AZERBAIJAN’S JEWISH ENCLAVE
By Sabuhi Mamedli in Krasnaya Sloboda
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Aug. 31, 2006
"Mountain Jews" live harmoniously with their Muslim neighbours in
the north of the country.
"Krasnaya Sloboda is the safest place for Jews at the moment," said
Nisim Nisimov, head of the municipal administration in the village of
Krasnaya Sloboda – which means "Red Settlement". "We are not hostile
towards Muslims. We live on perfect good neighbourly terms with them."
Krasnaya Sloboda, the last surviving compact community of "Mountain
Jews" in the Caucasus, is situated in the mountainous Quba district
of northern Azerbaijan.
This small community has managed to stay immune to both the Jewish
exodus from the region following the end of the Soviet Union and
fallout from the Jewish-Muslim conflict in the Middle East.
During the recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the media
in Azerbaijan came out with conflicting reports, with some saying
that Jewish families had fled from Israel to Krasnaya Sloboda, while
others said that residents had gone in the opposition direction to
enrol as volunteers in the Israeli Defence Forces.
Semyon Ihilov, head of the Jewish community of Azerbaijan, told IWPR
the reports were not true and a visit to Krasnaya Sloboda suggested
a much more quiet and harmonious picture – despite it being an island
of Jews surrounded by Muslims.
According to Jewish community leaders, a little over 16,000 Jews live
in Azerbaijan today, of whom 11,000 are Mountain Jews with about
3,600 of them in Krasnaya Sloboda. They speak a dialect of the Tat
language, which is related to Persian, and have lived in the Caucasus
for generations.
Krasnaya Sloboda is a prosperous place, which stands in sharp contrast
to the surrounding area. The roads are in a good state and there are
plenty of expensive foreign cars. Seen from high ground, the village
has a reddish tint, due to the red tiling of the roofs – which may
be the explanation for its name. Frequent signs in Hebrew and the
wearing of skullcaps are the main clues to the different cultural
identity of the place.
"The village has two secondary schools, a college, synagogue, a house
of culture, where we observe all our religious holidays and historical
dates," said Nisimov.
Local residents are mostly well off, but few of them have jobs.
Municipal official Pisah Isakov, said, "There used to be a canning
factory here, which employed at least a thousand people. Nowadays the
plant is running at half capacity, and unemployment has grown. There
are no lands to cultivate in the village either."
Explaining the secret of the village’s prosperity, Isakov said it
was supported by benefactors, all wealthy natives of the village now
living elsewhere He said these included three men Zahar Iliev, Telman
Ismailov, Sergei Kokunov, who have fortunes estimated at between 350
and 540 million dollars and all of whom feature in Forbes Magazine’s
list of the 100 richest people in Russia.
Isakov said Kokunov had donated money for repair work on the schools
in Krasnaya Sloboda, which should be completed by the beginning of
the new school year.
Relations are generally friendly between Krasnaya Sloboda and other
villages and there are cases of inter-ethnic marriages.
"Three years ago my son married the daughter of my neighbour Abraham,"
said Gasym Aliev. "They live in Israel today. Of course we are worried
about them because of the war. But from a financial point of view,
they live very well and send money to us every month too."
However, some neighbouring Muslims – Azerbaijanis, Lezgins and Tats –
are envious of the Jews’ prosperity.
"I have a great respect for Jews," said Abdullayev. "But why have
they been able to make their village look like a small European town,
whereas we cannot do this with ours? You must have seen how terrible
the state of Quba’s bus station is. And that’s the centre of the
district… I’m not even mentioning the villages."
Nisim Nisimov said that the village’s population used to be 19,000 but,
beginning in the 1970s, many Jews began to emigrate to Israel.
In the last few years the outflow has stopped. Several Azerbaijani
and Lezgin families now live alongside their Jewish neighbours.
Nisimov wants to encourage Jews to move back to the village. "It
would be a justified step for our compatriots to move from warring
Israel back to our peaceful village," said Nisimov. "During the many
years we’ve lived in the village surrounded by Muslim communities,
there have never been any ethnic or religious differences. We’ve
lived in peace and harmony for many years.
"Krasnaya Sloboda is in fact the safest place in the world for Jews
to live. But despite the safety of our village, not a single Jewish
family has come from Israel to live here. Even those who left the
village have never come back."
School headmaster Yaushva Silanduyev said they get many visits from
former residents, especially on August 3 which is their annual day
of mourning for the dead.
"Lots of people came from America, France, Israel and Russia this
year," he said. "Probably, this year’s mass arrival of Jews in
Azerbaijan was misinterpreted because of the war between Israel
and Lebanon."
The villagers are keen to stress that they are good Azerbaijani
citizens and their first loyalty is to Azerbaijan. "We consider
ourselves to be part of the Azerbaijani people," said Nisimov. "A big
part of the repertoire of the Gubba musical ensemble, which I direct,
consists of Azeri folk songs and mugams (traditional songs)."
Abdulla Abdullayev, from the nearby Azerbaijani village of Nugadi,
said the Gubba group from Krasnaya Sloboda was frequently invited
to Azerbaijani weddings, "They sing our songs well, even better than
many Azerbaijani musicians."
In Krasnaya Sloboda, they also mention the fact that their most famous
son Albert Agaronov, a tank-driver, was made a hero of Azerbaijan
after he was killed defending the town of Shusha in 1992 in the war
over Nagorny Karabakh. Lazar, aged 73, said, "All Mountain Jews are
proud of him. If a new war to free Karabakh begins tomorrow, I’m sure
all the young men from Krasnaya Sloboda will stand up and fight."
However, Lazar adds that no one in the village has displayed any
willingness to go and defend Israel and he doubted that would happen,
"Yes, we are Jews, and when blood is being spilled in Israel, we
feel pain for our brothers. But we are citizens of Azerbaijan, and
our homeland is here. We should defend our homeland, Azerbaijan."
Sabuhi Mamedli is a freelance journalist based in Baku.