Azerbaijanis' protest on Dagestani border grows into clashes with law enforcers

Tent camp tenants, awaiting their departure to Azerbaijan, have staged a protest rally, which grew into clashes with law enforcers. Policemen used tear gas and truncheons against protesters. Some Azerbaijani citizens received traumas.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 9, a group of 130 Azerbaijani citizens from among those waiting in Dagestan for returning to homeland managed to cross the border. Then, their fellow countrymen remaining in the camp suspended their mass hunger strike, which was announced on June 3 with a demand to speed up their return home. Residents of the tent camp reported a new influx of Azerbaijani citizens to the border, and that another group of 240 people was expected to be sent home.

Azerbaijani citizens were not happy that only a part of them would go home on June 16.

"One person had his rib broken; others got head traumas. This outraged all the protesters; and they began throwing stones at law enforcers," a source said.

Law enforcers called on the protesters to calm down, but people are very excited.

The opening date of the border for all who want to go is constantly rescheduled; once again it was postponed until July 1, Azer Mamedov, an Azerbaijani resident, has stated. He lamented that no one could explain the principle by which groups are formed to cross the border once a week.

There are people with chronic diseases in the tent camp, but they still cannot leave, Djavat Abdullaev, another resident of Azerbaijan, has reported.