Activist associates resumption of pickets with unresolved land problem in Dagestan

Today, Bektemir Salikhov, a member of the Alburikent village community, has come to a picket in the centre of Makhachkala.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in October 2019, Kumyk activists, dissatisfied with the registration of land plots in the DOSAAF residential district on the outskirts of Makhachkala, demanded the return of historical lands to residents of the Kumyk villages of Alburikent, Kyakhulai, and Tarki. Activists Bektemir Salikhov and Eldar Bulatov declared a hunger strike in protest. In September 2020, Bektemir Salikhov held a series of solo pickets in Makhachkala, during which he was repeatedly detained by the police.

Today, Bektemir Salikhov has come to Lenin Square in Makhachkala. In his hands, he was holding a poster with the demand of a meeting with Dagestani leader Sergey Melikov.

According to Bektemir Salikhov, since the autumn of 2020, the situation with the disputed land plots has not changed in any way. "Our questions still remain unresolved. Nobody deals with them. We receive only formal replies to all our appeals. In the 1940s, our ancestors were evicted from our homes by the decision of the republic's government, and now it is the government who should be responsible for the solution of the problem," the activist explained.

Musa Musaev, the deputy chief of the Citizens' Appeal Department, came out to Bektemir Salikhov 15 minutes after the activist had started his picket. The official said that no pickets would achieve a meeting with the leader of the republic. Musa Musaev suggested that the activist should address an appeal to Sergey Melikov and promised to personally hand it over to the leader of the republic.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 18, 2021 at 03:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.