Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan`s interior ministry has responded to calls to stage mass protests on Friday recently made on social networking websites, saying it will not allow unauthorized rallies either in or outside Baku.

"We are unequivocally stating that protests that are not sanctioned by executive authorities would be decisively countered by interior bodies," the ministry said.

Youth activists are pursuing a Facebook campaign calling for "a day of antigovernment protests". The organizers of the campaign are calling March 11 the Great People's Day and want people to click their approval of the protest as well as gather in different towns and cities across Azerbaijan. 2,800 people have said they would join the protests, while 5,000 have rejected the call.

Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, one of the organizers, was arrested last Friday and ordered held in pretrial detention for a month for violating an order not to leave the city of Ganja while previous charges of evading military service were investigated. Hajiyev, 29, a Harvard graduate and a former parliament candidate, denies those charges and has linked his arrest to his Facebook activity.

Meanwhile, a counter-campaign is gathering steam. A pro-government youth group has launched a Facebook campaign entitled "Support for stability and development together with [President] Ilham Aliyev." Organizers are campaigning under the slogan "Even the smallest riot in Baku, the heart of our country, could lead to our losing Karabakh", referring to the Azerbaijani region that has been under Armenian occupation since a war in the early 1990s.

Local television stations have recently launched something of a campaign against social-network sites, interviewing psychologists and Internet experts who warn of the dangers to the state's security and image.

"I'm on Facebook, I see antigovernment materials posted on Facebook which are very harmful for our state. It's impossible to prevent such a trend," Jahid Ismayiloglu, a specialist on information technology, told ANS TV channel.

He said the Azerbaijani government cannot block social networks "as we live in a democratic state. But many states are using such things against our country."

Meanwhile, Musavat, a major Azerbaijani opposition party, said it was keen on holding a protest on Saturday. Musavat decided at its meeting on Monday that it would go ahead with the rally regardless of whether or not it would be sanctioned by the mayor’s office of Baku.