Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said the opposition "will not influence anything" with its recent rallies and that in some cases organizers were supported from abroad.

"Simply, events taking place sometimes in other countries inspire them," President Aliyev said in a meeting with residents of the southern regions last Friday.

"We witnessed this in 2005 as well. The developments that occurred in CIS had prompted them to take action. So, they tried to imitate someone else’s experience at the time. We clearly remember the orange ribbons."

The Public Chamber, an umbrella group of Azerbaijan’s main opposition parties, has recently staged a rally in downtown Baku to demand political reform and social justice in the country, which was marred by clashes with the police. Dozens of people were detained during the unauthorized protest.

Aliyev said the opposition’s attempts have failed, because the Azerbaijani people did not support its cause.

"This time, it is also absolutely useless to talk about it. The Azerbaijani state is so powerful and social stability here is so unshakeable that the people of Azerbaijan have long said "no" to those elements trying to…deal a blow upon Azerbaijan’s successful development."

But the Public Chamber claims that the government has been intimidated by recent revolutions in Arab countries.

The opposition attempted to stage another antigovernment protest on Sunday.