Azerbaijani Americans for Democracy (AZAD) launched a new program to identify the human rights abusers in Azerbaijan. The new websitewww.onlarkimdir.com will serve as a database on the human rights abusers in Azerbaijan. ‘Onlar Kimdir’ translates from Azeri into English as ‘Who They Are’. Click here to view the video promo of the Onlar Kimdir project The project aims to identify the policemen, plainclothes security agents, sportsmen in the unofficial service of the Azerbaijani government and the government officials who attack the opposition activists, target journalists, and civil activists and otherwise implicated in acts aimed to maintain the atmosphere of political terror in Azerbaijan.
Elmar Chakhtakhtinski, chairman of AZAD said the following about the project: “Onlar Kimdir is a project aimed at bringing a public spotlight onto something which everybody already knows in Azerbaijan. There are thugs – sometimes with official police powers, but often without any official title – who periodically attack the political and civic activists, beat journalists, participate in the dispersal of the peaceful protest rallies in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies refuse to prosecute or even identify those people. The project calls on the Azerbaijani citizens to help us identify those people and gather a comprehensive database on their violent records. The website www.onlarkimdir.com provides the readers with an email where they can send photo, video and info on any human rights abuser in Azerbaijan. The website will keep the confidentiality of the communication with the people who report human rights abuse from Azerbaijan.” Elmar Chakhtakhtinski said the ultimate goal of the project is to put the human rights abusers, be it government officials or their unofficial agents, under the spotlight of public attention and bring some accountability to the Azerbaijani government’s treatment of its own citizens.
The website www.onlarkimdir.com is launched in Azeri language with the expectation to gather the information from Azerbaijan. However, as the database on the human rights abusers grow, the website is also expected to operate in English in order to provide the international community with comprehensive information about the human rights abuses in Azerbaijan.
