17:35, 16 July 2020

Two PFPA activists detained in Azerbaijan

The Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) treats the persecution of its activists, Farid Asadov and Elvin Bakhmanoglu as political. The whereabouts of Asadov after his detention is unknown; Bakhmanoglu was arrested for 15 days, Gezyal Bairamly, the PFPA deputy chair, has stated.

Farid Asadov was detained on July 15. "He was driving his car in Baku. The road was blocked; and he was forced into another car and taken away to some unknown place. He only managed to inform his family members that he was detained," Ms Bairamly told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She believes that the reason for Asadov's detention could have been his participation in the action in support of the army.

At night on July 15, a march was held in Baku in support of the Azerbaijani Army. The meeting in the Akhmedly settlement of the Khatai District of Baku of the coffin with the body of Colonel Ilgar Mirzoev, who perished in fights in the Tovuz District, turned into in a spontaneous demonstration and activists' clashes with the police.

"In order to discredit the mass popular movement demanding from the authorities to take decisive measures in order to restore the country's territorial integrity, law enforcers organized, through provocateurs, an invasion into the parliament. The provocateurs overturned a police car and smashed the bus windows. They needed it to justify the dispersal of the rally," Ms Bairamly is sure.

According to the police, several policemen received traumas, and police service cars were damaged.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 16, 2020 at 11:34 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent