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Agence France Presse -- English
August 8, 2005 Monday 12:59 PM GMT
Bottles and stones fly as pro- and anti-government activists face off
in Azerbaijan
BAKU
Some 300 pro- and anti-government demonstrators in former Soviet
Azerbaijan showered each other with stones and bottles Monday in a
clash over an opposition leader's alleged contacts with Armenian
secret police, but there were no reports of serious injuries.
A pro-government rally faced off with the opposition across a
traffic-packed street in central Baku just days after prosecutors
announced the arrest of the leader of an anti-government youth group
for his alleged contacts with agents from Azerbaijan's rival Armenia.
About 150 members of the opposition National Front of Azerbaijan
party chanted "Freedom!" and whistled as an equal number of
pro-government demonstrators shouted into loud speakers just meters
(yards) away, an AFP reporter on the scene saw.
Protestors scattered and regrouped as rocks and bottles thrown by the
opposing sides crashed onto the asphalt.
Police pushed back the opposition supporters, many wearing orange
shirts to echo the "Orange Revolution" that swept Ukraine last year,
until demonstrators from both sides dispersed.
Tensions between the opposition and the authorities have escalated
ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for November 6.
Ruslan Bashirli, the leader of the Yeni Fikir opposition youth
movement, was arrested last week for allegedly planning to overthrow
the government in a plot hatched by Armenian secret police, according
to prosecutors.
A video of a meeting with men prosecutors claim were Armenian agents
posing as democracy activists from fellow former Soviet republics
Armenia and Georgia has been airing on national television in
Azerbaijan since the arrest.
"We're here because we don't like what we've seen on television.
Bashirli sat at one table with the Armenians," said 19-year-old Javid
Kerimov who said he supported the government of President Ilham
Aliyev.
One popular TV channel, Lider, has interspersed footage from
Bashirli's meeting with pictures of Azerbaijanis killed or mutilated
during a bitter war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the early
1990s.
The opposition has denied Bashirli plotted to overthrow the
government, calling the case a state-sponsored smear campaign aimed
at pitting the public against anti-government forces.
"The authorities are creating a situation of civil confrontation, and
they carry responsibility for this," National Front leader Ali
Kerimli said at a press conference following the demonstration.
"Today the confrontation is small-scale, and we are doing everything
to prevent it expanding any further."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
August 8, 2005 Monday 12:59 PM GMT
Bottles and stones fly as pro- and anti-government activists face off
in Azerbaijan
BAKU
Some 300 pro- and anti-government demonstrators in former Soviet
Azerbaijan showered each other with stones and bottles Monday in a
clash over an opposition leader's alleged contacts with Armenian
secret police, but there were no reports of serious injuries.
A pro-government rally faced off with the opposition across a
traffic-packed street in central Baku just days after prosecutors
announced the arrest of the leader of an anti-government youth group
for his alleged contacts with agents from Azerbaijan's rival Armenia.
About 150 members of the opposition National Front of Azerbaijan
party chanted "Freedom!" and whistled as an equal number of
pro-government demonstrators shouted into loud speakers just meters
(yards) away, an AFP reporter on the scene saw.
Protestors scattered and regrouped as rocks and bottles thrown by the
opposing sides crashed onto the asphalt.
Police pushed back the opposition supporters, many wearing orange
shirts to echo the "Orange Revolution" that swept Ukraine last year,
until demonstrators from both sides dispersed.
Tensions between the opposition and the authorities have escalated
ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for November 6.
Ruslan Bashirli, the leader of the Yeni Fikir opposition youth
movement, was arrested last week for allegedly planning to overthrow
the government in a plot hatched by Armenian secret police, according
to prosecutors.
A video of a meeting with men prosecutors claim were Armenian agents
posing as democracy activists from fellow former Soviet republics
Armenia and Georgia has been airing on national television in
Azerbaijan since the arrest.
"We're here because we don't like what we've seen on television.
Bashirli sat at one table with the Armenians," said 19-year-old Javid
Kerimov who said he supported the government of President Ilham
Aliyev.
One popular TV channel, Lider, has interspersed footage from
Bashirli's meeting with pictures of Azerbaijanis killed or mutilated
during a bitter war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the early
1990s.
The opposition has denied Bashirli plotted to overthrow the
government, calling the case a state-sponsored smear campaign aimed
at pitting the public against anti-government forces.
"The authorities are creating a situation of civil confrontation, and
they carry responsibility for this," National Front leader Ali
Kerimli said at a press conference following the demonstration.
"Today the confrontation is small-scale, and we are doing everything
to prevent it expanding any further."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress