Over the past few weeks, much international attention has been focused on Azerbaijan. In the midst of an unprecedented human rights crackdown, there have been a few small glimmers of hope. Through a pardon decree on 17 March, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev released 14 political prisoners in one fell swoop. Also on 17 March, the Baku Court of Appeal released a jailed journalist on parole and, on 28 March, Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court similarly released a jailed human rights lawyer on parole.
Perhaps in reaction to these releases, Aliyev was given a warm welcome by the US government during the Nuclear Security Summit at the end of March in Washington. Despite calls from human rights groups to freeze him out, the president was granted meetings with Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Penny Pritzker, US secretary of commerce, as well as a photo opportunity with Barack Obama.
Before Aliyev embarked on his return journey home, the supposedly "frozen" Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted again, with dozens of people reportedly killed in the first few days alone. At the same time, Azerbaijan has been experiencing serious economic troubles, as oil prices fall and the national currency collapses. Unemployment is high, resulting in a series of protests rocking Azerbaijan's regions in January. To top it all off, several stories related to corruption of Azerbaijan’s ruling family have already emerged from the Panama Papers leak.
