Opposition Popular Front Party announce rally on 27 April in Baku stadium

The chair of Azerbaijan’s opposition Popular Front Party, Ali Karimli, has  announced a rally next week calling for the release of political prisoners in the country.

The rally is scheduled to be held on 27 April from 15:00–17:00 in the Mahsul Stadium in Baku, and will feature the slogan ‘Freedom for political prisoners led by Tofig Yagublu!’.

Karimli stated that, together with the National Council of Democratic Forces, an opposition coalition including the Popular Front and the Musavat parties.

On Saturday, Karimli wrote on social media that only the will of the people can save Yagublu, ‘who is physically exhausted on the 20th day of his indefinite hunger strike, from imminent death’.

Yagublu, a prominent politician and a member of the opposition Musavat party, was detained in December 2023. In March 2025, Yagublu was sentenced to nine years on charges of fraud and forgery. International rights groups have dismissed the charges as trumped up. The following month, on 1 April, he began a hunger strike, which is still ongoing.

‘Of course, we know how difficult it is to openly express the will of the people in a country where 360 ​​political prisoners are in prison. However, even in this atmosphere of repression, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people can still defend Tofig Yagublu without putting themselves at serious risk’, Karimli emphasised.

Karimli said the Popular Front would request permission from the authorities to hold the rally.

‘Don’t worry, at this stage we will not call you to an unauthorised rally. We want to hold a large-scale and peaceful rally, agreed upon with the authorities, in which people can participate en masse without fear’, Karimli wrote.

The last time Azerbaijan opposition parties held a rally with the permission of the authorities was in January 2019. At that time, a rally was held demanding the freedom of Mehman Huseynov and all other political prisoners. Later, unauthorised protests, including one organised by the Popular Front Party later in 2019, have been suppressed by the authorities.

Huseynov, a blogger, was sentenced to two years in prison in March 2017, and he was found guilty of slandering the police. In December 2018, Huseynov was accused in a new criminal case of causing bodily harm to a prison employee. The blogger denied accusations and started a hunger strike in prison.

According to Natig Jafarli, chair of the opposition Republican Alternative (ReAl) Party, there is doubt the 27 April rally will actually happen. Jafarli also told OC Media that, in any case, the ReAl party would not be present at the protest, as they only attend events they themselves organise.

Musavat Party spokesperson Mustafa Hajibayli told OC Media that the party supported all initiatives to save Yagublu, but expressed scepticism that the event would be allowed to take place.

‘The demand for large scale events demanding freedom for political prisoners is now greater than ever, because the number of political prisoners has reached an unprecedented level. But, unfortunately, the authorities have unofficially banned freedom of assembly,’ stressed Hajibayli.

He said the rally’s organisers had already made clear that if the authorities did not give permission for the rally to go ahead, it would not take place.

On Sunday, one of the party’s deputy chairs, Arif Hajibayli, wrote on Facebook that ‘today, the struggle for the release of Tofig Yagublu and other political prisoners is one of the most important issues in the interests of society’.

‘The direction of our future development will depend on the outcome of this struggle of society against the authoritarian regime. Those who remain silent about injustice and watch this struggle from the sidelines should not think that they are not involved in what is happening’, Hajibayli stressed in his post.

Azerbaijani opposition leader Tofig Yagublu sentenced to nine years in prison

In response to the conviction, Yagublu announced that he would begin a hunger strike from prison.

OC MediaAytan Farhadova