In Baku, police disperses picket of youth movement "Dalga"

Today, the police have stopped an attempt of the youth movement called "Dalga" (Wave) to hold a picket in front of the Parliament of Azerbaijan in protest against exclusion of Pyarviz Azimov, a 4th year student, from the Lenkoran State University (LSU).

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that today young men wanted to show a dramatized performance aiming to ridicule defects in the sphere of education. However, as soon as the participants of the action have approached the building of the parliament, policemen began detentions.

Leader of the movement Vafa Dzhafarova said that nine participants of the action were brought to the ninth police station of the Sabail District Police Department. The station confirmed the fact of young men's detention "for breaking public order". However, after intervention of human rights activists, the detainees were released.

While outside the parliament the police dispersed the picket of youth activists, inside the building, at the session of the National Assembly, MP Asim Mollazade, leader of the Party of Democratic Reforms (PDR), raised the issue of Azimov's exclusion from the LSU. He offered to set up a parliamentary working group for checking higher schools, since, in his opinion, a serious confrontation to Bologna process exists there.

"Today, in higher schools of Azerbaijan, under old Soviet traditions, diplomas are awarded not for knowledge but for bribes. Those who try to object are prosecuted and excluded from higher schools. Pyarviz Azimov, a diligent LSU student, was excluded one month before his graduate state exam for his article in mass media about negative phenomena in his university," said Mr Mollazade and asked to quicken the adoption of the law "On Education" in the third reading.

However, Oktai Asadov, Speaker of the Parliament, gave no reaction to this statement.

The Ministry of Education also keeps silence on the occasion of exclusion of the university student.