported that the army had taken control of several dominant heights, main and secondary roads, and territories on the border with Armenia. This was attributed to the complete closure of the old Lachin corridor and the launch of a new, alternative road.
According to the Azerbaijani side, there was a redeployment of armed forces in connection with the closure of the old Lachin corridor. Experts claim that the Azerbaijani army positioned itself on heights from which it was easy to control traffic on the new road linking Armenia with Karabakh.
Less than a month later, on April 23, the Azerbaijani border service reported the installation of a checkpoint on the border with Armenia, at the entrance to the Lachin road.
“In order to prevent the illegal transfer of manpower, ammunition, mines, as well as other military means from Armenia to Armenian armed formations on the territory of Azerbaijan, carried out contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, and adequate to the unilateral establishment by Armenia of a border checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin-Khankendi road on the border with Azerbaijan on April 22, at 12:00 a.m. on April 23, subdivisions of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the sovereign territories of our nation.”
Counter-terrorism operation
On September 19-20, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces carried out a counter-terrorist operation on the territory under the control of Russian peacekeepers and in one day achieved the complete capitulation of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
The leadership of the unrecognized republic issued a decree on the dissolution of all state bodies of this entity. Two meetings were held between representatives of official Baku and Karabakh Armenians in the town of Yevlakh.
Azerbaijan announced the launch of an online service for Karabakh Armenians who accept Azerbaijani citizenship and remain in Karabakh. Despite this, the vast majority of Karabakh Armenians have left the territory of Azerbaijan and moved to Armenia.
In the period following the counter-terrorist operation in Karabakh, those who in previous years held leading positions in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic – Ruben Vardanyan, Araik Harutyunyan, Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, David Ishkhanyan – were detained. All of them were charged in Baku with terrorism, grave crimes against peace and humanity.
Diplomatic conflict with Iran
On January 27 an armed attack was committed on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran. Orkhan Askerov, head of the security service of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran, was killed, and two others were wounded in the attack.
Immediately afterwards, Azerbaijan announced the termination of the work of the embassy in Tehran, and its staff was evacuated to Baku.
Azerbaijan, in order to restore the work of the embassy, demanded from the Iranian side a thorough investigation of the terrorist attack and strict punishment of its participants. The embassy’s activity has yet to resume.
During the first half of the year, several operations were carried out in Azerbaijan against groups accused of cooperating with the special services of the Islamic Republic.
Farid Safarli, an Azerbaijani student studying in Germany, was detained in Iran. The young man was accused of espionage and sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Protest action
As a result of an even stricter crackdown on political activists, the only protest action in Baku in 2023 was the traditional “8 marş” feminist march, timed to coincide with March 8.
Police did not interfere in the course of the action, although two days before the date of the march, the capital’s mayor’s office did not authorize its holding, calling it “inexpedient”.
The police created a corridor through which they allowed the participants to pass to the monument to Khurshudban Natavan, where the organizers of the action read out the statement of the march.
Political arrests
The number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan reached 250 in 2023. The second half of the year was marked by several high-profile political arrests.
On July 23, opposition politician, economist, and teacher at the British School of Economics Gubad Ibadoglu was arrested on charges of counterfeiting. He denies the charges. His relatives and representatives of civil society believe that the arrest of the opposition politician was ordered and related to his political activities.
On September 20, Afiaddin Mammadov, a defender of workers’ rights and an opponent of the war, was arrested. A criminal case was opened against him on charges of stabbing.
In November, arrests of employees of the independent online publication Abzas Media began. Five journalists of this website are currently awaiting trial. All of them have been charged with “smuggling committed by a group of conspirators”.
Opposition activist Tofig Yagublu and civil activist Mahyaddin Orudzhev were arrested in December. Yagublu is accused of fraud, and Orudzhev is accused of drug trafficking on a large scale.
Shallowing of the Kura River and events in Soyudlu
In March 2023, an unprecedented shallowing of the Kura River, one of the main waterways of Azerbaijan, was recorded. According to residents of Salyan and Neftchala districts, in some places the Kura could be crossed on foot.
The river has shallowed only on the territory of Azerbaijan, head of the independent environmental organization EcoFront Javid Gara said, and listed the causes of the catastrophic situation:
“The reason is simple: all winter pastures have been turned into arable land. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, where grass hardly grew before, have been heavily irrigated. Hundreds of shepherds have been forcibly expelled from these places – officials are creating agro-parks.
All these parks, created on the places of former pastures, are owned by businessmen officials. This is also an unfair competitive environment. Whoever has money buys land. They rent pastures cheaply and start plowing these lands. Only officials-businessmen have access to such operations. And they are the ones who use water first of all. If something remains, they give it to the population.”
Azerbaijani society was shaken by videos circulated on social networks on June 20 which showed heavily armed soldiers of internal troops throwing gas bombs at local residents protesting against the construction of a new artificial lake to drain waste from a nearby gold mine in the village of Soyudlu in the Gadabay district.
According to local residents, the waste is causing serious damage to the environment. The new planned lake is being built in an area of the village where there are pastures, and this will further aggravate the situation.
On June 23, activists Gulnara Mehtiyeva, Sanubar Heydarova and Narmin Shahmarzadeh, who participated in a ceremony organized on the occasion of Independence Day at the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan, held a peaceful action to draw attention to the protesting residents of Soyudlu and those arrested for these events. They drew a black choking hand around their necks and symbolically expressed that all freedoms in Azerbaijan are being suppressed. They broadcast live from the event and spoke about what happened in Soyudlu and those who were arrested.
Later, they were asked by the embassy staff to stop the action. The activists and the head of Abzas Media, Ulvi Hasanli, who were removed from the ceremony site, were handed over to police. After a while they were released.
In November it became known that Baku in 2024 will host the Cop29 session – the world’s largest event dedicated to the environment. About 80 thousand guests from more than 100 countries are expected to arrive in the capital of Azerbaijan.
Special presidential election
The last high-profile event of the past year was President Ilham Aliyev’s decree to schedule an extraordinary presidential election for February 7, 2024.
The main opposition parties refused to participate. To date, 15 politicians have announced their desire to run for the main political post in the country. So far,the CEC has approved only incumbent President Ilham Aliyev as a candidate. Pro-government MP Zahid Oruj has submitted to the CEC the 40,000 voter signatures required for registration.
