Hundreds of opposition activists protest higher utility fees in Azerbaijan

Around 500 protesters with the Musavat opposition party waved flags and carried placards reading "No To Poverty!" and "No To Increases" as they marched in one district of Baku.

In a reference to the recently opened Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that pumps Azerbaijani oil to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, many chanted, "Lights cost money, gas costs money — where's the money from Ceyhan?"

Earlier this year, the government raised the domestic rates for gasoline, electricity, water and natural gas for industrial use. President Ilham Aliyev's government justified the hikes, which have prompted widespread criticism in the poor, but energy-rich former Soviet republic, by saying they were part of efforts to reform the country's economy.

Azerbaijan has seen a dramatic increase in economic growth in recent years, fueled mainly by oil and gas harvested from its offshore fields — some of the largest in the former Soviet Union. But poverty and corruption continue to plague large parts of the population.

Musavat leader Isa Gambar ridiculed Aliyev's assertion that the proceeds from the oil and gas wealth would be fairly distributed in the country. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/