BAKU. – On the eve of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 the Azerbaijani police dispersed two peaceful rallies. Moreover, rally participants were beaten up, the statement of Human Rights Watch reads.

The police did not give time to the activists to leave on their own and attacked them.

“The Azerbaijani authorities have done everything to prepare and ‘polish’ Baku on the eve of the Eurovision, but the police’s actions against the peaceful protesters cast a shadow over the event,” the representative of Human Rights Watch Girorgi Gogia said.