Azerbaijan, Baku, June 30 / corr Trend A.Huseynbala /
As many as 152 facts of suicide have been registered in Azerbaijan over the past six months.
In ancient time suicide was accepted in the society as a 'private affair' of a man, but sometimes as a banned act owing to religious beliefs.
Suicide existed in all periods of mankind and it exists now. The time was when people accepted death on their own will. For instance, old people would go to the forest in frosty days just to freeze there. There were societies when old men even would throw themselves from rocks which they chose to commit suicide. Old men in ancient Greece marked feast on the occasion of leaving for a next world and then bid farewell to life drinking a cup of strong poison.
There was a tradition in Japan: in suburbs the oil parents asked their children to bring them to the tops of mountains during the starvation.
The first serious bans on suicide have been applied until the establishment of class society. Tough punishments would be applied with regard to relatives of a suicide committer in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya. Houses of suicide committers would be fired and relatives would not be allowed to a dead body.
Following the development of a society approaches towards suicides have been changed as well. By times, articles specifying criminal responsibility for suicides have been excluded from the legislation. It first occurred in France during the First French Revolution.
Even in 1881 tough measures were taken with regard to suicide-committers in New-York St, U.S. For instance, if a suicide committer survived, he/she would be sentenced to 20 years in imprisonment for attempting a suicide.
Earlier tough measures were applied in England with regard to attempts of suicide. Only since 1961 suicide was not regarded as a crime in the U.K. From 1941 to 1955 some 44,956 people were made responsible in this country for attempting a suicide. Some 346 of them have been justified, 308 were imprisoned and the rest were sentenced to a conditional punishment.
Specialists relate reasons of suicide to appearance of syndrome of intolerance in a man, indicating the variety of its causes and essence.
These are some acts of suicide fixed in Azerbaijan in 2008:
- In a death letter found in a pocket of soldier of the State Border Service military unit, Captain Anar Jabbarov after a suicide, he wrote that the leaders of the military unit bothered him.
- Rasim Mammadoglu, 28, a resident of Shirvan district, committed a suicide due to his debts.
- Alasgar Sultanov, 43, a resident of Lokbatan district of Baku, wrote in a death not blame anyone in his death. "I cannot keep my family. I commit suicide at my own will. Don't blame anyone in this case!"
A while ago MP Malahat Hasanova told the Parliament of Azerbaijan soap operas demonstrated in the local television channels affect on the increase of facts of suicide. Indeed, some acts of suicide can be committed under the influence of soap operas, whereas the investigation into the suicide facts fixed in Azerbaijan in 2008 showed that people take this step by force of difference reasons.
Every year 1.1 million die worldwide as a result of suicide, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports basing on official statistics. Suicide committers are mostly fixed among citizens of China (350,000 acts a year). As many as 110,000 acts of suicide are fixed in India a year, 55,000 in Russia, 31,000 in the U.S., 30,000 in Japan, 12,000 in Ukraine, and 10,000 in France. In accordance with other data, official statistics does not mirror the real situation, related to facts of suicide worldwide. Based on this statistics, it is confirmed that 4 million people die as a result of suicide. According to forensic experts, taking medicine above the norm is also an act of suicide. Every year attempts of 19 million people for suicide turn out failure, according to the WHO report. They succeed to save every one оf four, or 24 percent, of those attempting to commit suicide through interference of professional doctors, experts say
Men commit suicide four times more than women. Attempts of suicide among people aged between 65-85 increase by 6-9 percent year by year.
WHO experts say if attempts to counter this global problem do not yield results, the number of suicides will increase by another half million by 2020. According to different information, the number of suicides exceeds the number of those who died during the war and other violent ways across the world.
No governmental organization and NGO is involved in registering suicide cases in Azerbaijan. In our country a fact of suicide officially recognized, the prosecutor's office institutes criminal proceedings under article 125 (incitement to suicide) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.
For the first time we attempted to hold researches into suicides in Azerbaijan. It is noticeable that facts of suicide are assembled on the basis of official information by law enforcement agencies based on materials published in media in 2008.
Regarding that approximately 100 people tried to commit suicide last year, it is possible to conclude that suicide in Azerbaijan has become a serious problem.
- According to official statistics, some 164 men and 57 women committed suicide in Azerbaijan in 2008.
- Age 22 exceeds 60 amongst self-murderers.
- Of those whose is aged between 36 and 61, some 89 people committed suicide.
- A total of 68 suicide facts were officially recorded on people aged between 18 and 35. The most terrible fact is that some 52 of them were between 18 and 30. This means that most of people committing suicide are young people in Azerbaijan.
- Last year, 20 children and youth committed suicide. They are 10 boys and 10 girls.
- Of self-murderers, about 120 people hanged themselves in different places with
different methods. It was impossible to save their life although some of them were taken to hospital by close relatives.
- Although there were facts of suicides due to not repaying debt and parents' discontent to
marry favorite girl, these facts were not widespread.
Of self-murderers in Baku and other regions, some 12 people were citizens of foreign countries, whose majority belongs to the Russian nationality. There is one Turkmen citizen, one British, one Tatar and two Georgian citizens amongst the foreign citizens who committed suicides.
- It was revealed that more than 20 people committed suicide due to mental disorders.
- In 2008, there were the facts of suicide motivated by family conflicts. For example, a husband after a conflict with his wife stabbed her and, assuming that she was dead, hanged himself from a tree. Doctors saved the woman's life, but the man has already died. Moreover, there were some cases of suicide in a drunk state because of the anger on the child. Some suicides have occurred because the parents did not put up with loss of their children. There were also people who have committed suicide due to the fact that they could not keep their families (these suicides are usually committed by men).
- 45 people used various means to commit a suicide. Total of 16 of them committed suicide by throwing themselves from the building they live or from other buildings. Eight committed suicide by inflicting serious damage from various types of fire arm, dagger, razor and knife. In 2008, five men spilled oil over their body and burned themselves. Five more people committed suicide by using vinegar and chemical substance. Four of them cut off veins. Four jumped over rails and got trapped under the train. Four people more throw themselves into the sea and the same number of people to the Kur River.
- In 2008, three people were sentenced to life imprisonment committed suicide.
- In 2008, suicide facts occurred in Baku most of all. The number of deaths in northern Azerbaijan totaled 36; 26 of then were men and 11 women. In this region majority of suicide cases accounted for Khachmaz (13 facts). According to the official information, 11 people committed suicide in Gusar, 7 in Guba, 4 in Davachi and 2 in Siyazan in 2008.
- The number of officially registered suicide facts totaled 20 in the southern region. Twenty of them committed suicide in Lankaran, 5 in Masalli (two of them are 18-year-old and 21-year-old sisters Gulshan and Shams Mammadova who committed suicide at the same time) and three in Jalilabad. Thirteen were men and seven women.
- A total of 14 suicide facts occurred in north-western region. Seven committed suicide in Shaki, three in Gakh and two in Zagatala and Oguz. Twenty of them are men and two women.
- There were 12 facts of suicide in armed forces in 2008. The studies revealed that military hazing, bribery, violence, insult and similar cases were major reason behind suicide cases. Ten military men committed suicide in 2007, 7 in 2006, 4 in 2005, 4 in 2004 and 8 in 2003.
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