On 8 October, activists from the Azerbaijani opposition group the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) gathered in front of the mayor’s office in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to protest in support of freedom of assembly. This marked the first time ever that the Baku authorities agreed a protest in front of the city administration, reported Radio Free Europe. The NCDF members called the rally to protest a decision by city officials to deny permission for them to stage a demonstration at the Mahsul Stadium in central Baku on 19 October, offering them instead the right to protest in Lokbatan (a settlement and municipality in Baku).
50 opposition activists were allowed in the venue of the protest, while 20 more protesters were barred from entering the venue and tried to break through the police cordon but were dispersed. 17 people were detained in total.
According to Baku police, the organizers of the rally violated the law on freedom of assembly. They arrived earlier than agreed upon and began to urge citizens to join the rally, the Baku police headquarters said in a statement. “The organizers tried to attract more than 50 people to the picket, go beyond the designated area and hold an illegal procession. As a result, traffic was paralyzed in the indicated territory, obstacles were created for pedestrians. Attempts to hold a procession accompanied by disturbance of public order and illegal actions were suppressed,” the message said.
The head of the Committee against Repression and Torture, Ogtay Gyulalyev, believes that the rally became a confirmation of the restriction of freedom of assembly in Azerbaijan.
“There were more people who wanted to take part in the picket than allowed by law. And this is confirmation [by the fact] that there is dissatisfaction in the society and those who disagree are ready to support any protest rally to express their demands. If the authorities coordinated opposition rallies in acceptable places within the city, then it would be possible to avoid a confrontation, because in spontaneous actions, where the police blocked the way to the protesters, people talked about urgent and worrying problems, one should listen to the voice of citizens and not suppress peaceful protests,“ he said.
The NCDF was formed ahead of the 2013 presidential elections in which President Ilham Aliyev won a third term. It comprised the Musavat, People's Front, Open Society, the Forum of Intellectuals and the El (People) movement. The NCDF nominated Jamil Hasanli as its joint presidential candidate. In September 2015, the NCDF announced that it would boycott the elections, stating that the country did not meet the conditions for free and fair elections.
