Bakhtiar Hajiyev renounces Azerbaijani citizenship

Baku /23.08.22/Turan: Public activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev submitted to the Presidential administration a statement on renouncing Azerbaijani citizenship. He motivated this step by threats to his life in the country.

"I was informed that my statement will be submitted to the department for work with law enforcement agencies in charge of the migration service," the activist told the Turan news agency.

He was told that an answer would be given within 15 days, and if additional investigation was needed, 30 days.

The activist noted that over the past year he has repeatedly been subjected to physical pressures, threats, abduction, interference in his private life.

This notwithstanding, law enforcement agencies did not take any measures on his complaints.

"The police not only takes care of criminals, but even threatens me. Yesterday, the head of the police department said that "I will do what I want."

I am concerned for my life and I no longer want to remain a citizen of Azerbaijan. Now let the head of state decide for himself whether the security forces can treat citizens this way or not.

Azerbaijan is a member of the Council of Europe, but behaves like North Korea," Hajiyev said.

When asked what he would do if the statement for deprivation of citizenship was granted, Hajiyev replied that if the legislation allows, he will remain in Azerbaijan for some time as a stateless person.

At the same time, he intends to apply for citizenship to some states.

He pointed out that he has no debt obligations to the state, individuals and legal entities and there are no grounds for refusing to terminate his citizenship.

Recall that Hajiyev noted the day before that he was detained in the afternoon and taken to the main department to combat organized crime of the Interior Ministry where he was subjected to physical pressures. He was forced to remove critical posts about the Interior Minister and pro-government activist Fuad Muradov from his Facebook page. Finally, he was threatened that if he continued to criticize the police, the punishment would be harsher.

The Interior Ministry has not yet commented on Hajiyev's statement. -06D-