The head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, appealed not to drive a wedge between Dagestanis and Azerbaijanis. There are many natives of Azerbaijan living in the region who consider Dagestan their home, he noted.
"Our ties are more than geographical. This is history, family ties, culture, living together," Melikov said, noting that "it is in Dagestan that Azerbaijanis are an indigenous people. "
Attempts to draw countries into the conflict are being made by those who do not want peace and stability "neither for Dagestan, nor for Azerbaijan, nor for the whole of Russia," the head of the republic is sure. According to him, external forces have repeatedly tried to destabilize the situation with someone else's hands, but to no avail.
"I appeal to everyone: both to Dagestanis and to our brothers-Azerbaijanis — do not let them drive a wedge between us. Do not give in to emotions, do not be led into provocations, do not stoop to everyday nationalism," Melikov urged.
Representatives of over 30 indigenous nationalities, more than 110 nations and nationalities live on the territory of Dagestan. According to the 2010 census, 4.5% of the region's population, or 131 thousand people, were Azerbaijanis. This is 21.7% of all Azerbaijanis in Russia (603.1 thousand people). At the same time, the real number of Azerbaijanis in Dagestan is several tens of thousands more, the Ministry of Education and Science of Dagestan noted, statistics did not take into account Azerbaijani citizens who came in search of work.
As Khanzhan Kurbanov, the author of the Remark telegram channel, stated about the provocations in Dagestan, the wedge that Melikov is talking about "does not exist and will not be.
" He recalled that:"1. Azerbaijanis as residents and citizens of Azerbaijan — the former Soviet state created by the Bolsheviks in 1920 on the lands of the imperial Elizavetpol and Baku provinces. The territories where the Persians, Turks, Lezgian-speaking peoples, Tatas, Armenians, Talysh, etc. mainly lived. the peoples of the East. The composition of the ethnonym "Azerbaijani" itself now includes Turks, Persians, Lezgins, Tsakhurs, Avars and other peoples. An ethno-substrate has been formed. Somewhere, in the case of the Dagestani peoples (Lezgins, etc.), identity is preserved, somewhere such a new subethnos, community as the Azerbaijani prevails.
2. There are Azerbaijanis of Dagestan. All the Turkic-speaking peoples of Derbent and Derbent region in the Soviet years began to be called Azerbaijanis. Although they were not residents of Azerbaijan, and the republic itself was an integral part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
3. This is how the residents of Derbent magals (Persians) became Azerbaijanis both the Terekemians and the inhabitants of the north of the Derbent people, who are Turks.
4. The Turks of the Rukel village of Derbent district were also recorded by Azerbaijanis during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), since Turkey was an ally of Nazi Germany and there was a danger of alliance with the enemy.
5. As a result, all Turkic-speaking residents of the south of the republic began to be called Azerbaijanis. Although they actually have nothing to do with Azerbaijan, they do not and did not have.
6. Azerbaijani — according to the Constitution RD is the titular people of the republic and all rights to preserve and develop culture and language apply to it.
7. In the AZR (as in fact, in the Russian Federation) there are many interethnic marriages, and there are no fundamental contradictions between peoples (wise at the root). They can be at the governmental level, politicians can spoil the blood of peoples, one of the facts is the five—year blockage of the pedestrian border between our countries."
"Therefore, when the head of our republic talks about some kind of wedge - a wedge between whom and whom does he mean? Yes, some youth groups of Derbent, feeling their community and proximity to the AZR, hang the flags of the neighboring southern fraternal republic over the fortress. (However, other youth activists take them off — they say we are in Russia). True, some politicians of the Derbent district have been hanging portraits of Heydar Aliyev and AZR flags in their offices for several decades. Really… But that was a long time ago and is already, apparently, irrelevant… And there is no wedge and there will not be! Since the Azerbaijanis of Dagestan are a completely different story!" — Khanzhanov believes.
A new round of conflict between Moscow and Baku began on June 27, when security forces detained about 50 natives of Azerbaijan in Yekaterinburg. Nine of them were arrested in cases of murder and attempted murder in 2001, 2010 and 2011. Then people from Azerbaijan were also killed. Two of the detainees died, the UK called the cause of death of one of them heart failure, the causes of death of the second are being investigated.
The bodies of the victims were taken to Azerbaijan. The Prosecutor General's Office reported that they died of post-traumatic shock due to multiple injuries. A criminal case has been opened under articles on the premeditated murder of two or more people by a group of persons with special cruelty, abuse of official authority and the use of torture.
Massive harsh detentions of Russians took place in Azerbaijan. Security forces conducted searches in the editorial office of Sputnik Azerbaijan in Baku, several employees were arrested in the case of fraud and illegal entrepreneurship. The authorities also announced the detention of an alleged organized criminal group of Russians on charges of drug transit. The footage from the courtroom shows that on the faces of young people, these are IT specialists, relocators, bruises and bruises.
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Azerbaijani ambassador because of the "unfriendly actions of Baku." Protest was expressed to the Azerbaijani side in connection with the dismantling of relations between the two countries and the actions of the Azerbaijani security forces against the Russians. Russian Ambassador Mikhail Evdokimov was also summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the ministry announced "manifestations of ethnic intolerance in connection with the raids."