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  • The Avars Of Azerbaijan Ask The President Of Dagestan To Protect The

    THE AVARS OF AZERBAIJAN ASK THE PRESIDENT OF DAGESTAN TO PROTECT THEM FROM AZERBAIJANIZATION

    Kavkazskiy Uzel
    Kavkaz.memo.ru website
    June 18 2008
    Moscow

    "Physical and moral genocide"

    The executive committee of the Avar National Council sent an open
    letter to Dagestani President Mukhu Aliyev today. One of the activists
    of the council, Magomed Guseynov, pointed out that the appeal puts
    emphasis on the situation of Avars living in Azerbaijan. According
    to Guseynov, the matter is about physical and moral genocide against
    Avars.

    In an interview with a Kavkazskiy Uzel correspondent, Guseynov
    pointed out that the Avars in Azerbaijan - about 200,000 people -
    are living mainly in their historical homeland - Zaqatala, Balakan
    and Qax districts of Azerbaijan.

    By the decision of the Trans-Caucasia bureau of the Central
    Committee of the Soviet Communist Party (of Bolsheviks), this land
    was handed over to Azerbaijan in 1922. This was followed by the forced
    "Azerbaijanization of the Avars" - in Soviet Azerbaijan the teaching
    of the Avar language was banned in institutions of general education,
    programmes on television and radio were broadcast only in Azerbaijani,
    the region was actively settled by Azerbaijanis, and during population
    censuses and while applying for documents Avars were forced to identify
    themselves as Azerbaijanis.

    Perestroika and the Karabakh war became another factor of the region's
    de-Avarization as thousands of refugees from Nagornyy Karabakh poured
    into the region, while mainly poorly-trained Avar conscripts were
    sent to the Karabakh front.

    Guseynov maintains that political, economic and other powers in
    Zaqatala, Balakan and Qax districts are concentrated only in the
    hands of Azerbaijanis, mainly from Naxcivan. Specifically, more than
    95 per cent of officials in the district are Azerbaijanis, though
    they comprise only 27 per cent of the population.

    Anyone who has criticized and criticizes the current situation risks
    his life, our correspondent's interviewee said.

    For example, a successful businessman and member of the Azerbaijani
    parliament (Milli Maclis), Ali Antsukhskiy, a native of Zaqatala
    District, who claimed to be the leader of the Avar people, was
    assassinated in the centre of Baku in 1996. All in all, about 190
    Avars were killed from 1991 to 1996, according to the deputy chairman
    of the Avar National Council.

    Quite a few Avars ended up behind bars. According to various
    international public and rights organizations, their overall number
    is approaching 300 today.

    In his letter to the president of Dagestan, Guseynov also cites other
    examples of ethnic discrimination and of the Azerbaijanization of the
    region. He maintains that history is being falsified - textbooks say
    that the territory of Zaqatala, Balakan and Qax districts has always
    belonged to Azerbaijanis and describe historical Dagestani persons
    as Azerbaijanis.

    Besides that, according to Huseynov, the Avar names of villages and
    areas are being translated into Azerbaijani. Specifically, the village
    of Khetav-rosu (named after Avar Khetav) was renamed Gatovlar in 2008.

    In the town of Balakan, the pedestal under a future monument to the
    outstanding leader of mountain people - Amakhan Avarskiy - was blown
    up. In its place, a monument to Azerbaijani Nariman Narimanov, who
    initiated repression against the Avars, was put up.

    In 2000, the head of Zaqatala District, Azerbaijani Rafayil Macidov,
    issued an order on the demolition of the monument to the third imam
    of Chechnya and Dagestan, Shamil. The resolution was not fulfilled
    due to active resistance from the Avars, but the monument was blown
    up in 2001.

    In 2007, the leadership of the district removed three times a billboard
    that was installed near the Avar village of Tangyt, saying: "Here lies
    Khadzhi-Murat, the character of Lev Tolstoy's novel Khadzhi-Murat." The
    grave of the famous Avar naib [commander] was desecrated as well. The
    oval photograph of Khadzhi-Murat was torn off the gravestone, and
    now the gravestone has numerous traces left by a metal object.

    The deputy chairman of the Avar national movement also says that Avars
    cannot receive effective aid either in Dagestan or in Azerbaijan. In
    the spring of 2007, Azerbaijan hosted an impressive delegation from
    Dagestan which said after a meeting with the leadership of Azerbaijan
    and Zaqatala District that there were no ethnic problems here.

    In Baku, there is a permanent representative office of Dagestan in
    Azerbaijan, but the staff of the representative office have repeatedly
    accused its head, ethnic Azerbaijani Magomed Kurbanov, in the Dagestani
    media of misappropriation of budget funds, abuse of power, failure
    to perform his duties, Dagestanophobia and Azerbaijanophilia.

    Levers of pressure on Baku

    At the end of his letter, Guseynov asks the Dagestani president "to
    put all possible pressure on the leadership of Azerbaijan and its
    representatives - the heads of Balakan, Zaqatala and Qax districts
    who organize the destruction of the entire non-Azerbaijani material
    heritage and raze to the ground anything that may be reminiscent of
    the presence of other ethnic groups here, first of all, Avar people
    who are native residents of these three districts".

    The deputy chairman of the Avar national movement said that Avars
    from Azerbaijan itself have repeatedly sent such letters to the
    republic's [Dagestan's] leadership, but the authorities have not yet
    reacted to them, though they have real levers of pressure on Baku,
    Guseynov thinks.

    Among such levers, Guseynov names the large Azerbaijani diaspora
    in Dagestan which is protected at the state level because they have
    media in the Azerbaijani language, a chance to study in their native
    language, etc. Moreover, the Samur River which collects 96 per cent
    of its water in Dagestan and supplies drinking water to the whole
    Azerbaijani capital could also be used as a lever of pressure on the
    authorities in Azerbaijan, Guseynov thinks.

    In reply to the request of our Kavkazskiy Uzel correspondent to comment
    on Guseynov's letter, top officials from relevant Dagestani ministries
    said that they will do so only several weeks later when they personally
    familiarize themselves with the appeal to the Dagestani president.

    [Passage omitted: Dagestani President Mukhu Aliyev visited Azerbaijan
    in 2007 and held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev]
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