Residents of Dagestan: Azerbaijani secret services hunt for army deviationists

In recent months, the situation with the persecution by Azerbaijan of Russian citizens who refuse to serve in the Azerbaijani army has become more acute. This was announced during a press conference held on December 7 in the editors' office of the RIA "Derbent", the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Since September 2017, the Azerbaijani secret services are "involved in the process of capturing and searching for former citizens of the country who got Russian citizenship and refuse to serve in the Azerbaijani army," noted participants of the press conference.

Amil Sarkarov, the deputy editor-in-chief of the RIA "Derbent", has explained that the problem with the persecution of Russian citizens for refusing to serve in the Azerbaijani army arose after April 2016. He has associated the above with the aggravation of the Karabakh conflict in April 2016.

Meanwhile, according to Amil Sarkarov, the editors' office "does not have exact data on the number of people who have faced such a problem." Many young people "prefer not to talk about the problem, but pay money to solve it," Amil Sarkarov said.

He suggests that "about 1000 people could face the problem."

However, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan "have taken no specific actions to solve the problem," Amil Sarkarov complained.

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