In Baku, journalists detained at picket site of soldiers’ relatives

The police pushed killed soldiers’ relatives who had come to a picket from the building of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan and detained three journalists who had come to cover the protest action.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in February 2021, the Ministry of Labour of Azerbaijan reported about the appointment of payments to more than 7000 members of the families of the soldiers and officers who died in 2020 during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. In some cases, family members of the killed military personnel had to hold protest actions in order to force the authorities to listen to their problems, Azerbaijani human rights defenders then pointed out.

Today, 15 family members of the killed military personnel tried to hold a picket in front of the building of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan. The protestors demanded that their sons who died in the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 be given official martyr status.

In their hands, the protesters were holding portraits of killed soldiers. The police pushed out the picketers and about a dozen journalists to a lane located about 50 meters from the presidential administration, reported the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent, who attended the place of the protest.

While pushing the protesters, the police detained journalists Fatima Movlanly, Sevindj Sadygova, and Teimur Kerimov. Later, Teimur Kerimov was released, and he said that he got a slight injury to his hand “from communicating with the police.”

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 15, 2022 at 12:48 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.