APFP chairman Ali Karimli targeted in a protest outside his house

31 March, Genocide Day in Azerbaijan, was commemorated in a different way this year. Ali Karimli, chairman of Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, was targeted as a large group consisting mostly of students gathered outside his house chanting, singing and holding placards.

These placards had slogans like “There’s no place in Azerbaijan for the Ali Karimli’s of this world, who sell our land to Armenians!”, “Shame on the traitor!”, “Ali Karimli, what money does your family live on in London?” and “Ali Karimli + radical islamists = chaos”. This comes after yesterday’s rumors spread by pro-Aliyev media outlets stating that Ali Karimli was to meet and “conspire” with a number of radical Islamist groups.

They also chanted slogans in support of the Aliyev regime: “Long live Ilham Aliyev!”, “Our only president, our only leader is Ilham Aliyev”, and other slogans in support of the ruling party. Videos show a student singing “Mavi” (“Blue”, meaning “gay” in Azeri slang) through a loudspeaker – part of a black PR campaign against Karimli that started years ago.

The protest continued to Heydar Aliyev Palace. Unsurprisingly the police did not interfere, despite the fact that the protest impeded traffic.

Ali Karimli told Azadliq Radiosu that this was clearly a stunt conducted by the government and that such actions will not stop him from fighting. He also warned party members not to go near the protest so that there would not be any confrontation.