Today, April 17, in the press center of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), a press conference was conducted on the expulsion of “Dalga” Youth Movement southern regional office head Parviz Azimov from Lankeran State University. In addition to Azimov, “Dalga” Youth Movement Chairperson Vafa Jafarova, several members of “Dalga,” and “Janub Khabarlari” Newspaper Chief Editor Zahir Amanov participated in the press conference.

Azimov was the first person to speak. He said that the university used the excuse that he violated internal discipline rules to expel him. However, the real reason for his expulsion was the article “Closed doors open market,” which was published in the 10 February 2009 edition of “Janub Khabarlari” Newspaper. In addition, Azimov also published an article entitled “Lankeran University Bribe Scandal” in the 25 January 2009 edition of “Alma” Newspaper. This article was picked up by qaynar.info, “Janub Khabarlari” and other websites.
Azimov noted that after the abovementioned articles were published, deputy rector for educational behavior work Kamran Kazimov and other responsible people started harassing Azimov and the people who Azimov interviewed for his article. “The dean of the university’s economics and technology faculty Alikhan Badalov trained university Elvir Rustamov to provoke a small conflict with me. Elvir called me into the university’s yard and jokingly pushed me. At this very moment, Alikhan Badalov took me to the Dean’s office and demanded an explanation from me. In my explanation I said that I was not in any fight.”
After this, Azimov was expelled from the university on the basis of a decision issued by University rector Asef Isganderov at the end of February, however Azimov was only informed about the decision three weeks after it was signed by Isganderov. After this, Azimov’s parents went to the university to try to clarify this issue. But one teacher there said to them, “Just be happy that they didn’t plant ‘black (slang for marijuana)’ in his pocket.”
Azimov said he was illegally expelled from the university. Therefore, he plans to appeal to the Education Ministry, parliamentarian Elmira Akhundova, and Chairman of the Democratic Reforms Party Asim Mollazadeh, and file a lawsuit against Lankeran State University.
V. Jafarova said that work is underway to create a committee to defend the rights of “Dalga” Youth Movement member P. Azimov. In addition, she mentioned that signatures have been gathered from several hundred people who support Azimov.
IRFS contacted Lankeran State University deputy rector Shovket Bakhshiyeva about this matter. She said that Parviz Azimov was expelled from the university for violating internal discipline rules. She added that, some people suspected that Azimov was involved in the drug business. “We examined him several times, but nothing showed up,” she said.