Ilham Aliyev

A startling editorial in the WashingtonPost today titled Our Man in Baku surrounding the events following the elections in Azerbaijan. Not surprisingly, the newly-elected President plays the oil game. An excerpt:

American diplomats and oil executives portray Mr. Aliyev as an urbane pro-Westerner and a secret moderate who plans to liberalize the police state he inherited from his dad. This account strikes Azerbaijanis as ludicrous. Only 42 years old, Mr. Aliyev is renowned in Baku as a playboy with a bad gambling habit. During his tenure at the state oil company, Azerbaijan was rated the sixth most corrupt nation in the world by Transparency International. Following the election, a Human Rights Watch reporter described what he witnessed: The government clearly stole the election, and then brutally beat hundreds of people who poured out in the streets in protest. The day after the election, I watched from the roof of a hotel in Baku as thousands of riot police beat protesters unconscious. Afterward the riot police raised their shields to the sky and turned their batons into drumsticks, celebrating the victory of intimidation. Now hundreds have been arrested, while Isa Gambar, the opposition leader, is effectively under house arrest and activists from his Musavat party are being beaten and detained all over the country. Everyone I speak to is scared. The violence surrounding the election was shocking yet predictable, as the government for years has shut the opposition out of the political process. In the months leading up to the poll, Azerbaijani authorities blatantly manipulated the electoral process to ensure that Ilham Aliyev would inherit his father's presidency. The opposition had nowhere to go but the streets.

The entire report can be viewed here. On January 23rd, Human Rights Watch published a more-detailed account of the arrests, beatings, and in some cases torture.... following what many believe to be a fraudulent election. Will the Bush administration come to the aid of the Azerbaijanis? Somehow I doubt it. Said Mr. Aliyev proudly: "The United States is a strategic partner."