Aliyev has justified arresting journalists by the need to “protect the media landscape from external negative influences”, accusing reporters of “illegally receiving funding from abroad”.
He has also long accused international organisations of bias and meddling in domestic politics, and the Baku offices of the UN, the International Red Cross Committee and the BBC have all been ordered to shut down.
EU policy has in effect given Aliyev “a free hand”, says Eldar Mamedov, a former Latvian diplomat who served as foreign policy adviser to the European Parliament’s Social Democrat group.
“The repression, arrests of dissidents, bloggers, and opposition voices have long strained Baku-Brussels relations,” he told the BBC. “Since Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, this issue virtually disappeared from the agenda.”
The European Union rejects the allegation.
“[The EU] is concerned by the shrinking civic space in [Azerbaijan],” a spokesman told the BBC, and has called on Baku “to release all those arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental rights”.
“The EU has consistently raised its concerns at all levels, both in public and in private,” including during Kaja Kallas’s visit to Baku, he added.