DUSHANBE, January 22, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik authorities are trying to evacuate Tajik nationals from Syria because of the dangerous unrest there.

Muhammad Egamzod, a spokesman for the Tajik Embassy in Moscow, says Tajik Ambassador to Russia Abdulmajid Dostiyev has asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to help Tajik nationals living in Syria.  According to him, Tajik ambassador raised that issue at a meeting of Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov with ambassadors of the CIS member nations to the Russian Federation that took place in Moscow on January 21.

During the meeting, Russian foreign minister reported informed the ambassadors that two Russian planes had been sent to Damascus to evacuate Russian citizens from Syria.

“Ambassador Dostiyev asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to help Tajik nationals living in Syria who will apply for help to the Russian embassy and consulates in this country,” Egamzod noted.

Meanwhile, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on January 22 that the Russian government has sent two planes to the Mideast to evacuate Russians who want to leave Syria.

“On orders from the leadership of the Russian Federation, the Emergency Situations Ministry is sending two planes to Beirut so that all Russians wishing to leave Syria could leave,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Irina Rossius, told RIA-Novosti.

The Unite Nations says that the civil war that began in Syria in March 2011 has claimed more than 60,000 lives.