The Botlikh people are one of the Andi-Dido peoples of Dagestan

Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...

. Until the 1930s they were considered a distinct people. Since that time they have been classified as Caucasian Avars

Caucasian Avars

Avars or Caucasian Avars are a modern people of Caucasus, mainly of Dagestan, in which they are the predominant group. The Caucasian Avar language belongs to the Northeast Caucasian language family ....

 and have faced a campaign to have them assimilate into that population.

The Botlikh are primarily Sunni Muslims. They numbered 3,354 people in 1926. They speak the Botlikh language

Botlikh language

Botlikh is an Andic language of the Northeast Caucasian language family spoken by the Botlikhs in the Buikhe and Ashino villages in southwestern Dagestan, Russia by approximately 5,500 people, according to a survey by Koryakov in 2006.-External links:*...

, which belongs to the Northeast Caucasian language family

Northeast Caucasian languages

The Northeast Caucasian languages constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, northern Azerbaijan, and in northeastern Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East...

. According to the Russian Census (2002)

Russian Census (2002)

Russian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...

only 16 people in Russia declared themselves as Botlikhs (none of them in Dagestan), and 90 people declared speaking Botlikhian language.

Sources

• Wixman, Ronald. The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook. (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1984) p. 31