Azeri Students Claim Victory
Baku hunger strike ends after international mediation.
Azeri Students Claim Victory
Baku hunger strike ends after international mediation.
Two Azerbaijani students have been readmitted to their classes after a 22-day hunger strike in protest at expulsion from their universities in what they claimed was a politically motivated act.
The case attracted international attention in the aftermath of last November’s disputed parliamentary elections and became a focus for activists opposed to the administration of President Ilham Aliev. The authorities deny they backed down under pressure, saying they acted out of “humanitarian” considerations.
Turan Aliev, a student from Baku State University, and Namik Feiziev of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University, were readmitted to their respective universities on the orders of Education Minister Misir Mardanov on January 19. However, both students were assigned to classes one year lower than the ones they had left, on the grounds that they had missed months of tuition.
Aliev and Feiziev were expelled for what the university authorities described as their “systematic non-attendance”. Both students are active members of the opposition Popular Front Party, and took part in the opposition protests that followed the controversial polls.
The universities and ministry have consistently denied there was any link between the students’ expulsion and their political activism.
Aliev and Feiziev announced their hunger strike on December 28 and were soon joined by two other leading youth activists Emin Husainov, coordinator of Magam (It’s Time) and Emil Mamedov, an activist with Yeni Fikir (New Thought).
The youth movements drew their inspiration from similar groups in Georgia and Ukraine, which played a leading role in the peaceful revolutions of 2003 and 2005, both of which followed disputed elections.
The hunger strikers all began to suffer from health problems. Husainov, who experienced kidney pains on the seventeenth day of the protest, was taken to the Nagiev Emergency Hospital, where he went into intensive care. Mamedov was taken to the same hospital the next day. Two days later, Aliev was also hospitalised; and, on the 21st day of the protest, so was Feiziev, after he passed out.
“We were expelled because we had posted flyers for the Azadlig [opposition] bloc before the protests,” Feiziev told IWPR from his hospital bed. “The rector said so himself in his memo.”
“We know for a fact that the rector of every university has a black-list of opposition students, and we know they were planning to crack down,” added Aliev. “The protest we staged helped put this problem into the public arena.”
The students’ protest attracted wide publicity. On January 19, Maurizio Pavesi, head of the OSCE Baku office, Mats Lindberg, who heads the Council of Europe office in Azerbaijan, UK ambassador to Azerbaijan Laurie Bristow and other diplomats and local human rights activists met Mardanov.
An hour and a half into the meeting, Saida Hojamanly, a member of the support group formed to back the students’ protest, came out and announced, “We won!”
She explained that because the students had missed nearly six months’ worth of classes, they would be readmitted to the previous year. Aliev will resume studies on January 25 and Feiziev on February 10.
The day before the meeting, various Azerbaijani public figures and foreign diplomats had convinced the students to suspend their protest on account of their health problems.
However, officials continue to stick to their original story that the students’ expulsion had nothing to do with their political activity. “They were flunked because they could not pass the exams,” Mardanov told journalists. “But we have nonetheless decided to readmit them at the request of international organisations, diplomats and the human rights ombudsman.”
Ali Kerimli, who heads the Popular Front Party, is not convinced. He told IWPR, “The university management makes all students join the governing Yeni Azerbaijan Party [YAP]. They make them go to pro-government rallies. They also do this in secondary schools. All students refusing to attend YAP rallies are blacklisted as prime candidates for expulsion.”
“In the run-up to the elections, some YAP deputies criticised Abel Magerramov, the Baku State University rector, for backing the opposition,” said human rights activist Saida Hojamanly, who heads the Azerbaijani Office for Human Rights and Rule of Law. “Former member of parliament Musa Musayev claimed that too many Baku State University students were pro-opposition. Making claims like these is political discrimination.”
Baku State University student Sevinj Bagirova, 21, said students frequently get harassed for political dissent.
“Very few students will refuse to join YAP or attend its rallies when they are asked to,” she said. “Because they don’t want any problems during the exams.”
Bahar Muradova, assistant executive secretary of YAP and deputy speaker of parliament, denied that university students are persecuted for their political views.
“But the thing is that university professors are expected not only to impart knowledge, but also to help students become patriots,” she said. “We must do our utmost to discourage young people from repeating the mistake of Ruslan Bashirli, an activist with the Yeni Fikir youth group, who dissented so strongly that he actually started working for Armenian secret services.”
Bashirli, who was arrested in July 2005, stands accused of accepting 2000 US dollars from Armenian secret agents for allegedly plotting a coup d’etat in Azerbaijan.
“The authorities are in a hurry to play the Ruslan Bashirli card to put pressure in liberally-minded students,” said political commentator Zaur Ibrahimli.
“We know more repression is in the pipeline,” said Said Nuri, deputy head of the Yeni Fikir youth group. “But those students prove that Azerbaijani young people are prepared to stand up for what they believe in, for democracy and justice. And if need be, we are ready to sacrifice our health and life itself in that struggle.”
Idrak Abbasov is a reporter for Aina (Mirror) newspaper in Baku.
The case attracted international attention in the aftermath of last November’s disputed parliamentary elections and became a focus for activists opposed to the administration of President Ilham Aliev. The authorities deny they backed down under pressure, saying they acted out of “humanitarian” considerations.
Turan Aliev, a student from Baku State University, and Namik Feiziev of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University, were readmitted to their respective universities on the orders of Education Minister Misir Mardanov on January 19. However, both students were assigned to classes one year lower than the ones they had left, on the grounds that they had missed months of tuition.
Aliev and Feiziev were expelled for what the university authorities described as their “systematic non-attendance”. Both students are active members of the opposition Popular Front Party, and took part in the opposition protests that followed the controversial polls.
The universities and ministry have consistently denied there was any link between the students’ expulsion and their political activism.
Aliev and Feiziev announced their hunger strike on December 28 and were soon joined by two other leading youth activists Emin Husainov, coordinator of Magam (It’s Time) and Emil Mamedov, an activist with Yeni Fikir (New Thought).
The youth movements drew their inspiration from similar groups in Georgia and Ukraine, which played a leading role in the peaceful revolutions of 2003 and 2005, both of which followed disputed elections.
The hunger strikers all began to suffer from health problems. Husainov, who experienced kidney pains on the seventeenth day of the protest, was taken to the Nagiev Emergency Hospital, where he went into intensive care. Mamedov was taken to the same hospital the next day. Two days later, Aliev was also hospitalised; and, on the 21st day of the protest, so was Feiziev, after he passed out.
“We were expelled because we had posted flyers for the Azadlig [opposition] bloc before the protests,” Feiziev told IWPR from his hospital bed. “The rector said so himself in his memo.”
“We know for a fact that the rector of every university has a black-list of opposition students, and we know they were planning to crack down,” added Aliev. “The protest we staged helped put this problem into the public arena.”
The students’ protest attracted wide publicity. On January 19, Maurizio Pavesi, head of the OSCE Baku office, Mats Lindberg, who heads the Council of Europe office in Azerbaijan, UK ambassador to Azerbaijan Laurie Bristow and other diplomats and local human rights activists met Mardanov.
An hour and a half into the meeting, Saida Hojamanly, a member of the support group formed to back the students’ protest, came out and announced, “We won!”
She explained that because the students had missed nearly six months’ worth of classes, they would be readmitted to the previous year. Aliev will resume studies on January 25 and Feiziev on February 10.
The day before the meeting, various Azerbaijani public figures and foreign diplomats had convinced the students to suspend their protest on account of their health problems.
However, officials continue to stick to their original story that the students’ expulsion had nothing to do with their political activity. “They were flunked because they could not pass the exams,” Mardanov told journalists. “But we have nonetheless decided to readmit them at the request of international organisations, diplomats and the human rights ombudsman.”
Ali Kerimli, who heads the Popular Front Party, is not convinced. He told IWPR, “The university management makes all students join the governing Yeni Azerbaijan Party [YAP]. They make them go to pro-government rallies. They also do this in secondary schools. All students refusing to attend YAP rallies are blacklisted as prime candidates for expulsion.”
“In the run-up to the elections, some YAP deputies criticised Abel Magerramov, the Baku State University rector, for backing the opposition,” said human rights activist Saida Hojamanly, who heads the Azerbaijani Office for Human Rights and Rule of Law. “Former member of parliament Musa Musayev claimed that too many Baku State University students were pro-opposition. Making claims like these is political discrimination.”
Baku State University student Sevinj Bagirova, 21, said students frequently get harassed for political dissent.
“Very few students will refuse to join YAP or attend its rallies when they are asked to,” she said. “Because they don’t want any problems during the exams.”
Bahar Muradova, assistant executive secretary of YAP and deputy speaker of parliament, denied that university students are persecuted for their political views.
“But the thing is that university professors are expected not only to impart knowledge, but also to help students become patriots,” she said. “We must do our utmost to discourage young people from repeating the mistake of Ruslan Bashirli, an activist with the Yeni Fikir youth group, who dissented so strongly that he actually started working for Armenian secret services.”
Bashirli, who was arrested in July 2005, stands accused of accepting 2000 US dollars from Armenian secret agents for allegedly plotting a coup d’etat in Azerbaijan.
“The authorities are in a hurry to play the Ruslan Bashirli card to put pressure in liberally-minded students,” said political commentator Zaur Ibrahimli.
“We know more repression is in the pipeline,” said Said Nuri, deputy head of the Yeni Fikir youth group. “But those students prove that Azerbaijani young people are prepared to stand up for what they believe in, for democracy and justice. And if need be, we are ready to sacrifice our health and life itself in that struggle.”
Idrak Abbasov is a reporter for Aina (Mirror) newspaper in Baku.
