ArmInfo. After a period of depression that we have seen in Azerbaijani society recently, a certain shake-up occurred in the country at the beginning of this year, Arif Yunusov, Head of the Department of Conflictology at the Institute for Peace and Democracy (Netherlands) expressed such an opinion to ArmInfo.
"This shake-up was largely due to the case of Mehman Huseynov, a blogger who shot video materials about corrupt officials, as well as the ruling family in Azerbaijan. As a result he was imprisoned on completely fabricated charges, a common practice in modern Azerbaijan. Now, in addition to this, our authorities have recently decided to revive the old Stalinist practice, when the following rule was applied to political prisoners: before the end of the prison sentence, on a false pretext, new articles of the prosecution and the term were added to their case", he said.
On January 19, an opposition rally in support of political prisoners was held at the Mehsul Stadium in Baku. According to the organizers, more than 20 thousand people took part in the action. The protesters demanded the release of the blogger Mehman Huseynov, who was on a hunger strike, and also demanded the resignation of Ilham Aliyev.
According to Yunusov, one of these prisoners, Mehman Huseynov, could not stand the use of Stalinist methods in his attitude and in response went on a hunger strike. According to estimates of the human rights activist, this action has found great support in society. Not only representatives of the opposition joined the action, but even political prisoners began hunger strike in prisons. After that, a well-known resolution of the European Parliament followed, which even more stirred up Azerbaijani society.
On January 17, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Azerbaijan, which focused on the violation of human rights in this country. The reason for the adoption of the resolution was the conclusion and extension of Mehman Huseynov's term.
"All this factors have led to the rally, where much more people came than expected by many, especially the authorities. As a result, the authorities and Ilham Aliyev personally are obviously confused. They now have a bad luck, especially in relations with Europeans. But they so far have enough resources and therefore currently it is too early to talk about the likelihood of the development of revolutionary events following the example of Armenia, "Yunusov summed up.