In Azerbaijan, police did not allow "Kura" activists to hold seminar for flood victims

Today, Mekhman Aliev and Oktai Gyulyalyev, activists of the "Kura" office, were detained in the Sabirabad District of Azerbaijan. The police have prohibited them to hold a seminar for local residents, who suffered from the devastating flood in the spring of 2010 of the Kura and Araz Rivers.

Mekhman Aliev and Oktai Gyulyalyev arrived in the region on January 6 to monitor the measures undertaken to eliminate the consequences of the flooding. Today, they had planned to hold a seminar in the village of Galagaiyn near Sabirabad for local residents to inform them about their rights in the context of flood consequences. However, the police banned the event, and the activists said that they were detained.

According to Mekhman Aliev, a member of the "Kura" office and the director of the "Turan" News Agency, the police bosses had stated the need to obtain "a prior permit" for the seminar.

"We said that no permit is needed for an indoor seminar; every day hundreds of seminars are held in the country; and no permit is required for this," Mr Aliev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The Sabirabad ROVD (District Interior Division) has explained that the "Kura" activists were not detained, but only "invited for a talk." The ban of the seminar was motivated by the fact that the event had not been agreed with the district authorities.

Local residents are not happy with the ban. According to Ilham Amiraslanov, a Gasymbeili villager, a group of his neighbours were eager to take part in the seminar.