Azernews.Az

The president of the National Assembly of Georgia’s Azerbaijanis who heads the election headquarters of the Azerbaijani running for presidency in Georgia has been arrested on charges of a coup attempt.
Dashgyn Gulmammadov was detained by the country’s counter-intelligence bodies while trying to cross the Georgian-Azeri border on Tuesday.
The election headquarters chief was forced into a vehicle and driven away in unknown direction, his relatives say.
Georgian law enforcement agencies have neither confirmed nor dismissed the reports.
An Azerbaijani is running for presidency in Georgia for the first time in the neighboring country’s history. The chairman of the International Council of Georgia’s Azerbaijanis, Fazil Aliyev, is likely to be backed by the country’s Azerbaijani and the entire Muslim electorate at the January 5 election, Gulmammadov said.
In an interview with Azerbaijani media last week, Gulmammadov did not rule out “a provocation” from Georgia’s Department of Constitutional Security and the Interior Ministry’s Counter-intelligence Department in relation to his activity.
“Georgian criminals in power are trying to derail the election campaign of Fazil Aliyev’s team,” he maintained.
Georgia is home to some 500,000 Azerbaijanis, according to informal data.
Gulmammadov’s detention comes after a series of opposition protests in Georgia in which demonstrators claimed official corruption and the government’s failure to root out poverty.*