Police break up protest at Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan

It was the second time in a month that authorities prevented such a demonstration at the diplomatic mission.

Some 20 members of the National Independence of Azerbaijan Party tried to approach the embassy in the capital, Baku, holding banners calling for the unification of Azeris in Azerbaijan and Iran.

Police seized and destroyed the posters and briefly detained five activists. Officers did not use force and did not prevent the demonstrators from reading a statement at a spot farther from the embassy.

The statement said ethnic Azeris in Iran are subject to "humiliation and oppression" and called for the release of what they said were jailed community leaders in Iran. Activists of the same party held a similar demonstration last month.

Azeris are Iran's largest minority, making up about a quarter of its 70 million people, most of whom are ethnic Persians. Ethnic Azeris rioted last year in Iran after a state-run newspaper published a cartoon showing a cockroach speaking Azeri.

Iran's government is wary of ethnic Azeris, who are concentrated in the northern areas close to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis are concerned about Iranian influence in the former Soviet republic, which is overwhelmingly Muslim but is a secular state that has cordial ties with Washington and contributes to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/