Written by HRH Baku/Shahla Ismailova; materials from Information agencies Turan Info, Yeni Musavat, interviews with the strikers.
The students from Independent Azerbaijan University have been on the hunger strike since the 1-st of June 2006 with the demand to continue their education in other universities of Azerbaijan as the Independent Azerbaijan University has been closed. The strikers go on the strike despite of the deteriorated health condition and the external pressure in the form of strengthened police regime. (17-JUN-2006)
The transfer of the students of the closed university to other high education institutions remains problematic. Despite of the end of the summer session, the students are required to pass additional exams in other universities even on the disciplines, which they got the highest grades on. The senior students were promised to receive their diplomas, which had also been negatively perceived for the reason that the diploma of the shut-down university is not supposed to be of any value in the Republic.
Visitors
Despite of the little attention in the beginning, the protest action of the students gain more attention for last few days. Thus, the strikers were visited by the members of the Parliament Panah Huseyn, Igbal Agazadeh, Nasib Nasibli, the human rights defenders Novella Jafaroglu, Rena and Murad Sadaddinovs, Shahla Ismailova and Eldaniz Ahmedov. The Ombudswoman and the representative of the Ministry of Education paid a visit to the strikers as well.
The human rights protector Novella Jafaroglu (on the right) says that both the parents and the Ministry of Education are partially guilty in this situation. “According to the 2003 Presidential decree about the close of private universities, this issue should have been alarming for the parents too, who should have thought and researched which institution could have similar problem, before their children applied to them. At the same time, the Ministry of Education was aware of the functioning of the Independent Azerbaijan University and they should have warned the university administration about stopping to enroll new students. I think that there should be found the compromise and the students of the closed university must continue their education in other universities.
The expert of American Bar Association (ABA) Corruption Robert Eisman visited hunger strike participants for twice. “I respect people who are willing to die for what they believe,” said Eisman, “And therefore, I want these student to finish their education.” Eisman personally donated 100 AZM to the strike participants(approximately $110) to buy drinking water, something there is a definite shortage of. Eisman met with the Education Ministry and obtained agreement about beginning negotiations between ministry and hunger-strike representatives. The sides must express their demands and to propose compromise variants for the resolution of this problem, Eisman said. “The fact that the Education Ministry agrees to have talks shows some progress on the matter,” Eisman also noted. According to him, talks must begin as soon as possible.
Specialists of ABA´s Baku Office, as well as the Legal Assistance Center will also attend
the meetings in the Education Ministry. Misir Mardanov said that resolution of this
problem would depend on the court´s decision which would eventually be made.
Number of strikers
Thus, the number of hunger strikers changes every day, as the health state of the strikers gets deteriorated. At different times of the strike the number varied from 20 up to 150 people. Currently there are 50 students going on the hunger strike. A few strikers have already been taken to the hospital. The hot season and extremely high temperature in the room of strikers make their protest action even more difficult. There were held sanitary actions in the room of strikers by the medical staff.
Police regime in the university
The most alarming point in the situation is the strengthened police regime in the university. The student Gambar Gambarov said “the police prevents our supporters [people who come to visit the strikers] to enter the university. On this ground we have permanent quarrel with the police. We are ready to everything”.
Despite of the visits of the representative of the Ministry of Education, the strikers decided to continue their hunger-strike until the Education Ministry and its related organ resolved the problem completely, for all levels of students.
