Lezghin was an UNPO member between 2012 and 2023. 

Represented at UNPO by the Federal Lezgian National and Cultural Autonomy (FLNCA), the Lezghin people have long used international platforms to highlight ongoing challenges related to minority rights, cross-border division, and cultural preservation. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the creation of the Russia-Azerbaijan border physically separated Lezghin communities that had historically formed a single cultural and social space, creating restrictions on movement, family ties, and economic exchange. Within both states, Lezghins have raised concerns about limited political representation, erosion of linguistic rights, and discrimination in education and employment. In Azerbaijan in particular, reports drafted by the UNPO described pressures of assimilation, lack of Lezghin-language schooling beyond primary levels, and suppression of community organisation and media outlets. In Dagestan, where Lezghins form one of the largest ethnic groups, they face economic marginalisation and insufficient implementation of federal guarantees for cultural autonomy. 

Through their participation in UNPO, the FLNCA has organised fact-finding missions, advocacy at the European level, and awareness campaigns. Despite these efforts, systemic barriers remain, including the absence of legal status and consistent minority protections and limited dialogue with state authorities. 

The Lezghins are an Indigenous Northeast Caucasian people whose homeland spans southern Dagestan in the Russian Federation and northern Azerbaijan, and whose identity is deeply anchored in the Lezghin language—a member of the Lezgic branch of the Nakh-Daghestanian family—which remains a vital marker of communal belonging despite decades of assimilatory pressures. Their culture is shaped by the rugged mountain and Caspian lowland terrain—with strong traditions of hospitality, oral poetry, folklore (such as the epic “Sharvili”), music and the dance Lezginka. Most Lezghins are Sunni Muslims, yet their religious practice often incorporates pre-Islamic customs and folk festivals such as Yaran Suvar (spring equinox), underscoring a layered cultural legacy. 

In antiquity, Lezghin-speaking peoples were part of the broader cultural mosaic of Caucasian Albania and other early highland communities; classical authors referred to groups called the Legoi or Lezgai in the eastern Caucasus. During the medieval period they maintained clan-based communities in the rugged terrain between the Caspian Sea and the high mountains, where geography reinforced their autonomy and cultural distinctiveness. 

The expansion of the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries brought fundamental change: the territories inhabited by Lezghins were integrated into Russia’s Caucasian provinces, administrative divisions such as the Derbent and Baku gubernias being redrawn in the mid-19th century. This incorporation undermined traditional clan governance, introduced new land regimes, and increasingly connected Lezghin society into imperial economic and administrative circuits. 

Under Soviet rule, the Lezghin region underwent further transformation: in 1921 the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed (within which many Lezghins lived), and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic included the northern Lezghin areas. Soviet policy promoted collectivisation of agriculture, industrialisation, and mass internal migration, which disrupted traditional social structures, languages, and livelihoods. A key feature was the drawing of the internal USSR border between Russia and Azerbaijan, which divided Lezghin communities and limited their cross-border social and cultural ties.  

In the late Soviet period and after 1991, Lezghins found themselves in two states—with divergent minority rights regimes. In Azerbaijan, the UNPO accused the state of “systematic administrative assimilation,” village renaming, restricted education in the Lezghin language, and under‑representation in political life. In Dagestan (Russia), while the Lezghins are one of the titular peoples, the UNPO nevertheless highlighted economic under‑investment, migration of other ethnic groups into Lezghin zones, and limited institutional support for language and culture.