Arif and Leyla Yunus on the 2016 Four-Day War (April War) - From Their 2018 Book

In late March 2016, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev prepared for a visit to Washington D.C. to participate in the Nuclear Security Summit (31 March - 1 April, 2016). This visit was critically important for him: relations with the Barack Obama administration were strained, and the country's economy was suffering from falling energy prices. Aliyev hoped to secure political support and financial aid, as well as a long-awaited personal meeting with the U.S. President—something he, unlike the leaders of Georgia and Armenia, had never been granted.

To create a favorable atmosphere for the visit, Aliyev signed a decree two weeks prior, pardoning 148 prisoners, including 14 well-known political prisoners. The authorities hoped this gesture would soften criticism against Azerbaijan.

However, Aliyev's expectations were not met. In Washington, he did not receive an audience with Obama. Instead, during a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, he was thanked for the pardon but was immediately reminded of the more than one hundred other political prisoners and was strongly advised to resolve the issue of Leyla Yunus and her husband by allowing them to travel abroad for medical treatment.

Leyla and Arif Yunus deem that angered by this reception and his unfulfilled hopes, Aliyev resorted to his final "trump card." Immediately after the visit, on the night of April 2, the situation on the Karabakh front escalated sharply, leading to hostilities known as the "Four-Day April War." The author asserts that this was a deliberate act of "blackmail by war" intended to achieve several goals:

1. Remove demands for political and economic reforms from the agenda by creating a wartime situation.
2. Demonstrate to the West that only he, Aliyev, is the guarantor of stability and can control chaos in the region, thereby making him worthy of support.
3. Silence criticism regarding human rights, as the priority for world leaders would shift to securing a ceasefire.
4. Boost his domestic approval rating by uniting the population against an "external enemy" and a patriotic agenda, distracting from social problems.

The strategy worked: international organizations and world leaders shifted their focus from human rights to calls for peace, and domestic protests were replaced by patriotic rallies in support of the army and the president. Leyla and Arif Yunus emphasize that for the Aliyev regime, the image of an external enemy is a tool for maintaining power, which is why any proponents of peace, like the writer Akram Aylisli or the authors themselves (who were accused of espionage for creating an Azerbaijani-Armenian dialogue website), are persecuted.

Nevertheless, due to economic necessity, Aliyev could not completely ignore the U.S. position. After the war, Western diplomats continued to raise the Leyla Yunus's case, which, amid a sharp deterioration in her husband's health, offered hope for a resolution to their situation.