tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73151157890914891382024-03-13T14:15:12.267+03:00Circassian World News BlogNEWS & ANALYSIS ON THE CAUCASUSCWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.comBlogger413125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-73915789957969484032013-06-15T16:01:00.002+03:002013-06-15T16:02:33.351+03:00Karachayevo-Cherkessia Parliamentarians Demand Genocide Denial Be Designated a Criminal Offense <div style="text-align: justify;">
Regnum -- At the June 13 session of the National Assembly (Parliament) of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, deputies passed a resolution on submitting to the Russian State Duma a draft federal law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation", which prescribes penalties for denying or trying to justify genocide, a correspondent for the REGNUM news agency reports.</div>
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Karachayevo-Cherkessia law-makers propose to add to Article 357.1 of the Criminal Code and introduce penalties for the public denial, justification, approval or understatement of the scale of acts of genocide (political repression) expressed at a meeting or other public event with the aim of defending those who committed these crimes, or with the aim expressing solidarity with them. It is proposed to introduce a penalty of up to 1 million rubles [$31,515, EUR 23,618], or compulsory works for a period of up to 320 hours. It is proposed to penalize the same acts committed via the mass media by a fine of up to 2 million rubles, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.</div>
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The legislative initiative was initiated by the chairman of the committee on nationality policy, foreign relations, local government and non-profit organizations of the Karachayevo-Cherkessia Legislative Assembly, Ahmad Ebzeyev. The parliamentarian explained in an interview with REGNUM that the bill must undergo the procedure of approval by the State Duma Council before State Duma deputies begin to review it.</div>
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Commenting to REGNUM on this initiative by regional deputies, the author of the idea of criminalizing denial of instances of genocide, head of the Department of History of the Fatherland at the Karachayevo-Cherkessia State University, Doctor of Historical Sciences Professor Rustam Begeulov noted that a legislative ban on the justification or denial in the media, scientific publications or during mass events of repressions on ethnic, race, religious or class grounds should in the first instance reduce the intensity of the discussion of such issues. “This should strengthen the realization in society that any attempt to justify such crimes is inadmissible. The discussions have long since gone beyond a purely historical framework and are continually acquiring emotional and political overtones, all of which simply hinders normal research by scholars and historians whom first one side then the other tries to accuse of bias and taking the side of a particular nation,” Begeulov thinks.</div>
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We would remind you that the idea of introducing a bill criminalizing denial or justification of genocide was publicly proposed on 17 May at an international conference in Cherkessk entitled "The Rights of Repressed Peoples in the World Today (a propos the 70th Anniversary of the Deportation of the Peoples of Southern Russia)." The plans to introduce this bill were announced at the conference by the keynote speaker, Karachayevo-Cherkessia parliament deputy speaker Ruslan Khabov, who is the leader of the public organization Karachai Alan Halk that represents the Karachais. His report analyzed the extent to which the basic legal acts of the Russian Federation concerning the rehabilitation of repressed peoples have been implemented, and expressed the intention of the regional parliament to propose to the State Duma including in the Criminal Code provisions for liability for the public approval or justification of all kinds of repression on the basis of ethnicity.</div>
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<i>This article was published by <a href="http://www.regnum.ru/news/1671188.html" target="_blank">REGNUM</a> and is translated from Russian.</i></div>
CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-2021596899337385882011-05-30T23:50:00.008+03:002011-05-30T23:55:47.969+03:00Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazia’s Leader, Dies at 62, by Ellen Barry<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GHXm_w1cxgU/TeQDXwBRfiI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/uvODzVGxhV4/s1600/Sergey_Bagapsh.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="text-align: justify;float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 128px; " src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GHXm_w1cxgU/TeQDXwBRfiI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/uvODzVGxhV4/s200/Sergey_Bagapsh.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612614742172597794" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The New York Times, MOSCOW — Sergei V. Bagapsh, who led the Black Sea enclave of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/georgia/abkhazia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo">Abkhazia</a> through a tumultuous effort to gain independence from Georgia without being absorbed by Russia, died Sunday in Moscow. He was 62.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Bagapsh had successful surgery to remove growths on his lung on May 21, but succumbed to complications that ended in heart failure, medical officials told the Interfax news service.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The affable manner of Mr. Bagapsh, who governed Abkhazia as its president, concealed the strategic thinking of a chess player, a quality he used to maneuver the nationalist upheaval of the post-Soviet period. Though he was an ethnic Abkhaz, he married into a large Georgian family, and remained on good terms with his in-laws even as Abkhazia’s separatist war in the early 1990s tore the country apart.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia was a victory for Mr. Bagapsh, who had long lobbied the Kremlin — or any other government, for that matter — to recognize Abkhazia as a sovereign nation. The slender wedge of beachfront land, once a cherished vacation spot for the Soviet nomenklatura, or ruling elite, was now under the protection of the Russian Army, and Mr. Bagapsh was received in Moscow as a bona fide head of state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he found himself in a far more difficult position than he had anticipated. Russians lined up immediately to grab prime real estate and privatize energy and transportation infrastructure, which could be crucial to preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Under extraordinary pressure from Russia to compromise, Mr. Bagapsh also had to answer domestic critics who accused him of selling off Abkhazia’s assets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“After the August war, Abkhaz society — and this was also the tragedy of Bagapsh — is, if anything, more divided than it was before,” said Peter Semneby, the former European Union special representative to the South Caucasus, who met many times with Mr. Bagapsh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“You have those who are very uncomfortable with the dominating role of Russia, and what they see as selling out, many of whom were behind the independence movement in the first place,” he said. “On the other hand, you have those who see a lot of economic opportunity. And these interests are very much being played out against each other.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, and its prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, said on Sunday that they would view Mr. Bagapsh’s body to say farewell in person.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His death will very likely usher in a competition for power in Abkhazia, with Russia and Georgia jockeying for direct access to the next leader. Candidates for early presidential elections, scheduled for three months from now, will most likely include Prime Minister Sergei M. Shamba, who has advocated a “multivector” foreign policy that includes alliances with Turkey and the West; Vice President Aleksandr Ankvab, a close ally of Mr. Bagapsh; and Raul Khajimba, a former K.G.B. officer who left government to head an opposition party.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has proved difficult to manipulate Abkhaz politics in the past. In 2004, Russia threw its weight behind Mr. Khajimba: pop stars were flown in to hold free concerts in his name; Mr. Putin, then the president, appeared with him on billboards; Russian lawmakers threatened to cut off the tangerine imports that were the territory’s economic lifeline. Mr. Bagapsh’s opponents, meanwhile, suggested he would cave to pressure from Tbilisi because his wife was Georgian.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Bagapsh won anyway. Russia imposed an import blockade, so that tons of tangerines rotted in trucks at the border. But Mr. Bagapsh moved into the presidential headquarters and set about negotiating with Mr. Khajimba, eventually forming a coalition government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recalling that brutal political war in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/world/europe/17abkhazia.html">an interview two years ago</a>, Mr. Bagapsh was characteristically easygoing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I understood that it was politics, and it would pass, and I was right,” he said. “All the people who swore at me, said I was a mafioso and a bandit and so forth — today, they are my friends.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Guram Odishariya, a writer, grew up not far from Mr. Bagapsh in the Abkhaz capital, known in Georgian as Sukhumi and in Abkhaz as Sukhum, a city where men gather on an embankment to play chess. Mr. Bagapsh showed an early aptitude for the long game, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“He is the kind of person who plays 15 steps ahead,” he said. “There are leaders who play a child’s game, but Bagapsh is not one of them.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/world/europe/30bagapsh.html?_r=1">The New York Times</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related</div><div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/component/content/article/1577.html">On the Passing of Sergey Bagapsh, the President of Abkhazia</a> - CircassianWorld</li><li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://abkhazworld.com/headlines/658-abkhaz-leader-sergei-bagapsh-dies-by-liz-fuller-.html">Abkhaz Leader Sergei Bagapsh Dies, by Liz Fuller</a><br /><br /></li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-24669576737781344492011-05-15T15:28:00.007+03:002011-05-15T15:59:51.778+03:00Beware of Greeks bringing gifts, by Richard Berge<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_AG3XMMBzaQ/Tc_HFWUlRXI/AAAAAAAAAeE/t0TbTGEx2sQ/s1600/Trojan_horse.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="text-align: justify;float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px; " src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_AG3XMMBzaQ/Tc_HFWUlRXI/AAAAAAAAAeE/t0TbTGEx2sQ/s200/Trojan_horse.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606918955804738930" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">antigeopolitics, May 14 -- Ahead of the anniversary of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Cleansing_of_Circassians">mass killings and forced exile</a> of the Circassians from their ancestral lands in the Caucasus at the hands of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century, which will be marked on the 21st of May, the parliament of Georgia has <a href="http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23442">again</a> mooted the possibility of recognising these events as genocide. The Circassian genocide has had a profound impact on Circassian history and national identity, and the process towards its recognition is given huge importance by many Circassians, especially among the diaspora in Turkey and the wider Middle East. However, until recently, no state has shown willingness to officially recognise the Circassians genocide as such. This changed in late 2010, when following a speech by president Mikhail Saakashvili, the process towards recognising the Circassian genocide was begun by the Georgian parliament. This process further sparked a conference on the Circassian genocide held in Tbilisi in March 2011, organised by the Jamestown Foundation and with the participation of the so-called American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, both known instruments of the US foreign policy establishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since its failed bid to recapture the breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the 2008 August War, the Georgian overture towards the Circassians has formed part of a charm offensive to shore up support for Georgia among the peoples of the Russian North Caucasus, and drive a wedge between Russia and the peoples of the region. As seen from Tbilisi, the conflicts in the Georgian breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are merely the result of Russian efforts to destabilize an independent and sovereign Georgian state, and Georgia reckons that two can play this came. Ostensibly under the aegis of pan-Caucasian unity and solidarity, Georgian president Mikhal Saakashvili has ordered the abolition of visas to Georgia for citizens from North Caucasus republics, as well as the establishment of the Russian-language satellite TV channel “First Caucasian” or <a href="http://pik.tv/ru">PIK</a> in Russian. The idea was to give the inhabitants of the North Caucasus more possibilities for education and trade in Georgia, and also provide them with a source of “unbiased” information that is not controlled by the Russian government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While Russian authorities have universally condemned Georgia’s moves, many in the North Caucasus republics themselves have been cautiously optimistic or supportive. However, there is considerable lingering distrust of the Georgian actions and their motives in the North Caucasus for historical and ideological reasons. The Circassians especially point to the role played by Georgia in the Russian conquest of the North Caucasus, where the Georgian nobility participated on Russia’s side against Circassians and other highlanders in the Great Caucasian War, which events eventually led to the Circassian genocide. Circassians also note what they see as double standards in Georgian dealings with them and what they see as their “brother nation”, the Abkhaz, especially in the light of Georgia’s attempts to suppress Abkhaz national aspirations during the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia. In any case, it is widely believed that the Georgian conception of Caucasian unity is designed to further Georgia’s ambition to become a regional leader, a role which the other Caucasian peoples, fiercely independent and assured of their own position in the region, would naturally be wary to grant it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is also notable cause for concern when assessing the renewed Western interest in the Circassians and their predicament. Some Western opinion formers and policy makers acting through organisations such as the Jamestown Foundation have primarily the national interests of the West and the United States at heart, and seek to use the Circassians and other peoples of the North Caucasus as tools to further their own geopolitical agenda. This turn of events has historical precedents in British interest in the Circassian cause in the period running up to the Cirmean War, which even included pledges of military support to the Circassians in their fight against the Russian Empire. However, Circassian hopes in the British eventually turned out to be misplaced, as Britain abandoned all aid to the Circassians following the end of the war. Current Western support for the Circassians is not likely to be more reliable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is not at all clear either that recognition of the Circassian genocide by Georgia or other third parties would have the positive effect that Circassian nationalists, especially in the diaspora, are hoping for. Rather than force concessions from Moscow on cultural or political rights, or exact some form of apology and reparation for past wrongdoings, it is more likely that recognition will only harden the front between Russia and the Circassians and worsen the lot of Circassians currently living in Circassia. Examples here can be readily drawn from the efforts of many countries to recognise the Armenian genocide, which so far has failed to make Ankara relent on its position. In addition, the stubbornness by which recognition has been pursued, especially by the Armenian diaspora, have actually helped to further complicate the relationship between Armenia and Turkey, forestalling beneficial economic and diplomatic steps like the reopening of the Turko-Armenian border. Consequently, those among the Circassians who are prepared to accept outside support for their cause would do well to ponder who their allies are, and which possible consequences recognition could entail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://antigeopolitics.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/beware-of-greeks-bringing-gifts/">antigeopolitics</a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>Richard Berge</b> holds a BA in Politics and Georgian language from the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London, and a MA in Politics, Security and Integration from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at UCL. He has worked for the Norwegian Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2009 and the European Centre for Minority Issues in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2010, focusing on human rights, freedom of information and minority rights in both countries. He is currently looking to publish his MA thesis on the political situation of the Armenian minority in Abkhazia.</i></div><br /><i></i>Related Issues<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/analysis/1453-some-nations-crimes.html">Some Nations' Crimes are More Hidden than Others'...</a>, by Metin Sönmez</li><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/21-may-1864-from-dmitri-kipiani-to.html">21 May 1864: From Dmitri Kipiani to Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Romanov</a><br /></li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-5575786876632394682011-02-06T21:47:00.003+02:002011-02-06T21:51:30.497+02:00Terrorism meets xenophobia in Russia, by Charles King and Rajan Menon<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Terrorism meets xenophobia in Russia</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Deadly tit-for-tat between ethnic Russians and North Caucasus migrants is escalating.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Los Angeles Times</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By Charles King and Rajan Menon</div><div style="text-align: justify;">February 6, 2011</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If current demographic trends continue, within the next half-century Muslims will constitute a sizable part, perhaps even a plurality, of Russia's population; indeed, Moscow currently has more Muslim inhabitants than any other European city. And unlike those in Amsterdam or Paris, most of Moscow's Muslims are citizens, not immigrants — products of the Russian Empire's 19th century southward expansion. In the coming decades, Muslim peoples from Russia's North Caucasus and Volga regions, together with migrants from neighboring Central Asia and Azerbaijan, will continue to displace Russia's Slavic core and reshape how the country defines itself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">These shifts pose new challenges to Russia's stability. Last December, following the slaying of an ethnic Russian in Moscow, allegedly by a man from the North Caucasus, mobs of chanting youths took to the streets, arms raised in Nazi salutes. "Moscow for Muscovites," read one of their tamer bits of graffiti. Photos and video showed other young men — pummeled, bloodied and dark-haired — cowering behind a thin phalanx of police officers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia has an undeniable terrorism problem emanating from its restive North Caucasus, a region featuring authoritarian politics and a growing Islamist insurgency. But it also has a xenophobia problem. Xenophobic mob attacks on Muslim minorities in the national capital and other major cities could make terrorism attacks occasions for additional bloodshed. This deadly tit-for-tat threatens, especially in the context of an economic crisis, to stoke ethnic and religious conflict, empowering Russia's increasingly visible ultranationalist forces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The people targeted in the violent episodes exemplified by Moscow's December demonstrations were primarily from the North Caucasus, a mountainous stretch along Russia's southern border with Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the wake of two wars in Chechnya, an insurgency has gained ground across the area. That, along with poverty, joblessness and the indiscriminate roundups of young men by state security services, has spurred out-migration from the area since the 1990s.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The more chaotic the North Caucasus becomes, the larger the exodus of people to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities, and in turn the greater the likelihood of violence between far-right hooligans and Russian Muslims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia's leaders understand the stakes. President Dmitry Medvedev has labeled the North Caucasus his country's greatest internal problem. After the December riots, he denounced the fanatics for sowing disorder. Likewise, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned against extremism of all sorts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moscow has also tried to stabilize the North Caucasus. It has increased investment in Chechnya, seeking to rebuild the republic after the weakening of the insurgency there. Still, the other North Caucasus republics — unfamiliar places such as Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria — remain mired in poverty and unemployment. The Kremlin has sought to buy off power brokers in the region, hoping to rely on the local strongmen to keep order and crack down on suspected insurgents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But this is not the kind of thoroughgoing reform that is needed. And the indiscriminate dragnets deployed against Muslim men in the region have driven even more young people to leave or to join the insurgency's ranks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the meantime, anti-migrant chauvinists in major cities farther north have made life even more miserable for those fleeing the North Caucasus. Politicians have inflamed the situation by painting all Muslim migrants as criminals and aliens. And the Russian media tend to denounce the chaos while ignoring the victims — unless they are ethnic Russians.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia has seen all this before. The eruptions of violence against neighbors who were also perceived as insidious outsiders marked Russia's early 20th century. Anti-Jewish pogroms in then-Russian cities such as Kishinev and Odessa assaulted one of the Russian Empire's most vibrant communities. But they also hurt Russia: by increasing emigration, staining the country's international reputation and creating a repertoire of violence against Jews that was reprised during the Bolshevik revolution and Russian civil war.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, as now, the thugs were a tiny part of the population. Neither today's extreme nationalists nor the Islamist terrorists are representative of the communities they claim to speak for — a point Medvedev, who has praised Islam as a vital part of Russian history, has been at pains to make.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is a fine line the Russian government must walk. In responding to terrorism, the government must be careful to separate the terrorists from the rest of Russia's large Muslim community. Medvedev's use of the term "pogrom" to describe last December's riots is a step in the right direction. Without such clear signals from Moscow, Muslims in and from the North Caucasus — who, after all, have been the main victims of Islamist terrorism for years — will wonder whether the country they now call home is big enough to embrace them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Domodedovo Airport bombing points to the need for better intelligence and policing to protect all of Russia's citizens. Russia's creaking security services, often heavy handed and inefficient, have scored some remarkable successes against insurgents, and the airport attack will be another opportunity to reexamine the performance of state institutions. But the larger challenge for Russian citizens and their government involves coming to terms with a future in which the Muslim periphery is no longer so peripheral.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><i><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i>Charles King is a professor at Georgetown University and the author of "Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams." Rajan Menon is a professor of political science at City College of New York/City University of New York and the author of "The End of Alliances."</i></span></div></i><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kingmenon-russia-muslims-20110206,0,6278842.story">Los Angeles Times</a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-69489699633746526402010-12-17T11:57:00.001+02:002010-12-17T12:01:45.089+02:00Cherkesov's relatives treat murder of "Spartak" fan as tragic accident<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQs0X-cO5hI/AAAAAAAAAds/dYiNngIBb4s/s1600/5251379861_9c60ff7a82_oe_view.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 152px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQs0X-cO5hI/AAAAAAAAAds/dYiNngIBb4s/s200/5251379861_9c60ff7a82_oe_view.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551588552167319058" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Caucasian Knot, Dec. 13, 2010 -- Relatives and friends of Aslan Cherkesov, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, suspected of murdering Yegor Sviridov, a football fan of "Spartak" in Moscow, consider what had happened to be a tragic accident, which was caused by a fatal coincidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I know the pain of loss," said Sonya Cherkesova, Aslan's mother, "six months ago I buried my elder son. I express my sincere and heartfelt condolences to the mother of the deceased boy. Along with that, I want to declare to the whole world: my son is not a killer! He could not kill a man just so - whatever they talk about him!"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The traumatic pistol from which the fatal shot was made belonged to Aslan Cherkesov for two years. "He's never used it during this time," his mother said. "I know my son: if his life had not been in real danger, he wouldn't have used it this time either."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The "<a href="http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/">Caucasian Knot</a>" has reported that Sviridov was shot dead from a traumatic pistol at night on December 6 in Moscow in a mass brawl. Not far from the place of the incident militiamen detained Aslan Cherkesov, 26, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria and found a traumatic pistol on him. Under decision of the court, Aslan Cherkesov was detained for two months - till February 6, 2011. Cherkesov himself declared his innocence, saying that his actions were self-defence, and he fired blindly, without aiming.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to his relatives, Cherkesov with his friends was in the bar at "Rechnoy Vokzal". His three friends went out a bit earlier, while he paused to buy cigarettes. When he went out, his friends were lying on the pavement, and four persons were beating them. Aslan had his arms twisted out, and he was thrown on a car hood. Then, according to his story, they started choking him. When he saw a "rosettes" (a broken bottle neck with sharp edges looking like petals) in hands of one of the attackers, he pulled his pistol out of the back pocket of his trousers and made three shots into the air. The fourth shot was fatal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sonya Cherkesova does not deny that her son had administrative offences: "But those were minor offences; the murder, of which my son is accused, is quite a different thing."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Journalists write that Aslan did not study anywhere and did not work. They try to make a complete 'rogue' out of him. I am very indignant with this, it's a lie! My brother has higher education, he worked as a rescue in the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE), and then was engaged in real estate business - he worked in a realtor company," said Ann Cherkesova.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Besides, the woman was furious that her brother was announced to be a nationalist: "How can he be a nationalist, when he has a Russian wife, who was pregnant with his child?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ann told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about her intention to meet the family of the deceased young man. "Despite the threat to kill us, arriving from 'Spartak' fans, we'll surely meet the family of Yegor Sviridov to tell them that we are very sorry about what has happened," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See earlier reports: "Rally of football fans in Moscow escalated into clash with OMON fighters," "In Moscow, 3000 fans commemorate "Spartak" fan killed in a mass brawl," "Spartak fans against RFU's refusal to toughen punishment to Anzhi."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/15522/">Caucasian Knot</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related Issues</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/far-right-goes-on-rampage-during-anti.html">Far right goes on rampage during anti-immigrant clashes in Moscow</a></li><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/fearing-clashes-police-detain-scores.html">Fearing Clashes, Police Detain Scores</a></li><li><a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/news/128-homeland/1513-statement-kbr-human-rights-centre.html">Statement of the Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Centre</a></li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-88080116365113819242010-12-16T11:44:00.003+02:002010-12-16T11:54:22.783+02:00Fearing Clashes, Police Detain Scores<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQnfnbVT2OI/AAAAAAAAAdU/DUFJ67Bm6Ck/s1600/front.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQnfnbVT2OI/AAAAAAAAAdU/DUFJ67Bm6Ck/s400/front.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551213884155877602" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; ">Riot police officers detaining young men they suspect of seeking to stage interracial riots outside the Kievsky train station in Moscow on Wednesday.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By Natalya Krainova - The Moscow Times</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thousands of riot police patrolled downtown Moscow on Wednesday, detaining at least 800 people, conducting pat-downs and closing the Yevropeisky shopping center and access to the nearby Kievskaya metro station to stave off violence in the area.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police feared that thousands of young people, inflamed over the killing of an ethnic Russian in a brawl with Caucasus natives on Dec. 5 and a subsequent riot by ethnic Russians that targeted Caucasus natives last weekend, would heed online calls to stage a violent rally in front of the Yevropeisky mall at 6 p.m.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hundreds of young people — Caucasus natives and ethnic Russians — gathered in the vicinity of the mall on Wednesday evening, many of them chanting “Russia for Russians” and “Moscow for Muscovites.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police detained anyone whom they considered a potential threat, dragging them to waiting police buses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The situation in Moscow is under the control of law enforcement agencies. Residents have no reason to feel threatened,” police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said, Interfax reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the situation remained tense late Wednesday, with many young people itching for a fight. A Moscow Times reporter overheard four boys aged 14 to 15 discussing how to carry out an attack on Caucasus natives as they drank alcoholic cocktails near the Noviye Cheryomushki metro station. “Now we’re going to find a [racial epithet] to beat,” said one. “What’s most important is to make sure that there are no cops around.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A 20-year-old Caucasus native was hospitalized after he was beaten in a Moscow region commuter train by a group of about 20 young people screaming nationalist slogans, a police source told Interfax.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shortly before 6 p.m., a fight broke out between ultranationalists and Caucasus youth, some of them armed with baseball bats and metal rods, on Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya, near the Yevropeisky mall. At least five people were injured, Interfax reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Riot police were also patrolling Manezh Square, where 5,500 football fans and nationalists angered over the death of football fan Yegor Sviridov, 28, staged an unsanctioned rally that turned violent Saturday when protesters attacked a group of Caucasus natives who passed by.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Japanese Embassy recommended that its nationals stay off Moscow streets because “riots are possible,” an embassy source told Interfax.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mayor Sergei Sobyanin promised Tuesday to deal harshly with anyone who attempted a repeat of Saturday’s violence. President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the police to punish those responsible and offered assurances on Twitter that the authorities remained in control.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in the hours after Saturday’s riot, a message appeared online that called for revenge and was attributed to a Caucasus blogger.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I call on you to arm yourselves if possible and have no fear and not to hide at home,” said the blogger’s message. “We will decide at the scene about further actions.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The call, which bloggers said was first posted on the social network VKontakte.ru but was deleted by late Saturday, was reposted more than 3,300 times on LiveJournal by late Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police have downplayed the message as a provocation by ultranationalists, but many young people appear to have heeded the call.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By late Wednesday, police had detained at least 800 people, including 400 near the Yevropeisky mall, police spokesman Biryukov said. Many of those detained were Caucasus natives carrying air guns and other weapons, he said. Other reports said the number of detainees reached 1,200.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">About 600 young people chanting nationalist phrases and obscenities marched from Kievsky Station toward nearby Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Ulitsa, Interfax reported. Riot police walked beside the crowd, blocking an attempt by several dozen youth to shut off Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Ulitsa to traffic, RIA-Novosti reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By 6 p.m., the Yevropeisky mall and the exit from the Kievskaya metro station were closed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The threat of violence hung over other cities as well. About 60 people were detained near Sennaya Ploshchad in St. Petersburg on suspicion of planning a riot, Interfax reported, citing local police. In downtown Samara, about 100 young people were detained on suspicion of planning to hold an unsanctioned gathering, local police told Interfax.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">North Caucasus leaders urged young people to refrain from violence. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov warned at a news conference late Tuesday that “pressure” would be placed on any Chechens who took part in rallies in Moscow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If any one of our Chechen young men allows himself to take part in mass protests in Moscow … he will be pressured through his family and friends according to our traditions and customs, which do not tolerate disobedience,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Said Amirov, mayor of the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, called on Caucasus natives to opt for “a dialogue on the level of people of authority representing the conflict parties” instead of rallying on Moscow’s streets, RIA-Novosti reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The All-Russian Association of Fans also asked football fans not to take part in rallies Wednesday “because it might have a negative effect on the fan community,” association head Alexander Shprygin told Interfax.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the security services were searching the Internet for extremist speech and determining IP addresses of those who posted extremist messages, RIA-Novosti reported, citing an unidentified senior security official.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/fearing-clashes-police-detain-scores/426752.html">The Moscow Times</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related Issues</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/far-right-goes-on-rampage-during-anti.html">Far right goes on rampage during anti-immigrant clashes in Moscow</a> - The Independent</li><li><a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/news/128-homeland/1513-statement-kbr-human-rights-centre.html">Statement of the Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Centre</a></li><li><a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/news/128-homeland/1513-statement-kbr-human-rights-centre.html"></a><a href="http://en.rian.ru/russia/20101216/161798914.html">Over 1,300 detained in Moscow as police head off riot suspects</a> - Ria Novosti</li><li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12003358">Russia ethnic riots: Hundreds arrested in Moscow</a> - BBC</li><li><a href="http://zyalt.livejournal.com/330396.html">Photo report from the riots</a></li><li><a href="http://zyalt.livejournal.com/330396.html"></a><a href="http://www.theotherrussia.org/2010/12/15/statement-by-kasparov-nemtsov-yashin-on-ethnic-riots-in-moscow/">Kasparov, Nemtsov & Yashin on Moscow’s Ethnic Riots</a> - The Other Russia</li><li><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/fearing-clashes-police-detain-scores/426752.html">Fearing Clashes, Police Detain Scores</a>, by Natalya Krainova - The Moscow Times</li><li><a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2036936,00.html#ixzz18CZewIE7">Russia's Race Riots: Are Police Turning a Blind Eye?</a> - Time</li></ul></div></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-45083350988277364572010-12-16T11:23:00.006+02:002010-12-16T11:51:04.668+02:00Far right goes on rampage during anti-immigrant clashes in Moscow<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQna8fq2dlI/AAAAAAAAAdM/c0LjFX19g78/s1600/Russian_neonazis.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 210px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQna8fq2dlI/AAAAAAAAAdM/c0LjFX19g78/s400/Russian_neonazis.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551208748539082322" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; ">Many of the demonstrators shouted nationalist slogans and gave Nazi salutes.</span></div><div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">By Shaun Walker in Moscow - The Independent</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police detained around 1,000 people in central Moscow yesterday in an attempt to contain ethnic tensions between Russian nationalists and migrant workers – sparked by the killing of a football fan – from flaring into pitched street battles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thousands of riot police patrolled locations across the city, including the Kiev Station, where there were rumours that a massed fight could take place between the two groups. Police checked documents and confiscated knives and other weapons, calling on the crowds to disperse and detaining anyone who disobeyed orders, herding them into waiting buses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Russian capital has been tense since the weekend, when protests over the murder of Yegor Sviridov, a Spartak Moscow football fan, turned violent. Mr Sviridov was killed earlier this month, allegedly shot dead by a native of Russia's troubled, mainly Muslim, North Caucasus region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Saturday, thousands of football fans and nationalists packed Moscow's Manezh Square, near the Kremlin, and began attacking anyone of a non-Slavic appearance. In terrifying scenes, riot police had to tell bloodied victims to hide under cars as they fought off the angry mob and waited for reinforcements. After the fighting on the square was brought under control, mobs of youths entered the metro system, and proceeded to pull people who looked non-Russian from trains and assault them on the platform. Dozens were injured.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yesterday, nationalist groups said they were planning to meet again, while the Russian blogosphere had been awash with rumours that hundreds of Chechens and other natives of the North Caucasus were travelling to Moscow to exact revenge for Saturday's attacks. The fear was of a clash between two heavily armed gangs bent on revenge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the end, while the police detained hundreds, there was little in the way of fighting. Groups of nationalists shouted "Russia for Russians!" and "Moscow for Muscovites", while scuffles broke out at various locations across the Russian capital. But the serious battles that had been expected did not materialise, and most of those detained were released shortly afterwards.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The situation in the Russian capital remains tense, however, with nationalist leaders using rhetoric designed to stoke tension. "Today Moscow is a dangerous city, mainly due to immigrants from the North Caucasus and Central Asia," said Alexander Belov, a nationalist figurehead who formerly led the Movement against Illegal Immigration. "Russia is now a battleground. If you go out unarmed, you have minimal chance of surviving. I call on every Russian to carry a gun or at least a knife – not to do so is an act of criminal irresponsibility."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">President Dmitry Medvedev has called for order and promised that those provoking riots will be punished.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div>Source: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/far-right-goes-on-rampage-during-antiimmigrant-clashes-in-moscow-2161645.html">The Independent </a></div><div><br /></div><div>Related Issues</div><div><ul><li><a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/news/128-homeland/1513-statement-kbr-human-rights-centre.html">Statement of the Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Centre</a></li><li><a href="http://en.rian.ru/russia/20101216/161798914.html">Over 1,300 detained in Moscow as police head off riot suspects</a> - Ria Novosti</li><li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12003358">Russia ethnic riots: Hundreds arrested in Moscow</a> - BBC</li><li><a href="http://zyalt.livejournal.com/330396.html">Photo report from the riots</a></li><li><a href="http://www.theotherrussia.org/2010/12/15/statement-by-kasparov-nemtsov-yashin-on-ethnic-riots-in-moscow/">Kasparov, Nemtsov & Yashin on Moscow’s Ethnic Riots</a> - The Other Russia</li><li><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/fearing-clashes-police-detain-scores/426752.html">Fearing Clashes, Police Detain Scores</a>, by Natalya Krainova - The Moscow Times</li><li><a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2036936,00.html#ixzz18CZewIE7">Russia's Race Riots: Are Police Turning a Blind Eye?</a> - Time</li><li><a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/boy-14-suspected-of-racist-murder-in-moscow/story-e6frf7m6-1225972340091">Boy, 14, suspected of racist murder in Moscow</a> - Herald Sun</li></ul></div></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-42002720146388542882010-12-13T21:00:00.007+02:002010-12-13T21:15:15.856+02:00Geopolitics For Dummies: What Does The Collapse Of The Soviet Union Really Mean? By Eugene Ivanov<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQZt4xBid4I/AAAAAAAAAdE/B6oY_qzzZyQ/s1600/82905473526911995.png"><img style="text-align: justify;float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 137px; " src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQZt4xBid4I/AAAAAAAAAdE/B6oY_qzzZyQ/s200/82905473526911995.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5550244412780607362" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ivanov Report, December 13, 2010 -- Regardless of how one would characterize the collapse of the Soviet Union -- as the "<i><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7632057/">greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century</a></i>" or just its "<i><a href="http://archive.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_type70029type82912_87086.shtml">major geopolitical disaster</a></i>" -- everyone appears to agree that it was one of the 20th century's most fateful geopolitical events. Russia's Prime Minister <a href="http://www.premier.gov.ru/">Vladimir Putin</a> once <a href="http://archive.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_type70029type82912_87086.shtml">called</a> it a "genuine drama" for the Russian nation. In contrast, many in the West celebrated the disappearance of the Soviet Union as a Cold War trophy and a sign of the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_history">end of history</a>."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the fact that the Soviet Union has "collapsed" is not in dispute, little attention is being paid to what the Soviet Union, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), actually was. The only thing everyone seems to remember is that the USSR was composed of 15 so-called Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR). So when the USSR was "collapsing", the "collapse" was supposed to proceed precisely along the borders separating the SSRs, resulting in the creation of 15 newly independent states. Can it get any simpler than that?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not so fast. In 1991, the Soviet Union was a true administrative monster that held together as many as 173 different territorial entities: 15 above-mentioned SSRs, 20 Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSRs, parts of SSRs), 8 autonomous regions, 114 regions, 6 territories ("край"), and 10 autonomous districts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Countless changes to this administrative puzzle have occurred in almost 70 years (1922-1991) that the Soviet Union was in existence: new districts, regions and republics emerged and then disappeared with the speed of images on a slide show; borders between entities were drawn and redrawn, and then redrawn again, by a restless hand of a mysterious artist; shuffling smaller "republics" between bigger ones was taking place almost as often as shuffling cards in professional poker. Just a few examples. In 1936, the Kazakh and Kyrgyz ASSRs ceased being parts of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the largest SSR in the USSR, and were "upgraded" to the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSRs, while the Karakalpak ASSR was transferred from the RSFSR to the Uzbek SSR. In the 1950's, a swath of RSFSR territories bordering the Kazakh SSR went under the Kazakh SSR's jurisdiction. In 1954, the Ukraine SSR got a gift from the RSFSR: Crimea (the Crimea region of the RSFSR).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Think about that for a moment. Crimea has been an intrinsic part of Russia for almost 200 years, with the Russian Empire spending blood and treasure, during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War">Crimean War</a> of 1853-1856, to keep the peninsula within its borders. And then, a Communist apparatchik, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev">Nikita Khrushchev</a>, following the best traditions of the Soviet Union's arbitrariness, just transferred Crimea from Russia proper to Ukraine. (The reason for Khrushchev's decision -- to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia -- sounds especially absurd today.) Is it not incumbent upon anyone who wants to put away the legacy of the Soviet Union to condemn this act of supreme state stupidity (the term "state treason" would perhaps be more appropriate) and to demand that Crimea be returned to where it truly belongs: in Russia?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Granted, the borders of some Soviet Socialist Republics -- the three Baltic SSRs (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) come to mind first -- did reflect historically established demarcations between stable and mature nations. But others did not. Instead, they were created by the malicious mind of the world's most creative nation builder, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin">Josef Stalin</a>. Take the Georgian SSR. This product of Stalin's imaginative cartography included the Abkhaz ASSR and South Ossetia autonomous region, both placed under Georgian rule in contradiction to historic and common sense and despite protestations by both the Abkhaz and Ossetian people. So when in 1991, Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union, both Abkhazia and South Ossetia rightfully demanded their independence from Georgia. They won it, after an armed rebellion, in 1992-1993. But the Western governments have refused to accept their de facto independence. Western strategists apparently believed that in this part of the Soviet Union, its "collapse" should be partial, so that Georgia's independence from the USSR was legitimate, despite the fact that Georgia joined the USSR voluntarily, but the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia was not, despite the fact that both entities were made part of Georgia by Stalin's order.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/">Secretary of State</a> ought to consider this the next time she articulates U.S. policy in the region. The Madam Secretary should remember that by vowing to uphold Georgia's "<a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Clinton_Heads_To_Georgia/2091014.html">territorial integrity</a>", she is attempting to preserve the legacy of the Soviet Union (and fulfill the dreams of its bloody dictator). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(The Soviet Union is hardly the only place where creative geopolitical cartography was applied. The West applauded the "collapse" of Yugoslavia, a mini-"evil empire" for many. But for the NATO strategists, the "collapse" was not complete enough, so NATO took away, by brutal force, Kosovo from Serbia. But when Serbs in Western Kosovo wanted to join their compatriots in Serbia to stop the ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Kosovars, the West cried foul and vowed to uphold the "territorial integrity" of the narcomafia heaven that contemporary Kosovo is.) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It will take time to heal all the wounds -- political, economic, social, cultural, and physological -- the precipitious and disorderly disintegration of the Soviet Union has caused to Russia and its people. It will also take time to fully understand what the Soviet Union was and was not in the history of the Russian state. The burden of this work lies on the shoulders of the Russians themselves. But we in the West can help, too. First, by accepting that today's Russia is not a Soviet Union and will never be one. Second, by realizing that the "collapse" of the Soviet Union is still going on, and we can't just end its history by whim.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://theivanovosti.typepad.com/the_ivanov_report/2010/12/geopolitics-for-dummies-what-does-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-really-mean-.html">The Ivanov Report</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-16622851541456564702010-12-12T12:14:00.013+02:002010-12-12T12:38:36.368+02:00Soccer fans clash with police in Moscow<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQSgzmXmCjI/AAAAAAAAAc8/geellCsbkZQ/s1600/story.moscow.afp.gi.jpg"><img style="text-align: justify;float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 113px; " src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TQSgzmXmCjI/AAAAAAAAAc8/geellCsbkZQ/s200/story.moscow.afp.gi.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549737449160575538" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">(CNN), December 12 -- Police have released more than 60 soccer fans detained Saturday in downtown Moscow riots that injured 29 people, an interior department spokesman said Sunday, according to state-run media.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hundreds of soccer fans clashed with Moscow police as an unsanctioned nationalist-tinged mass memorial for a fellow supporter turned violent, according to state media.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The confrontations took place in Manezh Square, outside the Kremlin, and led to the arrests of 65 Spartak Moscow fans for "disobedience," Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said, according to official Russian news agency Itar-Tass.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An undetermined number of people -- including several police -- were hurt in the clashes, news agencies reported.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The head of the Spartak Moscow fan club told the semi-official news agency RIA Novosti that the showdown had nothing to do with sports but instead was rooted in problems in Russian society. Nationalist group members stirred the clashes, Russian Football Union president Sergei Fursenko told the news agency.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some 5,000 fans of the Moscow soccer club had gathered to remember a fellow fan, Yegor Sviridov, who was killed December 6 in northern Moscow by several men from Russia's Caucasus region.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police blocked their rally, but fans then started a fight with men from Caucasus, reported Itar-Tass. Hundreds of fans chanted nationalist slogans, with some throwing flares and smoke pellets at police.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Video on the independent Russia 24 network showed helmeted police officers clubbing protesters and dragging them away.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anti-riot police used batons to try to break up the gathering and help facilitate traffic through the area, according to Itar-Tass. Some fights broke out, and several police officers were injured.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev used a megaphone to urge the crowd to disperse, saying, "You have let (your) steam out. Now you'd better go home," reported Itar-Tass. Kolokoltsev later credited Interior Ministry official Yuri Demidov for giving "exhaustive answers" to fans' questions and calming them down.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Still, according to Itar-Tass, about 300 supporters "crushed everything" on their way from the square to the subway, breaking lights on escalators and smashing windows on a train.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kolokoltsev said that he was confident that all those involved in the December 6 confrontation in northern Moscow would be arrested. Itar-Tass reported Friday that two of those suspects had already been detained.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/12/russia.soccer.violence/">CNN</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related issues</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/12/spartak-moscow-fans-violence">Fans clash with troops in Moscow</a> - The Guardian</li><li><a href="http://en.rian.ru/russia/20101212/161738347.html">Factbox: Clashes in Moscow and St. Petersburg involving football fans</a> - Ria Novosti</li><li><a href="http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15771070&PageNum=0">Police step up security at railway stations over possible football fans’ protests</a> - Itar-Tass</li><li><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/football-fans-troops-clash-in-central-moscow/426094.html">Football Fans, Troops Clash in Moscow</a> - The Moscow Times</li></ul></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="425" height="343"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UsDRCVQtJ2Y?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UsDRCVQtJ2Y?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="343"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;">During an unauthorized rally fans at the Manege Square a few dozens people attacked migrants from the Caucasus (Ria Novosti)</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-30084618263547608142010-12-09T21:35:00.003+02:002010-12-09T21:46:44.362+02:0021 May 1864: From Dmitri Kipiani to Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Romanov<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Excerpt from Stanislav Lakoba's ''<i>Двуглавый орел и традиционная Абхазия</i>'' (Double-headed eagle, traditional Abkhazia)</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the suppression of the last pockets of resistance in the Caucasus, Georgian militia, loyal servants of the autocratic state, played a significant role. <b>Together with the Russian troops, they took part in the victory parade at Krasnaya Polyana on 21 May 1864</b>. And on 9 June, as a crowd gathered, Tiflis Marshal of the Nobility, Dmitri Kipiani, greeted the Governor of the Caucasus, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Romanov, with the words:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"<i>Your Imperial Highness! You have completed the conquest of the Caucasus and have thus incorporated in history an event of enormous importance that is inseparable from your name. Persons selected by the Georgian nobility bring your Imperial Highness congratulations in the name of all social classes.</i>"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In June, the autocratic state abolished the Abkhazian monarchy and instituted a temporary "military-national administration." Thereafter, Abkhazia was renamed the Sukhum Military Department of the Russian Empire. General P. N. Shatilov became Head of the Department on 12 July 1864.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">*****</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">В подавлении последних очагов сопротивления на Кавказе большую роль сыграли и грузинские ополчения - верные служители самодержавия. Вместе с русскими войсками они принимали участие в торжественном параде победы на Красной Поляне 21 мая 1864 года. А уже 9 июня при стечении народа тифлисский предводитель дворянства Дмитрий Кипиани обратился с приветствием к наместнику на Кавказе, великому князю Михаилу Николаевичу Романову:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Ваше Императорское Высочество! Вы довершили покорение Кавказа и тем внесли в историю неразлучное с вашим именем событие громадной важности. Избранные грузинским дворянством, приносим Вашему Императорскому высочеству поздравление от имени всего сословия".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">В июне самодержавие упразднило Абхазское княжество и ввело временное "военно-народное управление". Отныне Абхазия была переименована в Сухумский военный отдел Российской империи. Начальником отдела 12 июля 1864 г. стал генерал П. Н. Шатилов.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.apsny.ru/history/history.php?page=content/abkh_mir.htm">http://www.apsny.ru/history/history.php?page=content/abkh_mir.htm</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Двуглавый орел и традиционная Абхазия</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Станислав Лакоба</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">********************</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Appendix: </b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Many Georgians were eager to take advantage of the privileges associated with imperial service, associate themselves with Europe's notion of progress, and also distinguish themselves from nearby rival and Islamic peoples such as the North Caucasus mountaineers.[5]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Service records from the imperial era left in what has recently been renamed the Georgian National Archive illustrate the important role played by Georgians in various wars against both mountaineers and the Ottoman Turks.[6]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Colonel Giorgi Tsereteli from Kutaisi, for example, not to be confused with the writer and sometime theater critic referred to later in this article, managed to survive fighting in Chechnia and Dagestan from 1855-59, service on the Lezgin Line after the conquest, and combat in the war of 1877-78 against the Turks. In 1876 he helped put down a rebellion in Svanetia.[7]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- After the conquest, a Georgian was considered sufficiently reliable to administer troublesome Dagestan oblast¢ in the 1880s. [8]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Tbilisi served not only as the base of imperial administration and a growing imperial educated society, but also as an anchor for the Russian military in their prosecution of the long Caucasus War.[9]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Tbilisi was host to important innovations in Russian imperial policy. The well-known geographic, ethnic, and religious complexities of the region perhaps contributed to a general willingness on the part of Russian officialdom to innovate in its administration of this frontier. Tsar Nicholas I himself lost patience with the seemingly interminable war and granted extensive authority to Prince Vorontsov, an unusually powerful and independent figure in the imperial administration. As Anthony Rhinelander has explained, Vorontsov was experienced in the borderlands and well-acquainted with the Caucasus, where he began his military career as an adjutant to Georgian Prince P. D. Tsitsianov (Paata Tsitsishvili) in the early 19th century. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Dilemmas of Enlightenment in the Eastern Borderlands: The Theater and Library in Tbilisi, by Austin Jersild and Neli Melkadze <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/kritika/v003/3.1jersild.html">http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/kritika/v003/3.1jersild.html</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Notes</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[5] sakartvelos sakhelmtsipo saistorio arkivi (Georgian National Historical Archive, Tbilisi, hereafterSSSA) f. 4, op. 3, 1846–1855, d. 181, ll. 22, 60</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[6] SSSA f. 7, op. 8, 1861–74, d. 2, ll. 21–52.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[7] SSSA f. 229, op. 1, 1884–85, d. 127, ll. 33–37.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[8] SSSA f. 229, op. 1, 1888, d. 220.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[9] On the war and Sufism in the North Caucasus, see Moshe Gammer, Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan (London: Frank Cass, 1994), and Anna Zelkina, In Quest for God and Freedom: The Sufi Response to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus (New York: New York University Press, 2000).</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-45069367144228579332010-09-23T16:35:00.002+03:002010-09-23T16:39:37.630+03:00Interview: Zakayev Says ‘No Irresolvable Issues’ Between Russia, Chechnya<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJtXqT83BzI/AAAAAAAAAc0/5y9FDsaVwZk/s1600/F3D83874-9843-4B7A-8F26-217469C97AFD_w527_s.jpg"><img style="text-align: justify;float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJtXqT83BzI/AAAAAAAAAc0/5y9FDsaVwZk/s200/F3D83874-9843-4B7A-8F26-217469C97AFD_w527_s.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520102152694335282" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">RFE/RL | September 23, 2010</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Akhmed Zakayev, head of the Chechen government in exile, returned to London on September 22 following his brief detention in Poland on an international arrest warrant requested by Russia. Zakayev had been in Poland to address the World Chechen Congress, which was meeting to develop a plan for ending the violence in the Russian republic and secure its “de-occupation.” He says he will return to Poland when necessary to participate in an extradition hearing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zakayev spoke with RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Natalya Golitsyna about his experience in Poland and about the status of the Chechen independence movement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>RFE/RL: You have said you were a victim of the political games of Poland and Russia. What do you mean by that?</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Akhmed Zakayev:</b> I mean that the Polish leadership and the Polish prosecutors had every reason to ignore the request that Russia sent to Poland because I had already been detained twice under that request. The first time was in Copenhagen [in 2002], and in Britain there was already a court process that lasted nearly a year on the basis of this very same request.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So Poland, as a member of the European Union, had every right to ignore this from a legal point of view. But in this matter, I think, political matters trumped the legal and rights aspects. That is why, in order to please Russia, they initiated an extradition procedure. In this sense, undoubtedly, I think that I became a victim because the congress and the efforts we were making in Copenhagen were nearly ruined, although we’d discussed all this with the Polish leadership and Polish politicians five or six months ago. And it was on the basis of agreement with them that the congress was arranged in Poland.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the last moment, when Russia learned that I would participate, there was pressure on Poland and these papers were sent in order to disrupt the congress. Unfortunately, Poland helped them in this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>RFE/RL: Some people think that the idea of Chechen independence is no longer realistic. They say that since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, all Chechen groups – particularly separatist groups – are considered terrorists in the West.</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Zakayev:</b> I absolutely do not agree with that. Quite the opposite. There have been strong changes in international politics regarding Chechnya and Chechen subjects. The first is the recognition of Kosovo by the United States and the European Union. The second is Russia’s recognition of [the breakaway Georgian regions of] Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The third was the decision of the international tribunal in The Hague that Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia did not violate international law.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All three of these developments in international politics indicate that Chechnya and the Chechen question remain on the agenda.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As far as the claim that Chechens themselves are tired and have given up on the idea of independence goes, it has nothing to do with reality. Chechnya is a concentration camp, and usually people in concentration camps try to survive. They don’t go around making political demands. A good example is the Holocaust. No one then was talking about the creation of a state of Israel. They were trying to survive, and they did.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And that is what is happening in Chechnya now – the people are just trying to survive. Chechens will never give up because the idea of Chechen independence and freedom is not something [former Chechen President Djokhar] Dudayev or [former Chechen President Aslan] Maskhadov or Zakayev invented. It is a national idea that exists and will be supported until it becomes reality.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That is why I look at the future of Chechnya now with greater optimism than 10 or 15 years ago. And what is most important – in Russia itself there is the understanding that the current situation in Chechnya has to be changed. What is going on in Chechnya right now is costing Russia a lot, and this situation is all held together by one person, by the personal ambitions of [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin. Because a person who entered the political scene through Chechen blood, through the Chechen war, cannot admit that this was a mistake and that it is necessary to try something else.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the only reason that the conflict is continuing, and it will continue as long as Putin maintains a political position in Russia. That may be another 12 years….But for the national liberation movement, 10 or 12 years is not enough time to suppress or halt the movement itself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>RFE/RL: Does the idea of independence have broad support in Chechnya itself?</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Zakayev:</b> The fact that people in Chechnya today do not speak about independence is a sign of the times. I remember some examples. After the 1944 deportation and after the Chechens returned in 1956-57, during this period until 1990, the Chechens lived as if nothing had happened, as if everything was forgotten. But the slightest spark, which happened in the 1990s when there was the coup attempt [against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev] and such waves passed through Russia, it was precisely the 1944 deportation that became the detonator for everything that came later.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And compared to that, what has happened in the last 10 years…. Even old people who lived through both experiences say that the deportation was nothing compared to what is happening now. It is a land mine planted in Chechen society. And sooner or later, it will explode. But I am categorically against any revolutions. I don’t think the Chechen people can survive yet another revolution. It would be a national tragedy. That is why we must find a transition from the current regime to a normally formed power structure chosen by the Chechen people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>RFE/RL: Last summer you were expected to hold talks with the authorities in Chechnya, with the authorities in Russia. What has happened in the last year that made these good intentions collapse?</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Zakayev: </b>The problem was that they demonstrated their insincerity. What they stated publicly and what really happened were two different things. They declared good will and a desire for me to return home. But when we ran up against concrete questions that had to be settled, everything came to a halt.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first matter was the people being held in Russian camps. That is, about 25,000 people. The second matter was the return of Maskhadov’s body. The third was the matter of not persecuting the relatives of Chechen fighters. Without settling these questions, it is not possible to discuss the consolidation of Chechen society. And without consolidating society, it is impossible to work out a unified political program that could be the basis for a lasting peace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Everything ended on these formulas, because these three questions were within the competence of Moscow and Chechnya. But Moscow was not ready to settle these questions. And that’s where it ended.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>RFE/RL: Those were your demands. What were you willing to concede to make such a dialogue happen?</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Zakayev:</b> We said from the beginning that Chechens have never set themselves the goal of defeating Russia. The matter of independence was never an end in itself for Chechens. Chechen independence is a guarantee of security. At one point, Putin said that the status of Chechnya is not important for Russia. On the basis of these two political components, we could have found settlement that would have been absolutely acceptable for Russia and for Chechnya, that would have satisfied everyone and facilitated a lasting peace.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is the peace agreement signed by Maskhadov and in that agreement there is a project for another agreement where the Chechen side declared a single defensive space, a single economic and customs space. All these questions were resolvable. I am confident that even now there are no irresolvable issues in relations between Russia and Chechnya.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Interview_Zakayev_Says_No_Irresolvable_Issues_Between_Russia_Chechnya/2166048.html">RFE/RL </a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/window-on-eurasia-caucasus-emirate.html">Window on Eurasia: Caucasus Emirate ‘a Product of Russian Special Services,’ Chechen Émigré Leader Says</a></li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-23034923404593632042010-09-22T15:38:00.003+03:002010-09-23T16:36:20.257+03:00The Caucasian Wars Go Pacific, by Thomas de Waal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJn5Nv_-XnI/AAAAAAAAAck/dgP2-UQcRk8/s1600/Tom_De_Waal.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 127px; height: 162px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJn5Nv_-XnI/AAAAAAAAAck/dgP2-UQcRk8/s200/Tom_De_Waal.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519716832937664114" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The National Interest | September 21, 2010</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">India, Nauru, Tuvalu. What do these three states have in common? The latter pair, both tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean, are two of the world’s smallest nations. By my calculations, India is 44,000 times more populous than Nauru and Tuvalu put together.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it is UN General Assembly month, everyone who is not a permanent member of the Security Council is equal and a vote is a vote. Which is why the Georgia-Russia conflict has now opened up a new warm front in the Pacific.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Strangely enough, I know a little about Nauru, population 14,000, area eight square miles (or about one eighth of the District of Columbia), because the first head of state I ever interviewed was its president. His was the smallest state in the world and I was a very junior reporter with the BBC, so we were a good match. It was 1992 and I was compiling a report on a controversial shipment of plutonium that Japan was sending home by sea. Nauru had risked the wrath of the Japanese by saying it would not allow the ship to pass through its territorial waters. I telephoned half way across the world to be told that President Bernard Dowiyogo was actually in Kensington, London, that week and would be happy to give me an interview.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nauru slipped from my consciousness until the day in 2009 when it suddenly and to much hilarity became the fourth country to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. It was all of course about money. Back in 1992 I hadn’t realized that poor courageous Nauru was also virtually bankrupt. It used to have spectacularly large deposits of phosphate, formed by centuries of bird droppings. Mining by British, German and Australian companies briefly gave Nauru the largest income per capita in the world in the 1960s, but then the phosphate began to run out, the landscape was devastated and the revenues were mismanaged. From the 1990s the microstate dabbled in offshore banking, was accused of being a haven for money laundering and for several years provided a home to a group of Afghan refugees whom Australia was prepared to pay not to keep.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All these ventures ran out of steam, until the government hit on a more durable revenue-earning scheme: converting UN membership into cash. Which is why Nauru has the distinction of being the only country in the world to have recognized as independent Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia—no hang-ups here about Europe’s post–Cold War borders. It also managed to recognize, de-recognize and then re-recognize the Taiwanese government, causing Beijing twice to sever diplomatic relations. I can only guess how much Nauru earned from these nifty about-turns, but we do know that, after recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Russians donated nine million dollars to refurbish the island’s port.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Washington plays this game too, having had Nauru bulk up the No vote on the UN’s recurring resolutions on “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine” in which the United States tends to look rather lonely. In 2009 164 countries voted in favor of the latest such resolution; of the seven countries who voted against, four, alongside the United States, Israel and Australia, were Pacific microstates, Nauru among them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now Georgia has found a way to strike back, via Tuvalu, the closest Pacific state to Nauru. On September 11, it was reported that the government in Tbilisi is “providing financial aid to the permanent mission of Tuvalu to the United Nations.” Later it was confirmed that Georgia had paid for a medical shipment to Tuvalu worth “about $12,000,” or roughly one dollar for each of the island’s inhabitants.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, hey presto, Tuvalu was one of fifty countries (along, incidentally, with the Marshall Islands and Micronesia) which voted in favor of the recent Georgian-sponsored United Nations General Assembly reaffirming the right of return of all refugees to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Naturally Nauru (and the Solomon Islands) were among seventeen nations voting against.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fortunately, there are no signs of a new Caucasian war breaking out on the equator. Pacific geography means that although Nauru and Tuvalu are formally neighbors, they are actually eight hundred miles apart—and besides the South Ossetians have no warships. But both Georgia and Russia should be careful. Paying obeisance to Pacific microstates with the population of a U.S. suburb will only encourage little territories in both the North and South Caucasus—South Ossetia, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, the list continues—to ask the question, “If they can be UN members, why can’t we?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>Thomas de Waal</b> is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Source:</i><a href="http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-caucasian-wars-go-pacific-4116"> The National Interest</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/560-call-off-the-great-game-by-thomas-de-waal.html">Call Off the Great Game, by Thomas de Waal</a></li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-17641423020150418252010-09-21T23:23:00.003+03:002010-09-21T23:31:29.059+03:00An Unfaltering Gaze, by Dmitry Babich<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJkUTw4hrrI/AAAAAAAAAcc/SIQj_YJNnMg/s1600/Dimitry_Babich.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJkUTw4hrrI/AAAAAAAAAcc/SIQj_YJNnMg/s200/Dimitry_Babich.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519465148091313842" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia Profile, September 21, 2010</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Jobs of Provincial City Historians Are Back in Vogue</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Russia’s regions are now using the history of their cities to forge their unique local identities.</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The proclivity toward writing about a city, or even a town, usually the one where the author grew up, became widespread among Russia’s historians during the 1990s. Yuri Borisyonok, the editor in chief of the Rodina magazine, a monthly collection of historical essays and research published on glossy paper with pretty pictures, explained: “In the Soviet times, the best way for a historian to make a career was to go to Moscow or St. Petersburg, get an education and find a relatively well paid job with some scientific body, studying general problems of the country’s history—a research institute or an academic magazine.” To graduate from the historical faculty of Moscow State University and then return to one’s native town to teach at a school or, heaven forbid, to work at a local museum or an archive meant to fail. But this changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. “The state stopped distributing apartments, and payment for research work became laughably small,” Borisyonok said. “Historians in Moscow and St. Petersburg found themselves fighting for survival. In this situation, opportunities offered by the governors and mayors in Russia’s provinces suddenly became more appealing.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indeed, with the shift from a centralized economy to economic federalism that occurred during the 1990s, Russia’s regions suddenly developed greater interest in their local histories. The rich historical past of some of these regions (primarily Novgorod, Kazan, Yaroslavl, Vladimir and Pskov, among many others) offered an opportunity to attract more tourists and to raise the region’s prestige. Even the governors of not very affluent regions developed an interest in their local histories and allotted funds for historical research from local budgets. At some stage, part of this historical research took a self-aggrandizing turn, justifying certain regions’ separatist ambitions. But the easing of political tensions in the country and general pragmatism later led to a certain shift of interest from “ethnic history” to “city history.” The latter provided more opportunities to mold a local identity beyond ethnic definitions, since Russia’s cities and towns, as elsewhere in the world, tend to be multiethnic, with a history of belonging to different states at different times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>A city of many nations</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A good example of how a city’s history can be important for an entire region or even for the whole of Russia is Sochi, the future home of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. A city of 330,000 people, it is a good example of a troubled but fascinating history, reflecting some of the most important stages in the history of Russia and its neighbors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Located on the territory of the Byzantine Empire and ruled by the mostly Greek-speaking successors of ancient Roman emperors, Sochi was a part of medieval Circassia and a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th century until 1829, when it became part of Russia as a result of Turkey’s defeat in the Russo-Turkish war of 1828 to 1829. Seen as a key to the Caucasus Mountains, the city became the scene of protracted fighting between the advancing Russian colonizers and the local tribes. In the 1860s a large part of the local Adyghe population was faced with a choice: to be deported to Turkey or to move to other areas of the Russian Empire. As a result of tsarist policies the indigenous people were outnumbered by Russians—a situation characteristic of our times, too. At the same time, this period of history, decried by Circassian activists as “genocide,” serves today as a pretext for protests against holding the Olympics in Sochi. The format of urban (not ethnic!) history allows one to tackle even this thorny issue with tact, telling the truth without insulting anyone’s feelings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the end of hostilities in the Caucuses the city fell into its usual slumber, which continued until the early 1930s, when Joseph Stalin developed a taste for vacationing in that city. (Contrary to rumors about his workaholic character, during most of the 1930s Stalin spent at least two months every year vacationing in the south). Coupled with a similar passion for the place on behalf of the “first person in the Red Army,” Kliment Voroshilov, this became the driving force behind the city’s first general reconstruction, started by special Politburo order on October 9, 1933. The reconstruction was done on a grand scale, but in the post-Stalinist period of Soviet history the pace of change somewhat slowed, as Stalin’s successors in power preferred Crimea. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea found itself a part of independent Ukraine, and thus inaccessible for domestic vacationing. With Crimea out of business, Sochi was given a new boost by the continued presence of Russian presidents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin became great fans of Sochi. They pumped funds into it, citing the fact that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sochi became the only major health resort with access to warm seas on Russia’s territory. On July 4, 2006, Putin’s tireless lobbying of Sochi brought the desired result: the International Olympic Committee chose Sochi as the location of the 2014 winter games, preferring it to South Korea’s Pyeongchang and Austria’s Salzburg. Interestingly, every one of these major events and epochs in the city’s history found its devoted researchers among brilliant local (and outside) historians.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>A deadly profession</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The period before the Russo-Turkish war was best covered by Yuri Voronov, a native of the neighboring Abkhazia. After Abkhazia became a de facto independent country in 1993, separating itself from the nationalist Georgia of the early 1990s and fending off an attempt to bring it back to heel by the multi-faced Eduard Shevardnadze in 1992, Voronov devoted a lot of effort to studying the ties between Sochi and the ancient Abkhazian kingdom in the seventh to the tenth centuries. It was a classic attempt to use history to build a national identity. In Voronov’s case, however, it was not mere opportunism, but a conscious attempt to bring to fruition the work of a lifetime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1979, long before Gorbachev’s liberalization revealed the dormant animosity between Georgians and Abkhazians, Voronov published the book “The Antiquities of Sochi and its Environs.” During Georgia’s short but bloody war with the multiethnic splinter state of Abkhazia, Voronov became a member of the Abkhazian Parliament. In 1994, meeting a group of journalists, Voronov described the predicament of the Abkhazian population, then cut off from Sochi by Russia’s border guards. Acting on the orders of Russia’s leadership, which at the time tried to ally with Eduard Shevardnadze, the Russian border guards in the north and the Georgian army in the south isolated Abkhazia for several years from the outside world. This alliance with the White Fox, as Shevardnadze is known in his own country, proved to be remarkably short-lived and futile, since Abkhazians never “crawled on their knees” back to Georgia, as Tbilisi had hoped.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Sochi fascinates me as a wonderful example of multi-ethnicity,” Voronov said at the time. “If local history teaches us anything, it is that borders in the Caucasus are always bloody and dangerous. This area forms a very complex and multi-faceted entity, and you can never divide it to everyone’s satisfaction. Ethnocentrism and the construction of mono-ethnic states in the Caucasus is often tantamount to genocide. Sochi, with its ancient walls, portal graves and magnificent antiquities, has always been at one of the crossroads of the world’s civilizations.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, Voronov was murdered in September of 1995 by an unknown criminal near his home in Tsebelda, an Abkhazian valley not far from Sochi. Public opinion linked this murder to Voronov’s activity as the leader of the Russian community in Abkhazia. Voronov’s death marked the end of a period of immature freedom and separatist tidings ushered in by Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms in the mid-1980s. A new, more down-to-earth vision of city history was needed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The stench of Stalin’s failed struggle</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And this vision was realized in the work of Sochi’s younger city historian, Lyudmila Kosheleva. Unlike Voronov, she did not go deep into the region’s ancient past, but instead concentrated on the fascinating story of Sochi’s reconstruction in the early years of Stalin’s rule. In the early 2000s, Kosheleva laid her hands on the fascinating correspondence of Stalin’s Politburo members discussing ways to clean up Sochi, which in 1933 to 1934, very much like nowadays, actually turned into the Soviet Union’s summer capital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a letter to Abel Yenukidze, the secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union, published by Kosheleva in the Rodina magazine, the nominal head of the Red Army Kliment Voroshilov complained in 1933: “Everything is done in a very sloppy way… Since 1923 I regularly take (like hundreds of others) the dirt baths in Matsesta; this treatment must have some effect on my body. So, do you think our doctors keep track of my condition, draw the necessary conclusions, etc.? Nothing of the sort! In our sanatoriums this process is set in a lamentably shabby way. [Deputy Chief Sanitary Inspector Mikhail] Metallikov is naïve to the point of being criminal about it. He does not know anything, believes everything and allows himself to be deceived as the worst kind of idiot.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It should be noted that in 1937 Metallikov was executed on Stalin’s orders. Officially, his meeting with the son of exiled Leon Trotsky at a scientific conference in Paris was the reason, but obviously the pitiful condition of Matsesta baths did not earn Metallikov a lot of friends in the Politburo. Metallikov’s sister Bronislava Metallikova was the wife of Alexander Poskryobyshev, Stalin’s personal secretary, but even her intervention did not save the poor doctor. The same terrible fate awaited Bronislava herself in the late 1930s, along with Voroshilov’s addressee, Abel Yenukidze. Why? Probably because, as Stalin wrote in September 1935 in a special message to Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov, “The water in Matsesta baths stays dirty, upon taking a bath it is still necessary to wash oneself again in fresh water at home… A special check revealed that the tanks had not been cleaned since 1933, developing a covering of dirt 30 centimeters thick. And this dirt is dumped with Matsesta water into the baths of the patients.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Somehow, the Bolshevik leaders, always eager to require self-sacrifice from other citizens, were remarkably attentive to their own health and abhorred being sacrificed to some standard proletarian negligence. Kosheleva’s city-centered research reveals this better than hundreds of pages of abstract dissertations. And probably the reasons behind the cruelty of Stalin and Voroshilov should be looked for in more prosaic matters than Shakespearean ruminations about genius and villainy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It should be noted that Matsesta’s waters stayed dirty even after a special order from the Politburo on October 9, 1933, which required putting all the dirt into a special sewer. The execution of Sochi’s mayor Alexander Metelyov in 1937 did not help, either—a demonstration of the “effectiveness” of Stalin’s system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=Culture+%26+Living&articleid=a1285081998">Russia Profile</a></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-18850458460122930112010-09-20T14:46:00.005+03:002010-09-20T14:49:52.807+03:00Window on Eurasia: Caucasus Emirate ‘a Product of Russian Special Services,’ Chechen Émigré Leader Says<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJdJ1EVO3TI/AAAAAAAAAcU/sXnUwieqoBc/s1600/akhmed-zakayev-pic-getty-424108926.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 173px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TJdJ1EVO3TI/AAAAAAAAAcU/sXnUwieqoBc/s200/akhmed-zakayev-pic-getty-424108926.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518961044410522930" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">by Paul Goble</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Staunton, September 20 – Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen nationalist leader in emigration, said yesterday that the shadowy Islamist Caucasus Emirate and its head Doku Umarov are “a product of the Russian special services,” which are used by Moscow for its own purposes rather than reflecting the aspirations of the people of Chechnya.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“In order to understand this,” Zakayev said, “it is sufficient to trace the history of the North Caucasus for the last 20 years. Such Islamist structures appeared as soon as Russia had need of them,” and both the Emirate and Umarov will disappear “when Russia ceases to have need of them” (<a href="http://skfonews.ru/news/1779">skfonews.ru/news/1779</a>).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Chechen leader provided no specific evidence for his charges, relying instead on what could be no more than a continuing string of coincidences. But by making this suggestion now, he positions himself to challenge Russian suggestions that he and his associates are terrorists and to undercut Moscow’s image of itself as a leader of the counter-terrorist effort.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zakayev, a leader of the Chechen movement in the 1990s, was in Poland for the World Congress of the Chechen People. When he arrived, he was arrested by the Poles on an Interpol warrant based on Russian charges that he was involved in terrorism. A Polish court then released him, and he has returned to London to get a new Polish visa in order to return for a hearing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The relations between radical groups in the Caucasus and the Russian security services have a long and complicated history. Many of the radicals, such as Shamil Basayev, earlier served in Russian agencies, and many commentators have suggested that at least some of them continue to operate under Russian control.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes, as with Zakayev’s charges, these suggestions are self-serving whether they are true or not: If it is the case that Moscow is behind this or that radical movement such as the Emirate or if at least some accept those charges as true, then it follows that the Chechen national movement itself is not guilty of many of the things Moscow says it is.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But what makes Zakayev’s suggestion special is that he is making this charge not about links between Moscow and the national movements in the North Caucasus but rather about ties between the Russian special services and an Islamist group, charges that if accepted would discredit Moscow’s presentation of itself as an ally of the West in the war against terrorism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zakayev’s statement came at the end of a three-day Chechen conference near Warsaw at which, according to Kavkaz-Uzel.ru, its participants acknowledged that “in recent times, the world has practically forgotten about the Chechen problem.” By both his appearance and his charges, Zakayev was trying to change that (<a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/174407/">www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/174407/</a>).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Deni Teps, the president of the World Congress of the Chechen People, told the assembly that “the conflict [in Chechnya] not only has not ceased but it is spreading and now covers the entire territory of the Caucasus. And the so-called struggle with Islamist extremist has led to war between Christian countries” and Muslim ones, a very dangerous development.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The meeting called on the United Nations to convene “an international tribunal on Chechnya and on the European Union and council of Europe to organize a conference on the situation in the [Chechen] republic together with representatives of Russia,” Kavkaz-Uzel.ru reported, citing a Radio Liberty report.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neither is likely to take this step: Russian opposition to anything that recalls the Chechen national struggle is too strong and Moscow’s influence too great. But Zakayev’s comments and the meeting in Poland show that the Chechen cause has not disappeared as Moscow claims and that the nature of the Islamist movement there may be different than Moscow suggests.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/09/window-on-eurasia-caucasus-emirate.html">Window on Eurasia </a></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-64232667207237010162010-09-04T11:03:00.007+03:002010-09-04T13:16:11.572+03:00Russia and Turkey in new conditions in Black Sea region, by Aleхander Sotnichenko<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TIH-ZGjvEWI/AAAAAAAAAcE/fpJS476xBrw/s1600/BlackSea.A2004143.1105.250m.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TIH-ZGjvEWI/AAAAAAAAAcE/fpJS476xBrw/s200/BlackSea.A2004143.1105.250m.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5512967126088880482" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">East+West Review Analytics Agency (24/08/10)</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">XXI century presented new reality for both Russia and Turkey. Now we can see that the West doesn’t want to include neither Turkey, nor Russia to its political and economical structures. Despite the development of western style modernization in our countries, Turkey has no chances to be a full member of the EU, but Russia looks more and more unfriendly in western eyes: I think we’ve lost the possibility to enter WTO in real future. We’re aliens for the West. It is the axiom for nowadays policy of Europe and USA, and I don’t see the prospects of changing this view.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The political elite of both Turkey and Russia was disappointed by the failed experiences of close and equal co-operation with the West in 1990-es. Turkey hasn’t been invited to the club of safe and well-developed European countries and we don’t hope that it’ll occur in close times. The political and economical support of the USA halts when the interests of Ankara cross the Washington pass, like it took place in 1974-1975 in Cyprus, or 2004 in Iraq. The main countries of liberal Europe recognize the “Armenian genocide” and even imprison people, who don’t. Turkey is always criticized for the human rights violation, for the low level of economical development (which is much better, then in Romania or Bulgaria for example), for the growing role of Military forces (supporting at the same time the Kurdish separatism from EU NGO’s) etc.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The same situation appears in the relations between Russia and the West. It’s possible to stop terrorism in bombing very distant independent countries Iraq, Afganistan or Pakistan, but the same style operations in the territory of Russian state are recognized as a genocide and violation of peoples self-determination. In 1991 after the fall of Soviet Union and Warsaw Treaty Organization all progressive people were waiting for the disbandment of NATO as a military organization. But instead USA invites new members to NATO (the most part of them supports all the overseas operations of Washington) despite the serious warnings of leading specialists in International Relations[1], bombs Russian ally Yugoslavia and play active role in anti-Moscow “orange revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine. Now we see the real hostility of the USA policy in the Caucasus and in the structuring of new Anti-Missile system (BMD) in Eastern Europe. The later history of Russia – USA and Turkey – USA relations could be resumed: We can be allies of Washington only if our interests follows the mainstream of the American policy. I see that our political elites begin to understand this reality.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The relations between Russia and Turkey in XX century were not friendly. We were enemies in World War I and during the Cold War, in 1945-1946 Turkey was an object of Stalin’s expansion, and in 90-es Ankara tried to move Moscow’s influence from the Caucasus and Central Asia regions. All this initiatives did not give prospects for future friendship, but economy, geopolitics and security make us closer even if it is not corresponding with Turkish proverb “Moskovdan dost olmaz” or Russian old meaning basurman (musulman) as an enemy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All years of XXI century our positions became closer and closer. We stopped to support separatist movements in the territory of a partner. The level of commodity circulation grew more then in 10 times from about 2 bln $ in 2000 to 25 bln $ in 2007, and this tendency continuous in 2008. Russia became the second economical partner of Turkey, but our economical relations not always reflect in political field. The last conflict in Georgia gave us a good chance to open a new page of the real partnership between Russia and Ankara.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first and the main aspect of the Turkish plan of Caucasian Alliance is to stave off the West from the real policy in the Caucasus. Indeed, last 20 years the western political organizations or conflict resolution theories and programs haven’t solve any ethnic conflicts in the region. The only way of resolution was demonstrated in Georgia, where the USA at first supported the “Rose revolution”, and then armed with their allies for future wars against Abkhazia and South Ossetia. If the war in the Caucasus for USA is only the incomes from selling armament issue and an occasion for interference, for its neighbors it’s a thousands of refugees, closing of active trade ways, possible foreign presence in a zone of conflict.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The countries of the region (like Turkey and Russia) not only know better how to establish peace and stability because their historical fates, peoples and religions are associated with the Caucasus. They are really interested in stability much more then in war because it’s necessary for their own security and economic prosperity. For me as for Russian it is an omission that the idea of Caucasian Alliance came not from Moscow, but from Ankara. That means Turkey will play a leading role in this organization. But there is no other way to make the Caucasus “Zone of peace and Stability” except the co-operation between Russia and Turkey, and Russian suggestions also have to be coordinated with the main plan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What are the points of co-operation for Turkey and Russia in the Caucasus?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Turkey-Armenia dialogue can not be positive without the mediating role of Russia. Armenia is a political and military partner of Russia, member of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Russian military bases are situated in Armenia. People of Armenia don’t believe Turkey and I don’t think that the bilateral initiatives will be successful. Only Russia can help Yerevan to understand correctly Turkish suggestions and connect the both sides around common political platform.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The same we can say about the relations between Russia and Georgia. Ankara hasn’t broken the relations with Tbilisi in August 2008, but Moscow did. The image of Turkey as a mediator is much better for Russia then all other possible, like USA for example. Turkey is interested in expansion of its capital to Abkhazia as an experienced investor to real estate and tourism, also there are thousands of muhajeers Abaza origin in Turkey, who want to have business in their native land. Solving the problem of international recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is very important not only for Russian official structures, but also for Turkish business.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Armenian Security Council mentioned, that the mediating role of Turkey is impossible in resolution of the Karabakh conflict[2], the same reaction we have to wait from Azerbaijan if Russia offers its mediating mission. The OSCE mission failed: after 15 years of negotiations we can’t see any results of their activities. Only the joint effort of Turkey and Russia, framing their common position and joint mediating mission can make peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan and solve the problem of Karabakh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Caucasus is a very important transition region for oil and gas. In conditions of low-intensity permanent conflict we see multibillion losses of Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan pipeline, the impossibility of establishing Nabucco and several other projects. All countries of the Caucasus are interested in export or import energy resources like oil, gas or electricity. May be this projects are not profitable for all countries of the region, but pending the negotiations this problems can be solved in the region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is one problem: Iran is also situated in the Caucasus. What is interesting, they answered the Turkish initiative a month later after Erdogan’s statement with their own suggestions. Iran has a good relations with Armenia, and Yerevan doesn’t want to refuse it’s support. Iran has some antagonisms with neighbors – the status and sea borders on the Caspian sea, the religious invasion of Iranian funds to Azerbaijan and the distribution of Turkic nationalism ideology among Iranian azeri’s from pan-Turkism organizations of Turkey and Azerbaijan. Iran is in “Axis of Evil” list and hardly criticized by the West. The participation of Iran in the project of collateral co-operation can activate the negative reaction of the West (especially USA and Israel) which can prevent the positive development of the peacekeeping process in the Caucasus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, we are now very close to the future fantastic alliance, which can change the role of Turkey and Russia in the region and present our countries new possibilities of development and co-operation. We can establish an equal coordination system between our countries in the Caucasus and transform the level our relations from economical to full-size partnership. All we need is a coherent program of co-operation between the parts of a dialogue and the political will of our governments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[1] The antagonist of the expansion of the military alliance is George Kennan. See Kennan G. Fateful Error // New York Times. - 1997. - 5 Febr.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] Security Council of Armenia: Turkey can’t be the Mediator in Resolution of Karabakh Conflict.// http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1057068.html</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.eastwest-review.com/article/russia-and-turkey-new-conditions-black-sea-region">East+West Review Analytics Agency</a></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-10651437922518635292010-08-31T21:02:00.005+03:002010-08-31T21:13:15.744+03:00Russian Rights Activist Battles On In Chechnya<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TH1EfCXryBI/AAAAAAAAAb8/2t82mDjFseE/s1600/E318FEAD-D8D1-4776-ADFD-C56BD4335F62_w527_s.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TH1EfCXryBI/AAAAAAAAAb8/2t82mDjFseE/s400/E318FEAD-D8D1-4776-ADFD-C56BD4335F62_w527_s.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511636818974197778" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Kheda Saratova is one of a handful of human rights activists left who continue to risk their lives in Chechnya.</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">By Gregory Feifer - RFE/RL, August 31, 2010</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nothing about Kheda Saratova's demeanor indicated the nature of her work when I first met her in Grozny five years ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She was escorting a group of rights activists to her native district of Shatoi, a lush stretch in the Caucasus Mountains in which some of the most protracted fighting in Chechnya had taken place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sunny and smiling, her elegant features crowned by dark bangs under a head scarf set back on her head, Saratova betrayed none of the hell she'd lived through. Not only had she survived both Chechen wars, but she took a job investigating the grim violence that characterized those conflicts: disappearances, torture, and murder that would otherwise have remained unknown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grozny was just beginning to be rebuilt and piles of rubble that were once buildings had been cleared from the city center. But violence was continuing and Saratova was taking us to a tiny village in the mountains where residents had been attacked by unknown men in armored personnel carriers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some of Saratova's relatives had been appointed officials in Shatoi, where family connections are most important, and she had arranged for local police commandos to accompany us. It was typical of the way she operates: using friends and acquaintances among the local authorities to help Chechnya's countless victims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, Saratova is still doing similarly grim work, heading a human rights organization she recently founded called Objectiv. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Kidnapping, Ransom, And Murder</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When I spoke to her recently, she'd spent three days negotiating the ransom for a kidnap victim, a 24-year-old man she says was abducted two months ago by soldiers because his businesswoman mother earns a relatively good income. She says they're demanding $30,000 for his release.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They're former rebels, not the kind who fought for an idea [of independence], but those who easily switch from fighting for one side to the other," she says. "Today, they occupy official positions and spend their time kidnapping, demanding ransoms, and murder."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has overseen the astoundingly fast reconstruction of his region, thanks to vast amounts of money from Moscow. He's built Europe's biggest mosque, Western-looking cafes line Grozny's main street, Putin Avenue, and residential skyscrapers are going up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Chechnya's apparent calm hides a frightening reality. Rights groups say the security forces are carrying out a brutal campaign against the families of the few remaining insurgents, abducting relatives and burning their houses. Locals say many are beaten and some killed. They say weapons are often planted next to their bodies, enabling the security forces to claim they've killed more militants. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saratova says such actions are driving young men into the militants' ranks. "When they see evil, of course they'll want to join the rebels."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She says she doesn't think Kadyrov knows the extent to which his forces are involved in violent crime. "However much we criticize him," Saratova says, "he's done a lot to improve life, at least on the surface."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saratova adds that "the people around" Kadyrov "are undermining him, not ordinary Chechens," most of whom want peace. "We who know the price of war, who buried our friends and loved ones with our own hands, are ready to do anything to hold onto peace," she says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>'No One Needs My Truth'</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Life for the very few Chechens brave enough to document abuses in their region was always risky. But the kidnapping and killing of Natalya Estemirova in Chechnya last year sent shock waves though the human rights community. Memorial, the preeminent rights group for which she worked, shut its Grozny office for six months. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, Saratova is one of the very few people in Chechnya not afraid to speak as freely as she does. She says many Chechens say they agree with her, but implore her to keep quiet. "No one needs my truth," she says. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Every night I go to sleep telling myself I'll leave Chechnya the following morning. But every morning I get more calls from victims, relatives of kidnapped people, and I just can't leave," she continues. "I'll either end up going crazy, or something will happen to me."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She adds matter-of-factly: "People are killed for telling the truth. If they kill me, they kill me. But I love my homeland, why do I have to flee?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Burying The Dead In Grozny</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saratova was married to a policeman and raising their 1-year-old son when the first war began in 1994. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On a visit to Moscow when the conflict broke out, she made her way back to Chechnya's neighboring region of Ingushetia before walking three days back to Grozny against a stream of refugees fleeing the city. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finding her apartment empty, she believed her family members had been killed. When she later found them where they were taking shelter in a village outside the city, "I couldn't stop sobbing," she says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saratova buried friends and acquaintances before the first Chechen war ceased in 1996; none of her family was hurt. Soon after war began again -- when then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched an invasion in 1999 -- Saratova's husband left her. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At this time, Saratova began taking in elderly women, mostly Russian, who lived in her apartment block and had nowhere to flee the fierce shelling of the city by Russian forces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I never in my life would have thought I'd know what real hunger is in this day and age, but I did," she recalls. "Once for three days I ate absolutely nothing."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the lulls, Saratova helped her neighbors bury the dead. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Risking Everything</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When a television journalist asked Saratova to smuggle videotapes across the border into Ingushetia, she jumped at the chance to help the outside world understand what was happening in her homeland. "I naively thought there would be someone who could press a button and end the war if he only knew what was going on," she says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sneaking out of the city on foot, she hitched rides for several days before giving the tape to a researcher from Amnesty International. Hoping to continue helping her war-ravaged region, Saratova soon joined Memorial, which opened an Ingushetia office to document the violence across the border in Chechnya. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saratova began traveling across Chechnya to document abuses, mainly casualties from the military's so-called clean-up operations. She often worked with Estemirova, with whom she shared a room. "Day in and day out," she says, "we'd cross into Chechnya under fire to visit villages under siege, where people were fleeing."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To pass numerous military checkpoints, the women invented stories about rescuing relatives. Sometimes they brought along their small children, hiding videotapes in their backpacks. "It was horrible," Saratova says. "Sometimes now I can't believe that was me doing that."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tanya Lokshina, deputy director of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, has worked with Saratova in Chechnya for a decade. She says Saratova was heavily pregnant with her second son in 2003 but insisted on taking her to document torture cases and disappearances. "She took me on some totally crazy travels in the mountains," Lokshina says, "when all I could do was think she was going to pop."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Finding Hope</b></span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saratova says Objectiv, her current organization, serves as a "24-hour emergency service" assisting anyone who has "been injured, abducted, tortured, found, anything -- and needs our help."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But she says Estemirova's death last year was "very difficult for me to bear because back then we miraculously didn't die, when it was really dangerous."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Memorial has curtailed its activities in the region, placing more burden and risk on the very few people like Saratova who still report on abuses by the local authorities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the alarming recent developments is the rise of abuses against women. Kadyrov promotes polygamy and in 2007 he violated Russian law by issuing a decree banning women and girls who were not wearing head scarves from entering schools, universities, and other public buildings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Men have begun harassing women on the streets deemed not to be covered enough. And women are increasingly being abducted and forced into marriage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unlike Saratova, Lokshina believes Kadyrov does control his local security forces. "I'm Moscow-based and I can afford to say much more [than Saratova]," she says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the shared gloom over Chechnya's past and present, Saratova says the fact she can reach some government officials today is already an improvement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I hope very much there will be more of that," she says. "There are very few of us Chechens. We have to find a way to live together peacefully."</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Russian_Rights_Activist_Battles_On_In_Chechnya/2143949.html">RFE/RL</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><object width="512" height="357"><embed src="http://www.rferl.org/flash/MediaPlayer.swf?cache=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="512" height="357" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="configFilePath=http://www.rferl.org/GetFlashXml.aspx?param=10115|user|video%26skin=embeded"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.rferl.org/video/10115.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> 'Thank You, Ramzan' - The Chechen Leader's Personality Cult </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">- RFE/RL</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><br /></span></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-34753810936937363462010-08-31T09:57:00.000+03:002010-08-31T09:59:02.446+03:00Window on Eurasia: Balkars Again Push for Their Own National Republic in North Caucasus<div style="text-align: justify;">Paul Goble</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vienna, August 30 – Angered by what they see as the ethnocratic approach of the Kabard majority which dominates the Kabardino-Balkar Republic (KBR) and frightened by Circassian calls for the formation of a single republic for that nationality, the Turkic Balkars are again calling for the formation of a Balkar Republic within the Russian Federation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The numerically small Balkar nation is unlikely to achieve its goal: Indeed, moves in that direction would not only lead to the demise of the KBR but also to the dismantling of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, another binational state but one in which the Turkic-speaking Karachays outnumber and dominate the Circassian Cherkess.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consequently, Moscow will do whatever it can to prevent the Balkars from achieving their goals even though there is a very real possibility that some in the Russian capital may view the Balkar effort as a useful countermove to the Circassian one, especially given Moscow’s nervousness about instability near where the Sochi Olympics are scheduled to take place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That is especially true because Turkey, although currently home to five million Circassians, is offering itself as the leader of the Turkic-speaking world and thus may now rein in Circassian activists there if it appears that the Turkic-speaking Balkars and Karachays are being mistreated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both the 80,000 Balkars and the 140,000 Karachays, the two Turkic peoples in this region, are minorities within a region dominated by the Circassians. Both were deported by Stalin at the end of World War II, and when they were allowed back, they were again combined with Circassian groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With the demise of the Soviet Union, some in both groups pressed for their own national republic. The Balkars pushed especially hard in 1996 and then again in 2006, but in both cases, Russian officials came down hard on them, and the movements appeared to dissipate. Now, however, the Balkars are again making demands.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In March, the Council of Elders of the Balkar People called for the formation of a Balkar Republic, but on May 31, the Supreme Court liquidated that organization, arguing that the appeals of the Council violated the KBR Constitution and threatened inter-ethnic peace in that republic (www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=20272).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the Council appealed, and the Russian Supreme Court set aside the KBR court’s decision, an action that led the Council itself to step up its demands for an independent republic and the KBR prosecutors to initiate yet another case against the Council and its members for “extremism.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the Council announced that it was beginning the organization of an all-Balkar congress, one that presumably would involve Turkic speakers not only from the KBR but across the North Caucasus, to discuss what to do next in order to achieve “the self-determination of the Balkar people” (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/173346/).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Council leader Oyus Gurtuyev said that the call for such a meeting follows meetings in “all” Balkar population points which decided to “delegate plenipotentiary authority for the defense of the interests of the Balkar people to the Council of Elders of the Balkar People,” a claim that it is plausible but impossible to check.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gurtuyev said that his group had been “forced to take this step” after “several bureaucrats” of Balkar nationality had written to North Caucasus Plenipotentiary Representative Aleksandr Khloponin saying that the Council does not “reflect the general opinion” of the Balkar nation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In other comments, Gurtuyev said that the Council had formed an alliance with the Karachayevo-Balkar Elbrus organization, the Balkaria group, and the Peasant Union, Having “decided to consolidate [their] forces in order to put before the government issues which agitate our people.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gurtuyev and other speakers stressed that the group would always act within the law, was not being funded from abroad, and was interested in negotiating over pressing issues rather than simply striking a pose. But many of the issues that the group is concerned about – such as control of or access to pasture land – are so explosive that even raising them threatens to spark violence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indeed, one Council leader said something that would guarantee that: He said that if the powers that be don’t meet Balkar demands, then the Balkars “will ask the federal center for self-determination or inclusion in Stavropol kray,” a move some Russian nationalists might favor but one that would call into question all administrative-territorial divisions in the region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/08/window-on-eurasia-balkars-again-push.html">Window on Eurasia</a></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-77292871469982232022010-08-29T23:54:00.007+03:002010-08-30T10:31:10.837+03:00Report: 100 Russian skinheads attack concertgoers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/THrJSs5aZqI/AAAAAAAAAbk/mJEDNZOXlf8/s1600/russian-skinheads.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/THrJSs5aZqI/AAAAAAAAAbk/mJEDNZOXlf8/s200/russian-skinheads.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510938417168017058" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">By David Novak, The Associated Press -- MOSCOW — Scores of bare-chested skinheads attacked a crowd of about 3,000 people at a rock concert in central Russia on Sunday, beating them with clubs, media reports said.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dozens of people were left bloodied and dazed in the attack, television and news agencies reported, and state news channel Rossiya-24 said a 14-year-old girl was killed at the concert in Miass, 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) east of Moscow.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fourteen ambulances were called to the scene, the channel said, citing witness accounts. The motive for the attack was not known, and authorities couldn't be reached for comment. The ITAR-Tass agency said local police had refused comment.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many of Russia's top rock acts were attending the "Tornado" rock festival, the agency said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia has an ingrained neo-Nazi skinhead movement. Attacks on dark-skinned foreigners in Moscow and St. Petersburg have been relatively common in recent years. The January 2009 murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova prompted a Kremlin crackdown on ultranationalists, who were blamed for the killings.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In April, a Moscow court banned the far-right Slavic Union, whose Russian acronym SS intentionally mimicked that used by the Nazis' infamous paramilitary. The group was declared extremist and shut down. Then the group's leader, Dmitry Demushkin, told The Associated Press it tried to promote its far-right agenda legally and warned that the ban would enrage and embolden Russia's most radical ultranationalists.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia's ultranationalist movement is so deeply embedded in the country's culture that militant groups have sprouted up around Russia to fight it. Anti-racist groups regularly spearhead attacks on ultranationalists, sparking revenge assaults in an intensifying clash of ideologies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neo-Nazi and other ultranationalist groups mushroomed in Russia after the 1991 Soviet collapse. The influx of immigrant workers and two wars with Chechen separatists triggered xenophobia and a surge in hate crimes.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Racially motivated attacks, often targeting people from Caucasus and Central Asia, peaked in 2008, when 110 were killed and 487 wounded, an independent watchdog, Sova, said. The Moscow Bureau for Human Rights estimated that some 70,000 neo-Nazis were active in Russia — compared with a just few thousand in the early 1990s.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100829/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_concert_attack">Yahoo News</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related Issues</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/30/teenage-girl-killed-skinheads-russia">Teenage girl killed in skinhead rampage at Russian festival </a>- Guardian</li><li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11127706">Russia skinheads attack music festival</a> - BBC</li><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/from-russia-with-hate.html">From Russia With Hate</a></li><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2008/07/can-anyone-stop-rise-of-russias.html">Can Anyone Stop the Rise of Russia's Skinheads?</a>, by Paul Goble</li><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2008/05/dark-skinneds-can-not-enter.html">Dark skinneds can not enter!</a> by Hakan Aksay</li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-75132442494848690432010-08-14T13:51:00.003+03:002010-08-14T13:56:44.181+03:00How the Russian-Georgian War Has Changed the World - Interview with Paul Goble<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TGZ1URqxokI/AAAAAAAAAbE/WdHJwinU14g/s1600/Paul_Goble.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 141px; height: 165px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TGZ1URqxokI/AAAAAAAAAbE/WdHJwinU14g/s200/Paul_Goble.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505216585707659842" /></a><i><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i>(This interview was published on VOA News <a href="http://www1.voanews.com/russian/news/Analysis-and-perspectives/war-anniversary-2010-08-10-100368334.html">in Russian</a>, 10 August 2010)</i></span></div></i><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the second anniversary of the Russian-Georgian war Yulia Savchenko talked about the consequences of confrontation and conflict lessons with Paul Goble - political scientist, a former specialist on ethnic minorities the U.S. State Department, and now a researcher with the Diplomatic Academy of Azerbaijan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Yulia Savchenko: </b>This is the second anniversary of the Georgian-Russian conflict of 2008. Different people have taken different things from this conflict. What do you think Georgia has learned from the conflict?</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Paul Goble:</b> Different people in Georgia have learned different lessons. Many, except perhaps the president, understand why the conflict happened. On the eve of the fighting, he clearly showed that he had misinterpreted the rules of the game in the international arena as well as misinterpreted remarks of the US President and Secretary of State. He interpreted their statements that the US always supports its friends as meaning he could do whatever he pleased. Since that time, he has used the threatening posture of Russia to distract attention and silence his opponents. Whatever else, Georgia in the future needs to show more creativity in dealing with the new environment than it did earlier.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Others have learned from the conflict. Russia’s neighbors now can see that Moscow is not constrained in showing who is the boss in the region even to the point of using force. No one thought that was the case, but now these countries have no guarantee that it won’thappen again. This has changed their perception of their own defensive needs and of Russia more generally.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That is only one of the ways Russia suffered as a result of the war. While Vladimir Putin and his team have proclaimed their victory, many Russians recognize that his decision was ill-conceived as well The Russian army did not do well, with poorly trained soldiers shooting at each other. As a result, Russia does not look as strong as it did. Instead, it looks like a weak bully. That is a very dangerous situation for any country to be in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>JS: </b>And what this conflict has taught the United States?</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>PG:</b> The US certainly has learned a few things. Perhaps first of all, we have had the lesson driven home that when we deal with other countries, we must always be sure that our statements are not misinterpreted. Clearly Saakashvili heard things from Washington that Washington did not in the end intend. U.S. policymakers need to be clear about what the US will and won’t do, regardless of a desire to show oneself supportive and friendly. Another lesson I hope we have learned is that Moscow today is not prepared to live by the rules. To go forward, Russia will have to work hard to reassure the US and others that it will behave as countries are supposed to.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>JS:</b> Two years ago, after the clash between Russia and Georgia, you testified that you support the principle of national self-determination. Do you think the Obama administration will follow this advice, especially in the wake of the International Court’s decision on Kosovo?</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>PG:</b> I believe in the right of nations to self-determination. I believe that Abkhazia has demonstrated its ability to translate this right into reality. The situation regarding South Ossetia is much more problematic both because of the existence of North Ossetia, its own relations with the Russian Federation, and its geographic position as a kind of dagger aimed at Tbilisi.</span></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In many respects, the step that would most disturb Moscow would be if the West and the US in particular were to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Imagine what it would mean if 27 NATO members had embassies in Sukhumi. That would open the question of the recognition of republics now north of the Russian Federation border.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I do not exclude such a development. It would be more interesting if Georgia has recognized Abkhazia. Abkhazians, of course, would likely seek to find a way to prevent that if only because of the obvious undesirable consequences for Moscow. Consequently, it won’t happen soon. But if these states remain recognized only by a few states, this will be the beginning of an era in which there may be many partially recognized states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thinking ahead to the tenth anniversary of the conflict, I hope that at that time we will be able to discuss this crisis more soberly with fewer comments about Russian aggression, more foreign embassies in Abkhazia. I don’t know whether an American one will be among them, but some kind of reconciliation of all parties is likely, if only because living in a world where all past crimes are constantly at the center of attention is so very difficult.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://www1.voanews.com/russian/news/Analysis-and-perspectives/war-anniversary-2010-08-10-100368334.html">VOA News -Как российско-грузинская война изменила мир</a></li><li>Related</li><li><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/535-thinking-the-unthinkable-by-paul-goble.html">Thinking the Unthinkable: What if Georgia and the West Were to Recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia?</a> by Paul Goble</li><li><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/533-two-year-anniversary-of-august-war-2008-by-irakli-khintba.html">Two year anniversary of August War 2008</a>, by Irakli Khintba</li><li><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/536-why-can-georgian-president-mikheil-saakashvili-not-emulate-willi-brandt-by-liz-fuller.html">Why Can Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Not Emulate Willi Brandt?</a> by Liz Fuller</li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-57997725815722329732010-08-07T19:35:00.002+03:002010-08-08T21:14:19.798+03:00[AW] Articles on 2008 Russo-Georgian War and AbkhaziaOn the anniversary of the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, experts here share their thoughts on the August war insofar as it affected Abkhazia. The views expressed in commentaries are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of Abkhaz World.<div><br /><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/536"><b>Why Can Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Not Emulate Willi Brandt?</b></a><br /><b>By Liz Fuller</b> | Special to Abkhaz World<br /><i>British scholar who joined Radio Liberty as Caucasus analyst in July 1980</i></div><div><br /><b><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/535-thinking-the-unthinkable-by-paul-goble.html">Thinking the Unthinkable:What if Georgia and the West Were to Recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia?</a></b><br /><b>By Paul Goble</b> | Special to Abkhaz World<br /><i>Writer, Political Analyst</i></div><div><br /><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/articles/conflict/522-the-impact-of-the-war-in-georgia-on-russian-public-opinion-by-stephen-d-shenfield.html"><b>The Impact of the War in Georgia on Russian Public Opinion</b></a><br /><b>By Stephen D. Shenfield</b> | Special to Abkhaz World<br /><i>Independent researcher and translator</i><br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/articles/analysis/528-the-georgia-war-and-its-consequences-by-alexander-rahr-.html">The Georgia War and its consequences</a></b></div><div><b>By Alexander Rahr</b> | Special to Abkhaz World<br /><i>Program Director for Russia/Eurasia, German Council on Foreign Relations; Berlin</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/529-the-abkhazian-paradox-and-the-montenegrin-model-by-laurent-vinatier.html">The Abkhazian paradox and the Montenegrin model</a></b><br /><b>By Laurent Vinatier</b> | Special to Abkhaz World<br /><i>Senior Research Associates, Thomas More Institute, Paris</i></span></i></div><div><br />*****</div><div><br /><b><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/533-two-year-anniversary-of-august-war-2008-by-irakli-khintba.html">Two year anniversary of August War 2008</a></b><br /><b>By Irakli Khintba</b> | IISS - The International Institute for Strategic Studies<br />Lecturer in political science at the Abkhazian State University, and a fellow at the Centre for Humanitarian Programmes; Sukhum</div><div><br /><b><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/articles/analysis/534-the-ghost-of-the-soviet-union-by-sergey-markedonov.html">The ghost of the Soviet Union</a></b><br /><b>By Sergey Markedonov</b> | IISS - The International Institute for Strategic Studies<br />Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Russia and Eurasia Program Washington, DC</div><div><br /></div><div>*****</div><div><br /><b><a href="http://www.abkhazworld.com/articles/analysis/530-abkhazia-and-the-caucasus-the-wests-choice-by-neal-ascherson.html">Abkhazia and the Caucasus: the west’s choice</a></b><br /><b>By Neal Ascherson</b> | openDemocracy<br /><i>Journalist and writer; London</i></div><div><i><br /></i>AbkhazWorld.com</div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-26300806067205243702010-08-03T20:20:00.002+03:002010-08-03T20:27:41.396+03:00Review: Let Our Fame Be Great<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TFhP8vevQmI/AAAAAAAAAao/sy_cl2QKSW0/s1600/Oliver_Bullough.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 128px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TFhP8vevQmI/AAAAAAAAAao/sy_cl2QKSW0/s200/Oliver_Bullough.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501234849789198946" /></a>Journalist Oliver Bullough delivers a detailed, moving history of the too often overlooked people of the Caucasus.<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus By Oliver Bullough Basic Books 528 pp., $28.95</span></div><br />By Bob Blaisdell / August 3, 2010<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps the best way to begin is to be honest. What if we just admit we don’t know much about the Caucasus, that we’re confused by the term “Caucasian,” that we’re not sure who those defiant people are and why we should admire their long resistance to Russian invasion? If that’s our first step, then the second should be to pick a copy of <b>Let Our Fame Be Great</b>, a most compelling history of the region by British journalist Oliver Bullough.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bullough begins by explaining that this region, spanning the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, was, for more than a thousand years, like an inland island, little subject to outside influences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Dagestan was not considered entirely Muslim until the late sixteenth century,” writes Bullough. “Chechnya was also late to Islam, and the last Chechens probably did not convert until the late eighteenth century. Some Ingush were still pagan until the 1860s.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It even took bearish Russia until the late 18th century to break through the geographical obstacles and start attempting the takeover of the Caucasus piece by piece, meeting plenty of defiance from the poor, mostly illiterate, independent peoples – who, on the whole, grouped themselves within each people by family units, and understood nothing of what states or nations meant: “The long absence ... of a foreign ruler or a foreign religion allowed the mountain customs to continue largely unchanged into the modern age. Communities were governed by councils of elders, and land was held in common by each village.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for the recent, post-Soviet violent history, I cringe in reflex, but until now I must admit that I knew far too little except that Vladimir Putin in 1999 gathered national political power as he crushed the chaos in the Caucasus with military assaults. So the Caucasus are to Russia what the American southwest might have been had the various native American tribes converted to a common religion and been able to continue frustrating the US and Mexican invaders. From the czars to Stalin to Putin, resistance in the Caucasus to Russian governance and customs has resulted, Bullough argues, in exile or genocide of the natives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As Bullough dashes and darts us through the amazing and forgotten episodes of the region, we see that this is a book of discoveries, not a textbook, a personally driven but impressively researched history-adventure. The “Fame” of the title? It’s ironic: the peoples, so conscious of themselves, so culturally and family oriented that their fame continues to speak loudly to themselves, have been dismissively written out of Russian history. This Russian obliviousness to its own history of repression used to surprise Bullough but now just really ticks him off: “Where once the Balkar and Karachai nations had been written out of existence, now the fact that they had been written out of existence was itself written out of existence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bullough divides the book into four sections, and each is compelling. The history of the Circassians, for instance, who had lived in the region along the eastern coast of the Black Sea for hundreds of years, began losing their independence and freedom in 1764 with the arrival of a Russian army. Thus began Russian policy, which through czars, dictators, and presidents, has been remarkably consistent. The native peoples were usually welcome to completely submit (“Why should we?” – “You’re under arrest for daring to ask!”) and be subject to exile to deserted regions or, if they insisted on defending themselves, they could taste the might of the Russian military.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It sends chills up Bullough’s spine that Sochi, in southern Russia, in the very region where hundreds of thousands of Circassians were exiled or killed, was granted the Winter Olympics in 2014: “It is not just Sochi that is insensitive to the Circassian claims of genocide, but the whole coast, which – if it remembers the nineteenth-century war at all – celebrates it as a victory, not as the squalid campaign of attrition and slaughter that it really was.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Chechen wars, the despicable Chechen acts of terrorism in Moscow and Beslan, the amazing Russian demolition in the 1990s of Grozny – it’s all reviewed by Bullough. He’s appalled by the Chechen terrorism, which he covered firsthand as a reporter, despite his great sympathy with the plight of the vast majority of the population. Since 2000, about 20 percent of the Chechens have applied for asylum. While they love their land, it is a literal minefield. Bullough fears, however, that European assimilation will not be easy for the anarchic Chechens: “The law-abiding, orderly Austrian system could not be more alien to a Chechen man raised on the concept that ripping off the state was a duty and a pleasure.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As cultural history filtered through the eyes and heart of a bright and earnest young writer, the book most similar to this one – as fresh and vital, admiring and frustrated – is Isabel Fonseca’s “Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey,” about another group of variously associated peoples without a sovereign homeland. Bullough concludes: </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“[T]he history of Russia’s conquest is one of tragedy for the people of the mountains. The Circassians, the mountain Turks, the Ingush and the Chechens have all suffered horribly just so the map of Russia could be the shape the tsars, the general secretaries and the presidents wanted it to be.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Bob Blaisdell edited “Tolstoy as Teacher: Leo Tolstoy’s Writings on Education.”</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2010/0803/Let-Our-Fame-Be-Great">The Christian Science Monitor</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Related</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/caucasus-haunting-history.html">The Caucasus: Haunting history</a> - The Economist</li><li><a href="http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2010/03/let-our-fame-be-great-review-by-justin.html">Let Our Fame Be Great, Review</a> by Justin Marozzi</li><li><a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/headlines/1434-interview-oliver-bullough-by-drobinson.html">Interview: Oliver Bullough, author By David Robinson - The Scotsman</a></li></ul></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-54244279646516427642010-07-29T11:56:00.004+03:002010-07-29T12:04:12.228+03:00Window on Eurasia: Russian Supreme Court Ruling Likely to Exacerbate Ethnic Tensions in Kabardino-Balkaria<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TFFDVu5PUBI/AAAAAAAAAaY/BEuuo2Of13c/s1600/Kabardino-Balkaria.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 146px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TFFDVu5PUBI/AAAAAAAAAaY/BEuuo2Of13c/s200/Kabardino-Balkaria.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499250660640509970" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Paul Goble</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Staunton, July 28 – Tensions between the Kabardin majority and the Balkar minority in the bi-national North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria are likely to be exacerbated by the decision of the Russian Supreme Court to set aside the decision of KBR’s highest court to ban the activity of the Council of Elders of the Balkar People as “extremist.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Leaders of the Council of Elders celebrated yesterday’s decision which set aside the May 31st ruling by the Kabardino-Balkaria republic supreme court. One of their number, Oyus Gurtuyev, said that the Moscow decision shows “that [the Balkars] have acted within the law and that the law defends us” (<a href="www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/172180">www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/172180</a>/).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gurtuyev’s comments are more significant than a first glance might suggest. On the one hand, the leaders of Kabardino-Balkaria, where 55 percent of the population is Circassian Kabardins and 12 percent consists of the Turkic Balkars, have pursued the Balkars on charges of extremism for several years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2007, republic prosecutors warned the organization against “extremist” activity and brought criminal charges against Gurtuyev, the head of the council, for disseminating “intentionally false reports which attacked the honor and director of the President of the KBR and stained his reputation.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moreover, earlier this year, KBR prosecutors charged that the Council of Elders of the Balkar People had engaged in extremist activity by disseminating a report entitled “The Status of the Balkar People in the KBR: Sources of Problems and Paths of Overcoming Them” which pointed to anti-Balkar actions by the Kabardin majority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And on the other, the Kabardins and Balkars are currently locked in a struggle over the control of pastureland, a struggle in which the Kabardins are seeking to overturn a Russian law on territorial arrangements of municipal administrations and the Balkars are demanding that Moscow insist on its full enforcement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That measure, Federal Law 131 “On the organization of local self-administration” specifies that there must not be any un-administered space between settlements in heavily populated areas, a requirement that would seem to be ethnically neutral but in the case of the KBR, it is anything but.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Balkars, despite being minorities, dominate many of the villages in the mountains, and if the law is in fact imposed, it would give them control over pastures between them, pastures that in the past ethnic Kabardins have traditionally made use of. Not surprisingly, some Kabardins are seeking to have the law overturned or at least ignored.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The struggle has been heating up, with Balkars staging demonstrations and hunger strikes both in the KBR and in Moscow, but the outcome of a meeting in Nalchik over the weekend suggests that tensions are continuing to rise and that there may soon be a major confrontation between the two nations in that already troubled republic (<a href="www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/172087/">www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/172087/</a>).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Saturday, Balkar activists assembled in the republic capital to consider both how to continue the fight to ensure that the municipality land law will not be changed and what Balkars should do in the face of rising activism among the Kabardins, a subgroup of the Circassians who are seeking the formation of a single Circassian Republic in the North Caucasus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One Balkar leader, Dalkhat Baydayev, told those in attendance that Balkars have been “the first who have raised [their] heads for the fulfillment of laws in order that Russia should be a legal state.” Consequently, it seems certain that those who share his perspective will be encouraged by the Russian Supreme Court decision this week.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it is clear that they face an uphill battle. KBR President Arsen Kanokov, a Kabardin, supports changing the law or even eliminating it altogether, other speakers at the session said, and he has built alliances both with Aleksandr Khloponin, the Presidential plenipotentiary for the North Caucasus, and Moscow officials to push that agenda.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Balkars, however, think they have succeeded in “blocking” these efforts so far. They feel, Dzhambulat Etteyev, another of their leaders, said, that “this law has already been working for five years” and that there is “no basis” for changing it. Nonetheless, the Balkars continue to be worried.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bakhautdin Etezov, a third Balkar speaker, said that something was not right in Moscow and in Nalchik, and he speculated that “all this means either a crisis among the powers that be or a conspiracy against the Balkar people or even that someone very much wants to divide up Russia into pieces.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Balkars say they are very much against all of that, and at Saturday’s session, several speakers called for the creating of a Coordinating Council of Balkar Social Organizations” so that there will be a single organization capable of speaking on behalf of the entire Balkar people, something they currently feel they lack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">. And at the conclusion of the session, Ruslan Babayev, another of their leaders, declared that the Balkars now have only “a single way out” of their problems – “self-determination,” even though he insisted that the Balkars remain “supporters of resolving all [their] problems on the basis of the Constitution and Federal Laws.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This new upsurge of Balkar activism could presage a concerted drive to end the bi-national KBR, something that in turn could trigger not only an expanded effort to move toward a united Circassian Republic but spark greater activism among other Turkic groups across the North Caucasus, including the Karachays of Karachayevo-Cherkessia.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/07/window-on-eurasia-russian-supreme-court.html">Window on Eurasia</a></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-8865286760145357062010-07-26T18:27:00.001+03:002010-07-26T18:29:36.806+03:00Concert to showcase Kingdom’s cultural diversity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TE2paShhp0I/AAAAAAAAAZw/MENDzKdGk0k/s1600/Jordan_Circassians.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 185px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TE2paShhp0I/AAAAAAAAAZw/MENDzKdGk0k/s200/Jordan_Circassians.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498236989203392322" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">By Hana Namrouqa - The Jordan Times</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">July 26, AMMAN -- Folkloric dances, music and poetry of different nations will be featured at the Roman Theatre downtown Amman on Friday night, in a concert showcasing the Kingdom’s cultural diversity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Organised by UNESCO Amman and the Jordanian Caucasian Cultural Society, the event includes Jordanian folkloric dances, Circassian dances and music, Bukhari poetry from Uzbekistan, Kazakh music, Turkish music and dances, Chechen music, Armenian folkloric dances and music, and poetry recital from Daghestan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Jordan’s multicultural society will celebrate years of amiable coexistence among its diverse groups who have lived in Jordan for decades becoming part of the community yet still retaining important elements of their heritage," the UNESCO Amman office said in a statement on its website.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jordanian Caucasian Cultural Society President Fakhruddin Daghestani said the night of cultural diversity, which starts at 7:00pm and ends at 9:00pm, marks the UN’s International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The event seeks to highlight the different cultures in Jordan and preserve minorities' cultures," he told The Jordan Times yesterday, noting that it is open to the public.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The event will be held at the Roman Theatre because it has a capacity of around 3,000 spectators, and we are expecting a huge turnout," Daghestani noted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He underscored the Kingdom's cultural diversity, noting that 11 groups live in harmony in Jordan: Bedouins, Circassians, Chechens, Armenians, Bukharans, Kazakhs, Turks, Dagestanis, Druze, Bosnians and Assyrians.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Established last year, the Jordanian Caucasian Cultural Society seeks to preserve Jordanian and Caucasian culture and folklore by holding festivals and lectures, among other activities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=28636">The Jordan Times</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-68075095014915662162010-07-26T01:07:00.001+03:002010-07-26T01:10:35.999+03:00Kosovo and the International Court, by Jack Matlock<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TEy1u0xpiAI/AAAAAAAAAZo/vJWFqCU2vuw/s1600/69847.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TEy1u0xpiAI/AAAAAAAAAZo/vJWFqCU2vuw/s200/69847.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497969061158029314" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>If Kosovo independence is recognized, why not South Ossetia and Abkhazia? Why defend the right of self-determination in one instance and deny it in others?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jack Matlock</div><div style="text-align: justify;">American professor and former ambassador</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ruling by the International Court of Justice that Kosovo’s declaration of independence did not violate international law (see Dan Bilefsky’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/world/europe/23kosovo.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=Dan%20Bilefsky&st=cse">article</a> in the <i>New York Times</i> today) will be used by the Kosovo government to argue that it entitles Kosovo to diplomatic recognition by other governments. Serbia will deny this and point out that the ruling was carefully limited, making clear that diplomatic recognition is a political, not a legal decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">ICJ President Judge Hisashi Owada, centre, flanked by Judge Peter Tomka, left, and Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, right, at the court in The Hague on Thursday, July 22, 2010.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have not read the court’s ruling, which was by a 10-4 majority and thus not unanimous, and do not know whether the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 were taken into account. Possibly not, because the Helsinki document was a political not legalcommitment. Signatories made a commitment to observe certain human rights, which we used with great effect to encourage correction of human rights abuses in the Soviet Union. It also contained a commitment not to change international borders without the consent of both parties involved.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For this reason, I would interpret the court’s ruling to be that the Kosovo authorities had a right to declare independence, but that that declaration was not legally binding on other countries. The court did not rule on the question of whether other countries are obligated to recognize Kosovo’s independence. If other countries adhere to the Helsinki Final Act, they would be violating one of its principles to do so without Serbia’s concurrence. Nevertheless, the United States and the majority (though far from all) European countries have recognized Kosovo’s independence. The court’s ruling will doubtless facilitate Kosovo’s campaign for further recognition, though it is already clear that neither Serbia nor Russia agree. China, given its problems in Xinjang and Tibet will most likely also not agree, providing two potential vetoes against UN membership.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I opposed the bombing of Serbia over Kosovo and was opposed to what I considered the premature U.S. recognition of Kosovo’s independence (which is hardly total since it requires UN assistance to keep order within the country). Nevertheless, what is done is done. At the present time, all parties would be served by putting this issue behind them and encouraging both Kosovo and Serbia to move into an association with the European Union, and eventual membership.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, if this is to happen, the U.S. should adopt a more consistent policy in regard to other frozen conflicts. If Kosovo independence is recognized, why not South Ossetia and Abkhazia? Why defend the right of self-determination in one instance and deny it in others? This goes also for areas like Trans-Dniestr, Northern Cyprus, and (hold your breath) Kurdistan. No? Well, think about it. Are we to cherry pick the conflicting principles of international law and apply some when it suits us and others when it doesn’t?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But my bottom line is that the United States should ease itself out of these local and regional problems. They represent no-win situations for outsiders. So why don’t we just step aside, do all we can to avoid violence in the area, but leave the rest to the people directly involved?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jack Matlock is a career diplomat who served on the front lines of American diplomacy during the Cold War and was U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union when the Cold War ended. Since retiring from the Foreign Service, he has focused on understanding how the Cold War ended and how the lessons from that experience might be applied to public policy today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For more biographical details, see the Wikipedia page: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_F._Matlock,_Jr.">Jack F. Matlock, Jr.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://jackmatlock.com/2010/07/kosovo-and-the-international-court/">Here & Now: A Blog</a> (July 24, 2010)</div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315115789091489138.post-11956029751884777232010-07-25T21:33:00.003+03:002010-07-25T21:50:43.533+03:00Sochi: the capital of a lost people<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TEyDgTBmo0I/AAAAAAAAAZg/N9S5EzqGOag/s1600/sochi_russia.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H32eTqjrAGY/TEyDgTBmo0I/AAAAAAAAAZg/N9S5EzqGOag/s200/sochi_russia.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497913835998585666" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">by Stefan Candea, Around the Black Sea Project</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The passage from the laid-back atmosphere in Abkhazia to the thriving and animate Russian district of Krasnodar is quite sudden. Even from the frontier point one can see the district is jam-packed: shops glued one to another, crammed cars in endless traffic jams and ongoing massive works on the infrastructure. As usual, the ubiquitous police forces keep a close watch over everything and anything. Hardly did we reach Adler when we saw on the left a huge billboard announcing extensive works to set up one of the many facilities where the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games (OG) will take place.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The narrow road winding up between the mountains and the sea cannot take in the army of tourists that keeps flooding in. Officially, in the Sochi region alone, about four and a half million tourists visit the Black Sea coast. The coast stretches along 300 kilometers north to Anapa and is strewn with tourist resorts which leads to traffic jams whatever the day, hour and weather may be. Vladimir Putin has promised the International Olympic Committee Russia would set aside 12 billion dollars for the infrastructure in order to ensure a proper development of the Olympic Games. However, Russian opposition politicians, among whom also a <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/01/interview_boris_nemtsov">former prime-minister</a>, claim the money is wasted on games which will turn out to be a disaster because of corruption, organized crime and lack of snow.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nevertheless, the infrastructure is just one of the many problems the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games raise. The Russian authorities are facing a situation similar to that of China in 2008 when the state was accused of the brutal breach of the Tibetans’ rights. And yet, the Chinese didn’t dare organize the Olympics in Tibet. The year and place of the inauguration of the Olympic Games, Krasnaya Polyana, mark 150 years since the first genocide in modern European history and the expulsion from their own country of a people who have been living in exile for generations. The people: the Circassians who were pushed to the Black Sea by the armies of Tsarist Russia in 1864, at the end of over a 100-year war to conquer Caucasus. The row of Russian forts between Sukhum and Anapa, now turned into tourist resorts, prepared the defeat of the Circassian people: they cut off their connection to the sea and their trade and supply means.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over one million Circassians were driven out by the Ottoman Empire in an operation strikingly similar to the massive Soviet deportations. Approximately 300.000 people drowned, died of hunger or illness on the beaches where they had taken refuge. Most of the survivors settled in Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Israel. Circassian families went so far as Bulgaria, Romania and Kosovo. Around five million Circassian live in the world and over 500.00 live in Krasnodar, Stavropol, Northern Ossetia and in three artificially-created republics: Adygea, Kabardino-Balkar and Karachay-Cherkess. Although they belong to the same people, they were separated, mixed with other nations and given a different name depending on the territory they lived on: Circassians, Kabardins, Shapsugs and Adyghe.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When I left Romania I didn’t know the first thing about the Circassians. It was in Ankara that I read about their <a href="http://www.circassianworld.com/new/headlines/1452-circassians-anger-at-sochi-games.html">protests</a> against the Sochi Olympic Games and I eventually discovered Oliver Bullough’s (British journalist) <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Our-Fame-Be-Great/dp/1846141419">very recent book</a> which I used as my main source of documentation. Among the sources the book recommended there was a site of the Circassian community to which I turned to for contacts in Sochi. In less than half a day my message reached Ankara, Nalchik and made it back to Sochi. In the evening I met with the representatives of a local organization of Circassians and the following day we were fixed up in a nearby village.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Murat and Salikh are two thirty-year-old young men who were born in the Circassian villages around Sochi. They are part of HASE, an association set up by the Shapsug tribe. Murat works in marketing and Salikh in energy export. Both of them learned a false history in school: the history that mentions Circassians only in passing as people who existed once, but ‘left the table’ at a certain point. Salikh showed me old maps of Circassia, symbols, flags and pictures from commemorations, all of them saved on his mobile phone. He said the power of his people resides in everybody knowing by heart the history of their own family up to the seventh generation. He was very interested in the book I bought in Ankara, a book whose author (a foreigner) recounts in great detail Salikh’s very own history. I offered him the book.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Russian state’s reaction to this type of issues is much too fierce, especially in the area of the Caucasian republics. Therefore, the HASE organization doesn’t insist on the official recognition of the term ‘genocide’, but only that of the historical events that led to the deportation and death of the Circassian people. Moreover, they demand the symbols of the Circassian tribes that were exterminated in Sochi be included amongst the other Olympic Games emblems. Other groups from different regions have a much radical view on things, requesting the cancellation of the Olympic Games or the establishment of the Circassian Republic.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">July 19, 2010</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://theblacksea.eu/en/sochi-capitala-unui-popor-disparut-734">Around the Black Sea</a></div>CWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12134427963245271235noreply@blogger.com2