The families of political prisoners demonstrated in the center of Baku today and were briefly detained by the police.
Wearing t-shirts with portraits of their imprisoned family members, the demonstrators walked around the center of Baku until they were stopped by the police.
According to Zumrud Yaghmur, wife of political prisoner Fuad Gahramanli, the protestors, along with independent journalist Sevinj Vagifgizi, were detained and taken to police station #9 before being released.
15 June is a holiday in Azerbaijan. Known as the “Day of National Salvation,” it marks the return to power in 1993 of Heydar Aliyev, the former leader of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic and one-time head of the Azerbaijani KGB. After Aliyev’s death in 2003, his son Ilham Aliyev became president and remains in power today.
“If today were really a ‘day of salvation,’ our children would be free,” said Shura Amiraslanova, mother of political prisoner Giyas Ibrahimov.
