Pro-government youth group clashes with opposition in Azerbaijan

By AIDA SULTANOVA
.c The Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Members of a pro-government youth group
briefly clashed with opposition activists in Azerbaijan Monday,
accusing them of co-operating with Armenian security agents. No one
was hurt.

About 150 activists of the Muasir Musavat party picketed outside the
building housing the opposition youth movement Yeni Fekir.

The two sides then began throwing eggs, plastic bottles, dirt and
stones until police intervened to separate them and the activists
dispersed.

Tensions in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation are rising ahead of
November parliamentary elections. Opposition parties fear the
government of President Ilham Aliev could rig the voting and have
rallied almost weekly.

Yeni Fekir’s leader, Ruslan Bashirli, was arrested last week on
charges of participating in a secret meeting with Armenian agents in
Georgia in July and receiving US$2,000 (euro1,600) for organizing an
uprising in Azerbaijan.

Both Yeni Fekir and Armenian officials deny the charges. The group
says Bashirli had gone to Georgia for what he believed was an
international conference on democracy and was slipped the money while
drugged. The group blames the incident on Azerbaijan’s secret
service.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are longtime foes and fought a bloody six-year
war over the disputed ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh,
which is now controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Defense lawyer Elchin Gambarov, who said he met with Bashirli in jail
on Monday, called his client a political prisoner. He said Bashirli
had told him that authorities promised to free him in 24 hours if he
admitted his guilt.

“Ruslan has been named an enemy of the people without a trial and
without any evidence,” Gambarov said. “This dirty campaign recalls
the repressions of 1937” – when tens of thousands were caught up in
purges under Josef Stalin.

Ali Kerimli, the leader of the opposition National Front Party, which
closely cooperates with Yeni Fekir, said the clash was a
government-sponsored attempt to tarnish the opposition’s image.

“The authorities are provoking a civil confrontation and they are
responsible for it,” Kerimli said.

08/08/05 12:23 EDT