Azerbaijan: Great People's Day

Activists in Azerbaijan have opened a Facebook page, 11 March – Great People's Day in Azerbaijan / 11 Mart – Böyük Xalq Günü, to attract support for their plans to protest after being inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

4 comments

  • […] Now!) comments on the arrest today of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a youth activist responsible for a Facebook page calling for pro-democracy actions in Azerbaijan following similar protests in Egypt and Tunisia. […]

  • […] Carpets and Broken Pipelines, one of the moderators of a Facebook group calling for pro-democracy protests in Azerbaijan on 11 March comments on the arrest of Bakhtiyar […]

  • Istvan Toth

    A few days ago I read an article on blogspot.com, which was describing the situation in a country that is not so close geographically to Egypt, Libya or Tunis but leadership, injustice, and corruption vise very much so. This country is my current residence Azerbaijan.. During my the seven month spent here, on the one hand I had the opportunity to experience the hospitality, generosity and kindness of local people. But on the other hand I can see the misery of everyday life they have to face here day by day. There is a huge gap between the living standards of an average person and the leading elite. Though this country has remarkable incomes primarily from oil industry. I’ve never seen such a rapid developing city like Baku. There’s really money for everything (useless stuff) like huge fountains, big blocks of empty houses for horrible prices, “the biggest flag of the world”, etc. This is the surface what they show to the outside world. My point of view is confirmed by the sad fact of ignorance from governance side regarding their own peoples welfare, when I work here under circumstances quite unimaginable for somebody from the western world. The government is not really worried about such tiny problems of the society. They are more busy with building the “cottage industry” through populism and brainwashing in order to keep the status quo.
    There is no real opposite side of political power representing the new wave. At least not in the parliament. What they have here is small group of guys (mostly studied abroad) dare to think differently, but there are no open forums or other opportunities to get anything published. Local authorities censored medias and arrest people for ridiculous reasons. The latest revelations of violating human rights were the cases of Jabbar Savalan and Bakhtiar Hajiyev. They were jailed for protesting against the totalitarian regime on Facebook calling out for a “Day of Rage” inspired by protests in the Middle East and North Africa..
    This is how democracy workes in this part of the world.. Still a long way to Europe..

  • […] report saying that mother of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, an imprisoned youth activist responsible for a Facebook page calling for pro-democracy protests in Azerbaijan, was detained earlier today after placing her […]

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