The Azeri authorities ordered the arrest of Neimat Panahov, one of the masterminds behind the Armenian pogroms in Baku in January 1990. Ironically, Neimat Panahov, who is now Neimat Panahly and leader of the party of Nationhood of Azerbaijan, found himself behind bars on threshold of the next anniversary of Armenian pogroms in Baku, January 13-19, 1990.

After many years of cooperation with the Aliyev clan, Panahov had a conflict with it. Now, on the basis of a citizen’s complaint, he has been sentenced to two-month detention.

Neimat Panahov “distinguished himself” as far back as autumn 1988. At a rally in Baku he called for “making a second Ararat out of Armenian heads”. His speech on Azeri TV just a day before the Armenian pogroms in January 1990 proved a signal for the massacres. Panahov said that “Baku [was] full of homeless refugees, while Armenians still live[d] in comfort.” Neimat Panahov was leader of one of the gangs that murdered and raped the Armenian residents in Baku.

When in power, the “national leader” of the Azeri people Heydar Aliyev had Panahov as his advisor thereby corroborating independent Azerbaijani experts’ claims about “Heydar-baba’s” immediate involvement in the Armenian pogroms. However, the “invaluable cadre” of the Aliyev clan failed to “come to terms” with the incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, justly accusing him of rigging the parliamentary elections on November 7, 2010.

It is noteworthy that Neimat Panahov was put behind bars for criticizing the authoritarian regime rather than for immediate participation in ethnic murders.