Russian media that have close ties to Russian special secret services started publishing alarming materials on the topic of "reunification of the separated Lezginian nation".
Ethnic Lezghins, who have Russian citizenship and who reside on the territories of two small villages of Khrahoba and Urianoba in Northern Azerbaijan 50 kilometers away from the border with Dagestan (now a part of Russia), are demanding that their villages are recognized as Russian enclaves.
The total number of local residents is about 230. In 1954 these two villages were temporarily handed over to the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Dagestan, upon the enactment of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In 1984 Council of Ministers of Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic extended the validity of that enactment for 20 more years, i.e. until the year 2004.
Residents of the village stress that even though the term when they were under Russia is expired, there are no documents in existence stating that Russian handed these villages over to Azerbaijan and that Azerbaijan accepted these villages.
Until recently Azerbaijani government in Baku has not been bothered with mass inhabitation of Russian citizens in Azerbaijan. But now the country's Foreign Ministry announced that the villages of Khrahoba and Urianoba are considered as illegal settlements. Residents of these villages have been offered to accept Azerbaijani citizenship or get the papers with the status of migrants.
The Lezghins in turn are convinced that they have every right to seek unification with Russia. It is the Russian Constitution that is valid on their territories, the population takes part in the Russian elections, and young men do their service in the Russian armed forces. Besides, many locals have close family members in Dagestan.
The Lezghin initiative had a negative reaction among the Azerbaijani government. Azerbaijani officials reminded that the area was transferred under Russia's jurisdiction temporarily.
Apparently there is a reason why the "Lezghin issue" came up in the Russian-Azerbaijani relations, especially in the middle of the "Kosovo incident" as well as the situation around Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow is convinced that Azerbaijan will follow Georgia. After heading towards strategic cooperation with the US, Azerbaijan will sooner or later ask to be admitted into the NATO.
There are already talks going on in Azerbaijani capital that the activities among the Lezghinians are going on under the control of the Russian authorities.
Many Azerbaijani experts have the opinion that Moscow is preparing to implement the Georgian scheme by the story of defending its citizens in order to control Azerbaijan's actions. Moreover, the two villages with the population of 230 people is only a beginning. The entire Northern Azerbaijan is the historic area of the greater Lezghin community, who are considering themselves as a separated nation. Another part of the Lezghinians is living in Southern Dagestan. The border lies on the Samur River.
The total number of Lezghinian population in Russia is over 400 thousand (2002). In Azerbaijan Lezghinians are living in Quba (Qobustan) and Qusar Districts. The number of Azerbaijani Lezghinians is ranging from 250 to 300 thousand.
Interestingly, the "Lezghinian issue" came up right at the moment when the conference is being held in Moscow under the name of "Cultural Heritage, Culture of the Lezghinian Nation: History and Modern-Day Period".
Azerbaijani web-based periodical Day.az reported that the conference was organized by joint effort with Russia's Ministry of Development of Regions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Duma (parliament) and the Institute of Linguistics of Russian Academy of Sciences. Chief of Federal National and Cultural Autonomy, Arif Kerimov, (a Lezghin by descent) was the main organizer of the conference.
Azerbaijani authorities have charged that person with connections to Russian and Armenian secret services, as well as with setting up illegal armed paramilitary formations.
Unlike Baku (capital of Azerbaijan), Moscow has not reacted to the demands of the residents of the two Lezghinian villages so far. Nor did Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who is now visiting the capital of Azerbaijan, has made any statements in this regard.
Nonetheless, the commentators have mentioned that the "large-scale geopolitical game" in the South Caucasus is in full swing, and Moscow's silence in this situation is much more explicit than any statements or comments.
In this connection we would like to point out that Lezghinian organization Sadval is actively operating on both sides of the Samur River (in both Dagestan and Azerbaijan). The organization is headed by retired Russian general Muhaddin Kahramanov.
According to him, Russia considers Sadval as an organization "fighting for the rights of the Lezghinian nation separated in two". This statement was made in the special report by former representative of the Kremlin in the North Caucasus, Dmitry Kozak, back in the summer of 2005.
We would also like to remind that Moscow has been conducting various scientific conferences and roundtables on a regular basis, where the "Lezghinian issue" is being discussed.
Thus, in the spring of 2006 a conference dedicated to the "problems of the Lezghinian language, culture and ethnopolitical problems of the Lezghinians" was conducted in the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The "Lezghinian Nation" program was adopted at the conference. Leaders of the Sadval were the program's co-authors.
Kavkaz Center
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