Activist Veliyev Arrested in Baku Complains of Torture

Former chairman of the Union of Young Veterans Haji Veliyev, who was arrested in Baku on charges of hooliganism, told his relatives that he was injured as a result of torture. The deterioration of Veliyev's condition has alarmed his relatives.

Hadji Veliyev, a participant in the Second Karabakh War and former chairman of the now defunct Union of Young Veterans, told his relatives by phone that he was tortured in prison.

According to them, Gadji Veliyev suffered a craniocerebral injury, which made it difficult for him to speak. His relatives are concerned about his condition. The Penitentiary Service has not commented on Veliyev's information, Meydan TV reported on June 28.

Hadji Veliyev is a disabled person of the second group, he covered the problems of servicemen who lost their health in battles and the families of fallen soldiers. On March 18, 2025, he stated that veterans engaged in street trading were subject to police pressure, and on March 31, police officers detained Veliev.

He is charged with hooliganism and intentional destruction or damage to property. Haji Veliyev denies the accusations.

15:56 22.11.2022

Karabakh: Chronicle of the 2020 war and its consequences

In November 2021, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia signed a joint statement on the complete cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh. The situation in the conflict zone around Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on September 27, 2020, when active hostilities began there. Summaries of battles and martial law, losses in people and equipment and other related events - in the updated chronicle of the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Union of Young Veterans" was created in 2021 under the public association "Veterans of Karabakh". On May 28, 2025, the organization ceased its activities, the publication notes.

Hadji Veliyev was taken into custody on April 1. On June 20, a district court in Baku extended his arrest for two months, Oxu.Az reported the same day.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote that Karabakh war veterans living in Azerbaijan have repeatedly complained about the authorities' insufficient attention to their problems. Thus, on June 2, 2022, war veterans at a protest spoke about the formalism of officials responsible for the work of medical and social commissions, and complained about refusals to assign disability.

On March 28 of the same year, protesters in Baku said that the Ministry of Defense was not assigning them the status of veterans of the hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, which deprived them of the right to benefits. In July 2022, Karabakh war veteran Elvin Jafarov died in a burn center after attempting suicide in front of a district government building in Azerbaijan.

Jafarov's relatives said the authorities' inattention to the veteran's problems was the reason for his suicide. Officials have rejected this version, but representatives of public organizations have confirmed that the executive branch in Azerbaijan is doing a poor job of solving the problems of war veterans and disabled people.

The Azerbaijani authorities offer low-paying jobs as builders and waiters to veterans of the Karabakh war and family members of the deceased, and refuse to recognize car and land owners as unemployed, war veterans complained in October 2021. The state should expand veterans' opportunities to obtain higher education to solve the unemployment problem, they said.