Epress.am News from Armenia
By some accounts, anywhere from 15–25 youth activists were detained by police in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku following an anti-government protest today.
As reported by activists on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and by the BBC, witnesses saw both uniformed and plainclothes police detaining protestors one by one.
According to Epress.am’s sources in Baku, today’s demonstration went by quite well and a large number of young women and girls participated in the protests.
People on the street were shouting “Freedom!”, “We want to live in a free country,” and “freedom to prisoners.”
“Though the demonstration was spontaneous, it appeared to be very well organized,” said demonstration participants.
One tweep earlier noted that so far 25 detainees, schools and metro stations have been closed in Baku.
The authorities have stated that detainees will be released if they stop protesting. According to one tweet, police told human rights defenders everyone will be released today, but some may be given warning — if they protest tomorrow, they’ll be sentenced.
Recall, the opposition party Musavat had issued a statement earlier saying it will hold a protest tomorrow at 2 pm in Fountains Square in downtown Baku.
As reported earlier, activists launched a campaign on Facebook to hold nationwide anti-government protests on March 11, which the called “Great People’s Day.”
Since Mar. 4, activists have been detained by police, and since this morning, police forces have been centralizing in different areas in Baku.
