The murder of blogger, LGBT activist and journalist Avaz Hafizli (Shikhmammadov) by his cousin on February 22 went viral on social media. The blogger’s friends, who witnessed the corpse, claim that he was killed with special cruelty, with his head and genitals dismembered.
They believe that it was so because of Hafızli’s sexual orientation. Avaz Hafizli had repeatedly stated that his life was in danger, and he held one-man protests to bring attention of law enforcement.
Interestingly, although the blogger’s murder was on the spotlight for a few days, none of the political opposition parties commented on the issue. As Mikroskop Media, we tried to find out why.
Deputy Chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Seymur Hazi says that “so many terrible events are happening in the world so fast that the Popular Front Party does not have the opportunity to gather and express an official position on this and many other issues”. Regarding Hafızli’s case, he believes that only the killer knows the motive for the crime.
But there is a problem that people in Azerbaijan are really subjected to violence because of their sexuality. Therefore, from time to time we express our demand that Azerbaijan adopt the Istanbul Convention.
According to Hazi, the Popular Front Party has repeatedly stated that the government should “take steps to prevent domestic violence and sexual exploitation”.
Executive Secretary of the Republican Alternative Party (ReAL) Natig Jafarli said that he would only express a personal position on the issue, not as a party representative.
As ReAl is a collective management, I cannot express any opinion on behalf of the party. We have not put this issue on the agenda or discussed it to have a statement. Why should we express a public position on this issue? What kind of political voice does this create? Now a very serious public issue for Azerbaijan is the agreement with Russia. At that moment, we, as a party, were the first to issue a statement. In my opinion, it is more correct to express an individual position on such [Hafızli’s] issues.
Jafarli considers it a “shame that people are persecuted and killed for their race, religion, gender and opinions”. According to him, such crimes should provoke a serious reaction in society, and “threatening, harassing and killing someone for their private lifestyle is not appropriate for civilized societies”.
The leader of the Musavat Party Arif Hajili is also one of the party leaders who did not comment on the incident back then. Although he did not explain why, he believes that serious measures should be taken to prevent such incidents.
I knew that journalist. I saw his work in rallies and courts. The increase in the number of such crimes should cause serious concern in Azerbaijani society.
