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NAKHCHIVAN. November 20, 2012. The US Ambassador Richard Morningstar applauded the “development of democracy” in Azerbaijan’s remote Nakhchivan region during his visit there, according to Azerbaijan's official state news agency AzerTac (in English) and Nakhchivan’s local government’s official news portal (in Azeri language).The US Embassy in Baku did not comment on this subject in its communications regarding the visit.

Separated from the country’s main proper by a strip of hostile Armenia, the region is said to be run like a totalitarian feudal fiefdom by the local despot Vasif Talibov and his associates. In addition to the suppression of free speech and other violations of rights and freedoms common to all parts of Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan has a bizarre set of restrictions resembling those of Turkmenistan or North Korea.

Gatherings of more than three people in public places, baking bread at home, and running private tea-houses (traditional Azerbaijani cafes) are prohibited activities. Dissenters are often sent forcibly to psychiatric hospitals, tortured and sometimes murdered in detention. Citizens are forced to attend state-organized “subbotniks” - communist era volunteer labor events where people have to do manual work involving cleaning streets, mowing lawns and planting trees.

These and other facts about Nakhchivan are highlighted in a comprehensive report by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, titled “Azerbaijan's Dark Island: Human Rights Violations in Nakhchivan”.

Richard Morningstar has been appointed as a US Ambassador to Azerbaijan after his controversial predecessor Matthew Bryza failed to pass US Senate confirmation hearings for this post because of allegations of his personal links to the corrupt and repressive Azerbaijan regime.

The news of Ambassador Morningstar’s praise of “Nakhchivani democracy” comes on the hills of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s speech where he said that Azerbaijan is an example of democracy and civilized political process for the developed countries of the West. (Azeri Report)