Elnur Majidli
Elnur Majidli is an Azerbaijani democracy activist and blogger who lives in Paris. In 2011 he helped organize protests in Azerbaijan inspired by the Arab Spring. He started a Facebook page for a protest on March 11 called “the Great Peoples’ Day,” chosen to be one month after Hosni Mubarak’s fall in Egypt. The online groups grew to tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis.
From Strasbourg, Majidli faced government pressure. The Azerbaijani prosecutor told him to stop his activity or face charges. He refused, and on April 1 Azerbaijan issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of violent overthrow or distributing materials calling for it. Azerbaijan asked Interpol to arrest him, but France refused. Police questioned Majidli’s father and cousins, and officers were posted outside his family home for two months; his father and brother lost their jobs. Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, the only co-organizer living in Azerbaijan, was arrested. Amnesty International condemned the charges as baseless, saying Majidli was being prosecuted for exercising his right to freedom of expression and association.
On June 2, 2011, the charges were suspended. Majidli’s lawyers called this “moral terror” and said he would continue to push for a full drop of the charges rather than suspension. By January 2012 his online groups had grown to more than 40,000 members. He helped organize an anniversary protest on March 11, endorsed by opposition leader Isa Gambar, calling again for democratic reform.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:02 (CET).