Nida Civic Movement
 | |
| Founded | 4 February 2011 |
|---|---|
| Type | Civic movement |
| Focus |
|
| Location | |
Area served | Azerbaijan |
| Method |
|
Key people | Administrative board |
Volunteers | 350+ |
| Website | N!DA Civic Movement |
Nida Civic Movement (Template:Lang-az), commonly referred to as N!DA or simply Nida, is an Azerbaijani civic movement founded in early 2011 by a few young people to achieve democratic and social changes in Azerbaijan.[1] Currently it has over 350 members comprising mainly young individuals as well as well-known politicians and activists. The movement claims to have no affiliation with any of the political parties in the country. Nida means exclamation in Azerbaijani.
Principles
The purpose of the movement is to defend the constitutional and human rights of the society, and preserve the democratic and republican values. N!DA also aims to attract citizens, especially, youth and students into the socio-political processes of the country in order to democratize Azerbaijan and increase their influence in the processes. The manifest of the movement explicitly states that N!DA is not a political party and it has no intention to be represented in the government.[2]
Administrative board
N!DA is coordinated by the administrative board consisting of seven members. The members of the board are elected by a general voting held among the movement members only. The incumbent board was formed after some of the board members (co-founders at the same time) and ordinary members were arrested with believed to be fake accusations by the government authorities.
The current board, as of September 2015, includes Ulvi Hasanli, Ramin Huseynov, Majid Majidli, Kenan Gasimli, Murad Rustambeyli, Turgut Gambar and İlaha Amiraslanova.
Political prisoners
Seven activists of N!DA, including four board members, were kidnapped and arrested with different bogus accusations a few days after the protests held against the non-combat military deaths in March and April 2013 in Baku, Azerbaijan.[3][4][5][6][7][8] One more member of the movement, Omar Mammadov was arrested in January 2014.[9] Initially, a criminal case has been launched on articles 234.1 (illegally obtaining, keeping or selling drugs) and 228.1 (illegally obtaining, keeping, carrying weapons, explosives) of the Criminal Code. Later on during the investigation, they faced extra charge under Criminal Code’s article 220.1 (the organization of mass disorders accompanied with violence, breaking, arson, destruction of property, application of fire-arms, explosives, and also rendering of armed resistance to representative of authority, or participation in such disorders).[10] On 6 May 2014 the Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced all the young men to 6–8 years of imprisonment.[11] International human rights organization, Amnesty International, recognized all the arrested young men as prisoners of conscience.[12] Shahin Novruzlu and Bakhtiyar Guliyev were pardoned and released on October 17, 2014, while the later defected to the government right after his release. The next pardon came on December 30, 2014 when two more activists Uzeyir Mammadli and Zaur Gurbanli were released.[13][14] The rest of the activists, Rashadat Akhundov, Rashad Hasanov, Mammad Azizov and Omar Mammadov were pardoned and released on 17 March 2016 ahead of Ilham Aliyev's Washington visit for the Nuclear Security Summit.[15] Ilkin Rustamzade and Abdul Abilov who joined N!DA after their arrests are still in jail as of March 2016.
References
- ^ About us, Official web page of N!DA
- ^ About us, Official web page of N!DA
- ^ Our political prisoners, Official web page of N!DA
- ^ 3 persons who incited violence and civil confrontation arrested in Baku
- ^ NIDA Activist Rashad Hasanov Arrested
- ^ 2 more NIDA members arrested
- ^ Zaur Gurbanli of N!DA arrested
- ^ Azerbaijan at the UPR: Time to cease politically motivated arrests and the imprisonment of opposition activists and journalists
- ^ Daha bir gənc fəal həbs olundu, Azadlıq newspaper, 25 January 2014, retrieved on 27 March 2016
- ^ Court passes judgment on Nida members
- ^ NİDA-çılara hökm oxundu
- ^ Downward spiral: Continuing crackdown on freedoms in Azerbaijan, Amnesty International, October 2013 release, p. 16
- ^ Welcoming the Release of Civil Society Activists in Azerbaijan, U.S. Department of State, 22 October 2014
- ^ Məhkum edilmiş bir sıra şəxslərin əfv olunması haqqında Azərbaycan Respublikası Prezidentinin Sərəncamı, 29 December 2014
- ^ Məhkum edilmiş bir sıra şəxslərin əfv olunması haqqında Azərbaycan Respublikası Prezidentinin Sərəncamı, 17 March 2016