"I went out myself and looked. There would be 100-150 people there. Maybe less than that. I told my assistants to look through the Internet. Ali Karimli posted pictures there that I don’t know if they are pictures from 1918 or 2000, as if 100,000 people have gathered…”
This was said by Rufat Guliyev, a deputy of the Milli Majlis, on “Toplum Tv” while talking about the action held by the APFP in front of the Milli Majlis.
Fakt Yoxla examined whether this claim of the MP was true.
The action that Rufat Guliyev talked about was organized by the APFP on September 30 in front of the Milli Majlis. The main goal of the action was to protest against the new Draft Law on Political Parties.
A day before the protest, the Chairman of the APFP, Ali Karimli, shared a photo taken at one of the previous rallies. The photos shared by the party chairman on the day of the action were taken on the day of the action.
The party chairman stated that 300-400 activists participated in the action both in this post and in the post he shared on October 1.
The screenshot was taken from Ali Karimli's Facebook page.
On October 1, Ali Karimli said that hundreds of people participated in the action in his appeal through the "Azad söz" channel about the results of the action.
In the video he released on October 2, he used the expression "not a very big action" and said: "We know that people are not ready for large rallies like the rally of October 19, 2019. Thousands of people have not yet decided to join such actions. That's why we make limited appeals. We actually defined the action as a picket. But in order to be able to go to that picket place, many APFP activists were mobilized. Probably 300-400 people joined this action so that they could go and appear in front of the Milli Majlis."
It should be noted that Ali Karimli also shared a live video of the "Azad söz" YouTube channel during the action. Although the cover photo of that video showed an old action, it showed a live broadcast of the action. The party chairman did not say that 100,000 people gathered at the place of the action.
In the posts shared by Ali Karimli at different times, he shared the following photo depicting the rally against the USSR. But he did not publish this type of post on his social media accounts on the date of the action.
The screenshot was taken from Ali Karimli's Facebook page.
Thus, Ali Karimli did not claim that 100,000 people gathered for the September 30 protest. On the contrary, he said that they intended to organize that action as a picket and several hundred people joined the action. The posts he shared about the action included photos from that day.
Fakt Yoxla concludes that the MP's claim is a Manipulation of Facts.
