Students of "Independent Azerbaijan" university form a committee to defend their rights

Today, the students of the "Independent Azerbaijan" university, who are on hunger strike, have formed a committee to defend their rights. Elnur Mamedov, a student activist, has been elected its chairman. At today's briefing he said that the participants in the action decided not to abandon their citizenship for a while although the deadline of the ultimatum had expired. He explained the decision by the fact that the authorities might use the act in order to discredit the students. Elnur Mamedov also said that the students intended to apply to court in order to reveal the persons responsible for violation of their rights to education.

For reference, yesterday on June 20, the deadline fixed by the students of the "Independent Azerbaijan" university on hunger strike to the Ministry of Education for resolving the issue of restoring their status of students expired. As Rashid Gadjily, students' lawyer, reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent earlier, the university students had been holding the hunger strike already for 20 days. Their demand is to restore their right to education but, so far, neither the Ministry of Education leadership nor the management of the "Independent Azerbaijan" university are willing to comply with their legitimate demand. According to the lawyer, if their demand is not complied with the students threaten to abandon their citizenship.

In his turn, Ilham Pirmamedov, manager of the Ministry of Education administration said that, at the moment, they were unable to resolve the issue of the "Independent Azerbaijan" university hunger strikers. "The Ministry of Education is not able to satisfy the demand of the students. The court proceedings on the violations of the law which have taken place at the university are under way," said P. Pirmamedov. He noted that no steps might be undertaken by the Ministry of Education until the court ruling was in place.

For reference, a group of students from the private university "Independent Azerbaijan" has been on hunger strike since the beginning of June demanding that conditions should be provided for continuing their education and getting diplomas.