Youth Activists in Azerbaijan Say They Are Being Targeted by Government

As Azerbaijan's November 6 parliamentary elections draw closer, opposition and youth organization representatives say they are feeling increased pressure from the government. Their concerns have been stoked by the recent arrests of youth activists, one of them a Ukrainian citizen.

On September 12, Yeni Fikir Deputy chairperson Said Nuri was detained for 48 hours on suspicion of conspiring to stage a coup against the Azerbaijani government. While attending a training session in Poland that was sponsored by the National Democratic Institute, Nuri allegedly received instruction on organizing anti-government protests with the aim of overthrowing the established order, Azerbaijani officials contend. Nuri had assumed responsibility for running Yeni Fikir, a youth group loosely aligned with the opposition Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, shortly after the August arrest of Ruslan Bashirli, the group's leader. Bashirli was charged with conspiring with Armenian special services to foment unrest in Azerbaijan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The same day as Nuri's detention, Ramin Tagiyev, another Yeni Fikir deputy chairperson, was sentenced to a three-month prison term for his role in a supposed coup plot.

The US State Department has sharply criticized Nuri's arrest. In a September 15 interview broadcast by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Azeri Service, Terry Davidson, a US State Department official, expressed concern that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's administration was trying to squelch legitimate domestic political opposition. "The US government is concerned [by] the arrest of youth leaders in Azerbaijan as well as the campaign against the Popular Front Party," Davidson said.