News

The Chechen police detained close family members of three suspects killed last night in Shali. This was reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by local residents. The law enforcement agencies are engaged in carrying out operative and preventive actions, reports an official from the law enforcement authorities.

Guilty verdict to figurants in "Nardaran case" in Azerbaijan; distant dispute of Vasilieva with Kadyrov on hijabs in schools; special operation in Khasavyurt, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 23-29, 2017, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

In the town of Shali, militants attacked policemen and killed two of them. During the special operation, three attackers were killed, and two civilians were injured. This was reported by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

A video of operative record of the shooting involving the people cordoned off in a private house in Khasavyurt has been posted on the Internet. The video released by the "Ren-TV" Channel shows how armoured vehicles are moving along a street in a private sector of Khasavyurt and how law enforcers are shelling a house surrounded by clouds of smoke.

The suspects killed during the special operation in Khasavyurt have been identified as local residents. This was reported by sources from the law enforcement bodies.

During the week of January 23-29, 2017, eight persons fell victim to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. Of them, four were killed, and four others were wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

Today, at 8:20 a.m., the counterterrorist operation (CTO) legal regime was introduced in Khasavyurt. Law enforcers cordoned off a private house in Khasavyurt, in which militants were hiding. The militants refused to lay down their weapons, and then law enforcers began storming the house. This was reported by a source from the Dagestani law enforcement bodies.

Tenants of dilapidated houses who do not agree to move from the centre of Derbent intend to appeal to the Prosecutor's Office and the court. The people claim that officials are going to move them illegally. Officials have promised to organize for protesters a meeting with the Dagestani Minister of Construction.

Chechen schoolgirls and female students are not required to wear hijabs; however, headscarves are a part of the uniform. This was announced by an official of the Chechen Ministry of Education.

On January 28, Azer Gasymly, a member of the Board of the movement "Republican Alternative" (ReAl), was summoned to the Investigating Department for Serious Crimes of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan. There, he was questioned during five hours. Azer Gasymly himself has treated the questioning as illegal and called it "execution of a political order."

The Centre in Defence of Political Prisoners (CDPP) was established on January 27 on the basis of the working group earlier created by Leyla Yunus, the Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners" and the Monitoring Centre of Political Prisoners.

At the discussion of the construction of the museum complex "Russia – My Story" in the Lenin Komsomol Park in Makhachkala, Zagra Magomedova, a Deputy of the District Assembly, sharply criticized the project.

The yard of No. 4 in Lenin Street in Derbent hosted a rally of tenants of the houses, included into the programme of resettlement from emergency and dilapidated houses. The rally was about 100 persons strong.

Users of the WhatsApp in Chechnya have spread a story of the nurse about serious complications in children after vaccination against poliomyelitis. Despite the refutation by the Republic's Ministry of Public Health, many parents continue refusing to vaccinate their children.

Citizens of South Ossetia have the right to stay close to the border with Georgia, having only a passport or a service ID on them.

The Azerbaijani National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) and the international Human Rights Watch (HRW) have condemned the authorities for the sentences to long prison terms passed to 18 figurants in the "Nardaran case", including the theologian Talekh Bagirzade and the oppositionist Fuad Gakhramanly

The documentary "It's Getting Dark" tells the story of five families recognized as political prisoners by rights defenders. Among the heroes is the family of Ruslan Kutaev, the President of the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus, who was convicted after organizing, against the order of the head of Chechnya, a conference on the deportation of the Chechen people.

The Dagestani weekly "Chernovik" has invited Makhachkala residents to an excursion in the Lenin Komsomol Park to draw their attention to the authorities' decision to build a museum there. Environmentalists and social network users agree that a wrong place was chosen for the museum.

At educational institutions of Chechnya, schoolgirls and female students must wear headscarves, even if they are not Muslims; however, there were no conflicts around the issue, said the interviewed residents of the republic.

The authorities of the regions, where wearing hijabs has long been practiced, should decide themselves whether to allow them in schools, said Evgeny Bobrov, the deputy chairman of the Human Rights Council (HRC), in his comment on the dispute of Minister Olga Vasilieva with Ramzan Kadyrov.