Experts associate acts of vandalism in Derbent with mayoral election

In Derbent, acts of vandalism were committed to divert public attention from the mayoral election and trigger riots on ethnic grounds. This opinion was expressed by experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

At night on January 8, in Derbent, unidentified persons destroyed the tomb of Sayyid Mir-Gafar aga, which used to be the place of worship for Shia Muslims. Derbent residents have appealed to the police with the demand to find the vandals. At night on January 9, unidentified persons set on fire the canvas on the monument to Nizami, an Azerbaijani poet and thinker.

According to Magomed Khanmagomedov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Izvestia Derbent", the violators of the monuments pursued political goals.

"I think this is an attempt to divert public attention and send people into the mainstream of interethnic and interfaith problems," Magomed Khanmagomedov has said.

The expert sees no religious background in the incidents.

Mairbek Agaev, the editor-in-chief of the Dagestani weekly newspaper "Draft", associates the attempts of the unidentified attackers to desecrate the monuments with the city election. According to Mairbek Agaev, opponents of Imam Yaraliev will benefit from the destabilization.

The problem is not about vandalism, and it is about the dissemination of information to destabilize the situation in Derbent on the eve of election. This opinion has been expressed by Milrad Fatullaev, the editor-in-chief of the Dagestani newspaper "Real Time".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.