Baku has already witnessed crackdowns on moral grounds - its casinos were outlawed and shut down in 1998 and Baku's new mayor recently imposed restrictions on the opening hours of the city's bars, which now have to close at midnight instead of staying open all night.

The morality of some of our young people is ruined in this way

President Aliyev

"Some nightclubs operating in Baku have various entertainment shows going on till the morning and at times these entertainments reach an excessive point, taking a form that runs counter to the morality of the entire Azerbaijani people, and the morality of some of our young people is ruined in this way. This is a terrible thing," President Aliyev said.

Prostitutes, transvestites

Immediately after the address, Baku police raided bars and nightclubs and rounded up prostitutes.

State-run TV aired a series of reports highly critical of the city's nightlife, showing prostitutes in the streets and interviewing transvestites.

President Aliyev: moral

A group of local transvestites, interviewed in Russian in the otherwise Azeri-language news programme, called on the authorities to repeal a law banning sodomy and give them freedom.

The same report accused the public of "blindly playing into the hands of some Western organizations and structures which are bent on crushing Azerbaijan's culture".

It described transvestites as "a danger" and as people who had "taken the wrong path".

Press scornful

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's independent TV channel ANS criticized the clampdown, saying that it would be unconstitutional to shut down all nightclubs, as the constitution guaranteed the people's right to recreation.

The constitution guaranteed the people's right to recreation

Yeni Musavat newspaper

It said that such closures would make prostitution slip out of control and become a cottage industry. Many Baku nightclubs have back rooms used by prostitutes and their clients.

"It is impossible to close down all the entertainment centres at once. What is necessary is to determine their number, categorize them and regulate their work economically," ANS said.

Ex-police chief warns

Former Azerbaijani police chief Mahmud Haciyev also believes that such a move would be counterproductive, saying that it would contribute to a rise in hooliganism, drug addiction and prostitution.

"The matter is that the police hide most abuses of this kind.

"Since most of the people entertaining in clubs and restaurants are children of senior officials engaged in corruption and bribery, it is no problem for them to rent a flat and do whatever they want there," he said.

Opposition queries motive

The opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat speculated that the crackdown might be an attempt to reassure religious elements offended by insults directed at the local head of the Shia Muslims, Sheikh ul-Islam Allahsukur Pasazada. The newspaper in question - Etimad- has since been closed down.

Yeni Musavat even suggested that there might be compromising video footage from a club linked to the president's family.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.