September 14, 2007 - 14:09 AMT
Russian community of Azerbaijan requested Aliyev to stop Christian cemetery demolition
The Russian organizations of Azerbaijan requested President Ilham Aliyev "to stop the functionaries who are committing vandalism and outrage upon those buried at the Nariman cemetery in Baku, Lenta.ru reports.

As reported earlier, under the pretext of building a highway Baku demolishes a Christian cemetery (the Nariman cemetery), where Armenians, Jews and Russians were buried.

Although local authorities assure of reinterment, photos in Internet show a complete dump. The photographers say the bulldozers just raze the graves to the ground depriving the relatives to rebury the remains.

The city administration says exhumation and reinterment is performed in accord with ethnic and religious traditions in the presence of relatives of the deceased. Meanwhile, the Jewish News Agency reports that "observance of Jewish traditions is restricted to the fact that grave-diggers throw the ashes into sacks and then give them to the relatives."