How Azerbaijan and Its Lobbyists Spin Congress

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However life turns out — the hardest part is I can’t see you. And this is our 37th year together.” So ends a letter from Azerbaijani political prisoner Leyla Yunus to her husband Arif, also imprisoned by his country’s increasingly thin-skinned authoritarian government. The Yunuses were arrested nearly a year ago and have not been allowed to see each other since.
The charges leveled against them — high treason, espionage, fraud — are patently absurd. Leyla Yunus is one of the country’s best-known human rights activists and a relentless critic of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his corrupt regime. She is also a tireless advocate for the country’s other political prisoners, who add up to twice as many — according to a detailed open letter signed by a plethora of human rights organizations, academics, and regional experts — as Belarus and Russia combined.

[...]On January 21, Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) praised Azerbaijan for its “close and important relationship” with the United States, and described it as a “beacon of democracy.” In February, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) said that Azerbaijan and the United States “share the same commitment to freedom and liberty,” Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) lauded Azerbaijan’s “commitment to the ideals of democracy,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said the country was a “reliable friend and valuable ally,” and Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) called it a close ally of Israel and a “reliable partner.” Needless to say, no mention was made, in any of these statements, of the Aliyev regime’s well-documented abuses of its own citizens.

Link: How Azerbaijan and Its Lobbyists Spin Congress Foreign Policy

In other words, US Congressmen are supporting yet another dictator, and receiving bribes/blood money to praise it as a 'beacon of democracy' - even though said country has no real opposition, no free press, and no real freedom of expression whatsoever:

On October 9, 2013, President Ilham Aliyev won a third term in a predictable landslide victory amid significant evidence of massive electoral fraud. As in previous election cycles, the government stepped up the use of intimidation and other tactics to suppress dissent and ensure an unchallenged victory at the polls. During the year, the authorities employed excessive force to break up antigovernment protests, introduced restrictive laws to limit freedoms of expression and association, and jailed journalists and government critics.

Sounds like a 'beacon of democracy'?