Imprisoned Azerbijani academic Bahruz Samadov has been transferred from Umbaki prison to the N11 facility and placed in solitary confinement. His grandmother says these new conditions have led him to again consider committing suicide. 🔗: oc-media.org/bahruz-samad...

Neue Ausgabe des Russian Analytical Digest: Russia-Azerbaijan Relations: Diese Ausgabe widmet sich den angespannten Beziehungen zwischen Aserbaidschan und Russland nach dem Bruch im Jahr 2025. css.ethz.ch/publikatione...

Dear friends, I have launched a website for @ulviyyaali.bsky.social where you will be able to read her letters from prison and relevant news about her case: ulviyyaali.com

Ursula von der Leyen can’t get too comfortable. When she appears today before the European Parliament to defend her reputation (again), it’s known that even if her centrist opponents are keeping her in post, there’s always a next time.

📣 The call for workshop proposals for #EWIS2026 in Izmir is now open! 🗓️ Deadline: 24 November 2025 🔗 More info here: buff.ly/HG9Jyqu

My new article is out now in @millennjournal.bsky.social ! Not the first paper I wrote during the PhD—but the first one to make it into the world 🌍 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

📌 Can Azerbaijan really seek peace while it continues to repress its own people? Opinion by Vafa Naghiyeva oc-media.org/opinion-can-...

Message from @smdov.bsky.social: "My trials were conducted very unfairly. No one was allowed into my hearings. They could not prove my guilt in any way. I ask all honest people to share that I am innocent and that I was imprisoned for wanting peace and justice."

Italian media published an article about @ulviyyaali.bsky.social with my, @cesarebarberis.bsky.social and Ulviyya's mother's comments included. altreconomia.it/il-silenzio-...

While the peace pledge between Azerbaijan and Armenia exists on paper, Azerbaijani activists and scholars argue that putting it into practice and undoing decades of institutionalised anti-Armenian sentiment is something different altogether. oc-media.org/azerbaijans-...

Finally got the physical copy of my first book! #DeFactoStates #Recognition #Diplomacy @gezimvisoka.bsky.social @fggaleiden.bsky.social link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9…

🅾️ Opinion: Azerbaijan should align its actions to its commitment to peace — free Bahruz Samadov now. oc-media.org/opinion-my-f...

oc-media.org/opinion-my-f... Gulnara Mehdiyeva hits the nail on the head: "If Armenia & Azerbaijan have initialled a text that condemns intolerance & racial hatred, then jailing a researcher whose work has been about refusing hatred is an error that must be corrected." Bahruz Samadov must be freed.

🅾️ OPINION: One year after OC Media contributor Bahruz Samadov was arrested, Azerbaijani activist Gulnara Mehdiyeva argues that his release is necessary to make the new Azerbaijani state policy of peace believable. ➡️ Read more: oc-media.org/opinion-my-f...

Thrilled that my article on treason and political community is (finally) out with International Political Sociology! academic.oup.com/ips/article-...

www.chathamhouse.org/2025/08/us-i... My latest, on the Washington peace summit between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

#OpenAccess from our new issue - The ties that bind: on affective ties, power, nationalism, and competition over the global distribution of feeling - cup.org/4iM0Wnw - Todd H. Hall & Patrick James

Vicente Valentim, Elias Dinas, & I came together to do this paper because we have all long shared an intution: mainstream center-right rhetoric shapes democratic norms. The hard part? Showing it empirically. We make some headway in this new paper. Grateful to @bjpols.bsky.social for publishing.

My first book, which discusses Sub-State Recognition, & co-authored with @gezimvisoka.bsky.social, is out now! #DeFactoStates link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

So far, once while being held at the State Security Service and once in Temporary Detention Center, he attempted suicide, and both times someone saved him at the last moment. He said that on the third attempt he will kill himself and end his life.

News from Bahruz Samadov: He met his grandmother today. He told her that since the peace treaty was signed, being unjustly kept in prison hurts him even more now. He said he cannot find peace for himself in the cell.

Without robust democratic debate, any peace deal risks long-term instability. Western actors, often blind to nuance, may tolerate democratic erosion when geopolitics demand it. (20/20)

Recent euphoria over the DC peace summit between Trump, Aliyev, and Pashinyan is premature. No treaty was signed—only initialed. Symbolic, yes, but far from conclusive in a conflict that has resisted resolution for decades. (1/20)

My thoughts on the recent 'peace summit' between Aliyev, Pashinyan and Trump in Washington DC: a short summary of my blogpost (link below) in this thread. 🧵 (0/20) chaotic2000s.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-fe...

An interesting read with original insights and well-argued takeaways.

In our latest issue, Cesare Figari Barberis & Mirkamran Huseynli break down the complexity of stigmatization, and how it can lead to "anxiety, sadness, and hopelessness" with an empirical focus on Azerbaijan. 📄👉 buff.ly/tSybSls

🎉 Vol 51(3) is out!🎉 This issue includes TEN research articles on topics like emotions, right-wing enjoyment, and mediation in international friendship. The articles are all free to read this month, so be sure to take a look and enjoy 👇 📚Read Here ➡️ buff.ly/OSuztti

Armenia is experiencing dangerous democratic backsliding, and we need to call it what it is. Under the guise of fighting Russian interference, our government is criminalizing political opposition in ways that mirror Turkey’s authoritarian playbook.

I have to say I admire this non-statement by EISA. Producing such a nothing-burger requires a lot of skill these days. eisa-net.org/eisa-stateme...

Pourquoi l’Azerbaïdjan a-t-il peur du doctorant Bahruz Samadov?

🧵 Oggi una doppia uscita legata all'Azerbaigian. 1/ Su MicroMega ho raccontato la repressione in corso nel paese, tra arresti e lunghe condanne ad attivisti, giornalisti e ricercatori. Purtroppo è un argomento quasi ignorato in Italia, tra i pochi che ne parlano @cesarebarberis.bsky.social.

Tbilisi City Court has jailed one more opposition leader, Nika Gvaramia, for failing to appear before a parliamentary commission ostensibly created to investigate the alleged crimes of the former ruling United National Movement (UNM) party. oc-media.org/gvaramia-ano...

The EU has called Azerbaijan’s jailing of Abzas Media’s team a 'worrying development,' while international rights groups reacted with outrage — Amnesty International criticised the EU for prioritising gas deals over human rights. oc-media.org/eu-says-impr...

The interview was republished in English by @neweasterneurope.eu erneurope.eu. More bad news arrived from Azerbaijan since my talk with @cesarebarberis.bsky.social. Yesterday, Bahruz Samadov was sentenced to 15 years for treason. On June 20, seven journalists also received long prison terms.

Researcher and OC Media contributor Bahruz Samadov has attempted to take his own life in prison, after prosecutors demanded he be sentenced to 16 years on charges of treason. ➡️ Read more: oc-media.org/azerbaijani-...

Last day to apply to ASIAC 2025!

Pretty dull statement frankly speaking. Can’t even mention the name of the perpetrator of these “events”.

🖤Are emotions in surveys shaped by social desirability? ➡️Marzia Oceno finds that respondents underreport negative emotions like anger & fear—and even positive ones like hope & pride are not immune to social desirability bias www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

La mia intervista (abbastanza lunga) con @tilmanalioscia.bsky.social di Meridiano 13, che ringrazio molto Parliamo della crescente #repressione in Azerbaigian 🇦🇿, che ha portato all’arresto del mio co-autore Ahmad Mammadli… …e delle motivazioni dietro al sostegno di 🇪🇺 e 🇮🇹 al regime di Aliyev

La mia intervista (abbastanza lunga) con @tilmanalioscia.bsky.social di Meridiano 13, che ringrazio molto Parliamo della crescente #repressione in Azerbaigian 🇦🇿, che ha portato all’arresto del mio co-autore Ahmad Mammadli… …e delle motivazioni dietro al sostegno di 🇪🇺 e 🇮🇹 al regime di Aliyev

Make sure to apply to #ASIAC 2025, the best conference in Europe on the #Caucasus and one of the best on #CentralAsia! Lots of amazing guest speakers and side activities this year, including a visit to San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Plus, it’s relatively cheap and always a good excuse to visit Venice)

“Their greatest strength, but also their greatest danger, is their ability to sound authoritative on nearly any topic irrespective of factual accuracy. In other words, their superpower is their superhuman ability to bullshit” on.ft.com/4je7uLm Generative AI models are skilled in the art of bullshit

📢 NEW VACANCY: Assistant Professor of Political Science 📢 The Institute of Political Science at Leiden University is currently looking for at least two (2) assistant professors in Political Science and/or International Relations. Read more here: www.universiteitleiden.nl/vacatures/20...

On Tuesday, Igbal Abilov, the editor-in-chief of the Talysh National Academy News magazine, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of high treason. Abilov denied all charges during almost a year of pre-trial detention and subsequent trial. ➡️ Read more: oc-media.org/talysh-resea...

La disastrosa copertura mediatica italiana della deriva autoritaria in Georgia. Il racconto giornalistico, pieno di inesattezze, ha finito per creare confusione e fraintendimenti sugli avvenimenti nel Paese.

New to Bluesky, so I am advertising my/our published articles 🤓 This #RIS article is on #norms, #emotions and #stigma We analyse the “emotional obligation” of #hatred against Armenians 🇦🇲, and the successful stigmatisation of anti-war voices in #Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 during and after the 2020 Karabakh war

Did #HumanitarianLaw Die in #Gaza? Professor Vincent Chetail, Director of the Global Migration Centre, considers the flagrant violations of humanitarian law in Gaza. www.graduateinstitute.ch/communicatio...

Azerbaijani journalist abducted at midnight, beaten, threatened with rape, jailed for reporting on court hearings. They planted cash, forced passwords, denied legal access. She wrote a letter. Read it. If you care about free press, don't look away. #JournalismIsNotACrime medium.com/@cavidaga/ul...