Common sense overcame emotions. Systematic work of Azerbaijani and Chechen authorities, in particular Azerbaijani embassy, helped to resolve the conflict.
On February 14, a mass brawl with shooting involving Chechens and Azerbaijanis occured in Neolith restaurant in Moscow. Police arrived to the scene of this accident and detained 18 people.
Situation was fueled by the media, which reported that leadership of Azerbaijan and Chechnya have distanced themselves from this incident. Meanwhile, immediately after clarification of the details of this incident, both Baku and Grozny made statements regarding this situation.
"Leadership of the Chechen Republic is aware of this incident, our representatives learned all the details and are looking for instigators," Dzhambulat Umarov, national policy, external relations, press and information minister of the Chechen Republic, said. Baku viewed this case as domestic criminal incident, which can't harm friendly and fraternal ties that historically exist between the Azerbaijani and Chechen peoples, Azerbaijani presidential aide Ali Hasanov said. In addition, deputy of the Azerbaijani parliament, Elman Nasirov, assured that targeted efforts of certain forces to politicize incident that occurred for domestic reasons are unacceptable: "Azerbaijanis and Chechens have been friendly neighbors for centuries. We're connected by religion, we have close culture. We have lived side by side for centuries, there have always been friendly ties between us."
Point in the conflict was set by the meeting in Moscow of Azerbaijani and Chechen aksakals, representatives of the intelligentsia, authoritative people of both communities, which ended late on February 15. It became clear that the provocateurs tried to make criminal incident look like huge interethnic conflict. Fortunately, people on both sides responded to this situation on time and in a proper manner, so they were able to prevent any conflict.
According to media reports, participants of the expanded meeting of influential representatives of Azerbaijani and Chechen communities discussed this case and stated that it won't hurt friendship between Azerbaijanis and Chechens, so this conflict was settled and there are no tensions anymore. Both Baku and Grozny praised coordinated work of structures that didn't allow provocateurs to succeed in disrupting stability of multinational and multi-religious Russian society.
Today it already became obvious that Azerbaijanis and Chechens simply succumbed to emotions during the incident. Now common sense overcame emotions. This case proved once again that all residents of Russia, regardless of nationality or religion, must abide by the law and remember that we live in a multinational country, our children, our sisters, our parents live here. We must always respect each other.
