Week in the Caucasus: review of main events on October 14-20

Celebration of Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bayram) by Muslims of Southern Russia; inauguration of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev and his pardoning of 153 convicts; conviction of Ali Taziev, believed to be one of the leaders of Ingush militants; festival of documentaries and TV programme "Kunaki" in Karachay-Cherkessia; start of formation of the Government of the Stavropol Territory by the new head of the region, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of October 14-28, 2013, prepared by the " Caucasian Knot".

Muslims of Southern Russia mark Eid al-Adha

On October 15, Muslims from the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts (SFD and NCFD) marked one of the major Islamic holidays – the Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bayram). On this day, mosques held festive sermons and prayers; poor people received help. In Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia and Karachay-Cherkessia, October 15 was declared a day off. The Dagestani authorities did it also in relation of October 14; and the ChechenRepublic – in relation of October 16. Residents of Adygea had even three days-off – on October 13-15. A distinctive feature of this year celebrations in Makhachkala was that the slaughter of sacrificial animals for the first time was held not at the central mosque, but in a specially allocated area in the northern outskirts of the city, near the shopping centre "Kirgu".

Celebrations to mark the holiday were also held in Moscow at seven sites. On the eve of the day, in social networks, appeals of nationalists were posted calling to hold a people's assembly against the Muslims' celebration of Eid al-Adha. The organizers of the rally "Our response to Kurban Bayram" had planned to meet at the "Prazhskaya" metro station and march from there to Biryulyovo, where on October 10 a resonant murder of Yegor Scherbakov was committed presumably by a native of Azerbaijan. An attempt to hold a rally ended with detention of its participants.

Azerbaijan: inauguration of President Ilham Aliev and pardoning of 153 prisoners

On October 17, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan approved the final protocol on the outcomes of the presidential election held on October 9, according to which the incumbent President Ilham Aliev was elected for the third term, and decided to send the document for approval of the country's Constitutional Court. The protocol was signed by 17 out of the 18 members of the CEC. On October 19, the Constitutional Court declared the election results valid, and on that very day Ilham Aliev officially took office as the President of Azerbaijan.

On October 14, Ilham Aliev signed a decree on pardoning 153 people. According to the document, 134 prisoners were exempt from further imprisonment; two convicts were released from probation; 16 – from payment of fines, and one more – from punishment in the form of public works. The pardon has also covered two political prisoners from the list of the Monitoring Group of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan, namely, the brothers Farkhad (ex-Minister of Economic Development) and Rafig (ex-head of the "Azpetrol" group of companies) Aliev.

Rostov-on-Don: Ali Taziev, supposed leader of Ingush militants, sentenced to life imprisonment

On October 15, by decision of the North-Caucasian District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, Ali Taziev, one of the alleged leaders of "Imarat Kavkaz", also known as "Magas", was sentenced to life imprisonment. The court found him guilty of organizing the terror act in Nevinnomyssk on December 9, 2007; a bomb explosion in front of the police station in Ingushetia on August 17, 2009; as well as of an attempt on the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov on June 22, 2009. The defendant had partly pled guilty. After the sentencing, the defence treated the verdict as too severe and announced its intention to appeal against it. It is noteworthy that on the day the verdict was announced, the Department of the Russia's FSB (Federal Security Bureau) for the Rostov Region stated that Taziev's testimonies had contributed to the disclosure of the militants' funding system and arrest of key coordinators of the Ingush underground.

Karachay-Cherkessia welcomes festival of documentaries and TV programmes "Kunaki"

The 7^th festival of documentary films and television programmes "Kunaki" was launched in Cherkessk on October 16. The aim of the festival was to promote a positive image of the information space in the interests of the political, social, ethnic and religious stability in the region. In total, the organizing committee of the festival had received 107 works; of them, 43 were put to the contest, among them the films made by the authors in the regions of Southern Russia, namely, in Dagestan, Chechnya, KrasnodarTerritory and Rostov Region. On October 19, the festival was closed. The Grand Prix was awarded to the film "Minefield" by Ivan Golovnyov from Yekaterinburg. The festival also held an out-of-contest show of the films made at different time by the North-Caucasian Newsreel Studio and dedicated to the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi.

Stavropol Territory: new head of the region starts forming his government

On October 14, Vladimir Vladimirov, the acting head of the StavropolTerritory, who had already made a decision to combine the offices of governor and chairman of the territorial government, dismissed 15 ministers and heads of governmental committees of the territory. On October 15, he presented to his subordinates the new Vice-Premier Irina Sokolova, former head of the governor's office of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, who will now head the office of the government of the StavropolTerritory and oversee the internal policies of the region. Another Vice-Premier, appointed by Vladimirov, is Irina Kuvaldina – the ex-Minister of Education, while Andrei Murga, a Russian State Duma MP and the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of the Territory, is the Vice-Premier in charge of the economic bloc of the government. A number of heads of ministries have been reappointed, and some ministers dismissed by the former governor have returned to their posts.