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More than 200 protesters were arrested Saturday during an anti-government demonstration in the capital, Baku, marking the latest in a series of government crackdowns on opposition leaders and youth activists hoping to emulate the mass protest movements sweeping the Arab world.
Saturday's crackdown comes after a series of arrests in February and March of leading opposition figures and youth activists. Police detained about 150 people at opposition rallies in Baku in March, according to Reuters.
MOSCOW — Opposition leaders in Azerbaijan vowed Monday to step up a nascent protest campaign against the authoritarian government of the former Soviet republic, despite a recent police crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
Emboldened by protests sweeping the Middle East, government opponents in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich, mostly Muslim country, have taken to Facebook and other social networking sites to organize a series of demonstrations in recent weeks, including one on Saturday, against the government of President Ilham Aliyev.