Azerbaijanis on Dagestani border face Baku's indifference

The citizens of Azerbaijani, who stay in Dagestan, have been waiting for the opportunity to return home for more than a month.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 2, 619 Azerbaijani citizens still stayed on the border with Dagestan after 120 their countrymen were allowed to go to their homeland. 60 people went on a hunger strike, trying to attract Baku's attention to their problems.

In total, about 650-700 Azerbaijanis are waiting for their chance to return home from Dagestan, Asim Tagiev, a resident of the tent camp set up in the Dagestani village of Kullar, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on June 8.

According to his story, the hunger strike of Azerbaijani citizens in the village of Kullar continued on June 8. "The hunger strike continues here for the fifth day. About 150 people are taking part in it," Mr Tagiev has explained.

Natig Djafarli, the executive secretary of the "Republican Alternative" (ReAl) Party, who is also the head of the "Respublika" Centre for Economic Studies, believes that the Azerbaijani government is responsible for citizens' problems on the border.

"According to the Constitution of Azerbaijan, the state is responsible for its citizens. We see how other states in the pandemic bring their citizens home. Turkey has returned 182,000 of its citizens. Russia is taking its citizens out of most exotic countries. And here, citizens of Azerbaijan have themselves reached the border; and all they need is to help them to cover some 20-30 km. I think that these people became victims of banal bureaucratic callousness," Mr Djafarli has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 9, 2020 at 02:39 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.