“GEGHARD”
SCIENTIFIC ANALYTICAL
FOUNDATION
2025
2025
2025-06-30
Azerbaijan canceled all Russian cultural events in its territory, as announced by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan on June 29. The released statement says: “In response to the targeted and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence against Azerbaijanis based on their ethnicity, demonstratively perpetrated by Russian law enforcement agencies in the Yekaterinburg region of the Russian Federation - and considering the systematic nature of such incidents in recent times - all cultural events planned in Azerbaijan involving Russian state and private entities have been cancelled”.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “We express our deep concern over the raids by the Russian Federal Security Service on the homes of Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg on the morning of June 27, which resulted in the deaths of our compatriots, the serious injuries of some of them, and the detention of 9 people. We expect from the Russian side to conduct an urgent investigation into the matter and bring the perpetrators of this unacceptable violence to justice as soon as possible.” Later, the chargé d'affaires of the Russian Embassy in the Republic of Azerbaijan, Pyotr Volokovich, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On June 27, mass arrests of Azerbaijanis took place in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. More than 50 people were taken to the police station. The arrests are connected to the May 2001 murder of an Azerbaijani businessman, Yunis Pashayev, by a criminal group. The main suspects are the Safarov brothers, owners of the “Kaspi” cafe in Yekaterinburg. During the searches, two of the brothers died.
The Azerbaijanis arrested in Yekaterinburg face life imprisonment. They are suspected of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. “The criminal case is being investigated on several grounds — murder committed by a group of persons by prior collusion, contract killing, and attempted contract killing. The suspects are criminal members of the same ethnic group," reported the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. According to the investigation, these charges relate to murder cases that occurred in Yekaterinburg in 2001, 2010, and 2011. The attempted murder of Fehruz Sh., a friend of Yunis Pashayev, in 2010, and the murder of Ikram Gajiyev in 2011 were also allegedly organized by the ethnic group led by the Safarov brothers. According to some analysts, the murder of businessman Pashayev caused division within the local Azerbaijani diaspora.
As a preventive measure, the court ordered 22-day detention for three individuals, Akif, Ayaz, and Mazahir Safarov. Three others, Bekir Safarov, Ahliman Ganjiev, and Shahin Lalayev — were detained for three days.
In response to Baku’s statements, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, stated:
“As part of the investigation into serious crimes committed in previous years, Russian law enforcement agencies have carried out arrests and searches at the residences of suspects who are Russian citizens of Azerbaijani origin.”
“Zakharova’s brief and non-serious response to the note and statement issued by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not satisfactory. A more comprehensive and substantiated explanation should be provided regarding this matter,” Azerbaijani MP Vugar Isgandarov said. He added that as if Russia’s behavior is linked to “Azerbaijan’s growing international reputation, its independent foreign policy, and its steadily increasing global influence.” According to him, the strengthening of Azerbaijan’s power allegedly causes concern in certain Russian circles, who are trying to slow down and weaken this development by various means.
The parliamentary delegation led by Ali Ahmadov, First Deputy Speaker of the Milli Majlis, will not participate in the 23rd session of the Interparliamentary Cooperation Commission between the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. According to the Press and Public Relations Department of the Milli Majlis, “this decision was made in response to the demonstrative, targeted, and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence committed against Azerbaijanis on ethnic grounds by Russian law enforcement in Yekaterinburg, as well as the recurring nature of such incidents in recent times.”
Chairman of the Civil Solidarity Party, People's Poet, Co-Chairman of the Congress of World Azerbaijanis, Sabir Rustamkhanli, said that “raid on Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg is a crime committed by the state.” “This is barbarity committed by employees of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs,” he said.
He used remarkable phrasing to describe the Russian Federation in her statement, where “intolerance, hatred of other nations, especially this purge, was carried out against the Turkic and Muslim peoples. Noting that around 3 million Azerbaijanis live in the Russian Federation, he described Russia–Azerbaijan relations as a “one-sided friendship.”
A question arises: why does Baku, despite these facts, try to cover up the activities of this criminal group?
Recently, the interstate relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have been characterized by occasional escalations. The most recent deterioration occurred at the end of December 2024, related to the crash of an “Azerbaijan Airlines” plane near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. It is clear that currently, Russia–Azerbaijan relations are not very smooth. The events in Yekaterinburg, which fully fall within the context of criminal activities, are being used by the Azerbaijani authorities to aggravate relations with Russia. It is certain that this renewed anti-Russian campaign in Azerbaijan is part of a planned and deliberate state strategy with deeper objectives.