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Police has prevented a protest in the center of Baku, which the National Center of Thought was trying to organize. According to the Azerbaijani news portal "Haqqin.az" the protest was related to the concert of the opposition rapper "Qaboos" which the police was banning. By this action organization wanted to draw public’s attention to violations of human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan.

According to the information, half an hour before the rally would start, several men in civilian clothes detained Shahriyar Mejidzadeh who was the organizer. They put him into a car and took him to unknown direction.

Portal notes that Shahriyar Mejidzadeh is the nephew of former Interior Minister of Azerbaijan Iskender Hamidov. "The fact that among all of the protesters only my nephew was detained proves that he was detained because of the kinship with me," said the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan Iskender Hamidov.

Portal notes that Shahriyar Mejidzadeh was released later.

According to the "Kavkazski uzel", the concert of the rapper Habib Rustam in Baku, scheduled on February 16, was canceled at the request of the police for "security reasons."

"This is discrimination of our rights. We received moral and material damage. 250 tickets were sold. Moreover, we gave the cinema earnest money of 250 manats (about $310 - Ed. of "Kavkazski Uzel"), which was spend on scene preparation," said Mejidzadeh.
As noted in the article, the press service of the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry confirmed the cancellation of the concert which was ordered by the police.

Coordinator of Advocacy Company Art for Democracy Rasul Jafarov called the ban on holding the rapper’s concert "another fact of suppression of creative and political freedom in Azerbaijan."

"The law has no provision that cultural activities in enclosed areas should be coordinated with the authorities. This is a real censorship. According to the Constitution, even the political meetings do not require permission from the authorities. The notice of the authorities will do. But this freedom in our country is trampled for many years already," Jafarov said.

He believes that "the concert of rapper Qaboos was frustrated because of the ideas of freedom and protest against injustice that are declared in his works."

"The authorities just do not want the young people to listen to this "sedition," said the human rights activist, noting the growing number of violations of artistic freedom in Azerbaijan.