Baku, Azerbaijan ? Opposition parties mustered their biggest rally in years on Saturday, bringing about 10,000 protesters into the streets of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to call for free elections after authorities backed down and gave them permission to have a demonstration.

Just two weeks ago, police had beat back opposition protesters who tried to stage a rally in Baku despite an official ban, and dozens were arrested. In October 2003, one person was killed and nearly 200 were injured in clashes between police and demonstrators who were protesting allegations of vote-rigging in that month’s presidential election in which President Ilham Aliev replaced his late father, the long-reigning Geidar Aliev.

The government last year announced restrictions on opposition rallies, citing the possibility of violence similar to the 2003 riots – and further roiling relations with the opposition.

This time, about 400 police in full riot gear stood guard around a central square where protesters gathered, but they didn’t intervene, and the rally ended peacefully.

Tensions have been steadily building in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation in the run-up to parliamentary elections set for November, leading some observers to predict that Azerbaijan could see an uprising similar to those that toppled unpopular regimes in three other ex-Soviet nations – Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan – over the past 18 months.

Demonstrators hold an Azerbaijani flag, in the foreground, and flags of opposition parties during a protest rally in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan. About 10,000 opposition protesters marched Saturday across Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, urging the government to step down and allow free parliamentary elections later this year.

Azerbaijan, a mostly Muslim country of 8.3 million, is the starting point of a new, key pipeline that Washington says will reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East. The country also is a U.S. ally in Iraq and has troops there.

Supporters of several opposition parties marched in Baku on Saturday, chanting “Freedom!” and “Free Elections!” They held placards with slogans like “Down with the robber government!” and carried pictures of President Bush with the words: “We want freedom!”

A young Azerbaijani protester holds a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush with the inscription We

The rally was intended to draw attention to the opposition’s push for election law reforms and access to state-controlled television. The opposition parties have demanded changes to prevent fraud in November’s parliamentary vote, for which three of the major parties have agreed to unite in a fight for political change.

“Not only the opposition, but all people need democratic changes,” Ali Kerimli, the leader of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan, said at the rally. “We demand free elections, and if the conditions for free elections are not created, every village, every bloc will demand the government’s resignation.”

Panakh Huseinli, one of the opposition leaders who spoke at Saturday’s rally, said that Aliev’s government wouldn’t allow free elections.

“The Aliev regime will never allow free elections, and it will mean its end,” Huseinli said. “The revolution is inevitable.”

Baku city authorities had initially refused the request from the People’s Front of Azerbaijan, the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan and the Musavat party to stage Saturday’s rally in the capital, suggesting they hold it instead on the outskirts of the city.

After opposition leaders rejected the offer Friday and vowed to gather in downtown Baku anyway, authorities caved in and approved the rally.