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Police detained more than 80 protesters in central Baku ( Reuters )
- Want to say
- 19 October 2019, 21:53
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Azerbaijan police detain scores of protesters, including opposition party leader"
Police in Azerbaijan on Saturday detained scores of protesters, including the leader of the main opposition Popular Front, at the start of a planned rally against low salaries, corruption and a lack of democracy in the energy-rich ex-Soviet state.
The protesters have a wide range of demands, including higher salaries for state employees and fair and independent elections in a country long accused by human rights groups and Western governments of a lack of transparency.
Popular Front leader Ali Kerimli told reporters before his own detention that some 50 people, mostly organisers of Saturday's unauthorised rally, had already been detained earlier in the week.
"We demand our constitutional rights and freedoms to be protected," Mr Kerimli said. "We are not afraid of this government and we will fight till the end."
Police detained Mr Kerimli soon after he began walking to the venue of the protest rally in central Baku. More than 80 other protesters were detained after him, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
The deputy head of the Baku police, Sakhlab Bagirov, confirmed to Reuters that some people had been detained, but declined to provide a number.
Police also cordoned off several streets in central Baku, a couple of metro stations were temporarily shut and there were problems with internet connection.
Azerbaijan has been governed by President Ilham Aliyev since 2003 when he succeeded his late father.
Western nations have courted Azerbaijan because of its role as an alternative to Russia in supplying oil and gas to Europe, but various European bodies and rights groups have accused Mr Aliyev of muzzling dissent and jailing opponents, charges Baku denies.
Reuters
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- Photo sessions
- 19 October 2019 21:02
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- Politics
- 19 October 2019 23:43
Want to say
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I welcome respected media representatives, professional and honest journalists from places of detention. July 22 is an important day for journalists, mass media and teachers of Azerbaijan. 149 years ago, Hassan Bey Zardabi, the great educator, the most valuable thinker, the founder of our journalism, lit the first light for society to come out of darkness, giving humanity the newspaper “AKINCI.”
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The past day has not clarified the question of why the meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan in London on July18 broke down. The announcement of the upcoming meeting was made a week ago from Armenian sources, and Baku was silent about the upcoming meeting.
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I stand firmly in support of President Ilham Aliyev's vision for Azerbaijan's future.
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As Azerbaijan commemorates the 106th anniversary of its republic, Alasgar Mammadli, a prominent intellectual and lawyer, sends a poignant holiday greeting from the isolation ward of Kurdakhani Detention Center:
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