The week of 28 February-4 March saw Azerbaijanis stuck in Ukraine, Azerbaijanis collecting aid for Ukraine, and the denial of a political party’s registration.
Azerbaijanis allege being stuck in Kharkiv without help from the consulate
On 1 March, Azerbaijanis at the Kharkiv railway station shared on social networks the help promised to them by Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani consulate had released a statement saying that 1,500 Azerbaijanis had been sent from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv to Lviv, where they would be helped to cross the Ukrainian-Polish border from Lviv.
According to the Azerbaijanis in Kharkiv, the statements were false. “We were promised that a carriage would be allocated for Azerbaijanis and […] evacuated. We have gathered, there is nothing. We call the embassy, we call the consulate, but there is no answer”, they stated.
Complainants said that bombs were being dropped near the station and the building is being shaken, saying, “People go to Lviv as they can, and from there it is difficult to walk 20 kilometers to the Polish border.”
Azerbaijanis collect aid products to send to Ukraine
Azerbaijanis who came to the embassy to support the Ukrainians brought with them various aid packages. Some came with bedding and clothes that they had not yet opened, and some came with sanitary products and canned food.
The Ministry of Justice refuses registration of ADR Party
According to the party’s chairman, economist Gubad Ibadoglu, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Justice has refused to register the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare Party (Azərbaycan Demokratiya və Rifah Partiyası), or ADR.
The ADR had been founded as a movement in 2014 by those who had left oppositional Musavat Pary, and officially formed in October 2021, shortly whereafter it submitted registration documents to the ministry. The ministry denied the registration, stating there were mistakes in the application. Ibadoglu alleges that the ministry’s claim is unfounded and claims that the decision not to allow the registration is political.
