Azerbaijani Youth Opposition Leader Arrested in Alleged Coup Plot
Agence France Presse
Aug 4 2005
05/08/2005 00:47
BAKU, Aug 4 (AFP) – A youth opposition leader in former Soviet
Azerbaijan has been arrested for planning to overthrow the government
in a plot allegedly hatched by the US’ National Democratic Institute
(NDI), Armenian secret police and the local opposition, prosecutors
said late Thursday.
Ruslan Bashirli, the charismatic leader of the Yeni Fikir youth
movement which has called for President Ilham Aliyev’s ouster,
was arrested on charges of attempting “to take power by force,”
the General Prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Bashirli was arrested on Wednesday after a member of Yeni Fikir
informed the authorities that the group’s leader had taken 2,000
dollars (1,600 euros) from operatives of Azerbaijan’s rival Armenia
at a secret meeting in neighboring Georgia, the statement said.
Bashirli told the Armenians he represented forces “acting on the
instructions of the National Democratic Institute of the USA,” and
had received “specific instructions from representatives of this
organization to prepare a revolution in Azerbaijan,” according to
the statement.
NDI is a US non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting
democracy in developing countries, but has been criticized by
regimes in the former Soviet Union who accuse it of supporting the
revolutions that have swept Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the
past two years.
Prosecutors also said Bashirli’s plans were being backed by one
of Azerbaijan’s leading opposition parties, the National Front of
Azerbaijan Party.
Azerbaijan recently relaxed a crackdown on the opposition after
heavy Western pressure, allowing anti-government groups to openly
demonstrate this summer for the first time since 2003.
The new arrest raises concerns that the oil-rich state will clamp
down on opposition activity again ahead of parliamentary elections
scheduled for November.