It’s not ruled out that the Azerbaijani soldier who shot dead 7 servicemen and then committed a suicide was just ‘taking revenge’ on those who raped him.

Recent media reports suggest that the cause of the ‘incident’ was sexual assault the soldier was numerously subjected to.

This fact does not surprise – the reports about suicides and killings have flooded the Azerbaijani media. Suicides are basically committed by young people in Azerbaijan. According to unofficial data (while Azerbaijan lacks official statistics on suicides), 29 Azerbaijani children committed suicides in 2009, while 47 juveniles (the youngest suicide was only 9) committed suicides during the first six months of 2010. Azerbaijan has developed a national strategy on mental health of the population. The document is waiting for its approval. Among other matters, the strategy also stipulates collection of information about suicides and other mental illnesses, as well as maintenance of their statistics.