Azerbaijan continues media crackdown — Turan and BBC Azerbaijan forced to close offices

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▲Turan's office in the early 2000s. Photo: taken from the Turan's social media account.

In a letter addressed to its readers on Thursday, Turan director Mehman Aliyev announced they would be shutting down their offices due to financial problems, and would stop publishing as a news outlet but rather as an analytical one. Turan is the oldest independent media outlet in Azerbaijan.

Attacks on independent media have continued in Azerbaijan for the past two years — Turan was the last independent media outlet that still had offices inside Azerbaijan.

In his letter to readers, Aliyev (no relation to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev) stated that for more than three decades, the Turan News Agency ‘has been a pillar of independent journalism in Azerbaijan, providing objective and reliable reporting amid political and economic instability. Founded in 1990, in the final days of the Soviet Union, we have endured the challenges of transition, war, and reform while remaining committed to journalism that serves the public interest’.

Yesterday, in an interview with Time TV, Aliyev mentioned that when they worked in the 1990s and 2000s, Turan employed 45 people, but now there are less than 10.

‘We never received [any amount of money] from USAID or another fund, I have no connection with Meydan, Toplum TV, or AbzasMedia [other independent media outlets that have been the focus of government investigations]. But the circumstances developed as the last process which is going on in the country and abroad matched. And independent media [has lived] in very hard conditions for years. Since 1999, we have tried to save our media's economic independence, yet year by year, independent media have economically lost freedom and some are under the control of the government,’ he told Time TV.

Aliyev mentioned that he worked for Hafiz Babali, a Turan journalist imprisoned in the AbzasMedia case, which he said he was proud of, but that working in daily news was a struggle, and he decided to shift Turan’s work to cover more analytical topics.

‘This is not the end of our mission, but rather an evolution. The information space is changing, and we recognise the need to adapt. In the coming months, we will explore new formats — ones that focus not only on news but also on analysis, identifying key issues, and proposing solutions. The future of journalism is not just about breaking news but about fostering understanding’, Aliyev said in the letter.

Aliyev stated that no one demanded them to stop their work or threatened them with arrest.

However, opposition politician Jamil Hasanli later wrote on social media that ‘undoubtedly, the reason is not only financial difficulties, but also the politics that creates these difficulties, the environment, the persecution of the press and freedom of speech’.

The government’s first attack on Turan was in August 2017, when Aliyev was detained for three months and was accused of tax evasion.

Aliyev’s statement came a little over a week after Turan published a news about Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s official plane, which they reported had also been subject to external interference on the same day of the AZAL flight which crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan after its radar and communications were reportedly jammed as it approached its intended destination, the Chechen capital Grozny.

Turan deleted the news on 7 February and apologised to its readers, saying the original article was biased and false.

Aliyev stated that on the same day they published their news, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and Information Technology issued an official statement noting ‘that [Ilham Aliyev’s plane’s] radar and communications jammed as it approached its intended destination in the Russian air zone’. According to Aliyev, this is why Turan wrote the article.

Aliyev ended his letter by stating that ‘the story of Turan is far from over. Stay with us’.

Yesterday, Qafqazinfo reported that the activities of Sputnik Azerbaijan and BBC News Azerbaijan had been suspended. Sputnik Azerbaijan operated as a branch of the Russian international information agency Rossiya Segodnya.

Local media reported that adjustments would be made to the work of the editorial offices of BBC News Azerbaijan as well. This decision was made to ensure parity between the activities of Azerbaijani state media abroad and foreign journalists in Azerbaijan. In other words, the number of media journalists working in Baku would be made equal to the number of AZERTAC journalists in Russia.

In November 2023, Azerbaijan began a new wave in its crackdown against independent media. The main target then was Abzas Media, whose office was raided. Seven journalists were detained, one of whom was Hafiz Babali, an employee of Turan.

In March 2024, the offices of Toplum TV and the Institute for Democratic Initiatives (IDI) were raided, and three journalists and three IDI members were detained.

More recently, in December 2024, six Meydan TV journalists were detained and their houses raided.

The last detentions related to independent media took place on 5 February 2025, when Meydan TV’s Shamshad Agha and Shahnaz Baylargizi were detained and accused of smuggling as part of the Toplum and Meydan TV cases.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s Media Crackdown

Turan

Aytan Farhadova •

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An experienced journalist, Aytan has worked with Azerbaijani, regional, and international media. Formerly with Meydan TV, she now lives in Georgia, where she focuses on investigative journalism, covering topics such as government accountability and domestic violence.