Will Azerbaijan be the next country to have a democratic revolution?

Truncheon-wielding police in riot gear beat opposition protesters who gathered in Azerbaijan's capital shouting "Freedom!" and demanding a redo of disputed parliamentary elections.

Some 15,000 opposition activists rallied in Baku to protest the outcome of the Nov. 6 parliamentary elections, which they claimed were rigged. The rally was the latest in a series of opposition protests.

When the demonstrators tried to set up a permanent protest on a square in downtown Baku, police rushed in to disperse them. Some protesters, including women, were beaten while lying on the floor. Others threw stones at police, who protected themselves with shields.

Authorities rushed in after demonstrators said they were going to hold a permanent protest in a downtown square. Hundreds of soldiers, police and plainclothes police agents pushed protesters away from the square, shattered a stand used by opposition leaders and broke the opposition's orange banners - a color borrowed from Ukraine's Orange Revolution.

So far the protests haven't been large enough in size to have a significant impact, but that can change rather quickly - particularly if western media would decide to cover it.