Azerbaijan: Baku Students Rally for Official Mourning Period

Roughly 2,000 students demonstrated in Baku on May 1, calling on the government to declare a period of national mourning for 13 individuals killed by a lone gunman at the prestigious State Oil Academy, the Turan news agency reported.

The government has not yet responded to the request, although Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on April 30 ordered financial assistance to be extended to relatives of the victims. The government will pay 30,000 manats (about $37,286) to families of the deceased and 15,000 manats (about $18,643) to families of the 12 individuals wounded, APA news agency reported.

The father of alleged gunman Farda Gadirov, a Russian citizen, told the APA news agency that he would fly to Baku from Moscow to assist in the investigation.

APA also reported that another Georgian man of Azeri origin has been detained in Baku. Authorities suspect that Nadir Aliyev -- who comes from Gadirov's native village of Dashtepe in Georgia's predominantly Azeri-populated Marneuli region, and who reportedly knew the gunman well -- could be linked to the shootings.