Writer and OC Media contributor Javid Agha has said he was apprehended by the authorities as he attempted to board a flight out of Azerbaijan.
On Tuesday evening, Agha wrote on social media that he was ‘invited to testify as a witness regarding the Bahruz Samadov case.’ He declined to comment further citing the ongoing investigation.
Agha was initially reported missing on Tuesday morning, with journalist Ulviyya Ali reporting that he had not boarded his flight. Ali said Agha had promised to get in touch after passing airport security, but that friends and family had not heard from him since he departed for the airport.
Before Agha reemerged on Tuesday, supporters identifying themselves as Azerbaijani civil society representatives, journalists, and academics issued a statement on Agha’s reported disappearance, in which they said they suspected that he may have been abducted by the government.
‘Javid Agha is known for his critical stance against the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan and his outspoken opposition to the war. His sudden disappearance is part of a broader pattern of repression conducted by the Azerbaijani government against its own citizens’, read the statement.
Later that day, Giyas Ibrahim, an anti-war activist, published a post urging all those who believe they might be persecuted for their anti-war positions to ‘stay hidden within the country for a while’.
‘There is no other way yet. Don’t try to leave the country. Maybe they won’t touch at all — this is unlikely anyway — but when you try to get out they bark more, they are paranoid’, he wrote.
He speculated that Azerbaijan’s recent arrests of peace advocates may signal its ‘preparation for a new war’ with Armenia, and to prevent any peace activists from spreading ‘counter-propaganda’.
He also suggested that the arrests might be an attempt to silence critics ahead of the upcoming COP29 UN climate summit in Baku.
‘I suspect more that the issue is related to a new military campaign. Or it’s related to both’, he said.
Agha is the third OC Media contributor to be detained in the past week.
Bahruz Samadov, a political analyst and advocate for peace with Armenia was arrested by the security services on 21 August on charges of treason.
[Read more: Bahruz Samadov charged with treason]
Like Samadov, Agha is a prominent social media figure and critic of the Azerbaijani government, as well as an outspoken advocate for peace.
He has written for OC Media on topics including his experience as an election observer in the 2020 parliamentary elections, Azerbaijan’s continued border closure since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the shared musical heritage of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Agha was reportedly travelling to Lithuania to begin studying in Vilnius University’s Politics of Global Challenges programme, having crowd funded the cost of his studies earlier in the year.
The charges against Samadov were followed by the reported detention of writer Samad Shikhi, also an OC Media contributor, on Friday.
While the authorities have not confirmed whether Shikhi was under detention, he was confirmed to be free the following day after publishing a Facebook post appearing to denounce Samadov.
The post said he had testified against Samadov as a witness to Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, telling them that Samadov had covered his expenses on a trip to meet with ‘certain Armenians abroad’, and that he did not face any pressure by the authorities.
Commentators on Shikhi’s post have speculated that he was being pressured by the authorities, and that he had not written the post.
