Azerbaijan's government-run energy corporation should stay out of the education sector, head of the company Rovnak Abdullayev said on Saturday following the shutting down of dozens of high schools and exam preparation centers controlled by the company.
Twenty-four high schools and exam preparation centers were closed down on Wednesday by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, or SOCAR, that took them over from Turkish education company Cag Ogretim, which is allegedly linked to influential Tukish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.
Speaking in Qusar district during an inauguration ceremony, SOCAR's chairman Abdullayev said the education ministry had the capacity to provide qualified education to the young in Azerbaijan.
"Oil companies should deal with oil, Education Ministry should deal with education," he said.
The Turkish government accuses the Gulen movement of forming a shadow structure within the Turkish state and plotting to topple the government.
Between February and April, SOCAR took over the education institutions. Following the takeover, they began to be operated by a company called Azerbaijan International Education Center until SOCAR announced the closure decision, citing high maintenance costs and management difficulties.
In March, Azerbaijani media reported that Elnur Aslanov, a senior official in Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev's government, had been sacked, accusing him of having links to the Gulen movement.
Newspaper reports also claimed Gulen’s network had infiltrated state institutions in Azerbaijan and built links with some politicians.
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