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Incident

Azerbaijani parliamentarian: â€œIt is not excluded that some outside religious forces were involved in the events in Bananiyarâ€

07 January 2010 17:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Elbrus Seyfullayev â€“ APA. â€œHoly Maharram ceremonies are held in Nakhchivan normally. The Caucasian Muslims Office also called people in its fatwa not to beat themselves with chains on Day of Ashura. Bananiyar is a religious village. There were people in this village who beat themselves with chains on the Day of Ashura and clashed with people who tried to stop them. The question was thatâ€, Ismayil Hajiyev, member of the parliament from Culfa-Ordubad (which includes Bananiyar village) electoral district of Nakhchivan told APA.

He said rural centers were constructed throughout Nakhchivan which included libraries, cultural centers, police offices, medical points and other offices. â€œBut some people try to spread misleading information about removal of some buildings due to the construction work thereâ€.

Hajiyev said there were forces trying to create confrontation in Bananiyar. â€œI am from Khanagah village, neighbor to Bananiyar. Some people intend to use these events to create political confrontation. Not all villagers, but some part of them were involved in this confrontation. The government of Azerbaijan is always keeping the social protection of the population on agenda. There is great construction work in Nakhchivan, including in Bananiyar villageâ€.

Reacting to the reports about the role of some Iran-based forces in the events in the village, the parliamentarian didnâ€™t exclude that some believers in the village could fall under influence. â€œThe religious figures from Iran regularly visited this village earlier and there were some tendencies of fomentation, but I can not say that it is so today. Some believers in the village might fall under influence. I know that one of the men injured during those events is undergoing treatment in Iran now. Envoys of some Iranian and Turkish religious forces tried to conduct propaganda in that village. But they failed to do that. The fact is that there are people in the village who agitate the Turkish and Iranian religious trendsâ€.

Hajiyev noted that he was interested in the happened events. According to him, reports on entrance of internal and armoured troops into the village are not true.

Deputy from Nakhchivan AR, Peopleâ€™s Writer Akram Eylisli said he was unaware of the happenings as he was not elected from that region.

Resident of Bananiyar village Ibrahim Alakbarov told APA that some of the villagers had been detained in the happenings: â€œAshura Day was held in the village and the police officers watched the event. Officers of the law-enforcement bodies carried out operation in the village the next day. One of the arrested Shamil Aliyevâ€™s son Yunus Aliyev burnt himself as a protest to his fatherâ€™s arrest. He is under treatment in Iranâ€.

The villager stated that no Iranian mullahs had attended the events in Ashura Day.

According to him, they have today met with OSCE representatives in Baku and provided detailed information about the situation.

Human Rights Activist Seadet Benanyarli told APA that local residents had updated her on the happenings and she had already appealed to the Interior Ministry.

Representative of Interior Ministry of Nakhchivan AR Bahruz Guliyev told APA that no confrontation had happened in Julfa.