Hundreds of Azerbaijanis on the border with Dagestan are waiting to cross the border

Baku/14.03.22/Turan: The cessation of direct flights between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation has created difficulties for the return of Azerbaijanis to their homeland. Prior to that, the land border between the two countries was closed due to the pandemic.

Now  it is possible to come  to  Azerbaijan from Russia only by flights through Turkey. At the same time, airfare prices have risen sharply. Therefore, Azerbaijanis are sent en masse to Dagestan on the border with Azerbaijan.

However, they are stopped 15-20 km away from the border and sent to the reception center in the Ogonyok camp. However, it is already overcrowded and people are no longer allowed in, those in the camp told Turan.

Hundreds of people are forced to spend the night in cars, non-residential premises in cold weather and warm themselves by fires.

The government of Azerbaijan, having canceled almost all restrictions in connection with the pandemic, left the land borders closed. Thus, the interests of hundreds of thousands of compatriots in Russia were not taken into account.

The accumulation of Azerbaijanis in Dagestan is fraught with unrest among them. This already happened in the summer of 2020, when exhausted citizens entered into a confrontation with the Russian security forces.

“Yesterday, people tried to protest, but the  riot police warned about the inadmissibility of rallies. We expect the government of Azerbaijan to open the border,” said an Azerbaijani citizen at the border.

Recall that flights between the countries were suspended in early March. -06B-