Aliyev is using despot Stalin’s tactics in suppressing opposition

Human Rights advocate and founding ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo published a new blog post comparing political tactics being used by Baku's bloodthirsty petrol-dictator to those used by the Soviet despot Stalin. Below is the text of his blog post, as appeared on his website:

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has resurrected one of Joseph Stalin's most sinister tools: the show trial. Just as Stalin's purges in the 1930s relied on forced confessions and sham trials to kill his rivals and strengthen his totalitarian grip on power, Aliyev is using judicial theatre to mask his crimes.

Stalin's infamous show trials targeted his closest allies—old Bolsheviks, military generals, and secret police operatives. These spectacles culminated in executions, while the media of the time failed to see through the facade. Notably, The New York Times correspondent Harold Denny dismissed the trials as genuine efforts at justice, tragically endorsing Stalin's propaganda. History cannot afford to repeat such errors. Can we do it better in 2025?

On January 17, Azerbaijan will stage criminal trials against Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, including former presidents and civilians, alongside a separate trial for former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan. These proceedings are predetermined; the accused are already convicted in all but name. The charges, as hollow as they are grotesque, serve as a cover-up of the crimes committed by the regime in Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh including the prisoners.

Since December 2022, more than 120,000 Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh were systematically starved under Azerbaijan's blockade. In September 2023, they were subjected to a brutal military assault, instilling conditions to destroy the ethnic group as such and produce serious mental harm - two material forms of committing genocide under Article 2 (c) and (b) of the Genocide Convention. Azerbaijan's Parliament has made its intentions clear, advocating for the erasure of Armenian as a nation and claiming its territory as "Western Azerbaijan."

If Aliyev had genocidal intentions, then the Nagorno-Karabakh "ethnic cleansing" should be considered a genocide, if not, it is a crime against humanity of persecution, force-displacement, and deportation.

Hundreds of Azerbaijani dissidents remain imprisoned under Aliyev's regime, stripped of any prospect of a fair trial. On January 6, 2025, a criminal trial against a French national, Martin Ryan, started in Azerbaijan, exposing the tensions between both countries. Ryan stands accused of espionage—allegedly gathering intelligence on Azerbaijan's military collaborations with Turkey and Pakistan and recruiting French-speaking Azerbaijanis for French intelligence. Prosecutors claim he also acted as an intermediary, facilitating contact between French intelligence and Azad Mammadli, an Azerbaijani citizen now on trial for high treason. The charges against dissidents or French citizens, dubious at best, could be characterized as a systemic attack against the civilian population, and consequently, as crimes against humanity.

This is not an isolated incident. Independent reports from the European Court of Human Rights, the US State Department, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House all agree -Azerbaijan lacks an independent judiciary. In a rare instance of judicial independence in 2021, Judge Mehriban Suleymanova ruled against a government-backed entity. Her punishment was swift—she was fired.

The international community must act. These Stalin-era show trials in modern Azerbaijan are not merely a domestic charade but a calculated attempt to distract from Aliyev's crimes and tighten his grip on power. Every judge’s strike of gavel in Baku's courts resounds with injustice, and every conviction shames the global community that allows this to continue.

It is time to expose Aliyev's dictatorship for what it is and shame its allies.

Speak up for all those unlawfully detained, and make their voices heard. Demand their unconditional release.

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The comparison of Kosovo with Artsakh reveals the disgusting/disgraceful double standard of the "western civilized world" and ugly face of its realpolitik! In the first case, they helped a war criminal and head of the human organ trafficking mafia to become PM of Kosovo, and even put Milosevic on trial for charges of "genocide". In the other case, they turned a blind eye to genocide of Artsakh Armenians (the native inhabitants of the region for millennia), and imprisoning of the high-ranking political and military figures of Artsakh Republic (including former state minister and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan) by Baku's bloodthirsty petrol-dictator (happens to be "reliable, trustworthy" partner of Ursula von der Leyen), who celebrated genocide and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians by shouting out: "We chased them out of our lands like dogs."

The “humanitarian intervention” endorsed by them and executed by their military machine NATO works very selectively when it comes to their interests. For example, in the case of "humanitarian intervention" to "protect Kosovo Muslims from genocide committed by Christian Serbs”, they used their military machine to help Kosovo Muslims in their "struggle to achieve their right of self-determination and freedom from Serbian occupation". They even put Milosevic on trial with "genocide" charges! However, they didn't take into consideration the historical fact that one of the oldest Serbian monasteries ("Gra?anica" Serbian: Манастир Грачаница) built in 1321 by Serbian king Stefan Milutin is located in Kosovo! 2010 award-winning Canadian documentary "The Weight of Chains" (in Serbian Te?ina lanaca) by Serbian-Canadian Boris Malagurski shed a different light on the "humanitarian intervention" of NATO in ex-Yugoslavia. It exposes the root causes of the Yugoslav wars and explains that the goal was for the "western civilized world" to create economic and geopolitical colonies in that part of the world. It also will show atrocities committed by the so-called “Kosovo Liberation Army” in Serbia (and ex-Yugoslavia).

And in the case of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Christian Armenians in Artsakh by Azerbaijani Muslims and with the full support of Turkey (the only Muslim member of NATO and quasi-owner of Azerbaijan) the same "humanitarian intervention" didn’t apply because Artsakh was a "disputed territory” and "internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan". However, they are well aware of the historical fact that Artsakh had become "internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan" by decree of despot Stalin to placate the oil-producing Azerbaijan and Bolshevik Russia’s Kemalist allies in Turkey. Therefore, they acted differently concerning Artsakh. None of them reacted to the ethnic cleansing of Armenian people of Hadrut and Shushi right after the end of 44-day war in November 2020, when AZ's bloodthirsty petrol-dictator shouted out: "We chased them out of our lands like dogs. I said that we would chase them, that we would chase them like dogs, and we chased them, we chased them like dogs. He is now signing this document out of fear, knowing that we will come to Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin. No-one can stop us. Everyone sees our strength; everyone understands what our iron fist is like. That is why we have driven them out and are perfectly right in doing that." Instead of condemning Aliyev's crimes, Ursula von der Leyen praised him as “reliable, trustworthy partner” in July 2022. Also, no reaction from any member of the "western civilized world" to the invasion of Armenia and occupation of its territories in May 2021 (in Syunik and Gegharkunik), and in September 2022 (Parukh). In December 2022 the only life road to Artsakh came under the blockade of Azerbaijan and led to the starvation of Artsakh Armenians. Instead of condemning the barbarian act of genocide by starvation, in April 2023, Charles Michel ordered their puppet Pashinoglu to "lower the bar on Artsakh" (i.e. recognize it as part of Azerbaijan), and promised him to "protect rights and security of Artsakh Armenians". However, ten months after the blockade of Artsakh, on September 19, when Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against Artsakh to carry out ethnic cleansing of the rest of Artsakh Armenians, they just stood idly alongside Russian "peacekeepers", and observed atrocities of AZ military against them! And now they offer "humanitarian aid to Armenia for the 120,000 Armenians forcibly displaced from Artsakh".

Hypocritically, when it comes to anti-communism propaganda, Stalin is called an evil dictator by them (which is very true)! However, when it comes to the “territorial integrity of Azerbaijan”, the decree of the same "evil dictator" (i.e. donating Artsakh and Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan) becomes "international law"! What a disgusting hypocrisy, eh?