Azerbaijan: President Aliyev elected for a fourth term

In an article published on 11 April 2018, the magazine Foreign Policy explained why there was little surprise at Ilham Aliyev"s re-election as president of Azerbaijan: "Azerbaijan's election is so rigged that key opposition parties refused to take part and instead organized a mass protest on 31 March. Among other demands, demonstrators called for the release of all political prisoners in the country, which number more than 100." The article in Foreign Policy stated further: "Aliyev's Azerbaijan tends to be forgotten due to the West's obsession with Putin's Russia, but his regime is one of the most corrupt and authoritarian in the region. - Baku benefits from being a significant oil producer and part of the northern supply route for US forces in Afghanistan. Azerbaijan portrays itself as a moderate Muslim-majority country in a challenging region, bordered by Russia and Iran and engaged in conflict with Armenia regarding the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Given the threats posed by Putin and the United States' need for secure resupply routes to Afghanistan, some argue, America cannot afford to alienate Azerbaijan by pressing Aliyev on human rights. But the policy of quiet diplomacy has failed. By giving Aliyev a pass for so many years, the US government has done no favors to the people of Azerbaijan or to US interests in the region. The United States and other Western countries have become enablers of Aliyev's domestic policies, destroying any hope of democratic evolution, the advancement of human rights and religious freedom, the elimination of corruption, and the creation of a true strategic partnership with the United States." Rolf Zeegers, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, agrees that the re-election of President Aliyev is no surprise at all: "The government in Azerbaijan has simply used the elections to display how "˜democratic" the country is. However, the most painful aspect of the article by Foreign Policy is not what is said about Azerbaijan, but about the attitude of Western countries becoming "˜enablers of Aliyev's domestic policies". For the Church in Azerbaijan the re-election of President Aliyev will not come as a surprise either. They have expected nothing else and they know that nothing will change in their country for the time-being. The level of oppression will continue as before."