The chairman of the Russian community of Azerbaijan issued a statement over fictitious information on oppression of Russians in Azerbaijan.

The massage reads:

We, representatives of the Russian community of Azerbaijan disagree and are deeply indignant at the fictitious information, lie and slander spread on our behalf in Russian and Azerbaijani mass media.

We want to note that the Russian community of Azerbaijan is the biggest in the South Caucasus. As to the Ivanovka village of the region of Ismayilly, this is the only village in the South Caucasus where Russians live in compact community.

There is an equal, normal attitude to the residents of the village just as to other citizens of Russian and other nationalities in the region and country. We have never felt what various sources say oppression or discrimination. As in the whole post-soviet area, Azerbaijan also has economic and social problems but we solve them all together.

No one should try to politicize and exaggerate them. Local authorities agreed to preserve as an exception the country`s only kolkhoz in the village of Ivanovka. If the facts existed as mentioned in those sources, Russians would have left Azerbaijan long time ago as they did in Armenia.

All the world confirms that Azerbaijan is one of the most tolerant states, and we affirm this since we do not feel either harassment or discrimination. We live in friendship and harmony with Azerbaijani people. We ask those wishing, as saying goes, to fish in troubled waters, not to muddle waters in our relationships. In principle, they will not achieve it as our relations for long years became so strong that no force is able to harm them.