30 April, London (UK) - IFLRY, the global umbrella of liberal youth and student organizations, strongly condemns today's actions by the Azerbaijani authorities against two of its Member Organizations in relation to the mourning of last year's massacre at the Baku State Oil Academy.
The Azerbaijani regime today detained more than 30 mostly young people who assembled to commemorate the killing of 13 of their fellow students at the Baku State Oil Academy last year. As part of its ongoing clampdown against young people, the Azerbaijani authorities yesterday also pre-emptively detained the President of IFLRY Member Organization Musavat Youth, Mr. Tural Abbasli. Later today, the office of another Member Organization, DALGA, was raided by the authorities. Many of the people who were detained today have been beaten or violently intimated by security forces.
The Azerbaijani regime, led by dictator Ilham Aliev, has by these actions made another effort to show it is utterly disinterested in human rights and democracy. They follow those like the ongoing imprisonment of youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, who are jailed for their criticism of the government, to which IFLRY has repeatedly drawn attention as well.
IFLRY President Bart Woord: "It is time for the West to get serious about human rights and democracy in Azerbaijan and to stop pretending there is no potential for change. It should be impossible that a country which is member of the Council of Europe and signatory to the Eastern Partnership of the EU can get away with its human rights abuses as easily as it does now. In particular, we are outraged by the direct attacks of the government on two of our Member Organizations."
The International Federation of Liberal Youth calls upon the immediate release of Tural Abbasli and his fellow arrested Musavat Youth members. IFLRY also calls upon all European and international institutions to do whatever is in their means to secure the freedom of all political prisoners in Azerbaijan, in particular Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli.
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IFLRY (est. 1947) is the global umbrella of liberal, democratic, centrist, libertarian and radical youth and student organizations, representing over 2.5 million young people around the world from every continent. Its aim is to spread liberal values around the world and to support young people in authoritarian countries.
For more information about IFLRY or about this statement, please contact IFLRY President Bart Woord (bart@iflry.org - +31615624560).
For more information on today's events, please check regional news sites www.rferl.org, www.eurasianet.org or www.azerireport.com .