Is there a "Lezgi issue" in Azerbaijan? International online information and analytical center Lezgins consider Azerbaijan their homeland

The collapse of the Soviet Union, the Karabakh conflict and the socio-economic problems that arose in connection with these events led to mass unrest throughout the territory of Azerbaijan. In the early 1990s, unrest among the Lezgi population took place in the entire north of Azerbaijan with the direct participation of the Sadval movement, which advocated the creation of a Lezgi state on the territory of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Protests against the establishment of the state border between Russia and Azerbaijan were held on both sides of the Samur River, which led to the fact that the final delimitation of the borders between the two states was postponed for more than two decades. One of the latest high-profile events related to the territorial dispute was the issue of two Russian enclaves on the territory of Azerbaijan, the villages of Khrakh-Uba and Uryan-Uba. In 1954, by decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the territories of these villages were temporarily transferred as pastures to the Maharramkend district of the Dagestan SSR. In 1984, the lease on these lands was extended until 2004. Since 2007, the residents of these two villages have been under pressure from the Azerbaijani authorities, who demanded either to accept Azerbaijani citizenship or move to Russia. An important factor it was also the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities offered to accelerate the acquisition of Azerbaijani citizenship without renouncing Russian citizenship, which people interested in fomenting the conflict like to keep silent about, and as evidenced by official sources. So, for example, on the official website of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan, we can find the following information: "The leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as a gesture of goodwill, offered the residents of two villages to accept the citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan in a simplified manner while maintaining the citizenship of the Russian Federation." Further, right there: “Russian citizens permanently residing in the village of Uryan-Uba took advantage of this offer, legalizing their further stay in Azerbaijan as citizens of this country.” The end to the territorial dispute was put in September 2010, when the Treaty between Russia and Azerbaijan on the state border was signed .

In addition to dissatisfaction with the establishment of the state border, Azerbaijani Lezgins allegedly refused to go to serve in the army, citing their refusal by the fact that they were forcibly sent to the war in Karabakh. At the same time, it is surprising that there are still many Lezgins in the command staff of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, which is confirmed by the Lezgins themselves - veterans of the Karabakh war. So, for example, in one of his interviews to the Internet portal 1news.az, the commander of the mountain infantry company, Lezgins by nationality, Sahib Shirinov expressed the following thought: “I am a Lezghin, that same highlander. I am one of the first volunteers in our region, and the Lezgins were the first. Lezghian temperament led me to the reconnaissance and sabotage detachment. A little later, I began to command a mountain infantry company. The commander of our military unit was Major Askerov, an officer of the former Soviet army, also a Lezgin, who died heroically in the battles for the village of Muganly. Lezgins and other small peoples of Azerbaijan fought shoulder to shoulder and valiantly died like martyrs, because our Motherland is Azerbaijan.” We should also not forget about the exploits of two Heroes of Azerbaijan, Lezgins by nationality, Fakhraddin Musaev and Sergey Murtazaliev, who, in fact, founded military aviation in the country. Until recently, the defense department of Azerbaijan was also headed by Lezgins - Safar Akhundbala oglu Abiyev. No one denies the violent nature of sending young guys to war. They were caught on the street, put in a car and taken to the military registration and enlistment office, and from there to the front line. But it is absurd to talk about the purposeful policy of official Baku to send only Lezgins to the front as cannon fodder.

But most main problem Lezgins in Azerbaijan are called the lack of assistance from the state in the development of the Lezgi language and culture. It is this conclusion that suggests itself, based on the information published on the portals of the Lezgins of Dagestan and on other sites that aim to discredit Azerbaijan in the eyes of the world community. There is some truth in their words. Undoubtedly, official Baku underestimates the number of the country's Lezgi population; against the backdrop of the propaganda of pan-Turkism, the history of all Azerbaijan and the peoples inhabiting this country is being rewritten; insufficient assistance is provided in the development of the history, culture and language of the peoples of Azerbaijan. But it is impossible to talk about the lack of any attention from Baku. AT Soviet time teaching the Lezgi language was carried out in the schools of the Azerbaijan SSR with interruptions for decades, and in the 1960s it completely stopped. It was after the collapse of the USSR that education in the Lezgi language was restored in Azerbaijan. In the mid-1990s. the Lezgi language was taught in 94 schools, and by 2010 already in 126. A branch of the Baku Pedagogical College was opened in the Gusar region to train personnel in schools. The Lezgi National Center "Samur", established in the mid-1990s, is designed to coordinate the development of the Lezgi language and culture. In 1996, the ensemble "Suvar" was created, which bears the title of "People's Collective of Azerbaijan". In 1998, the State Lezgin School was opened in Kusary drama Theater. Newspapers ("Samur", "Kusar", "Yeni Samukh", etc.) and magazines ("Chirag") are published in the Lezgi language. Azerbaijan also publishes books in the Lezgi language. Among the prominent figures of culture, art, public and political leaders, a whole galaxy of talented representatives of the Lezgins of Azerbaijan can be distinguished: composer Elza Ibragimova, doctor of art history Nureddin Gabibov, writer and poetess Sadagat Kerimova, poetess Gulbes Aslakhanova. For a long time, the post of Minister of Education was held by the late Lidia Khudat kyzy Rasulova, who was awarded the Order of Shohrat. The list can be continued for a very long time, but the main essence becomes clear even with a superficial study of the history of the Lezgins of Azerbaijan.

Very often they talk about the “Lezgin card”, which can be played at any moment. various powers interested in destabilizing the situation in Azerbaijan. Whether it can be done - time will tell. In the meantime, there is still time for official Baku to consolidate its positions and gain unconditional respect among representatives of the national minorities of Azerbaijan.

The article, of course, is pro-Bakin's, where lies are mixed with truth. There is a classic expression - everything is known in comparison ... and if we compare the situation of 100 thousand Azerbaijanis in Dagestan, where they have complete equality, their language is considered the state language in Dagestan. along with other Dagestan languages, where Azerbaijanis have their own media, radio, several TV channels (including several Baku channels), where the authorities consider the interests of Azerbaijanis so that they consider themselves completely equal and indigenous people. And what do we have for 250 thousand Avars and 800 thousand Lezgins in Azerbaijan? First of all, the constitution of the AzR itself can speak about their situation, where it is written in black and white that the Turkic-Oguz people are considered the source of power in the AzR, therefore it is not worth talking about the rights of the INDIGENOUS peoples of the north of the AzR. It is from the constitution that the authorities of the republic push away both locally and in the center, which enforce the laws on the rights of non-Turkic peoples just for show, in order to create the appearance of observing the rights of national minorities, in order to create an image of a tolerant and democratic state, which is especially important for the authorities, given the fact that I. Aliyev rules hereditarily, and what consequences the heredity of B. Assad led to in Syria, then for the pan-Turkic (read Nazi) regime in Baku, it became vital to put in order on paper, the requirements for the rights of national minorities in accordance with European standards . Of course, it should not be denied that the authorities in Azr began to pay attention to the neglected problems of the Avars and Lezgins in order to prevent an explosion, but these measures are cosmetic in nature, because. in the power of the AzR, the majority adheres to the pan-Turkic position, which does not recognize anything non-Turkic in the AzR, according to their own written constitution, therefore. along with the opening of Lezgin theaters and schools, they will not ease the assimilation pressure on the indigenous non-Turkic peoples, on the contrary, it may be that this pressure will intensify.

Even if we agree that the material is pro-Bakunin, as you, Dages Blated, deigned to put it, in your own comment there is demagogy, slander, used only in the form of Goebbels' lies for division and domination. The unification of the Turkic peoples of the world for the constant exchange of experience, joint enrichment and development of languages, culture, history has been going on since antiquity since natural existence empires of the Turkic-Huns, Turkic, Kimak Khaganates. The Turks were the dominant peoples throughout the Eurasian space with the free residence of ancient small ethnic groups in this area. Christian invaders who invaded the Turkic lands or "peaceful" newcomers, such as Jews who migrated from time immemorial, in particular, to the Turkic lands, who came from Iran, from ancient times set and still set the goal of crushing and pushing us, the Turks. Therefore, your words “for the pan-Turkic (read Nazi) regime in Baku” are not surprising. With such criminal charges, the Jewish-Bolshevik regime of Stalin 100% slaughtered the elite of various Turkic peoples of the former so-called. THE USSR. In order to carve out the people's memory among the Turks in place of the millennial elite of the Turks, the authorities put predominantly Jews in control and diluted them with Russians. You, hiding under the nickname Dages Blated, are the most common ENEMY OF THE TURKIC PEOPLES. As well as Russia with its Jewish rulers, purposefully killing the indigenous languages ​​of the peoples of the country, not only Turkic. And that means dealing with ETHNOCIDE of these peoples.

Oh, turanist ...., another invader-Golden Horde, I know all your narrow-gauge Nazi-Pan-Turkic conclusions. Forget about all the kaganates, etc., we also had a lot of things in history ... dispersed around the world, your Jewish kaganate, the Russian prince Svyatoslav, where in the Kizlyar region, everything was destroyed and sent to the dustbin of history. because you yourself are the daughter of Goebbels, his faithful follower, that's for sure. - This can be seen from your attempts to call the truth a lie, and a lie the truth.

In Khazaria recent years its existence, indeed, the power was seized by the Jews. And they began to wage expansionist, aggressive wars. As a result, Jewish Khazaria was defeated by the combined forces of Muslims who were part of the formations of the Omeyad and Abasid caliphates, and the Jewish oligarchs of those times fled from there for many centuries. Having escaped from there, they managed to infiltrate the power of the Turkic city of Kyiv ("city of grooms" - translated from Turkic). And thus helped to establish management in Kyiv. which became Christian by dynasty. after which Christianity, as a monstrously aggressive faith, with a cross, sword, fire, forcibly baptized all the surrounding tribes. In order to return Novokhazaria its original name Russia - Muslims need to unite with the Russians. To prevent this from happening, the Jews are waging an anti-Islamic war on all fronts in Novokhazaria.

The LEZGINS question existed, exists and, for some time, until we resolve this issue, it will exist in Azerbaijan. The problem is not in the Azerbaijanis, not in the Baku authorities. The problem is in those who hold an umbrella over you, protect you. But, ALLAH is great and merciful, you cannot suffer forever alone.

Lezgins are not infringed upon in Azerbaijan, they are trusted and hoped for. At the household level, they are respected and not discriminated against anywhere. Ministers, oligarchs, Lezgins are not uncommon in our country, they are not driven to Lezgins in the media as in the Russian Federation. But there are also problems - the lack of a national policy. This is an oversight and it needs to be corrected collectively, without labels and spraying snot.

""" But there are problems - the lack of a national policy. This is an oversight and it needs to be corrected together, without labels and spraying snot." =x=x=x=x=x=x= Gurban, you shouldn't spray snot yourself, inflate hysteria here. You contradict yourself, so I cited your own words as an example, - but the Dagestan Lezgins say what the Azerbaijanis cannot say, because for such demands, they will easily declare you a separatist and rot in a prison, as you did with many Avars and Lezgins who demanded equality. Because it infuriates you that you cannot shut up the Dagestani. And the blame for all the heat of passions lies only with your authorities, who ignore the rights of divided peoples, create obstacles in the exercise of their legitimate rights to the language and culture of the indigenous peoples. Here's the answer, why in the 21st century one Muslim people has all the rights in Dagestan, and the other Muslim people in AzR do not have the same rights and close ... is this normal??? It’s normal that your authorities have been trying to erase their language and culture from people’s memory throughout the Soviet and post-Soviet years, it’s normal that in your schools Lezgin Avars are taught that they are newcomers to AzR, and that they have no homeland there, that they are nobody while they call themselves Lezghins or Avars??? After all, this is your real face, and you (Pan-Turkists-TurNdots) stirred only after it became clear that it was not possible to quietly destroy your self-identity in people, that in the Russian Federation demands are being heard more and more loudly to deal with the situation of divided peoples, who found themselves in their original land as a powerless national minority. Therefore, Gurban, you raise a high here when on both sides of the border mirror rights are provided for all peoples, and not just for the Azeri-Turks.

Dagestan Lezgins have no idea about the realities in the AR. They were stuffed with propaganda and without much thought they began to yelp at Azerbaijan. Lezgins are not infringed, they all speak Lezgi in Qusar and Baku and Lankaran. It is not uncommon to hear Lezgi speech in the subway and no one shy away from it. There are Lezgin media in Azerbaijan - newspapers and magazines, but no channels. No one inspires Lezgins that they are newcomers. There are few books, because all books are imported from the Russian Federation - this is an omission. Unfortunately, we do not have a national policy, there is no body dealing with these matters. Among other things, in Azerbaijan there is the Karabakh syndrome, many see separatists everywhere, and this is bad. If the Dagh Lezgins will escalate, but this will cause the opposite effect. It is necessary to take a calmer approach to this problem and not to yelp at the entire Azerbaijani people.

What do you immediately take into account (the people mean) when they begin to criticize your government ??? Here, many Azerbaijanis incline the policy of the Russian Federation, its President Putin, but for some reason the Russians do not tell you that you are insulting the Russian people by this. therefore, you don’t need to escalate the problem between the peoples yourself ... and the divided national movements of Dagestan don’t have any phobias regarding the Azero-Turks, you see, you don’t know that both the Lezgiars and the Avars have long proclaimed the slogan - "we are not against of the Azerbaijani people or some other people - this is a dead end - we are for our interests, for the observance of our rights." Therefore, at the expense of yapping, you are in the wrong place ... while recognizing that the Lezgins and Avars do not broadcast in their native languages ​​in TV and radio formats, there is no decent education in their native languages, there are no departments of Dagestan languages ​​at the university ..., that's when it will be, then maybe he will stop yapping. And then. that in the metro you can speak your own language - a big big "bow" is for you ... but are you aware that an Avar was ruined in the city of Zakatli because of that. that he posted the name of the store in the Avar language, they ruined little, they also labeled him a separatist, he had problems with your special services, he was registered, i.e. supervision. There were such cases in the Lezgin regions, besides, in the same Zakatli, a TV channel in the Avar language was banned, and persecution was arranged against the owners ... - that's what you need to think about, and not indiscriminately bark at people.

Well, if you say that you are not against the people, then I believe you. Point by point. I believe that no one is against the fact that textbooks in Lezghin and Avar are printed in the AR and the department of Dagestan studies would be opened, but we must start with the national policy and the relevant body. Who will coordinate and organize? We had a branch of Dag Univer in Baku, but it was closed, as our Lezgins and Avars preferred to study at BSU, "Kavkaz" and abroad. Because of this, a branch was closed a few years ago. I see no reason why not create a Lezgi channel, introduce a regional language in their places of residence and print high-quality textbooks. Why this is not done I do not know. There are almost no costs.

“The leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as a gesture of goodwill, offered the residents of two villages to accept citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan in a simplified manner while maintaining citizenship of the Russian Federation” =x=x=x=x=x=x= an absolute and blatant lie..., I personally know Khrakhubinsk Lezgins, no one offered them dual citizenship ...., your authorities demanded to abandon the Russian. Therefore, you should not say this here

(MODERATED) Not long ago, I had a dispute in Moscow with a Lezgin who accused the Azerbaijani side of seizing Lezgin lands in the Dokuzparinsky district and taking more than 70% of the Samur water. I was never able to convince this person that the so-called Lezgi elite was more to blame for what happened than the Azerbaijani side. After all, the Azerbaijani side received land and water not as a result of a war with Russia, but as a result of diplomatic negotiations. When the land and water were transferred to the Azerbaijani side, not a single high-ranking Lezghin made a sound. The Avar Mukhu Aliyev spoke out against the transfer of Lezgin lands and water, for which he lost his post. And the Lezgins did not even thank him.

Isaev, you have not so much a pro-Azerbaijani position, but rather an anti-Lezghian one ...., unfortunately, there are enough such phobes in Dagestan - this is 100% true ... because it is precisely because of these phobias of inter-colleagues in Dagestan that they get up with Dagestanis what has been happening to them for the last 25 years has been used against us at all times. who did not want the independence of our peoples, which will never happen as long as there are people like you .... but this Gyisa, you are unlikely to be able to understand, apparently you are a lumpen nationalist or a national revanchist, of which in Dagestan, like uncut dogs .... but this is a topic for a separate discussion .. And what would you say about the situation with the Avars in Zakatli and Belokan ?? What do you think they are guilty of?? Surely you will find something negative in these people

Emin and other similar "mines" planted under the indigenous peoples in artificial Azerbaijan: Lezgins - more than 1 million 500 thousand people, Avars - more than 250 thousand people, other Lezgin-speaking peoples (Tsakhurians - more than 70 thousand people. , Rutulians - more than 60 thousand people, Udins, Kryzovs, Khinalugs, Budugs, Khaputs, Jacks - a total of about 150 thousand people) infuriates when they are told the truth. The territory of settlement of even modern Lezgins and Lezgin-speaking peoples in the north-eastern part of present-day Azerbaijan is much more extensive than shown on the indicated map of this article. Why didn’t they include on this map the territories of the Lezgin settlement in their vast majority of Khachmas, Shabran, Quba, Ismayilli, Geoghchay, Vartashen, Kabala, Sheki, Kakh and other regions. Or do you think that the process of assimilation in these Lezgin regions has already been completed? You, don’t make us laugh, this is far from being the case - the Lezghin people, on their indicated primordial, historical lands alive, healthy and continues to use their native Lezgin language and confidently recognize themselves as worthy descendants of the Lezgin-Caucasian Albanians (Alpantsev), Lezgin-Sharvantsev (Shar in Lezgin means king, and van is the voice, the general meaning is the voice of the king), Lezgin - Legzantsev- Lagzantsev-Lakzantsev. Not only that, on the territory of Caucasian Albania - the historical and current lands of the Lezgins and Lezgin-speaking peoples, as well as the Avars, artificially since 1918, illegally and artificially created an incomprehensible formation - Azerbaijan, and even resent when the Lezgins or other indigenous peoples raise national issues. Your anti-Lezgin, anti-Avar, etc. public policy is unpromising. It even borders on the fascist regime. Since 1169, the wall of the historical landmark - "Lezgi Mosque" in Baku for almost 1000 years was decorated with a historical signboard - "Lezgi bowls, 1169"! What happened, why such a brutal attitude towards the Lezgi history of the lands of present-day Azerbaijan? This shows very low level political culture of the authorities, complete hatred for all the indigenous, but non-Turkic population of the occupied southern territories of Dagestan. The state machine destroys everything that reminds of the Lezgins and other Dagestan-speaking indigenous peoples on the territory of this artificial formation. We are very well aware of the moods of our fellow countrymen, and to the question of whether the Lezgin question exists in Azerbaijan, we will answer: The Lezgin question in Azerbaijan does not just take place in life, but has practically reached its zenith. If the authorities do not start in the near future to create real national socio-political and socio-economic conditions for the development of Lezginsky and other indigenous peoples in the AR on state level, then the law of physics about the maximum pressed spring will definitely work, which has a very, very dangerous known effect. Your trust in us, in Lezgins, Avars, etc. for the realization of their own, pan-Turkic, national goals, does not even alleviate the acuteness of the Lezgin problem in the AR. And as for the achievements of famous Lezgi personalities in the AR, I assure you that no one, except for them, has anything to do with this - this is purely their personal work, personal contribution. Consequently, today, a very young state - Azerbaijan, which is just over 20 years old, without the necessary state experience, has very big problems. AND THESE PROBLEMS ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE KARABAKH ISSUE. THE PRESENCE OF THE LEZGI, AVAR AND TALISH ISSUES SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED AND THEY REQUIRE AN IMMEDIATE STUDY AT THE STATE LEVEL, TO MAKE APPROPRIATE DECISIONS ON THE IMMEDIATE CREATION OF NORMAL CONDITIONS FOR THE STATE GAVY AND TALISHA DEVELOPMENT PEOPLES OF AZERBAIJAN. IT IS NOT NEEDED TO CREATE PROBLEMS FOR YOURSELF - THEY SHOULD BE PREVENTED IN TIME. GOOD LUCK.

Tatyana, (MODERATED) Lezgins make up the majority in only one district - Kusar, in other districts their number does not exceed 30% - these are realities. It is quite possible that there are many Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijan whose ancestors were once Lezgins, Avars, Tsakhurs, Tats, Talyshs, etc., but the fact is that today they all consider themselves Azerbaijanis and this is the main thing. No one denies the problems, but they are not of the same level as some users describe here. But escalating the situation and behaving destructively "you" (this is not for you) move us away from the goal.

Even 120 million Russians in 150 million Russia are not recognized as a source of power in the Russian Federation, where the multinational people of the Russian Federation are indicated as the source of power. so think about why you have problems with the indigenous population, After all, you have legalized Nazism, and who in your power will observe the rights of unconstitutional non-Turkic peoples ??? These laws, to protect the rights of national minorities, signed by your pan-Turkic regime to create the appearance of democracy, to throw dust in the head the international community, but in fact you have a constitutional arbitrariness going on. It turns out that you have arbitrariness and Nazism regarding non-Turks, on the part of those in power, cannot even be a subject prosecution, because this Nazi official acts according to the constitution ... - this is where the circle closes. Therefore, the Dagestan Avars and Lezgins have no choice but to closely monitor what is happening on the Samur River in relation to their brothers ...

Listen, E-"min", you probably dream of Armenians in your dreams? Deal with the Armenians yourself, please. And in general, logically, think for yourself, what is the point of worrying about Lezgins, Avars and other Dagestan-speaking peoples, all the more so, as we see in reality, the Armenians have already resolved their question, what is the point of them for someone else - about what -to speak. I would understand you if the situation of the same Armenians with you would have been at an earlier stage. Today, please, Lezgin, Avarsev, and others adequately respond to a specific question. There is no need to immediately take up "defense" - this is ridiculous. I am not talking about the Azerbaijani people or any other people, and no one is talking about it - we are talking about unacceptable criminal assimilation processes in Azerbaijan at the state level. And do not blatantly lie about 30% -tah. In addition to the Kusar region, where more than 99% are Lezgins, in the Khachmas region Lezgins make up more than 83%, in the Quba region - more than 72%, in the Kabala region - more than 68%, in the Sheki region - more than 66%, in the Ismayilli region - more than 59% % items, etc. Only in Baku every fifth is a Lezgin, i.e. Lezgins more than 250 thousand people. And your statistics on the number of peoples are just papers. Thank you for starting to recognize the problems of indigenous peoples of the AR: Lezgins and Lezgin-speaking peoples (Udin, Kryzov, Tsakhur, etc.) and our kindred, Dagestan-speaking Avars. And this is not due to the rise in the level of the political and other culture of the AR establishment, but, unfortunately, because of the events, first in Georgia, and now in Ukraine. The absence of a "national policy" at the state level, or rather the presence of a criminal assimilation state policy against the Lezgin, Avar and other indigenous Dagestan-speaking peoples, you so easily indicate as if there were practically no problems, this is just a trifle. Let's be specific: why, with the consent and at the direction of the Baku authorities, a sign was removed from the wall of the Lezghin mosque - "Bowls. 1169"? It's the same as taking pictures from tombstone my great-grandfather a sign with my grandfather's data, thereby trying to erase the history of our family - sihil (tukhum). 2. When are the authorities going to return our Dagestan - Lezgi historical sign to its historical place, or do the authorities first need to complicate the situation, and then - we'll see? Stop smearing and hiding with the "Armenians" or the supposedly "single" faith and, unfortunately, not yet existing brotherhood. Only - specifically. Swabs are not needed.

I would have passed, but today's reality in the South Caucasus does not allow that. Your right-wing forces raised an anti-Russian hype around Crimea, your Musavatists were even detained in Makhachkala, when they tried to penetrate Crimea, they went to the Crimean Tatars to convince them not to participate in the referendum ... - explain to me why they need it ?? ? When do they have their own lands under the Armenian boot ??? Why are they turning to the Azerbaijani diaspora in Ukraine to support the Bandera government??? Despite the fact that Azr voted against the Russian Federation on the Crimean issue in the UN - that's what I'm talking about ... when Turkey itself remained silent on the Crimean issue, did not climb and did not even dream of doing it, your right-wing Musavatists decided to climb into the Crimean Tatars, so that arouse enmity among them against the Russians... well, you never know that they are Turkish-speaking, then go to the Altai, to the Altai people. Khakasses, Tuvans .., they are also Turkish-speaking and also part of the Russian Federation, agitate them for the mythical Turan, which your pan-Turkists-turandots rave about, which you are becoming more and more ....,. and Erdogan's Turkey realized that pan-Turkism would not lead them to good, that you would not be forcibly nice, and decided to change the internal national policy, they understood the danger of Nazism, but Baku still does not feel changes in Ankara .. Why do your pan-Turks need to shove against the gendarme of the Caucasus in the face of the Russian Federation ??? Well, at least your Abbas Abbasov slightly corrected the situation by recognizing Crimea as Russian on behalf of Russian Azerbaijanis. Here's what you should know, and not pass by. With such "successes" you create problems for yourself. That is why they decided to arrest pro-American journalists (consider agents of influence) who, under the guise of right-wing forces, pitted AzR against the Russian Federation on the Ukrainian crisis, which could have happened tomorrow after Ukraine.

It is believed that Lezgins and Azerbaijanis never fought each other. This is a deep delusion. The war between these two peoples has been going on since the first days, when the Turkic nomads first appeared in Lezgistan (mid-XIII century) and actually continues to our time. Another thing is that this war took either open or hidden forms. At the first stage, which lasted until the beginning of the 16th century, the Turkic tribes of the Oghuz (possibly from the Lezgi "aguz, aguzdi, aguzbur" - that is, "of lower origin, standing at a lower social level, less civilized, wild"), who left Central Asia in the middle of the 11th century (those who remained there are today called Turkmens) and settled in northwestern Iran and Asia Minor (Byzantium), made constant attempts to capture neighboring Shirvan-Lezgistan. But these attempts each time ended in failure. The Lezgins, who made up the main population of Shirvan, each time gave a worthy rebuff to the uninvited conquerors.

This continued until the Mongol-Tatar invasion, which brought enormous disasters to the peoples of the Eastern Caucasus. The conquest of Lezgistan by the Mongol-Tatars turned the normal course of the history of the peoples of the region upside down. Although the Shirvanshahs managed to retain their throne by recognizing their vassal dependence on the Khulaguids, the Shirvan steppe and foothills from Derbent to the Kura for a long time became the scene of hostilities between the two Mongolian states, the border between which passed just along Derbent, and in the intervals between hostilities these lands turned into in the pastures for the war horses of the Mongols. It was during this period that the first nomadic Turks from northwestern Iran appeared in Shirvan. Perhaps the Mongols specifically attracted them to care for their horses in the pastures, since it must be assumed that, being nomads, they were good horse breeders. This idea is also suggested by the fact that the Lezgins still call modern Azerbaijanis double-Muguls and TsIaps. The first name is undoubtedly associated with the Mongols, thanks to which, as shown above, the nomadic Turks appeared in the Eastern Caucasus (we should not forget about the ethnic kinship between the Mongols and the Turks). The second name is “tsIap” (plural number is “tsIapar”), translated from the Lezgi language means “horse droppings, horse “cake”, which is associated with the main activity of the Turkic nomads-animal husbandry (of course, they did not breathe cologne!). However, getting the opportunity to roam with their herds in Shirvan does not mean at all, as Azerbaijani historians are trying to prove, that the newcomers immediately began to play some role in the state, and, which is almost impossible, became the dominant population in Shirvan. The second stage began in ser. XV-in the first half. XVI centuries, when hordes of Turkic (Azerbaijani) sheikhs Junayd, Haydar and, finally, Ismail from northwestern Iran appeared in Lezgistan. The first was defeated and killed on the banks of the Samur River, the second - in Tabasaran. The last, Ismail, managed to conquer Lezgistan (Shirvan) and from that time the era of Turkic domination in the Eastern Caucasus began. Ismail laid the foundation for the Turkic dynasty of the Safavids. At first, the Safavid state was purely Turkic (all leading positions were occupied by nomadic Turks who called themselves Qizilbash), and only then in the first half of the 17th century it turned into a Turkic-Persian state, when Shah Abbas I was forced to Turkic nomadic tribes to attract more civilized and complaisant Persians to the governing bodies to save their state. In the middle of the 16th century, the Shirvan statehood was finally liquidated when the last of the Shirvanshahs was destroyed. Lezgi toponymy everywhere began to take Turkic forms. Surviving from terror and persecution, the local indigenous Lezgi population began to move north, to the mountains. It was during this period that the Kura region appeared on the territory of modern Southern Dagestan, the majority of whose inhabitants (Kurintsy or Kurintsy), most likely, were immigrants from Southern Lezgistan (from the banks of the Kura).However, this does not mean that the Lezgins resigned themselves to the seizure of their lands by the Turkic conquerors. The Lezgins have repeatedly risen to fight their enslavers. Large armed uprisings against the Kyzylbashevs (the ancestors of those who today call themselves Azerbaijanis) were noted in 1545,1548,1549,1554,1559-1560,1577-1578.1614,1616,1645,1659-1660.“Setting as their goal the religious and cultural assimilation and spiritual enslavement of the natives,” wrote the Dagestani historian A. Tamai, “from the very beginning of their war of conquest, the Safavids pursued a policy of Shiiteization of the country. Rites in Sunni mosques were replaced by Shiite ones, sometimes with the use of armed force. By such means, Shiism fought its way into the distant harsh Sunni gorges, to important strategic points. He achieved especially great success in the rich cities of the Shirvan-Dagestan plane: Shamakhi, Derbent, Baku. This explains why many districts and cities of Shirvan, and in particular Dagestan, today profess the Shiite sect of Islam. A distant Lezghian aul near the gray-haired mountain of Shalbuz-Daga Miskindzhi, which, surrounded by Sunni mountains and gorges, hardly accepted the Shiite faith of Safavid Iran of its own free will, is a witness to the Kyzylbash tyranny and terror. At the same time, the Shiitization policy was supposed to serve as a means for the invaders to increase the antagonism between the newcomer and the indigenous population.

In implementing the policy of Shiitization and Turkization of the Lezgins, the Safavid-Kyzylbash authorities did not disdain anything, up to the physical extermination of those who refused to accept new faith. The population of many cities and villages of Shirvan was subjected to wild defeat and total extermination. “All this at that time,” an eyewitness of all this, Kyuchuk Chelebi-zade, is indignant, “when right next to it in the church, Christians freely and without any obstacle performed their rites.”

This caused discontent and indignation not only among the Sunni clergy of Lezgistan, but also on the part of broad populace. Distrust of everything Kyzylbash reached the point that the local population, according to another author of the 18th century, Evliya Chelebi, was squeamish "to conduct trade relations with them (with Shiites-Kyzylbash - A.) when they exchange their goods hand in hand with Russian Christians."

At the beginning of the 18th century, another uprising began, which then grew into an organized liberation movement, led by legendary son the Lezgi people of Haji-Davud Mushkursky, directed against the Azerbaijani-Persian invaders. By the beginning of 1722, almost all of Lezgistan was liberated from the invaders. Only Baku and Derbent remained in their hands. There is no doubt that Hadji Dawood would have liberated these two last bastions of foreign domination in Lezgistan, but the intervention of Russia (the so-called Persian campaign of Peter I), and then the Ottoman Empire in the events in the region, practically nullified all the successes of the insurgent people in the previous period. After the treacherous capture of Hadji-Davud by the Turks in 1728, the entire Eastern Caucasus again fell into the hands of foreign invaders, with the only difference that the Azeri-Persian ones were replaced by Turkish and Russian ones.

A special page of the Lezgin-Azerbaijani confrontation is the period of campaigns of the bloody Nadir to the Eastern Caucasus in the mid-30s - early 40s of the XVIII century. Nadir came from a Turkic nomadic Afshar tribe, whose descendants also call themselves Azerbaijanis today. Despite all efforts, Nadir failed to return the Lezghins to the rule of the Turkic-Azerbaijani steamers. But this victory cost the Lezgi people dearly. As a result of continuous struggle and endless uprisings, the number of Lezgins was reduced by at least half. The area of ​​settlement of the people has also significantly decreased. But, nevertheless, this victory over a formidable enemy gave another chance to the Lezgi people to restore their statehood. Such an attempt in the second half of the 1111th century was made by Fet-Ali Khan of Quba, who came from the Lezgin family of the Mazin emirs. But under stressful conditions international environment and tough confrontation in the region of Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Iran, it was doomed to failure. But, despite this, the Lezgins still remained the dominant people in the region.

The third stage of the Lezgi-Azerbaijani confrontation begins at the beginning of the 19th century, when Lezgistan became part of Russia. It would seem that this should have stopped the expansion of the Azerbaijani Turks in the country. However, this did not happen. And for this reason: Russia, which considered the Ottoman Empire its main adversary in the East, pursued a pronounced anti-Sunni policy in the occupied territories. This is confirmed by the complete destruction of such large North Caucasian Sunni peoples as the Ubykhs, Shapsugs, Bzhedukhs, the genocide against the Nogais, Circassians, Adygs, Abkhazians, who greatly influenced their numbers. Since the time of Peter I the best remedy strengthening its position in the conquered territories, Russia considered an increase in the Christian population in them due to a decrease in Sunni Muslims. Back in May 1724, Peter indicated "... to try in every possible way to call on Armenians and other Christians, ... and the infidels in a very quiet way, so that they do not know how much it is possible to reduce, namely the Turkish law (Sunnis)". Such a policy of discrimination and genocide of the Sunni population, actually picked up by the Russian emperors from the Safavid shahs, led to a decrease in the number of Lezgins in the territory of modern Azerbaijan and Southern Dagestan, in particular in cities such as Baku, Shemakha, Cuba, Derbent, etc. It was in the 19th century , i.e. after the accession of the Eastern Caucasus to Russia, the Lezgins ceased to be the dominant people in the region.

It should be noted that the policy of tsarist Russia during the XVIII-XIX centuries. led not only to an increase in the territory of Transcaucasia Christians, but also Shiites. Russia saw in Shiite Iran its natural ally in the confrontation with Sunni Turkey. For this reason, the border with Iran was not closed. Almost throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially after the start of the development of Baku oil fields, there was a mass emigration of Shiites from Iran (mainly Turks) to the territory of modern Azerbaijan. But, despite this, by the end of the 19th century, the Turkic tribes, which then still did not have a self-name and were most often called generically - "Tatars", according to official data, made up only a little more than 40% of the population of the territory of modern Azerbaijan. At the same time, these “forty percent” certainly included many representatives of other peoples who spoke Turkic dialects fluently. The rest of the population was made up of local Lezgins, Tats, Talyshs, Armenians, Avars, Kurds, as well as later Russian settlers.

At the same time, the process of Turkization of the Lezgins and other Muslim peoples and the colonization of their lands did not stop. But, if in the 19th century this process took place largely spontaneously, then in the 20th century it takes on a global character, since it began to be carried out at the state level. This was due to the victory of Soviet power in Russia. The Bolsheviks, who dreamed of a world revolution, having taken up national construction, decided that they needed a large Turkic-Shiite republic in Transcaucasia. Thus, a springboard was created for transferring the revolution to neighboring Shiite Iran, where, as is known, a large number of the Turkic population lives in the northwestern regions, as well as to ethnically close Turkey. After that, the green light was given to a full-scale process of Turkization of all Muslim peoples living on the territory of the newly created republic. The ideology of pan-Turkism was widely spread. It was for this reason that the issue of reunification of the divided Lezgi people was not resolved, and Karabakh, predominantly populated by Armenians, was transferred to Azerbaijan. For a people thus artificially created by gross distortion and open falsification historical facts its own history was written. The entire history of the peoples living on the territory of the republic was declared Turkic, i.e. Azerbaijani. We got to the point that today even the very fact of non-Turkic peoples ever living on the territory of the republic is denied at the official level.

During all the years of Soviet power, the pan-Turkist leadership of Azerbaijan pursued a policy aimed at exerting political and economic pressure on all non-Turkic peoples, forming a new nation - "Azerbaijanis". The best representatives of the Lezgi people, even in the darkest years of Soviet power, more than once raised their voice in defense of the elementary rights of their people. So, back in the late 50s of the 20th century, representatives of the Lezghin intelligentsia created the RikIin Gaf literary association (“Heart Word” or “Call of the Soul”), which was severely repressed in the 60s. In 1967, the underground organization "Lezgi Autonomous Republic" was created. In the early 70s, a student association "Pure Hearts" ("Mikhi rikIer") appeared at DSU, where the problems of the divided Lezgi people were discussed. The group was dispersed and its members were expelled from the university. In the late 1980s, the Sadval movement arose, declaring its goal to unite the divided people. In the mid-1990s, several dozen active members of the Sadval movement were arrested on trumped-up charges in Azerbaijan and sent to Azerbaijani prisons, where they are still languishing. The same policy, but in an even more sophisticated form, is pursued by the current leaders of the so-called "democratic Azerbaijan". Unfortunately, this policy directed against the Lezgi and other Dagestan peoples is fully supported today by the leadership of Dagestan.

Thus, the Lezgi-Azerbaijani rivalry has a long history. The thesis of “friendship and brotherhood” between the Lezgi and Azerbaijani peoples, imposed during the years of Soviet power, has no historical basis. The history of the relationship between these two peoples shows that they were in constant confrontation, since there was a continuous struggle between them for living space. Before the accession of the Eastern Caucasus to Russia, this struggle went on with varying success. But, despite this, the Lezghins continued to maintain a dominant position in the region until the beginning of the 19th century. The strategic interests of tsarist Russia in the East throughout the 19th century contributed to the predominance of the Turks in the region. In the 20th century, the Bolshevik leadership that came to power with its crazy ideas about a "world revolution" completely tilted the scales in favor of the Turks. A republic was created on part of the territory of historical Lezgistan, the leadership of which adheres to the pro-fascist ideology of pan-Turkism, aimed at squeezing out and destroying all non-Turkic peoples. Today, after the collapse of the USSR, this republic has become a separate state. Another part of Lezgistan was included in Dagestan. The Lezgi people were divided into two parts, and in both parts, by combined efforts, they were brought to the state of a disenfranchised national minority. The Lezgi districts in both parts today are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, and the people as a whole are on the verge of extinction. This is the result of the policy that, under the false slogans of "brotherhood and friendship of peoples", being in collusion, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Dagestan have been and are carrying out in relation to the Lezgi people.

Alpan Akim

LEZGINS LIVE MOSTLY in Kusar, Quba and some other regions of Northern Azerbaijan. This territory at one time was part of the Quba Khanate formed in the middle of the 18th century, which, apparently, later determined the administrative separation of these territories from other Lezgi lands, united at one time (the beginning of the 19th century) into the Kyurinsky Khanate. One of the first characteristics of the Azerbaijani Lezghins was given at the time P. K. Uslar, the founder of scientific Caucasian studies, in his book "Kyurinsky language" [Uslar 1896]:

"The right bank of the Samur, according to the very conditions geographical location its own, has always been part of the Cuban Khanate. By the name of the Quba Khanate, we mean the country located between the lower Samur and the main Caucasian ridge, which along this stretch becomes more and more lower, becomes passable and, finally, disappears on the Absheron Peninsula. However, Cuba, in the form of a central administrative center that gave its name to the whole country, does not appear until the middle of the last century. This country in former times was ruled by hereditary rulers who more or less recognized the power of the Persian government over themselves. Their residence was the village of Khudat; the ancestor of the dynasty was a certain Lezgi-Ahmed. According to legend, he was from the Utsmi family, moved to Karchag, and then to Persia, from where he returned with the rank of ruler of the region to Khudat. At present, the former Cuban Khanate is the Kubinsk district of the Baku province, which is administratively separated from Dagestan.

In the strip of the country that accompanies the current of the Samur on the right, almost as wide as the city of Cuba itself, the dominant population is the Kyura population, speaking the same language that is spoken in the former Kyura Khanate. N. Seidlitz, who compiled a very weighty description of the Baku province in the ethnography of the Caucasus, counted 50 auls and 21 settlements in the Kuba district, the inhabitants of which wholly or partly speak Kura (i.e., Lezgi. - Auth.)” [Seidlitz 1870].

Establishing an exact list of villages where Azerbaijani Lezgins live remains an unresolved task. One of the most complete lists was published in . It includes 30 villages in Qusar region, 11 villages in Quba region, 10 villages in Khachmaz region, 3 villages in Ismayilli region, 5 villages in Gabala region, one settlement each in Oguz and Sheki regions. More full list given in the Appendix to this book.

The number and percentage of the Lezgin population in Azerbaijan remained essentially unchanged compared to 1989: the 1999 census recorded 178,000 Lezgins, or 2.2% of the country's population. However, as one of the modern Azerbaijani researchers notes, these data are unlikely to really reflect the number of people: “Our studies conducted in 1994-1998 in the north-eastern regions of the country show that in fact the number of Lezgins in Azerbaijan ranges from 250 to 260 thousand people... The census showed that the majority of Lezgins are the working-age population aged 18–59 years (55.9% of Lezgins) and younger than the able-bodied (33.2% of Lezgins), which indicates a good demographic prospect of this people. The average age of the Lezgins is 29 years” [Yunusov 2001].

The speech of Azerbaijani Lezgins is qualified by scientists as a Cuban dialect (Cuban dialect), in which several dialects are distinguished. In connection with the ratio of the Cuban dialect and Lezgi literary language experts expressed the following opinion: “The modern Lezgi language, due to a number of socio-political conditions of life of its speakers, has two literary variants: one functions in the southern regions (Akhtynsky, Kurakhsky, Magaramkentsky, Suleiman-Stalsky, partly Derbent, Khiva) and the cities of the Republic Dagestan, and the other - in some northern regions Republic of Azerbaijan and in its cities of Baku, Sumgayit, Quba” [Gulmagomedov 1998: 35].

Describing the Azerbaijani version of the Lezgi language, A. Gulmagomedov writes: “The Lezgi language has a somewhat different functional status in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In the 1930s and early 1940s, the Lezgin language was taught in the schools of the Qusar district, which was soon discontinued as a hopeless “event”. Obviously, this was greatly facilitated by the ideological attitude to accelerate the processes of “voluntary consolidation of small peoples around their older brothers” and “voluntary abandonment of native languages ​​in order to quickly merge all languages ​​into a single world language”, which took place in the USSR until the last years of its existence.

Only in the mid-60s, after repeated appeals by the Lezghin intelligentsia to the central party and Soviet bodies of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR with a demand to restore the study of their native language, at least in primary school there was an instruction to publish educational and fiction literature in the Lezgi language. A small edition textbook was published Sh. M. Saadieva and A. G. Gulmagomedov “Lezgi chIal” (“Lezgi language”) for grades 1-2 (Baku, 1966) and two or three collections of works of fiction. Naturally, soon the study of the Lezgin language by the Lezgins ceased: there were no teachers, specialists, there was no educational and methodological literature.

In the early 1990s, under the pressure of the Lezgi people's movement "Sadval" ("Unity"), the Lezgi national center of culture "Samur", the new authorities of Azerbaijan formally restored school curricula the study of the Lezgi language in areas with a dense population of the Lezgi population, curricula for primary grades are being compiled, two textbooks for the first two grades have been published this year (Saadiev, Akhmedov, Gulmagomedov 1996 - a; 1996 - b). However, the range of printed materials financed by sponsors is wide: works of young poets, writers - representatives of the Cuban dialect, booklets, newspaper publications, etc. Literature published in the Lezgi language in Azerbaijan forms a new version of the literary language at the lexical-phonetic, morphological-syntactic levels . It would be more correct to call it not a variant of the literary language, but a conglomeration of the speech material of various dialects of the Cuban dialect of the Lezgi language and the individual speech characteristics of the writer. At the same time, it is important to note that the theoretical basis of the practically realizable writing are far from linguistics declarations about the “authentic”, “real” Lezgi language, “purified” from any foreign language elements. The press makes extensive use of the words they created themselves, accompanying them with various kinds of comments about their originality, antiquity, etc. The writing brethren are especially aggressive towards Russianisms in different languages. language levels. In the republic, after the death of Sh. M. Saadiyev, there is not a single specialist in the Lezgi language with degree» [Gulmagomedov 1998: 36].

According to the 1989 census, 47.5% of Lezgins in Azerbaijan named Azerbaijani as a second language (after their mother tongue) in which they are fluent. A sample survey by the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan in 1991 showed that almost a fifth (19.2%) of Lezgins are in mixed (mainly with Azerbaijanis) marriages, which is the highest figure in the country. Knowledge of the native, as well as Azerbaijani and Russian languages ​​in various Lezgi-speaking regions of Azerbaijan was investigated by a group of scientists at the Summer Institute of Linguistics. A summary of the results of their study is provided below.

In all settlements, with the exception of Baku, adult Lezgins noted that they are able to understand and speak Lezgin well as their native language. They usually use the Lezgi language at home and within the Lezgi-speaking community. In the city of Nabran, Khachmaz region, older people prefer to speak Lezghin, younger people understand and speak Lezghin, but often prefer to speak Russian.

In Baku, most adults understand and speak Lezgin very well, but some Lezgins (third or fourth generation urban dwellers with little contact with non-urban Lezgins) have poor command of the language. This group makes up approximately 10-30% of the total number of Lezgins in Baku.

A high level of literacy in the Lezgin language has been documented only in the Qusar region, where the language is taught in schools in all eleven grades. After leaving school, adults continue to read the local newspaper in Azeri and Lezgi, and some Qusar residents noted that they read Lezgi poetry.

In Quba and Khachmaz districts, reading and writing skills in Lezgin were very low. The reason for this is the absence, until recently, of eleven years of instruction in Lezghin, as well as of reading materials outside of school. The need for literature, according to many respondents, is able to fulfill the Azerbaijani language.

In all villages, respondents noted difficulties in understanding literary Lezghin, based on a dialect common in Dagestan, as well as the complexity of the Lezghin alphabet.

Oral knowledge of the Azerbaijani language was good or satisfactory in Nabran, in all other settlements its level was high for almost all age groups. Proficiency in Azerbaijani writing is slightly lower than fluency in spoken Azerbaijani.

Teachers of schools and kindergartens in the Qusar region indicated that preschool children do not yet speak or understand the Azerbaijani language, since they rarely come into direct contact with this language, despite television and radio.

A high level of Russian language proficiency was noted only in Nabran. In other areas it is below average, and among women it is even lower, which is linked to the service of men in their time in the Soviet army.

A particularly low level of Russian language proficiency was shown by older women and the younger generation, which is caused by Azerbaijani-language teaching in schools. For young people, knowledge of written Russian is usually higher than oral knowledge. Baku has a high level of Russian language proficiency. Some young people indicated that Russian is the language they speak best.

A number of Lezgi cultural institutions operate in Azerbaijan today. The State Kusar Lezgi Drama Theater is operating. On June 10, 2005, the theater performed at the premises of the Baku State Theater for Young Spectators with a play in the Lezgi language by the Azerbaijani playwright S. S. Akhundov "The Miser". Cuban branch of Azerbaijan state university of Arts named after M. A. Aliyev, the Kusar branch of the Pedagogical School named after M. A. Sabir train teaching staff for the Dagestan Turks (Azerbaijanis), the local population and small peoples.

There is also a Lezgi national center "Samur". AT politically he is loyal to the government. On the eve of the 2003 presidential elections, at a meeting of representatives of all communities and organizations of national minorities living in Azerbaijan, the chairman of the Lezgi cultural center "Samur" Muradaga Muradagaev stated that since the day of its formation in 1993, this organization consciously and voluntarily "took a pro-government course." “Behind each of the members of our organization there are people – relatives, friends, acquaintances – together we will become an impressive force. And respecting the decision of President Heydar Aliyev, we will cast our votes for his son,” said M. Muradagayev (“Zerkalo”, 12.10.2003). The Samur Center was given 15 minutes of air time daily for broadcasting on the republican radio.

Newspapers "Yeni Samukh" and " Alpan” were established by the Center for Lezghin Culture and are published in Lezghin and Azerbaijani languages ​​with a circulation of more than 1000 copies each. In the Kusar region, the newspaper “ Kusar».

Since 1992, the newspaper “ Samur”, published in Baku with a circulation of 2000 copies. Financial and other problems forced the editorial office to reduce the number of issues to one per month (previously - 2 times per month). Nevertheless, the newspaper tries to promptly inform readers about the news of cultural life, raise topical issues that concern every reader. The newspaper is published in three languages: Lezgi, Azerbaijani and Russian. As the editorial office of the newspaper told the author of these lines, almost all articles for her are written by Lezgins. Acquaintance with the issues of the last three years clearly shows the main line of the newspaper - the preservation of the native language, the education of readers in a caring attitude towards it (cf., for example, the article Sedaget Kerimova about the language - 23.02.2004; material about the Day of the native language - 25.02.2005).

The editorial office considers its important task to be acquaintance with fellow countrymen, famous compatriots abroad, with researchers of the Lezgin language and Lezgin culture - our contemporaries and figures of the past. This thematic part of the materials is presented both in the form of essays (for example, about the singer Ragimat Hajiyeva- April 23, 2004, linguist Magomed Hajiyev- 03/25/2004 and the composer Zeynale Hajiyeva- 05/24/2005 - in the heading "Our celebrities", about the artist Darwin Velibekov– in the section "Guest" Samura "", about the artist Bagar Nuraliyeva- 27.09.2003, about the champion of Azerbaijan in rhythmic gymnastics Aelita Khalafova- 01/26/2005, about Moscow Lezgins - 11/24/2004, 03/26/2005), and in the form of an interview. In an effort to raise the level of legal education of readers, the editorial board publishes excerpts from the "Hague Recommendations on the Rights of National Minorities to Education" over the course of several issues.

Lezgi writers are quite active in Azerbaijan. One of the most notable among them is the editor of the Samur newspaper. Sedaget Kerimova who was born on March 30, 1953 in the village of Kalajug, Kusar region. She graduated from high school in the city of Qusar, the Faculty of Journalism of Azerbaijan State University and postgraduate studies there (Department of Philosophy). Worked for newspapers candy advice», « Hyatt», « Azerbaijan», « Gunay". From the age of 13 he has been publishing poems, stories and articles in republican publications. She has already published 10 books in various publishing houses of Azerbaijan: "Silent cry" - in Azerbaijani, "Lezginkadal iliga" ("Play lezginka") - a book of poems in the Lezghin language, "Karag dunya, lezginkadal kyuleriz" ("Get up, world, lezginka dance"), "Kayi rag" ("Cold sun") and "Mad sa gatfar" ("Another spring"), a collection of prose works "Blazhnaya" and a poetry collection "Behind the Seven Mountains" - in Russian (in translations Azerbaijani translators) and others.

S. Kerimova taught the Lezgin language and literature at the Baku branch of the Dagestan State University. In 1996, she created the Lezgi instrumental ensemble "Suvar", whose repertoire includes folk songs and dances, as well as the compositions of Kerimova herself (more than 100 songs). Ensemble "Suvar" conducts a wide concert activity. In 2004, two albums of this group were released: “Zi khayi el” and “Yag, sa lezgi makyam”. For the 50th anniversary of S. Kerimova, a biographical essay in the Azerbaijani language “Sedaget” was published (M. Melikmammadov. Baku: Ziya-Nurlan, 2004). The creative activity of S. Karimova in the field of journalism was awarded the Golden Pen Prize, the Hasanbek Zardabi Prize, the Khurshudbanu Natavan Prize and the Mehseti Ganjavi Prize of the Independent Media Trade Union of Azerbaijan. She was also awarded the Peace Prize of the Azerbaijan National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly in 2003.

In the asset Muzafera Melikmamedova- poetry collection "Shanidakay kve vish mani" ("Two hundred songs about the beloved") (Baku: Dunya, 1998), the book "Kubadin gulgula" about historical events of the 19th century and other works. We also note the collection of poems by Gulbes Aslankhanova “Vun rik1evaz” (“With you in the heart”) (Baku: Ziya-Nurlan, 2004), the anthology “Akata shegrediz” (2000), etc. The release of the Lezgi epic has also become an event in the cultural life of recent years "Sharvili" in Azerbaijani.

S. Kerimova and M. Melikmammadov translated into Lezgin the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Baku, 2005, circulation 1000 copies). Newspaper " Azerbaijan News” (07.19.2005) wrote about this: “Such an action became possible thanks to financial support Council of Europe, which patronizes similar projects in many countries of the world. Commenting on this event, the project coordinator Zalikh Tagirova she especially noted the rather significant role of the activists of the Talysh project on human rights and the Lezgi cultural center "Samur", thanks to which the scrupulous translation of texts was carried out. “It was not by chance that we chose the text of this particular European convention, the first of the European conventions ratified by the country, for translation into the languages ​​of national minorities,” says Z. Tagirova. - I think that work in this direction should be continued. However, it should not remain the lot of only individual enthusiasts. I hope that our initiative will attract the attention of specialists and potential sponsors who will support the publication of books in the languages ​​of national minorities living in Azerbaijan.”

Lezgi issue in Azerbaijan

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, absolutely all the former republics embarked on the path of building nation states. They did not invent supranational ideological concepts a la “Russian nation”, as in modern Russia, but did everything to increase the proportion of titular nations. Azerbaijan was no exception and began to squeeze out and systematically assimilate non-Turkic peoples (82% of Azerbaijanis in 1989, 92% in 2009).

We have already written about the Talysh and Russians from the Mugan region, now it is the turn to talk about the situation of the Lezghins, the second largest people in the country, who, according to many of their activists, are discriminated against. Among them in recent times autonomist, even radical separatist sentiments are becoming more and more popular. Between them and the Azerbaijanis, a conflict potential is slowly brewing not only in Azerbaijan itself, but also in Russia - in the Republic of Dagestan, so this problem can directly affect the Russian Federation. Let's figure it out.

About history

As often happens in the Caucasus, Azerbaijanis are annoyed by the interpretation of the history of the Lezgi people, which does not fit into their officially recognized national ideological concept. Lezgin scientific and cultural intelligentsia considers Lezgins to be direct descendants of the inhabitants ancient state- Caucasian Albania, the territory of which included most of modern Azerbaijan. Later, they were forced to leave the plains for the mountains under the pressure of the Turkic invaders. In turn, Azerbaijani historians manage to find Turkic roots among the ancient Albanians, sincerely believing that they have been the local population here for centuries.

Writing national history to the requirements of state propaganda is a common thing in the Caucasus. The writings of historians openly say that, they say, already in the II century. BC e. the population of Caucasian Albania spoke the Turkic dialect. Even the current Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are considered by Azerbaijani scientists to have adopted Christianity and the Armenian language as Turkic Albanians. In response, national minorities claim that the Azerbaijanis themselves are not actually Turks, but only Iranians and Caucasians who have switched to their language and changed their identity. Researchers from Baku are trying by all means to prove the eternal belonging of these lands to the Turkic world. In general, even the most Svidomo Ukrainian ideologists would envy them.

As for the Russian history of these lands, the territories described were given to us under the terms of the Gulistan peace treaty (1813) after the Russian-Persian war. Later, the lands where the Lezgins lived were divided into two parts - the Dagestan region and the Baku province. After the revolution, they ended up in different republics - the Dagestan ASSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. The actions of the Russian tsars and the USSR allow some Azerbaijani politicians to say today that it is the Russians who are initially to blame for the Lezgi problem.

In 1921 the Bolsheviks Great love to all nationalities (except Russians) at one time they wanted to recreate the statehood of the Lezgins in the form of an ASSR, but it did not work out. Then the well-known Azerbaijani Bolshevik Narimanov prevented this. Immediately in the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic, the renaming of settlements in the Turkic way began, active Turkization, which offended national minorities. Lezgins claim that they were not allowed to develop their culture and language in the Soviet Union, office work was carried out in Russian or Azerbaijani. Even education in technical schools and universities for Lezgins was paid - they were forced to pay a special tax, called "lezgi pool" (Lezgin money). They might not have been paid, but for this it was necessary to change the word “Lezgin” to “Azerbaijani” in the nationality column in the passport.

Resentment against the Turks for assimilation and the desire to survive as a people forced the Lezgins to demand autonomy. They even wrote about this in 1936 to the leadership of the USSR. Their letter said: “We believe that in order to ensure the wider development of their culture and economy, the Lezghins should be united into one district or region. This opinion is expressed by the entire Lezgi population of both Dagestan and Azerbaijan. But there was no reaction from Moscow. In 1965, the first circles and organizations of Lezgins began to emerge, setting themselves this goal. The most famous group was created by the Lezgi writer Iskender Kaziev. In 1967, the LAR (Lezgi Autonomous Republic) society was created, which operated until 1976. Over time, all such communities were dispersed, activists were arrested or exiled to other areas. With the beginning of Perestroika and the national revival of all the peoples of the USSR (again, except for the Russians), the demands for the unification of the Lezgins began to sound stronger and stronger. The Azerbaijanis objected: they were afraid of separatism and did not want to lose the northern territories.

Collapse and partition

With the beginning of the 90s, the Lezghin nationalist organization "Sadval" ("Unity") declared itself, which wanted to solve the problem of the Lezgins by any means. They saw the future of unification in different ways. Someone wanted autonomy within Azerbaijan, someone wanted to join Russia. During the agony of the USSR in 1990, the III Congress of the Lezgi People's Movement was held, which adopted a declaration on the restoration of statehood in the form of the Republic of Lezgistan. The decision of the Congress was sent to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which promised to satisfy the request of the Lezgins, but when the country collapsed, everyone forgot about it. As a result, after the end of the Soviet Union, the Lezgins were actually separated by the state border of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The dissatisfaction of the Azerbaijani Lezgins was also caused by the fact that they were called to participate in the outbreak of the war against the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, in an armed ethnic conflict in which they had nothing to do. In the areas of their residence in the 1990s, rallies against mobilization were held, which were suppressed by law enforcement agencies. Refugees from the combat zone, as well as Meskhetian Turks from Central Asia, began to be resettled in Northern Azerbaijan in order to increase the percentage of the Turkic element. found a place and religious factor: the majority of Turkic Azerbaijanis are Shiites, and almost all national minorities, including Lezgins, are Sunnis. In the wake of national and religious revival, this fact further increased the potential for conflict.

In 1994, a terrorist attack took place in the subway in Baku, as a result of which 14 people died. The Lezgins were accused of it, saying that it was they who, on the instructions of the Armenian special services, planted the bomb, but many experts doubt such conclusions of the investigation. Later, other unsolved crimes were hanged on Lezgins. Soon repressions began, Sadval was declared a terrorist organization, activists were arrested or persecuted. Many young people were forced to flee across the border to Russia.

After Azerbaijan gained independence, problems began with the teaching of the Lezgin language in schools and with its use in Everyday life(signboards, press, libraries). Many Lezgins, including for economic reasons, left their homes. There were no conditions under which the Lezgins could remain themselves, and not assimilate. In fact, the Azerbaijani authorities applied the same methods to the Lezgins as to other national minorities - Talysh, Russians, Tats, Avars and other peoples. Lezgi activists say they have far fewer rights in Azerbaijan than Azerbaijanis within the borders of the Russian Federation, although Azerbaijanis believe the opposite is true.

Within Russian borders

In Russia, they looked with caution at the activation of the Lezgi movement abroad - it could create instability in Dagestan and throughout the North Caucasus, where, despite all the statements about brotherhood and unity, interethnic and interreligious relations leave much to be desired. Baku has repeatedly stated at the highest level that they consider the Dagestan Derbent and the entire Derbent region to be "historical Azerbaijani lands."

The Azerbaijanis of Dagestan complain that they are being specially squeezed out of there with the blessing of the official authorities, that there is a gradual man-made replacement of the population from Turkic to Lezgi. They are dissatisfied with the personnel policy that is being implemented in Derbent. If in the 90s representatives of the Azerbaijani nationality prevailed in power, then starting from the 2000s, the picture has completely changed. Although Azerbaijanis make up about 30% of the total population of Derbent, they complain that they are few in leadership positions, especially in law enforcement structures. The transfer of two Lezgi villages by Russia to Azerbaijan increased the tension. In 2010, D. Medvedev and G. Aliyev signed the State Border Treaty, according to which settlements Khrakh-Uba and Uryan-Uba were given away, and the first of them was immediately renamed in the Turkic way to Palydly.

In Russia, Lezgins do not talk about independence. True, they are unhappy that the more numerous Dagestan peoples, whose representatives are in power, do not pay any attention to the Lezgins. Activists of the Lezgi movement believe that their people are disproportionately underrepresented in the authorities in Makhachkala. The Lezgins do not like the fact that ethnic communities that speak the languages ​​of the Lezgin language group are officially separated into separate nationalities (Rutuls, Tsakhurs, Christian Udins, Tabasarans and others).

Recently, the idea of ​​​​creating a separate republic within Russia (called Lezgistan or Caucasian Albania) in the southern regions of Dagestan, where they would be the majority, has been popular among Lezgins. Activists believe that the culture and mentality of the local residents is much different from other Dagestan regions. The Lezgin intelligentsia has repeatedly appealed to the top leadership of the Russian Federation about this.

The Azerbaijani authorities are trying with all their might to influence the Lezgin movement, making the Lezgins their allies in competition with the Russian Federation. The well-known Lezgi patriot Vagif Kerimov writes about it this way:

Under the pressure of propaganda, the views of the Lezgins in Baku have undergone serious changes, and their ideology is capable of shocking a sober-minded person. Lezgi activists in Baku are obsessed with the idea that southern Dagestan should join Azerbaijan and that Wahhabism should be encouraged to spread there. Together with the Turks, they want the collapse of Russia...

At the present stage

Lezgins are a people who, due to the ups and downs of history, are today divided into two approximately equal parts on two slopes Caucasus mountains. According to the official data of the 2009 census, there are only 180,000 Lezgins in Azerbaijan. Many experts believe this figure is clearly underestimated. Lezgin activists talk about 500 thousand people of Lezgin nationality in the country and add that Lezgins are specially recorded as Azerbaijanis, reducing their number, but in fact there are more than 1 million of them in the Caucasus. In Azerbaijan, it is impossible to discuss political issues, so more or less prominent activists moved to Russia, and the protest, albeit violent, moved to social networks.

The Azerbaijani authorities pay special attention to the alteration of toponymy. So, they forced the oldest Baku Sunni “Lezgi Mosque”, built in the 12th century, to change its name, removing the word “Lezgi” from it. Such a policy makes the Lezgins become radicalized and look for allies in the struggle for their national rights. There is a rapprochement of their national movement with the Armenians and Talysh against a common enemy.

For the sake of objectivity, it is worth saying that at the everyday level there is no particular hostility between the two peoples, it exists between people who raise political issues. In 2016, the chairman of Sadvala and the leader of the Lezgi movement, Nazim Hajiyev, was killed in Makhachkala. He was found murdered in his own house, on his body were found knife wounds, many Lezgins associate the murder with his social activities. Approximately a month ago, protests were held in the regions of Azerbaijan inhabited by Lezgins. The fact is that pasture lands are taken away from them, who are mainly engaged in sheep breeding. They will now grow cotton. The Lezgins consider this to be discrimination on ethnic grounds, that this is done on purpose so that they leave their ethnic territory and go to Russia.

How to resolve the conflict?

There is no doubt that the Lezgins will still show themselves in the political life of Azerbaijan if their rights continue to be infringed. Many experts argue that ethnic tensions, if left unresolved, could escalate conflict into which others can join. Caucasian peoples. The solution could be to grant the Lezgins national autonomy within the Azerbaijani state. Of course, the divided Lezgi people are unlikely to be able to create their own republic in the north of Azerbaijan in the current political realities, and even more so to unite all their territories into one. This can happen if the leadership of Azerbaijan continues to escalate the war in Karabakh, flirt with Ukraine on the basis of anti-Russian hysteria and indulge Russophobia, supporting the policy of aggressive pan-Turkism.

In Russia, for several years now, at various levels, they have been preparing for the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of Derbent. The city is interesting not only for its long and rich history, but also for its unprecedented multi-ethnicity. It repeatedly passed from hand to hand of the conquerors, and each emir of Derbent brought with him fellow tribesmen - be it Russians, Persians, Arabs, Turks, who built synagogues, churches and mosques here. The ethnic composition of the population of Derbent was changing, multilingual speech began to sound in its bazaars and streets, a kind of synthetic culture was born. Now Derbent and around it live Lezgins, Tabasarans, Aguls, Rutuls, Tsakhurs, Dargins, Laks, Tats, Russians and Azerbaijanis, at least half of the latter here.

Here Sabnova- a large Azerbaijani village, almost merged with Derbent. During the Great Patriotic War more than fifty men were drafted from here into the ranks of the Red Army, many remained on the battlefields. The country awarded many of them with orders and medals for military merit. A lot of scientists and athletes came out of this village. For example, the most titled weightlifter of Dagestan is a master of sports of international class, honored coach of Russia and Azerbaijan, multiple champion of the Soviet Union, world record holder Avset Avsetov. The first woman - the head of a large farm and the head of the administration of the village of Sabnova Khanum Gyulmagomedova, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Colonel of the Medical Service Nazim Shikhverdiyev, Doctor psychological sciences Suleiman Shikhverdiev.

Padar village known thanks to the spring on the route "Caucasus". Truckers always stop here to get water. The Turkic tribe of padars lived long before Caucasian Albania. Scattered tribes of padars settled not only in Dagestan - they say that in Azerbaijan there are as many as three villages with the name Padar. Padar people strictly keep their customs and traditions. For example, a woman carries a tray with baked bread on her head, and although baking in the tandoor is already a thing of the past, many in the village bake bread in it.

Here is the station Arablinskaya. There are quite a lot of such villages in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. 2300 people live in Arablink and almost all families are international. On these lands interethnic marriages practically a tradition - when an Azerbaijani woman married a Lezgin, and a Lezgin woman married an Azerbaijani, no one had any questions - this has been in the order of things for centuries. Perhaps this is where the concept of a single homeland was born.

Here Mamedkala. The name of the village is associated with the legendary figures in the history of the Caucasus - Fateli Khan and Tuti Bike. The name of Mamed (in Dagestan - Magomed) was named this place in honor of the son of the Quba Khan. Therefore, in historical chronicles, the settlement is called "Khan Mamed kala" (Fortress of Khan Magomed). 250 years ago people settled here, and Azerbaijanis, Tabasarans, Dargins, Lezgins and Laks live in a friendly family. They say dreams come true here at the crossroads of four roads local residents fulfilled their desires and aspirations. There are also many international families here. As in other villages of Dagestan, mixed marriages are common here.

But the village Dzhemikent. Here, several years ago, a wrestling hall was opened in the secondary school named after Heydar Aliyev. A delegation arrived in the village - vice-president of the Azerbaijan Wrestling Federation (FBA) Babek Babayev, vice-president of the FBA for freestyle wrestling Magomed Aliomarov, vice-president for Greco-Roman wrestling Elchin Jafarov, head coaches of the national teams Saipulla Absaidov, Farid Mansurov, wrestlers Vitaly Ragimov, Mahmud Magomedov.

These are just a few places and episodes that testify that there is actually no enmity between the Lezghins, Talysh and Azerbaijanis, although such a version is actively promoted in the media. The situation is similar in Azerbaijan, where the North Caucasian peoples live. After the collapse of the USSR, the Azerbaijani authorities offered accelerated citizenship without renunciation of Russian citizenship, and Russian citizens living in the village of Uryan-Uba took advantage of this offer. The point in the dispute was put in September 2010, when an agreement was signed between Russia and Azerbaijan on the state border.

But the Lezgins considered Azerbaijan their homeland even before that. Rumor has it that Azerbaijani Lezgins refused to go to serve in the army, as they were forcibly sent to fight in Karabakh. However, there are many Lezgins in the command staff of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. Sahib Shirinov - a volunteer of the Azerbaijani army - was one of the fighters of the reconnaissance detachment. He graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​and worked as a village teacher, but after the outbreak of the war in Karabakh, he joined the self-defense forces of the Khojavend region. “During hostilities, it is not nationality that is distinguished and evaluated, but male character, courage, - says Lezgin Shirinov. - This is a war of all peoples of Azerbaijan. Talyshs, Georgians, and Russians fought with me. Moreover, they were all volunteers. After all, this does not happen when there is a war, and only citizens representing one nation are fighting ... I don’t know a single Lezgin who did not bring glory to his country - Azerbaijan ... In Azerbaijan, respect for Lezgins is so strong that any person can envy. Every inch of this country is dear to us. The Karabakh war once again proved the courage of the Lezgins. Courage is not only courage, but also loyalty, love for the motherland, intransigence to betrayal.

According to Shirinov, the commander of his military unit was Major Askerov, an officer in the former Soviet Army, also a Lezghin. Azerbaijan remembers the exploits of two Heroes of Azerbaijan, Lezgins by nationality, Fakhraddin Musaev and Sergey Murtazaliev, who, in fact, founded military aviation in the country. Until recently, the defense department of Azerbaijan was also headed by Lezgins - Safar Abiyev.

After the collapse of the USSR, education in the Lezgi language was restored in Azerbaijan. By 2010, there were already 126 schools with the Lezgin language of instruction. In order to train teachers for these schools, a branch of the Baku Pedagogical College was opened in the Gusar region. The work on the development of the Lezgi language and culture in the mid-1990s is coordinated by the Lezgin national center "Samur". The Lezgi ensemble "Suvar" bears the title of "People's Collective of Azerbaijan". Since 1998, the State Lezgi Drama Theater has been operating in Qusar. The newspapers "Samur", "Kusar", "Yeni Samukh" and the journal Chirag are printed in the Lezgi language. Lezgin culture is promoted to the masses by composer Elza Ibragimova, doctor of art history Nureddin Gabibov, writer and poetess Sadagat Kerimova, poetess Gulbes Aslakhanova. For a long time, the post of Minister of Education was held by Lidia Khudat kyzy Rasulova.

Cultural ties between Azerbaijan and the North Caucasian republics of the Russian Federation are supported by economic ones. Now the trade turnover between Dagestan and Azerbaijan is 231 million dollars, and the share of Dagestan does not exceed 21 million, so the prospects are great. Delegations of Azerbaijani entrepreneurs are frequent guests in the North Caucasus. Moreover, direct flights are carried out between Grozny and Baku by aircraft of the Vainakh-Avia company. Both Dagestan, and Chechnya, and Ingushetia use the Azerbaijani experience in the areas Agriculture and tourism. “In the old part of Baku, many monuments of ancient architecture have been preserved, which they treat with reverence,” says the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov. - We have an idea to find an opportunity to restore the old fortress in the village of Gamurzievo, to discuss with the designers the issues of reconstructing old and building new streets, monuments, parks in every city of Ingushetia. They can eventually become a historical landmark and characteristic feature these settlements.

The heads of the North Caucasian republics maintain close personal relations with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Ramazan Abdulatipov once called Heydar Aliyev his political teacher in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, but it is obvious that the most stable mutually beneficial interethnic relations are formed when they are built "from above" and "from below" at the same time, when public, humanitarian, peacekeeping organizations and movements of Russia and Azerbaijan are involved in them. Back in December 2000, the Dagestan-Azerbaijan Society called for declaring the Russian-Azerbaijani state border as a zone of peace, political and social stability and economic prosperity, in the hope that the belt of peace and tranquility would become a bridge to promote geopolitical processes in the Caucasus.