Country: Azerbaijan
Group: Lezgin
Date Finalized: 09/26/2021
Team: Hannah Goldman (lead)
Content Warning: forced relocation
Approximate Time Period: 2010
The Lezgin ethnic group in Azerbaijan has experienced forced displacement. The data quality for the evidence of the case is given a two out of three because information is available from credible sources though not in abundance.
As of 2009, Lezgins are the largest minority group in Azerbaijan and most live in northern Azerbaijan along the Samur river and border of Dagestan (Minority Rights Group, 2015). In the 1990s, the Lezgins living along the border demanded the unification of Dagestan (Swietochowski, 1999). In 2010 the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev signed a treaty that resulted in the transfer of two Lezgin villages along the border of Azerbaijan and Dagestan into Azerbaijan (Aliyev, 2019). After this treaty was signed, the Azerbaijani government gave the villagers an ultimatum: apply for Azerbaijani citizenship or leave. Many chose to leave for Dagestan, forcing them to sell their houses under market value (Aliyev, 2019). Returning to Russia, the villagers found that the Russian government had allocated them an uninhabitable area with no running water or electricity (Aliyev, 2019). The villagers also had difficulty crossing the border between Azerbaijan and Russia to visit relatives due to their Russian citizenship (Aliyev, 2019). The situation presents a clear case of forced displacement.
Sources
- Aliyev, H. (2019, February 20). Resettlement of Lezgins Complicates Azerbaijan’s and Russia’s Relations With Ethnic Minorities. Jamestown. https://jamestown.org/program/resettlement-of-lezgins-complicates-azerbaijans-and-russias-relations-with-ethnic-minorities/
- Minority Rights Group. 2015. Lezgins. (2015, June 19). Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/lezgins/
- Swietochowski, T. (1999). Azerbaijan: Perspectives from the crossroads. Central Asian Survey, 18(4), 419–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/713656170