Azerbaijan–Russia border

Two villages

Khrakh-Uba and Uryan-Uba were Lezgin villages in Dagestan’s Magaramkent district in Soviet times but ended up in Azerbaijani-controlled territory after 1991. For almost twenty years their residents, Russian citizens, lived in a legal limbo. In 2010 presidents Ilham Aliyev and Dmitry Medvedev signed a border treaty that officially transferred the villages to Azerbaijan.^[1]

Villagers could take Azerbaijani citizenship or move to Dagestan. Most chose to leave, many selling their houses below market value, and in January 2019 130 families were resettled. In 2013 Azerbaijan’s parliament renamed Khrakh-Uba as Palladli.^[1]

A divided people and a closed border

The Lezgins are the largest ethnic group split by this border, with more than 800,000 in Dagestan and around 190,000 in the neighbouring districts of Azerbaijan, where they are the largest minority. Villagers with Russian passports have complained of difficulties crossing to visit relatives.^[1]

Azerbaijan closed the land border on 18 March 2020 because of COVID-19 and kept it shut to all but truck drivers. In March 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of Azerbaijanis leaving Russia were stranded on the Dagestani side, some sleeping outside in the snow.^[2]

“…can let everyone out, but Azerbaijani guards won’t let you in.”^[2]