News

The bullying of Sevgiya Ismailova by her relatives in Azerbaijan is based on typical parents' desire in the Caucasus to make decisions for their children, believe Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the "Civic Assistance Committee", and Igor Kochetkov, the head of the "Russian LGBT Network". Sevgiya Ismailova claimed a psychological trauma had been inflicted on her.

On Monday, in Makhachkala, eight activists held solo pickets in support of arrested journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev. The number of the persons willing to openly support him will increase significantly in case if the authorities sanction a mass action, picketers believe.

Four transgender women are suspected of disorderly conduct and failure to obey the police, while people who attacked the transgender women remained unpunished, claimed a transgender woman detained in Tbilisi.

For the first time after a week break, Ramzan Kadyrov delivered a speech in Grozny. He announced his future career plans.

Armenian and German opera artists reproached Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov for refusing to sing on the same stage with singer Ruzan Mantashyan at a festival in Dresden. Yusif Eyvazov called the above accusations a provocation, while festival organizers denied the information about his refusal to sing on the same stage with Ruzan Mantashyan.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordered the Russian authorities to answer questions concerning the complaint about the detention of activists from the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) in Chechnya in 2010, the Committee Against Torture (CaT) reported.

Ramzan Kadyrov missed all significant events and did not appear in public at all since the transfer of his powers to Muslim Khuchiev, residents of Chechnya note. Supporters of the leader of Chechnya on Instagram called him on to return "despite the jackals' words."

During the week of January 13-19, 2020, no victims to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus were registered. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

A resident of Dagestan is sentenced for killing his stepsister. He claimed that she did not obey him and did not want to get married. Social network users expressed different opinions on Instagram. Meanwhile, many users supported the sentenced man.

In Chechnya, construction of checkpoints proves that Ramzan Kadyrov abandoned the idea of eliminating checkpoints on roads, political analysts note. There is no practical benefit from the strengthening of checkpoints, says Ingush human rights defender Magomed Mutsolgov.

Announcement of new presidential election in Abkhazia; mass poisoning in Kizlyar; charges of extremism brought against protest leaders in Ingushetia; resonance after information about Ramzan Kadyrov's illness; demand of Krasny Sulin residents to preserve Verbenskoye reservoir, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 13-19, 2020, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The police detained one of the transgender women who were attacked in Tbilisi and activist Nata Peradze, who stood up for the detainee.

Sevgiya Ismailova, who managed to escape from her relatives in Azerbaijan and return to Russia, is safe, reports the head of the "Russian LGBT Network".

In 2019, the Azerbaijan's authorities continued to maintain rigid control, severely curtailing freedoms of association, expression, and assembly. Some of the persons sentenced on politically motivated charges remained in prisons, and the persecution of critics of the authorities continued, the international human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) states in its report.

In 2019, in Dagestan, the law enforcement bodies stopped activities of 11 secret units of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court. This was reported by Igor Sirotkin, the deputy director of the Russian FSB and the chief of the administration of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC).

Starting from January 12, the Azerbaijani troops fired about 650 shots at the positions of the Defence Army, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Nagorno-Karabakh reports.

In Tbilisi, the court imposed a fine on Zurab Djaparidze for participating in a protest action held by supporters of a change in the electoral system. The fine was imposed two months after the protest action had taken place. Zurab Djaparidze accused law enforcers of falsifying materials on his alleged failure to obey to the police. The activist claimed he would not pay a fine.

The Azerbaijani positions on the border with Armenia and in the Karabakh conflict zone were shelled 23 times within 24 hours, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan reports.

At the national elections in Nagorno-Karabakh, citizens with health problems will be provided with the necessary conditions at polling stations for voting. This was announced by Srbui Arzumanyan, the chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Nagorno-Karabakh, during a CEC's regular meeting held on January 15.

Today, investigators have charged Bagaudin Khautiev, a participant of a rally in Magas, with participation in an extremist community, which, according to the law enforcement bodies, had been created by protest leaders in Ingushetia.