"What we want is to change this system. We want a democratic system, where there is really free media, free courts, free legal system, independent judiciary. For this purpose, we have to do many things. We have to change the mentality of the people, we have to show that there is a lot of supporters of this change. That is why being a political prisoner in Azerbaijan is part of our reality. If you want a change, it doesn´t matter in which segment of society, you have to take into consideration that one day you may become a victim and part of this repression. Becoming subject of political repression in Azerbaijan is very easy. Some people spent time on open jail, some in closed jail. I don´t think that being a political prisoner distinguishes you from other victims. There are other people, who lost their jobs or who had to leave the country for ever. They are also victims of political repression. For me, it is a disaster to leave my country. Because I belong to this country, I am a patriot of this country. I want to change my country. It doesn´t matter if in open jail, or in a closed jail."
"Before my jail, before this accusation and arrest, I cooperated with international organisations for many years, different institutions including OSCE, ODIHR, European Union, different institutions of the Council of Europe and also international NGOs. I had contact with them, my organisation cooperated with them. I attended their events and also spent some periods of my life on different election observation missions. I was part of some international community, circles, networks. That is why my support was on such a high level, when they launched criminal case against my organisation. Many international groups reacted, responded immediately. They wrote about me, sent letters to UN and different institutions. The same repeated itself, when I was in jail, detention centre. Several times international organisations tried to meet with me. In jail. I was able to meet mainly co-reporters of Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, once I met with human rights commissioner of the EU and once with the human rights commissioner of Council of Europe - all their missions related to monitoring the human rights situation in Azerbaijan. And I think that the government allowed them to meet me in jail. So I spoke with them to discuss the situation in jail and also generally the human rights situation in the country. I think for me it was easier, because of contacts with them. They also met members of my family. I always felt there was huge international solidarity with us and also morally they supported us."
"In 2023 and always, we were critical about election results. We were not focused on political results of the election, we just focused on quality of the electoral process. How the election process was, with regard to European standards, OSCE standards. Organising of free environmnt, free election process. Free conditions for all stakeholders, including opposition parties, journalists. We talked about it, we assessed the election porcess and we were critical. There were a lot of irregularities, ballot-stuffing, transportation of voters, different type of pressure on election participants, commissions were not independent. We raised these issues. In 2013 we were also very active, more than 600 people observed the elections, they reported to us and we assessed, evaluated and wrote first initial report. After that they started to talk about us. And two weeks later, they launched criminal case against our organisation. And then me and the executive director of the organisation, Mr Bashir Suleimanli, we were invited to the general prosecutor office, and some othe staff members. And they started accusing us of illegal business activity and tax evasion."
"I remember, we were established in 1997 and in 1998 one of the journalists was arrested. Because of his article. This article was not published in the newspaper yet. This article was in the memory of his computer. Police just got information that the newsapaper is going to publish this article. Before publishing of the article they entered the building, searched and found the article. He was jailed for two years and six months. It was of course unjust. It was against rule of law and against freedom of expression. A campaign started and our organisation joined. We started distributing flyers, took part and organised several press conferences. We talked about it in media and made statements. It was our first human rights work. Later that year, 1998, election took place in Azerbaijan, presidential election. It was the second term of Heydar Aliyev, father of the current president. One of the civili society groups invited us to monitor the election. All members of our organisation and also volunteers joined this group and observed election process. First time in my life I became familiar with election process and started to take part in trainings, seminars about election observation amd joined this organisation, this voluntary work. It was very interesting, the election process, I spent three days - day before elections, election day, preparation of the records, review of all complaints, irregularities in election process in polling station, in district election commission. This process somehow attracted me."
Annar Mammadli (properly Məmmədli) is an Azerbaijani human rights activist, electoral observation expert and two-time political prisoner. Born in 1978 in the provincial Azerbaijani city of Yevlax, he grew up during the perestroika period. He studied philology and foreign languages at Baku University and has been active in the civic sphere since the 1990s. He is an experienced election observer, a specialist in electoral processes, and one of the founders and leading figures of the Azerbaijani organisation Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDSC). In 2013, he was arrested and charged with tax evasion and illegal business activities after his critical comments on the conduct of the Azerbaijani elections. He spent almost two and a half years in prison, and the international support he received contributed to his early release. In 2014, during his imprisonment, he also received the Václav Havel Prize, awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, After his release in 2016, he spent an extended period of time in Prague for rehabilitation and study. We interviewed him in 2023 on the occasion of his appearance at the Forum 2000 conference, whose organisers we thank for arranging the interview. A few months later, in April 2024, Anar Mammadli was arrested again in Azerbaijan and went into detention.
