Protesters calling for the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan said they were attacked Thursday afternoon by bodyguards protecting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev outside the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the White House.
Rahim Yagublu, 27, an Uber driver whose father is imprisoned in Azerbaijan, said he was protesting outside the hotel early Thursday afternoon when Aliyev’s bodyguards began beating him, striking him in the jaw and kicking him in the stomach. Adil Amrakhly, 35, another protester, said that he injured his leg while running from the guards and that at least four others, including Yagublu, were injured.
Aliyev, who has presided for decades over an autocratic crackdown on dissent in Azerbaijan, was in Washington, along with other leaders and top officials from around the world, for the inaugural meeting of President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.
D.C. police spokesman Tom Lynch said members of the department’s special operations division and U.S. Secret Service officers were at the scene of the incident, “which involved Azerbaijan security guards.” He did not say whether police had stepped in or whether the guards in question remained in the United States on Thursday night. The matter had been referred to the State Department, he said.
The role of the Secret Service “was to establish the security infrastructure and protective operations” for the visiting heads of state, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The hotel “was part of the event security perimeter because that’s where this delegation was staying.” He said further information would have to come from the State Department.
The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on the accusations.
Videos of suited men attacking protesters at the location Yagublu and Amrakhly described were shared on social media Thursday. The identities and affiliations of the attackers in the videos are not apparent based on the footage alone.
By 4 p.m., the area had been cleared of all signs of the altercation. Large flags of Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Azerbaijan waved from the facade of the luxury hotel — with many delegations in the city for the Board of Peace meetings.
The incident did not occur on hotel property or involve hotel staff, said Karla Visconti, a spokeswoman for Hilton, which operates the Waldorf Astoria. From 2016 to 2022, the building was home to the Trump International Hotel.
The accusations echo earlier incidents involving the security detail of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose guards in 2017 instigated violent clashes with protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington. Eleven people were injured, among them a police officer. A year earlier, his detail scuffled with protesters outside Washington’s Brookings Institution.
On Thursday afternoon, Aliyev posted photos from the meeting of the Board of Peace on X, including a group photo. On Wednesday, he wrote on X, he met with the chief executive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Elliot Brandt.
Yagublu, the injured protester, said he is the son of Azerbaijani political activist Tofig Yagublu, who was sentenced last year to nine years in prison on forgery and fraud charges. Rights group Amnesty International said the sentence, following a “sham trial,” was “yet another grim milestone in Azerbaijan’s ongoing campaign to silence those who dare to criticize the government.”
“They started beating us,” Yagublu said of Thursday’s altercation.
He said police were nearby but did not intervene. After a few minutes, the bodyguards left, and the protesters called an ambulance. Medics reviewed the injuries at the scene and left without taking anyone to a hospital, he said.
“This just shows us he’s a dictator, and there is no free speech in my country,” Yagublu said, referring to Aliyev.
Amrakhly, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, said the attack came as protesters ran from the hotel’s front entrance to a different entrance, to try to prevent Aliyev from slipping by without notice.
“We intended to hold a peaceful protest to demand freedom for political prisoners in Azerbaijan,” Amrakhly said.
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