Law enforcers disperse protesters in Bilasuvar

Residents of the Azerbaijani city of Bilasuvar gathered for a protest action, which grew into a clash with law enforcers. Media have reported on those detained and injured. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has confirmed only the detention of one of the protesters, who used force against a law enforcer.

People protested against the "improper distribution of the help," allocated by the state to the population during the pandemic, the "Meydan TV" reports, adding that law enforcers used violence when dispersing the action; there are victims.

"There is unemployment in the district; people have nothing to live for," the "Turan" News Agency quotes one of the protesters as saying.

In his turn, Ekhsan Zakhidov, the head of the MIA's press service, has denied any injured ones among local residents.

Emin Guseinov, a human rights defender, has treated the action in Bilasuvar as a spontaneous form of expressing discontent.

"In Bilasuvar, townspeople are facing the same problems as in other districts – poverty, unemployment, low salaries and officials' lawlessness. Amid the pandemic and people's inability to work, these problems have worsened," Mr Guseinov has concluded.

In the opinion of Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, the rally in Bilasuvar was an expression of people's discontent. According to his story, "the state has allocated to the people sitting at home only 190 manats (USD 112), and not to all of them, which has triggered discontent among the population."