News

Mass poisoning of people in the North Ossetian town of Alagir; opening of the European Games in Baku that rights defenders called to boycott; floods in Tbilisi with fatalities, see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of June 8-14, 2015, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The conflict between Vice-Mayor of Sochi Evgeny Gorlov and residents of the village of Sobolevka has arisen from the demands of the Mayor's Office to connect new buildings to the sewerage system with the help of a private contractor and the unreasonable price of 1 million roubles for the connection. This was reported by local residents.

During the week from June 8 to June 14, 2015, the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus hurt at least two people: one of them died and one was wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources. All the victims are alleged members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) operating in the territory of Dagestan.

In Georgia, five persons have been detained in the course of the special operation carried out in the Pankisi Gorge. The Georgian authorities believe the detainees are recruiters of the "Islamic State" (IS).

Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili has signed a decree to engage the Georgian armed forces in the elimination of the aftermath of the emergency situation which resulted from the flooding.

A citywide minute of silence was announced in Budyonnovsk to pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the terror act of 1995. The city also held mourning rallies and a religious procession.

Law enforcers planted a grenade to Ruslan Tsurov, a resident of Nazran. This was claimed by his family members. The wife of Ruslan Tsurov has filed a complaint to the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia about the actions of the law enforcers.

Supporters and opponents of the Ingush Imam Khamzat Chumakov have expressed their wish to peacefully resolve the conflict situation that had arisen around the mosque in the village of Nasyr-Kort. The authorities believe that the conflict has been already settled.

Emin Guseinov, an Azerbaijani rights defender and director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), who left Baku, has arrived in Switzerland. He is in complete safety, as Florian Irminger, the head of the Geneva office of the human rights organization "Human Rights House", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Shant Arutyunyan, a convict in the case of the "Million Mask March", fears for his life and demands to place him for the rest of his term into a closed-type penal institution.

Aslan Byutukaev, the commander of the battalion of suicide bombers "Riyad al-Salikhiyn" has sworn to the leader of the "Islamic State" (IS), which is recognized to be a terrorist organization, on behalf of all the Chechen militants. He stated this in his audio appeal posted on the YouTube.

As reported today by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire on the troops contact line for 90 times within the last 24 hours.

Emin Guseinov, the Azerbaijani rights defender and the director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), who was sheltered at the Swiss Embassy in Baku, has left the country, said his brother Mekhman Guseinov.

The area of the pedestrian trail of health in Sochi has been built up with commercial structures; and all access to the beaches from the trail are blocked and strictly guarded, local residents report.

The prospect of improving the human rights situation in Azerbaijan and mitigation of the repressive regime in this country is pushed to the background because of the interest of the EU and the US in strengthening relations with the official Baku.

Today, Timur Zakaryaev, a resident of the Kizlyar District, has been brought to the police station to be questioned concerning the content of his posts in social networks. He has been released on recognizance not to leave.

In Grozny, according to the Mayor's Office, the rally on the occasion of the Day of Russia was attended by tens of thousands of people. Public employees and students claimed that they took part in the event not voluntary.

Today, prayer at mosque in Nasyr-Kort has been attended by Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Evkurov, imams, and theologians.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CMCE) has announced its intention to consider the issue on taking "strict measures", if Ilgar Mamedov, the leader of the opposition movement "Republican Alternative", is not released from prison by the Azerbaijan's authorities until September 2015.

The preliminary court hearing on the appeal filed by human rights defender Rasul Jafarov could be postponed because of the first European Games held in Baku. This was stated Fariz Namazly, an advocate of Rasul Jafarov.