Azerbaijan Update: War of the Carnations

Azerbaijan

Now, THIS is intriguing. Both pro-government and opposition forces staged demonstrations outside of the opposition National Front Party's headquarters in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku today. The opposition was obviously protesting the arrest of youth activist Ruslan Bashirli. On the other hand, the supporters of the current regime were incensed over Bashirli's alleged connection to Armenia (Armenia and Azerbaijan don't really get along. If you really want the whole story, look up one of the two countries on Wikipedia). The protest were getting ugly, with both sides throwing bottles and rocks. In an attempt to make peace, a few old ladies on the opposition side offered bouquets of carnations to some of the women on the pro-government side. The gift was not accepted and the two groups of women ended up beating on each other with the bouquets of flowers and throwing eggs at one another.

So, the yogurt has hit the fan in Azerbaijan. My guess is that it will only get more interesting as we get closer to the coming elections.

If you want more on this story, the Armenian blog Blogrel has had pretty good coverage. I'm also going to try to find some good Azerbaijani blogs to link to.

Georgia had the "Rose Revolution", will Azerbaijan have a "Carnation Revolution"?