In Shushiya, villagers offer hunger-strikers to hold rally and appeal to ECtHR

At the village gathering, residents of the Dagestani village of Shushiya, where people continue their hunger strike demanding to return land plots, have offered the protesters to organize a rally and seek the support at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the protesters demand to return to the village 16.7 hectares of land in the form of shares, including 9 hectares of land leased out by Agricultural Production Cooperative (APC) "Almaz". The protest action takes place intermittently since December 23, 2014. In particular, on March 4, the hunger strike was suspended; however, it was resumed on March 16.

At present, seven persons still continue their hunger strike, and all of them feel very bad. This was reported by Elmira Bagirchaeva, a participant of the protest action

According to the woman, today, the hunger-strikers were to be visited by members of the National Council of the Lak People; however, Kamalutdin Budaichiev, the Chairman of the executive board of the Council, phoned them and postponed the meeting on March 27.

Elmira Bagirchaeva has noted that on March 25 and today, none of the officials, except for the head of the village, has contacted the protesters.

"Only the head of the Shushiya village phoned and persuaded us to stop the hunger strike. Later, he visited us. We believe he wanted to see how we perceived his statements," Elmira Bagirchaeva has said.

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