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The International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) has issued a statement on the recent arrests of youth activists in Azerbaijan, strongly condemning the actions of the authorities, Turan reported.

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.

“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 statement says.

“As part of its ongoing clampdown against young people, the Azerbaijani authorities yesterday also preemptively 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 statement reads further.

The group has called for the immediate release of Tural Abbasli and his fellow arrested Musavat Youth members. IFLRY is also asking all European and international institutions to do whatever is in their means to secure the freedom of all political prisoners in Azerbaijan, in particular the two jailed bloggers Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli.

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.