Residents of Dagestani village of Uchkent rally to demand return of state farm land

A spontaneous rally demanding the return of state farm land was held by villagers of Uchkent, the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan. The land plots in question had been illegally privatized by one of the former heads of state farm named after Akaev, said the protesters.

The action was attended by about 50 people, mostly natives of the village of Akhatly, Buynaksk District, who were moved to Uchkent back in 1950s.

Magomed Biyakaev, a participant of the rally, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that residents of three other villages of the Buynaksk District had been resettled here. "When we arrived here, there was a bare steppe here; and we built the village anew; and based on our collective farm named after Gorky, a winery named after Yusup Akaev was founded the," he said.

However, in the 1990s, according to the protesters, one of the former heads of state farm named after Akaev, which was transformed into an agricultural production cooperative (APC), "illegally privatized and sold off the collective farm's property."

"There are no jobs in our village; and young people don't know what to do. We want to use the land to pasture cattle, but we have no conditions for that," said Magomed Akaev, a villager.

Villagers assert that they had addressed the district prosecutor's office, but have not yet received any answer.

Let us remind you that land conflicts broke out regularly in Dagestan in the area of Karaman (Black Stones) near Makhachkala, which refers to the Kumtorkalin District of Dagestan.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.