Bags with Georgian Flag Seized from School Children in Saingilo

Azerbaijan security service officers seized bags with Georgian flags in the Georgian villages of Saingilo, Kakhi and Zakatala districts. ICK’s correspondent in Saingilo reported about it.

“My child came home without bag. He was holding text-books in his hands. I asked about the bag and he said three men were in the school-yard when he left the school. They were standing at the door, checked children’s bags and seized them from several pupils,” said resident of Kakhingilo village.

“I asked my child who else had their bags seized and then I went to the parents of other children. We found out that all of us – five children in total – had bought bags in Georgia and there were Georgian flags on them. Maybe, it was reason of their behavior. We cannot think of another reason at all,” said the mother of a pupil. She said their relative living in Tbilisi had sent the bag as a present before school year started.

Several teachers also confirmed the information about seizing bags with Georgian flags from pupils but they requested to keep their names anonymous.

Ema Natsvlishvili, teacher of the Georgian School in Aliabad village, was the only person who publicly stated that she had hung Georgian flag in her classroom twice but they were removed each time.

On September 26, Azerbaijan custom officers seized Georgian text-books from Natsvlishvili when she was crossing Azerbaijan-Georgian border near Lagodekhi district. She has been unsuccessfully urging to get those books back since then.

According to ICK, after text-books were seized at the border, Azerbaijan law enforcement officers searched Georgian schools in Saingilo. As a result, they withdraw over 200 Georgian text-books. Afterwards, Azerbaijan law enforcement officers detained driver of Tbilisi-Zakatala-Kakhi mini-bus for having brought Georgian text-books to Azerbaijan. The detainee was charged for having breached custom rules though he was released under bail.

ICK