Aliyev’s security guards attack protesters in Washington

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s security guards assaulted protesters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, February 19, Zartonk Media reported.

According to witnesses and videos circulated online, members of Aliyev’s security detail physically confronted demonstrators during his visit to the U.S. capital during the kickoff of the Board of Peace event.

The first meeting of the Board of Peace on Gaza was held in Washington on Thursday at the initiative of U.S. President Donald Trump, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in attendance.

ANCA Policy Director Alex Galitsky wrote on X, “Azerbaijan’s regime has brought its tyranny to D.C., as Aliyev’s security assaults protesters amid his participation in Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ event. And these are meant to be our ‘partners in peace’? Aliyev must be held to account for this brazen transnational repression.”

ANCA Advocacy Director Gev Iskajyan added, “This comes on the heels of Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ meeting as Aliyev exports his authoritarian crackdowns to the United States. This is the antithesis of everything the United States purportedly stands for.”

The incident is drawing comparisons to a similar episode on May 16, 2017, when members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security team attacked protesters outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington during Erdogan’s visit to meet then-President Donald Trump. The clashes were widely condemned as an assault on demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights.

In that case, 24 individuals were filmed attacking protesters. Nearly a month passed before charges were filed. On June 6, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling for Turkish security personnel involved to be charged and prosecuted under U.S. law. Arrest warrants were later issued for several bodyguards, and two men were arrested on assault charges. The charges were ultimately dropped in March 2018, days before high-level meetings between U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Erdogan.