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]