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On the day of the 20th anniversary of the "Contract of the Century" Azerbaijanis sent a letter to the Director General of British Petroleum (BP) Bob Dudley, demanding to end repressions in Azerbaijan. This is stated in the article written by Emma Hamilton, published on the website of the international human rights organization “Index on Censorship”.

As it is noted in the article on 20 September 1994 BP signed a contract with then president Heydar Aliyev to extract Azerbaijani oil. “This initiated the oil company’s two-decade relationship with Azerbaijan, providing money and power to Aliyev, which the letter argues, has hindered democracy in the country,” the letter reads.

Mirvari Gahramanli, The Oil Workers Right Protection Organisation Union says: “BP is where the president got his power from. What is he without the money? Where is his wealth, where are his police, without BP’s money? The Aliyevs have grown rich from BP and now as a result they have much more power,” she stated.

The letter is asking BP to call on the Aliyev government to release all 98 political prisoners currently being detained. It also asks that BP remove its sponsorship from the 2015 Baku European Olympic games.