Russian Embassy: Baku and Moscow have settled the issue of Russians in two Azerbaijani villages

Azerbaijan and Russia have agreed to resolve the issue around the villages of Khrakh-Uba and Uryan-Uba. Villagers of the latter took Azerbaijani citizenship and will stay in their houses, while Russian citizens from Khrakh-Uba decided to move to Russia and settle in the territory of Dagestan. This was reported by the Russian Embassy in Baku.

The villages of Khrakh-Uba and adjacent Uryan-Uba, located in the north of Azerbaijan, were inhabited by Russian citizens, registered in one of the villages of the Magaramkent District of Dagestan; back in Soviet time they were granted land for farming in Azerbaijan. In 2010, the Azerbaijani party proposed several possible solutions to the problem of residents of these villages: temporary and permanent registration in Azerbaijan; adoption of the Azerbaijani citizenship without renouncing the Russian one; and sale of houses and property and resettlement to the territory of the Russian Federation.

As reported by the website of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan, "the delicate humanitarian situation around these villages can be regarded as fully settled in a civilized manner." "At present, upon the order of the President of the Russian Federation the issues are addressed of rendering material assistance to the residents of Khrakh-Uba, resettled from Azerbaijan to Dagestan, from the state budget of the Russian Federation," said the Embassy.

The resettlement process began in spring 2011, and by mid-April, all the Russian residents who permanently lived in Khrakh-Uba, left the village, informed the Embassy and added that the process "took place in general in a normal environment, in close cooperation of the Embassy, authorities of Dagestan, and the competent bodies of Azerbaijan."

Meanwhile, in early April, Shamsedin Ashuraliev, a resident of Khrakh-Uba, complained of his illegal eviction from his own house and deportation to Russia. His expulsion, which took place on March 28, according to his story, was personally commanded by Elman Aliev, Head of the Migration Service of Azerbaijan.

Earlier, it was reported that the relocation of about 500 residents of Khrakh-Uba and Uryan-Uba from the territory of Azerbaijan was accompanied by a number of scandals. As reported earlier by the "Caucasian Knot", the last such scandal had to do with the publication on January 27 by No. 3 of the weekly "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present Time) of an anonymous appeal of Khrakh-Uba residents to President of Russia. The authors of the open letter stated, in particular, that they were frustrated with the attitude, demonstrated by the President to the Russian citizens living on the territory of Azerbaijan. The letter noted that by "one stroke of a pen" on September 3, 2010 (on that day an agreement was signed about the Russian-Azerbaijani state border, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"), "the separation of the Lezgin nation was instituted," which turned into a tragedy for 500 Russian citizens.

Let us note here that on August 24, 2011, at the telephone conversation of the head of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov with the first deputy chairman of the government of Azerbaijan Yagub Eyubov an agreement was reached on non-use of force by the Azerbaijani party towards deporting the villagers until Russia adopted a federal target programme on their relocation to the territory of Dagestan.