Opposition action at Rasulzade monument

On 28 May, opposition parties held a rally on the occasion of the Independence Day in Novkhana settlement at the monument to the founder of the Azerbaijan People's Republic (APR - 1918-1920) Mammad Emin Rasulzadeh

Leading opposition forces of Azerbaijan - Musavat Party and National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) held rallies alternately.

Participants of both rallies marched from the main motorway to the square where the monument stands, chanting ‘Freedom !’, ‘Rasulzade!’ and others.

Musavat speakers recalled the historical path of the APR, with Rasulzadeh playing a leading role.  
Touching upon the current political situation in Azerbaijan, Party leader Isa Gambar highly appreciated Azerbaijan's victory in the war for Karabakh and restoration of the country's territorial integrity. At the same time, he noted that Musavat's goals have not been achieved, as the "regime of personal power" has been established in the country and freedoms and human rights are being trampled.

‘Hundreds of political prisoners are languishing in prisons. ‘Musavat will continue to fight for equality, democracy and development in Azerbaijan, despite what its enemies say about the Party,’ Gambar said.

The Party also intends to continue M.E. Rasulzadeh's political line aimed at rapprochement of Azerbaijan with Turkey, he added.

For his part, Ali Kerimli, chairman of the Party of People's Front of Azerbaijan, at the rally of his supporters, also called to struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy in the country.
"Now we are at a difficult stage of struggle for the realisation of Mammad Emin Rasulzadeh's ideals. We should draw faith and strength in this struggle from the experience and legacy of the founders of the APR, who managed to gather the disparate people into a united nation in the harshest conditions of 1918. The whole world was against us then, but the fathers of the nation did the impossible - they created the first democratic republic in the Muslim world,’ Kerimli recalled. 

He said that on the eve of the rally in Novkhana, police took ‘pre-emptive measures’ against the PPFA activists, trying to prevent them from participating in the rally. ‘But the presence of thousands of party supporters at the Rasulzade monument shows that despite the repression of the authorities, the ideals of the APR cannot be torn from the hearts of Azerbaijanis,’ Kerimli said. 

Note that several thousand people took part in the rallies. The police did not interfere.