Your trusted source

NazimGadzhiyev, 72, who headed the Lezgin public organization Sadval (Unity), was foundstabbed to death on March 21 at his apartment in Makhachkala (Dagestan), almost exactly one year to the day since the death of another Sadval activist RuslanMagomedragimov, RFE/RL reports.

According to the report,RuslanGereev, Director of the Center for Islamic Studies of the North Caucasus,commented on Gadzhiyev's demise lauded his commitment over five decades to the concept of Lezgin autonomy in the territory of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. It is noted that both the older and the younger generations of Lezginscannot achieve the desired results in today's evolving social and political landscape.

According to the website, the Lezgins are a north-eastern Caucasian ethnos who claim to be the descendants of the ancient kingdom of Caucasian Albania that fell to Arab conquerors in the 8th century A.D. Their historic homeland was divided in the 19th century between two gubernias of Tsarist Russia –Daghestan, which in 1918 remained part of Russia, and Shemakha, which formed part of the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic that was subsumed into Soviet Russia in 1920.

At the time of the 2010 Russian Federation census, there were 385,240 Lezgins living in Daghestan, primarily in the south of the republic. Estimates of the number of Lezgins in Azerbaijan vary widely. In 2014, they were officially estimated to account for 2 percent of the total population (193,724), while unofficial estimates range from 400,000 to 850,000.

The first demands by Lezgins in the U.S.S.R., including Gadzhiyev, for a separate Lezgin territorial-administrative unit date back to the 1960s, and were swiftly suppressed.

In July 1990, inspired by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, Lezgins in Daghestan established the national movementSadval to campaign for the "unification" of Lezgin-populated territories of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic and Dagestan.
Over the past few years, Sadval's focus has narrowed. Its activists spearheaded public protests in 2013 against the perceived threat posed to the ecosystem of Daghestan'sMagerramkent district by Azerbaijan's alleged use of morewater from the Samur River. They also opposed what were seen as efforts by Azerbaijan to expand its presence and influence in southern Daghestan, especially the town of Derbent.

Meanwhile, according to the website, the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of the Lezgins (FLNKA), an official body with close ties to the Russian State Duma and the Russian Foreign Ministry, apparently took upon itself the aspects of Sadval's agenda. It is noted that FLNKA also took part in the UN regular session on NGOs, by the invitation of the chairman of the committee.
During the session held in New York, the FLNKA application for consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council was discussed. The representatives of the Committee of Azerbaijan Republichad blocked this application during the previous two sessions.

The body of the leader of Lezgin national movement Sadval,NazimGadzhiyev,was foundwith numerous knife wounds on March 20 in his apartment. On March 24, 2015, RuslanMagomedragimov, a former military pilot and Sadval member, was murdered.

NazimGadzhiyev was born in village Kurush of the Dokuzparinsky District, Dagestan, in1944. At 16, he started to be actively engaged in Lezgins’identityproblems, carried out campaignsamong the youth for the Lezgins’ reunion, and initiated the idea of the creation of autonomy.

In 1967, Gadzhiyev created the organization “Lezgin Autonomous Republic,” which was active up to 1976. In the early 90s,NazimGadzhiyevbecame a board member of the LPD Sadval and the Chairman of its Committee on national issues. At the same time, he was a board member of the Confederation of peoples of the Caucasus. In September 2012, NazimGadzhiyev was unanimously elected as the chairman of the international public union Sadval, which upholds the reunion of Lezgins of Azerbaijan and Russia.