Lezgin self-determination in Azerbaijan

[AK-47]

Analysis: Does Azerbaijan Face A New Irredentist Threat?

 

By RFE/RL analyst Liz Fuller

 

Two separate recent developments have served to focus attention on the potential for conflict posed by the division between Russia and Azerbaijan of the historic homeland of the Lezgins. The first is the need to legalize the status of the two villages of Khrakhoba (Qıraqoba) and Uryanoba in northern Azerbaijan that under an agreement signed in 1954 and extended for a further 20 years in 1984 were designated Russian exclaves within Azerbaijan, and whose Lezgin population is now reportedly demanding that the districts again be formally declared a Russian enclave. The second is a conference that opened in Moscow on May 14 at which printed materials were distributed outlining and apparently endorsing Lezgin territorial claims on Azerbaijani territory.

 

The Lezgins are a northeastern Caucasian ethnos who claim to be the descendants of the ancient kingdom of Caucasian Albania that fell to Arab conquerors in the 8th century A.D. Their historic homeland was divided in 1860 between two gubernias of Tsarist Russia, Daghestan, which in 1918 remained part of Russia, and Shemakha, which formed part of the shortlived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic that was subsumed into Soviet Russia in 1920. The border between the two entities, which since the collapse of the USSR in late 1991 has become an international frontier, is the Samur River. At the time of the 2002 Russian Federation census, there were 336,698 Lezgins living in Daghestan, primarily in the south of the republic. Estimates of the number of Lezgins in Azerbaijan vary widely. According to official data, they number only 178,000, while unofficial estimates range from 400,000 to 850,000.

 

The first demands by Lezgins in the USSR for a separate territorial-administrative unit date back to 1965, and were swiftly suppressed. In July 1990, inspired by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, Lezgins in Daghestan formed an informal organization named Sadval (Unity) to campaign for the "unification" of Lezgin-populated territories, a demand that resonated with at least some of their co-ethnics in the Azerbaijan SSR. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, some Sadval members, primarily in Daghestan, advocated lobbying for an independent state. Possibly for that reason, the Russian Justice Ministry suspended the organization's registration in July 1993. Following infighting among its members in 1995, Sadval officially renounced its campaign for an independent Lezgin state at its sixth congress in April 1996.

 

Two years later, however, Sadval split into a radical wing and a more moderate wing. The former resurrected the dream of an independent Lezgin state, while the latter advocated the creation of an autonomous territory for the Lezgins within Daghestan that would have the status of a separate federation subject and of a free economic zone, according to "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on January 27, 1999. Infighting between the two factions continued for several years, during which the movement apparently forfeited much of what popular support it once enjoyed.

 

In an interview with "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on August 25, 2004, one of Sadval's co-chairmen, Nasyr Primov, admitted that Sadval was experiencing "a period of stagnation." Primov nonetheless insisted that Sadval's goals remain unchanged, namely, "to unite the Lezgin nation, make the frontiers transparent, and give people the opportunity to meet and move freely." Asked whether Sadval still harbored territorial claims on Azerbaijan, Primov denied that it pursues any aims in Azerbaijan, but in a seeming contradiction he added that "our only desire, our dream if you like, is to unite the entire Lezgin people in one state."

 

As of early 2006, indications surfaced that the moderate wing of Sadval intended to resurrect that goal, by redrawing the borders of Azerbaijan to incorporate the Lezgin-populated regions of southern Daghestan and creating a Lezgin autonomous region, according to an article published on January 26, 2006, in the Azerbaijani online daily zerkalo.az. The paper quoted an unidentified source within Sadval as arguing that "the Daghestan Lezgins cannot remain within a republic that is being turned into a breeding ground for international terrorism and which is choking in the grip of an interethnic confrontation in which several foreign countries have a hand." In other words, by 2006 Sadval's ultimate objective had apparently shifted from an independent state, to an autonomous Lezgin region within Daghestan that would subsume part of northern Azerbaijan, to an autonomous Lezgin region within Azerbaijan, which would have necessitated the surrender of Russian territory.

 

There still exists, however, a government-backed body within Azerbaijan that claims to represent the Lezgins' collective interests. Named Samur, that organization abjures any territorial claims on the Russian Federation; in a May 15 interview with day.az, its chairman, Shair Gasanov, insisted that the rights of Lezgins in Azerbaijan are not infringed in any respect.

 

The sponsors of the Moscow conference, which is formally devoted to the history and culture of the Lezgin peoples from the era of Caucasian Albania to the present day, include the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Regional Development Ministry, and the Russian State Duma, implying official backing at the very highest state level. And among the materials distributed at the conference, according to the online publication echo-az.com on May 15, is a brochure published jointly by the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of the Lezgins and the State Duma's Committee for Nationality Affairs, the author of which calls for official condemnation of the division and "ethnocide" of the Lezgin people in the 1920s. He further slams the current border between the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan as "illegitimate" and demands it be redrawn to incorporate the northern districts of Azerbaijan into Daghestan.

 

Speaking on May 15 at a press conference in Baku, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Xazar Ibragim said the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow is following developments at the conference, and that Azerbaijan will "respond appropriately" to any "separatist" moves or threats to its territorial integrity, day.az reported.

 

Source: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/...59B6D974B4.html

[Aratta-Kingdom]

ANALYSIS: DO AZERBAIJAN'S ETHNIC MINORITIES FACE FORCED ASSIMILATION?

 

Radio Free Europe

June 26, 2008

Czech Rep.

 

Over the past 10 days, representatives of ethnic minorities in

Azerbaijan have issued two separate public statements affirming their

fear of assimilation and soliciting international support. Azerbaijani

commentators have dismissed those appeals as unfounded and orchestrated

by Moscow.

 

The ethnic groups in question are the Avars, Tsakhurs, and Lezgins,

and according to official statistics together they constitute less

than 1 percent of Azerbaijan's total population of 8.65 million. They

live compactly in several districts of northern Azerbaijan bordering

on the Russian Federation. Avars are the largest ethnic group in

neighboring Daghestan, where they account for approximately 29 percent

of the population, and Lezgins the third largest (13 percent). The

Tsakhurs, who number around 8,000, constitute less than 0.5 percent

of Daghestan's population. Estimates of the number of Lezgins in

Azerbaijan range from 178,000 to 400,000 or even 850,000. Azerbaijan's

Lezgins have lobbied sporadically for greater protection of their

rights since the early 1980s; some Lezgins in both Daghestan and

Azerbaijan have gone so far as to propose creating an independent state

that would encompass their historic homeland to the north and south

of the Samur River that forms the border between Russia and Azerbaijan.

 

A conference on the Lezgins organized in Moscow last month under the

aegis of the Russian Foreign Ministry was construed by some Azerbaijani

commentators as possibly heralding a new Lezgin separatist threat. On

June 16, the website rossia3.ru posted an appeal "To all people of

good will" signed by eight separate organizations representing the

Avars, Lezgins, and Tsakhurs. One of those organizations is the Imam

Shamil Avar National Front headed by Dagneft President and Russian

State Duma Deputy Gadji Makhachev, who many observers believe has

close ties with, and on occasion acts on orders from, the Kremlin.

 

The appeal deplored the fact that the creation in 1918 of the

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic effectively split the ancestral homeland

of the three ethnic groups, and that during the seven decades that

those lands were part of the USSR, they were subjected to "nightmarish"

discrimination. It claimed that they were the only ethnic minorities

in the entire Soviet Union who were obliged to pay for secondary and

higher education. It further argued that Azerbaijan's secession in

1991 from the USSR was illegal as it was not preceded by a referendum,

in which they would have voted against (Armenia was in fact the only

Soviet republic to comply with the referendum requirement), and that

"twice during the 20th century Azerbaijan occupied our homeland and

unlawfully seized power there." The appeal claimed that the leadership

of the newly independent Azerbaijan Republic then embarked on the

systematic annihilation of the three ethnic groups, sending "tens

of thousands" of young men to fight in Nagorno-Artsax, of whom

"thousands" were killed. (That figure is difficult to reconcile with

official population figures.) Members of the intelligentsia from all

three ethnic groups were allegedly thrown into prison, and Azerbaijanis

from other regions of Azerbaijan or from Georgia resettled in their

abandoned homes in what the appeal terms a systematic "Turkicization"

process. Those resettlers allegedly hold most official posts in

the districts where the three groups constitute the majority of the

population. The most recent crackdown was in March 2008 against the

predominantly Lezgin population of the Kusar and Khachmas raions of

Azerbaijan. The appeal concluded by requesting help in clarifying

what has happened to those arrested and support for the creation of

autonomous regions for the three groups. Two days later, on June 18,

the Daghestan-based Avar National Council, which was not a signatory to

the June 16 appeal, addressed an open letter to Daghestan's President

Mukhu Aliyev (himself an Avar) to "protect" Azerbaijan's Avar minority

from the threat of "genocide," kavkaz-uzel.ru reported. The agency

quoted Magomed Guseinov, a leading Council member, as estimating the

size of Azerbaijan's Avar minority at 200,000, and the number of Avars

currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan at almost 300. Guseinov repeated

the claim that in the Zakatala, Belokany, and Kakh raions Azeris,

mostly resettlers from the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic, occupy most

prominent political posts even though they account for just 27 percent

of the population. He contrasts the plight of the Avars in Azerbaijan

unfavorably with that of Daghestan's Azerbaijani minority, which at the

time of the 2002 Russian Federation census numbered 111,656 people,

or approximately 4 percent of the republic's population. As one of

Daghestan's 14 titular nationalities, the Azeris have the right to

radio broadcasts and education in their native language. Guseinov

recalled that during a visit to Baku in late April 2007, President

Aliyev discussed the plight of Azerbaijan's Avars with President

Ilham Aliyev, who declared on that occasion that the Avars have no

grounds for complaint and accused unnamed "forces" of seeking to

stir up unrest among Azerbaijan's ethnic minorities. Mukhu Aliyev is

scheduled to visit Azerbaijan again on June 26. Meanwhile, political

scientist Vafa Quluzade, who served as an adviser to Ilham Aliyev's

late father Heydar, was quoted by kavkaz-uzel.ru on June 19 as accusing

Russia of deliberately seeking to fuel disaffection among Azerbaijan's

Avar, Lezgin, and Tsakhur minorities on the eve of a visit to Baku by

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Quluzade suggested the objective is

to coerce Azerbaijan into accepting a recent offer from Gazprom to buy

natural gas from Azerbaijan's offshore Shah Deniz field. A commentary

published on June 19 in the online daily zerkalo.az similarly argued

that separatism on the part of the Lezgins, the Kurds, and the Talysh

(who live in the southern districts of Azerbaijan bordering on Iran)

constitutes a very real threat to Azerbaijan's territorial integrity,

and compared the Lezgins in Azerbaijan with the Ossetian population

of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia.