The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's statement, calling it provocative and a distortion of historical facts. Speaking on the anniversary of the 1915 events, Mamdani linked the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire to modern-day events, accusing Azerbaijan and Turkey of attacking Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 and "expelling" more than 100,000 people in 2023.
There are 131 defendants in the case of mass riots at Makhachkala airport. Eight of them are wanted.
Let us recall that on October 29, 2023, hundreds of people broke into Makhachkala airport, trying to find passengers on a transit flight from Tel Aviv. Those gathered opposed Israel's actions in Palestine.
In total, almost 400 people were detained after the incident. There are at least 120 in pre-trial detention centers. Most of them are charged with participation in mass riots (Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code). Also, the courts received more than 800 protocols under articles on violation of the rules for holding rallies and organizing the simultaneous presence of citizens (20.2 and 20.2.2 of the Administrative Code).
Earlier, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation granted the requests of the Prosecutor General's Office to change the territorial jurisdiction of the case of some accused. According to lawyers, the change in jurisdiction is illegal and violates the constitutional rights of citizens. The case is being supervised by a Moscow investigator for particularly important cases.
Former Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev called the events in Makhachkala an example of the West’s attempts to shake up the situation in the North Caucasus Federal District. According to the speaker, the United States and its allies are trying to launch separatist processes in the North Caucasus with the help of provocations and disinformation.