In secretly published recordings of video conferences of Azerbaijani politicians, they clearly position themselves against the queer community. Scary statements show how deeply homophobia is rooted in the country’s opposition parties. After the recordings became public, however, they caused a scandal and forced the politicians to give a comment.

The videos, which appeared in social media between 13 and 17 May, show zoom calls from leaders of various opposition parties in Azerbaijan. OC Media translated the conversations and revealed horrifying facts: the politicians are inciting queer people.

Gultakin Hajibalyi, for example, former member of parliament and current member of the Coordination Centre of the National Council, warned against western homo-propaganda. The rights of sexual minorities and “unwanted persons” were the top priority for western countries, Hajjbayli said.

After that the conversation centered on an openly gay journalist from Azerbaijan, Ismail Dschalilow. He had recently criticszed the female politician. In the leaked recording, the other politicians agreed with Hajibayli’s hatred of the journalist. Rafik Manafli, a member of the board of the Party of Civil Unity, described Dschalilow in the following conversation as a “male whore” and regretted that “Hitler did not exterminate all gays in his time”.

Following this, one hears National Councilor Ganimat Zahid say: “Our meeting will be broadcast live, be careful”. But the warning came – fortunately – too late. Someone who had access to the chats leaked the footage on Facebook, causing a scandal. The politicians were forced to give a statement.

However, Jamil Hasanli, chairman of the National Council, was not conscious of any guilt. Instead, he accused the unknown person of cybercriminality who made the material available to the general public – in his opinion, either the Azerbaijani government or the state security service were responsible.

Gultakin Hajibayli justified herself on BBC Azerbaijan on 14 May. Although she admitted that she had used coarse and rude words, she claimed that these words had only referred to the journalist who had previously also insulted her. She had already apologised to him for her retribution. Under no circumstances, the politician said, did she want to insult sexual minorities.

“If someone in Azerbaijan, a member of a sexual minority, referred my statements to himself, it is not right”

However, the politician who made the Hitler statement did not apologise to the journalist. Rafik Manafli stated that he could not accept his demonstrative promotion of queer lifestyles. However, he admitted that his statement about the extermination of gays was inappropriate and unhappily formulated.

Azerbaijan was only ranked 131st in the Spartacus Gay Travel Index 2020 – in 2000 homosexuality was legalised, but the community’s daily life consists of discrimination, violence and torture by authorities.

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