Dagestan villages were transferred to Azerbaijan along with their residents

Thousands of Lezgin protests are planned in several large cities of Russia. They oppose the transfer of Russian lands to Azerbaijan. The border demarcation agreement was signed on September 3, 2010 in Baku by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev and ratified in June 2011. At the same time, the boundaries were determined on the map. Now work is underway to delineate the boundaries on the ground, and soon the water intake of the large Samur River, two Dagestan villages and mountain pastures should go to Azerbaijan. The Lezgins are protesting against the transfer of these territories.

Lezgins are a large Dagestani ethnic group , the third largest in the number of representatives in the republic (according to the census, out of 2.9 million Dagestanis, 385 thousand are Lezgins). Lezgins live mainly in the southern part of Dagestan.

Several Lezgin public organizations are planning to hold protests on June 29 in various cities of Russia: Makhachkala, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Yaroslavl, Tomsk, Surgut, etc.

Several issues will be raised at the rallies, the organizer of the rally in Makhachkala, Albert Esedov (who is also the leader of the Lezgin movement “Sadval”), told PublicPost: “We are not going to put forward any nationalist slogans. Representatives of other Dagestani nationalities are also going to join us. We will demand “So that Sovetskaya Street in Derbent is not renamed Heydar Aliyev Street. But this is not the main issue that we are going to voice. We want to declare that the agreement on the demarcation of the Russian-Azerbaijani border is causing damage to Dagestan.”

"Federal Lezgin National-Cultural Autonomy" reports that Russian authorities recently gave Azerbaijan three large Dagestan areas with mountain pastures, which local residents used for agricultural needs. Esedov explained to PublicPost that even before the transfer of pastures to Azerbaijan, two Dagestan villages and the largest river in the republic, the Samur, were given to Azerbaijan: “Dagestan officials then reassured us, asserting that the republic, in principle, does not lose anything from the demarcation of borders, that Azerbaijan will climb a maximum of 15 meters inside Dagestan. But when the demarcation of borders began, it turned out that we were talking about thousands of hectares of land. Residents of the first village were offered to become citizens of Azerbaijan. In the end, they agreed, they were simply threatened with deportation. The residents of Khrakh-Uba refused to be citizens of Azerbaijan. The government of Dagestan then allocated them land in the republic where they could settle down. But people have been wandering around their relatives for three years now, without their own shelter. 140 families without a certain future."

The Dagestanis were not asked whether it was necessary to conclude an agreement on border demarcation, Enver Kisriev, head of the Caucasus sector of the Center for Civilization and Regional Studies at the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told PublicPost: “When Mukhu Aliyev was the president of Dagestan, he blocked the agreement. Right during the negotiations in Baku at the meeting, he spoke out he was strongly opposed to part of the territories of Dagestan being transferred to Azerbaijan. There he even had a conflict with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. But the fact is that the negotiations were frozen until Mukhu Aliyev left the post of president. , under the new leader of Dagestan, Magomedsalam Magomedov, the agreement on border demarcation was signed behind the scenes. The Dagestanis were simply faced with a fact. Now the delineation of borders is already underway, and people, of course, are already feeling its consequences among the residents of the southern part of the republic. serious unrest, and, of course, there is a mobilization of people against this situation with borders. Not only is there land there, but water use has also been monstrously ceded. The waterworks of the Samur River, which was located on the territory of Dagestan, was transferred to Azerbaijan. 90% of the water in the river is formed on the territory of Dagestan - through glaciers, but almost all of the water is now used by Azerbaijan. Water in southern Dagestan can be said to be more expensive than gold. According to international standards on water use, Azerbaijan would have to pay colossal amounts of money to Dagestan for water, but it has never paid and it already turns out that it will not pay.”

Russian officials did not give any clear explanations for why demarcation was needed, Kisriev noted: “It is unclear how Russia motivated this deal. It was after the agreement on border demarcation that Azerbaijan raised the rent for the Gabala radar station from 7 million to 300 million, so thereby actually offending Russia, which was subsequently forced to refuse the lease. Maybe our politicians will then argue in favor of the agreement, but people will not listen to them when they are faced with a shortage of water and the problem of grazing livestock. This will cause serious problems on the border with Azerbaijan. ".

On condition of anonymity, a Dagestani deputy spoke about why the republic’s leadership had to sign the agreement: “Mukhu Aliyev, one might say, paid with the presidency for running into Lavrov in Baku. He literally told him the following: “I thought you were a minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, but it turns out that you are the Azerbaijani minister." Considering the sad fate of his predecessor, the new president of Dagestan signed this treaty. For some reason, the treaty itself is not published in the press (On the official website of the President of the Russian Federation, only the law on ratification of the treaty is posted - editor's note. ) According to the agreement, at least 3 thousand hectares of Dagestan land will go to Azerbaijan. In exchange for what? Officially, it is said that it was high time to delineate the state borders of Russia and Azerbaijan. But it is unlikely that any of the Russian officials will voice unofficial information: Azerbaijan in exchange for. the Dagestan lands should supply a large amount of oil to Russia at a minimal price. Russia simply sold Dagestan for oil."