Supporters of Azerbaijan's European integration hold flash mob to remind about European values

On the occasion of the Day of Europe, the Azerbaijani European Movement (AEM) has chosen the form of a flash mob, held in Baku within the campaign "European Construction", for promoting the European values. The action was not sanctioned, but the police did not prevent it.

May 9 is marked in the EU countries as the Day of Europe, in memory of May 9, 1950, when it was the creation of the European Coal and Steel Union was announced, later transformed into the current European Union.

The action in Baku was scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Azerbaijani Banner in the Seashore Boulevard, opposite "Azerneft" Square. However, half an hour before the start of the action, the supposed venue was taken under control by law enforcers: policemen and people in civilian clothes were supervising the arriving young people with posters and balloons in their hands.

When Ramin Gadjily, the president of the AEM, appeared at the venue, a police officer asked him whether the organizers had a permit of the Executive Power of Baku City.

Mr Gadjily said that a notification had been sent to the Mayoralty, but no response was received; and since under the Constitution and laws of Azerbaijan, the country operates the notification system for demonstrations, the organizers decided to hold it in the appointed place.

However, the police officer was not satisfied with the explanation and said that he would report to his bosses about the action. He stepped aside and spoke with someone by phone; then, he came back and told the AEM president that the action was allowed for a short time, but without voicing out any slogans. The officer warned that otherwise the police would have to intervene.

After that, about 150 young people lined up along the boulevard, with their backs to the sea and faces to the city. They held blue (the colour of the EU flag) balloons and colourful posters with European values - secularism (the concept, according to which the government and other sources of law must be separated from any religion), free elections, human rights, cultural diversity, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, democracy, transparency and inviolability of property. Many of them wore blue shirts with symbols of the European Union.

"We hold our action on the Day of Europe in order to draw attention of the residents of Baku to European values," Aigyul Djafarova, Secretary General of the AEM, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

When asked why Europe is so attractive for supporters of the European integration of Azerbaijan, Djafarova said, "Because of freedom, civil society, development and technological progress."

The action lasted for about 10 minutes; then, its participants gave blue balloons to children on the boulevard.

A Baku resident Egyana Alasgarova has noted that, although she liked the form of the action, the "European values are not very attractive." "Our values, especially family ones are better than European," she said.