Azerbaijan

NEW YORK -- For years, Internet spammers have used myriad domain names and countless shell companies to sell everything from Viagra to knockoff watches and handbags to pirated software.

Azerbaijan's authoritarian regime gave the prominent human rights group Amnesty International an unexpected gift ahead of its golden anniversary on May 28: a miracle.

That's how jailed Azerbaijani newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev described his unexpected release from prison this week.

Could it be that pop music, traditionally viewed by conservative governments as a scourge, is precipitating a thaw in Azerbaijan? Human rights activists in Baku are hopeful that is the case following the recent release of a prominent independent journalist from prison.

With neighbors cheering in the streets, 34-year-old Azerbaijani newspaper journalist Eynulla Fatullayev experienced a triumphant homecoming on May 26 after four years in prison.

Officials in Azerbaijan want to make the act of spreading “misinformation” a “cyber-crime.” Some Azerbaijani civil rights activists worry that the initiative is driven by a desire to restrict Azerbaijani web users’ access to online information.

Two weeks after a surprise pro-hijab protest by scores of Muslim believers outside Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Education, authorities are still trying to figure out who organized the show of defiance.

In Armenia, it is routine for the annual Eurovision contest to provoke heated debate about the relative merits of the performers. But this year, post-contest discussion in Yerevan is also laden with political and diplomatic significance.

To many in Azerbaijan, winning Europe's ultimate pop-music contest produced a surge of national pride. But as the cheering over the Eurovision victory subsides, a tricky debate is just starting to unfold: what image of itself should Azerbaijan project to the outside world next year?