Twenty-eight prisoners serving their sentences in various prisons across Azerbaijan have declared 18 November ‘Political Prisoners’ Day’. The date coincides with the death of activist Faina Kungurova.
Kungurova died at the age of 33 in a prison hospital in the village of Boyuk-Shor on 18 November 2007 following a hunger strike. She was a former member of the opposition Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, and had been detained by police the month prior on charges of drug possession.
Kungurova’s death was kept secret from the public for several days until her burial on 22 November. Government authorities later reported that Kungurova had died of ‘acute cardiovascular failure and exhaustion’, a claim denied by her relatives, who said she had been healthy.
On Monday, Meydan TV published the joint statement by the 28 prisoners, in which they wrote that despite Azerbaijan’s 108-year history, ‘no concrete reforms have been carried out’ in terms of human rights and freedoms.
They noted that during the last 30 years, under former President Heydar Aliyev and his son and current President Ilham Aliyev, ‘civil rights and freedoms have deteriorated even more than during the 70 years of Soviet Union dictatorship’.
Noting that the ‘current authoritarian government has completely restricted all political, economic, and cultural freedoms’, the prisoners emphasised that independent media and civil society had been ‘completely destroyed’.
‘Given all this and the fact that the question of political prisoners in the country has been a pressing issue for 30 years, we consider it important to establish and celebrate Political Prisoners’ Day in Azerbaijan annually’, the statement read.
They called on Azerbaijanis and the international community ‘to treat this issue sensitively’, to commemorate the day starting from 2026, and ‘to honour the memory of Faina Kungurova at her grave’.
On 13 May, the Institute for Peace and Democracy announced that there were 328 ‘political prisoners’ in Azerbaijan.
