Vandals damage monument to Azerbaijani poet Nizami in Derbent

Facebook users have reported that vandals have damaged the monument to Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi, installed in a park of the city of Derbent. Earlier, the monument was repeatedly attacked by vandals.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in November 2017, vandals damaged the monument and pulled out the fir trees planted in the park, named after Nizami. At night on January 9, 2015, unknown vandals set fire to the monument; in both cases, nobody was detained.

"All the fingers of the poet's right hand are broken," says the Facebook page of the community "Pearl of the South".

The monument was erected in 1992, and was first attacked by vandals 10 years later, in 2012.

The vandals' actions are a provocation, the author of the blog "The Wind of Apsheron", run at the "Caucasian Knot", believes.

The blogger has noted that monuments to Nizami Ganjavi are installed in many cities, including Moscow, Cheboksary, Tashkent, Beijing, Ganja and Baku, but "vandalism occurs only in Derbent."

"There is every reason to blame the city leadership for inaction, even for conniving with the incitement of a new ethnic conflict in Russia," he wrote.

According to statisticians, about one third (32.3%) of the city population are Azerbaijanis.