BAKU, Oct 9: Azerbaijani riot police on Sunday beat dozens of opposition activists holding an unsanctioned rally to call for free elections, amid a violent crackdown ahead of parliamentary polls seen as a test of stability in this oil-rich republic.
In the third unsanctioned opposition protest to rock the capital in under a month, opposition leaders used a campaign slot on state television to call demonstrators to the streets to follow the example of peaceful revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia.
The two fellow former Soviet republics have rid themselves of entrenched regimes using peaceful protests sparked by falsified elections in the past two years, and the opposition here alleges that the authorities plan to rig the Nov 6 parliamentary elections.
But hundreds of opposition supporters who descended on the Baku’s central districts on Sunday were beaten back with truncheons by superior numbers of riot police, grouped throughout the city hours ahead of the protest.
The opposition’s Azadliq (Freedom) block said 27 people were injured — including 10 journalists and two opposition candidates — and 52 activists were arrested.
As the violence subsided, the courtyard of the Popular Front opposition party was turned into a makeshift treatment centre for the wounded, with blood spattered on tables and on the ground.
Police claimed 11 officers were also hurt during the demonstration and provided a figure of 28 for arrests.
The outside world is nervously watching to see if the parliamentary elections bring more unrest in a republic where Western oil companies have invested billions of dollars into the creation of a US-backed energy corridor for Caspian Sea oil to reach Western Eruopean markets.
Azerbaijan is the starting point of the 4-billion-dollar Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline which will start pumping oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast later this year, making the stakes for money and power at this election higher than ever.
So far Western governments have quietly urged Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev to restrain from violence.—AFP
