Transgender people complain about insecurity of LGBT people in Azerbaijan

Policemen have detained a suspect of attacking a transgender in Baku and launched an investigation. The country has no efficient mechanisms for protecting the rights of LGBT people, transgender people assert.

The incident took place in the afternoon on July 30 in the Sabail District of Baku, in the apartment that the victim, a transgender woman named Aisu, rented with her three friends. "A client came to Aisu; they retired in one of the rooms. Suddenly we heard Aisu's screams. When we entered the room, this man stabbed Aisu with a small pocket knife in the area of her back and chest ... We, with improvised means – a frying pan and pots drove him out and closed the door. Since he was naked, he could not run away; and the police detained him," a victim's friend told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and preferred to remain anonymous.

The Sabail District Police Division has confirmed that they detained a suspect of attacking a transgender woman, but refrained from comment.

Samed Ragimov, a lawyer and researcher on the defence of LGBT activists, has noted that Aisu's story is at least the third armed attack on a transgender woman in Azerbaijan since the start of the year. In the second such incident, in June, the victim was killed.

Aisu's friend has complained that there are no public organizations in Azerbaijan to defend LGBT people. The organization named "Nefes", which protects the rights of LGBT people, actually operates abroad and only monitors the situation. "We are only helped by individual activists, lawyers and journalists," the transgender woman said.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 3, 2020 at 08:10 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.