Eurasianet

President Ilham Aliyev ordered the case to be dropped after an international and domestic outpouring of support for the young imprisoned blogger. Activists cheered the concession as a victory of people power.

Several political prisoners and activists have declared hunger strikes in solidarity, and both the government and opposition have slammed the Western response.

The authorities had brought up new charges – which his supporters say are spurious – against him shortly before he was supposed to be released.

The activists were conducting a march to celebrate a national holiday, but the authorities accused them of doing it for unsanctioned “political purposes.”

The poet was executed in 1938, and the whereabouts of his remains had been unknown until an Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch claimed to have found them.

The artificially intelligent celebrity visited Azerbaijan. Her conversation with the president was the source of much mockery.

The move comes after the son of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did the same, and drew unfavorable comparisons.

Her treatment of human rights, and how to balance them with Europe's interest in Azerbaijani energy, were closely scrutinized during the visit.

The release comes a week ahead of a planned visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Baku; Europe has been critical of Mammadov's detention.

Admiration of the first republic and its president comes at the expense of the man today's authorities prefer to see as father of the nation: Heydar Aliyev.

Real TV appears to be indirectly controlled by the family of President Ilham Aliyev.