In November 1988, Yurd, supported by intellectuals, organized student meetings in Baku to protest the communist regime.

In July 1989 Karimli led Yurd into the newly created Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA) movement.

Karimli is active in organizing protests that have rattled Baku since March 2011, part of a regional wave of unrest.

According to the human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, attacks against Karimli are simply diverting attention from truly important issues and testing technologies to distract people's justified anger caused by the serious consequences of wrong decisions.

[2][3] Razi Nurullayev, former Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijani Popular Front Party, accused Ali Karimli instructing party members to create hundreds of fake Facebook profiles and demanded from Ali Karimli to disclose the source of financial support for his son's education at Bristol University.

[5] His son Turkel Karimli is criticized in local media to have a luxurious and careless life in expensive London clubs.