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According to the international human rights organizations, the authorities in Baku tightened repressions against dissidents in order not to allow anything to mar the implementation of the two major sporting events to be held in the country. In 2015, Azerbaijan will be the first in the history of European Olympic Games, and in 2016, Baku will also host one of the stages of the Formula 1 race, writes Deutsche Welle.

As noted in the article, on September 29 by the initiative of international human rights organizations Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the "Reporters without borders" in Berlin office of HRW Azerbaijani human rights activist Vugar Gojayev and journalist Shahla Sultanova made a statement and answered the questions of the journalists. In May this year after a series of threats in her address Sultanova was forced to leave the country, and now with the support of the "Reporters without Borders" is in Germany.

According to the human rights defenders, the situation in Azerbaijan has been adverse for many years, but in the last few months, the authorities have adopted a particularly repressive policy in connection with the non-governmental organizations and independent journalists. According to estimates of HRW, two and a half years in Azerbaijan 50 political activists and journalists were arrested on trumped-up charges, 11 people since May of this year, nine of them were convicted. "Those who are still at large, have either left the country or are hiding," said the deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia department of HRW Rachel Denber.

According to estimates of the human rights activist Vugar Gojayev, since February of this year, the Azerbaijani parliament passed over 50 amendments to toughen the laws that regulate the activities of the non-governmental organizations which along with the overlap of the funding sources has almost completely blocked their work.

"The Human rights activists are not calling to boycott international sporting events in Azerbaijan, but offer the journalists who will come to watch them, to tell the world not only about the records of the European athletes and the world-famous racers. This is especially important because in Azerbaijan there is almost no independent media left. I have never performed a direct criticism towards the government, no one has been accused of corruption. I have just described the facts quoting viewpoint of different sides. But it was enough to infuriate the government,” said Shahla Sultanova.

According to her, most of the allegations have been fabricated, drug is being planted into the pockets of the journalist, or an agent provocateur, standing next to him at a crosswalk, suddenly starts screaming that he attacked and tried to rob him. As a result, Shahla Sultanova was forced to leave the country.

Not only Azerbaijani journalists are included in the black list. Recently, an entry visa was denied to the journalist of the Austrian newspaper Presse Zommerbauer Jutta, who was going to accompany in Baku the Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Austria. The "Reporters Without Borders" believe that she was denied a visa for publishing back in 2011 a critical article about the policy of Azerbaijan in connection with the Nagorno Karabakh. In the press freedom index, which is published annually by this human rights organization, Azerbaijan ranks the 160th out of 180, the article reads.