Thousands join protest in Azerbaijan but flame of revolution fails to ignite

Azerbaijan's pro-democracy movement brought some 15,000 noisy, orange-clad supporters on to the streets yesterday in an attempt to kick-start a velvet revolution, but the event did not generate the momentum activists had hoped for.

The rally was seen as a litmus test of the opposition's support base and followed flawed parliamentary elections last Sunday that were heavily criticised by the US State Department and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The opposition - a coalition of three pro-democracy parties calling itself the Azadliq (Freedom) Bloc - won less than 10 of the 125 seats amid well documented allegations that the country's authoritarian government rigged the vote.

The government has annulled the results in several districts, ordered a recount in one other and sacked two regional governors who interfered with the vote. But its response has failed to satisfy the opposition, which wants the entire election re-run.

Azadliq supporters also demanded the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev, whose family has ruled this oil-rich country for most of the past three decades. "Resign! Resign!" they chanted as they marched towards Baku's eerily desolate Victory Square brandishing orange flags in a nod to Ukraine's orange revolution.

Framed against an enormous poster of Heydar Aliyev, Ilham's late father - the nearest thing Azerbaijan has to a cult figure - and the depressing backdrop of an enormous abandoned Soviet-era factory and a number of half-built high-rise apartment blocks, the protesters demanded democracy as Azadliq leaders tried to whip the crowd into a frenzy which, ultimately, never materialised.

Leader after leader delivered speeches condemning the government, as activists angrily shook their fists in the air. Many of the protesters' placards appealed to the United States for support.

"Don't trade our democracy for oil," said one, while another called on President George Bush not to "lose another friendly Muslim country".

Azerbaijan was one of the few Muslim countries to commit troops to Iraq, the American military has radar stations along the country's border with Russia and Iran, and Washington has a keen interest in its extensive oil reserves beneath the Caspian Sea.

Though the mood was upbeat, crowd numbers fell well short of the 30,000 to 50,000 that organisers had hoped for and the protesters appeared to lack the resolve to disobey the authorities and attempt to install some kind of a permanent "revolutionary" presence. They had talked of copying successful Ukrainian activists and camping out on the square to pile pressure on the government, but yesterday's turnout was too low and the protesters' fear of the notoriously brutal riot police too great.

Today, supporters of the pro-government New Azerbaijan Party will hold a rally in the same square.