Freedom Demonstration in Baku, Azerbaijan

For those who want to deny George Bush any credit for the democracy initiative that is changing the face of much of the world, check out this weekend's demonstrations in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Guardian reports:

Thousands of demonstrators chanting ``Freedom'' and carrying portraits of President Bush marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, demanding the resignation of the government and free parliamentary elections - in the biggest protest in years.

The protest of about 20,000 marchers, the second such rally in as many weeks, was organized by three leading opposition parties that formed the Azadlig (Freedom) bloc to run for parliamentary elections set for November.

....

Supporters of the Musavat party, the People's Front of Azerbaijan and the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan chanted ``Freedom'' and ``Free Elections'' and carried pictures of President Bush, seen as inspiration for the earlier democratic revolutions in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine.

Bush visited Georgia's capital of Tbilisi last month and told a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people that Georgia is proving to the world that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive rulers.

Azerbaijan's opposition bloc has chosen orange as its campaign color - the color that was also used by the Ukrainian opposition during mass protests dubbed ``Orange Revolution'' that helped pave way for the victory of a Western-backed candidate over a Russia-backed rival.

Many participants in Saturday's rally wore orange T-shirts and baseball caps and carried orange flags.

Read it here.