Photo TURAN.
Baku/21.07.22/Turan: The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) condemned the dispersal of a protest rally in Baku on July 20 demanding the opening of the country's land borders.
“Azerbaijan's land borders are closed without any legal basis, and this situation has persisted for a long time. The officially announced reasons do not justify this illegal decision,” the NCDF said in a statement.
Even at the peak of the pandemic, Azerbaijan was on the list of countries using this global catastrophe for their political purposes. The NCDF believes that keeping the borders closed serves the corrupt interests of the authorities.
The action in front of the building of the Cabinet of Ministers on July 20, initiated by a member of the NCDF Coordination Center Tofig Yagublu, was a demonstration of the demands of citizens to respect the rule of law, the rights and dignity of citizens. The refusal of the Baku Mayor's Office to approve the action was an obvious violation of the Constitution.
"The intervention of the police, the inadequate use of force became a manifestation of arbitrariness, incompatible with the concept of the rule of law," the statement said.
About 40 protesters were detained, a member of the Musavat party, Aziz Mamishev, was arrested for 30 days for "not obeying the police."
The NCDF demanded that the authorities stop the practice of violent dispersal of peaceful protests and called on the international community not to remain indifferent to the violation of the fundamental freedoms of Azerbaijani citizens. --06B--
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