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Conflicts In The Caucasus Olga Vassilieva |
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Introduction
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The high conflict potential of the Caucasus has been conditioned by a number of factors. The Caucasus, and especially its northern part, is characterized by the ethnic and religious variety, which is itself a factor of instability. More than 50 autochthonous ethnic groups have been living in the Caucasus, which is often named as a “mountain of languages.” Only in the North Caucasus, there are Abkhaz-Adyghian language group, which include Abkhazians, Adyghians, Abazians, Cherkessians, Kabardinians and Ubykhs; the Turkish group (Balkarians, Karachays, Kumyks, Nogais and Azeri); the Nakh group (Chechens and Ingushens); the Iranian group (Ossetians), the Dagestanian group including several langauge subgroups such as the Avar-Ando-Tsez subgroup (Avarians, Karatinians, Andians, etc.) or the Dargin, Lack and Lezgin subgroup. Historically, the peoples of the Caucasus have belonged to different religions – Orthodox and Monophysite Christianity, Sunnite and Shiite Islam, paganism. All
these ethnic groups live in comparatively small territory. The
population density in the North Caucasus, for example, exceeds 47 people
per square kilometer – and this is without taking into account the
mountain relief of the Caucasus, meanwhile, this index for Russia is
only equal to 8.6. The
ethnic map of the Caucasus has significantly changed during history –
due to “natural” reasons (e.g., different population growth), wars
and resettlement policies. A high population growth rate, especially in
the poly-ethnic and overpopulated north-eastern Caucasus, has
significantly deteriorated the situation, increasing demographic
pressure on environment and tensions with neighboring peoples, competing
for scare resources. For example, from 1979 till 1989 the number of
Ingushens increased by 27%, Chechens by 27% and Avars - by 24% (for
Russia, the average index was 7.2%). A high birth rate in the region has
been determined by the considerable number of the rural population and
the low level of education, traditionalism of the North Caucasian
peoples and fear of being assimilated by larger ethnic groups. Frequent wars and invasions defined an extensive migration of various ethnic groups in the region over history. The topography of the Caucasus has fostered the high extent of the diversity among local communities and the preservation of their compact settlements. About two-century Russia’s dominance in the region had exacerbated internal disputes and created new tensions. Russian colonization of the Caucasus in the nineteenth century and structural transformation of society in the twentieth century have essentially changed the ethnic map of the Caucasus. According to various estimates, from 0.5 to 1.5 million Moslems, mainly Adyghens and Chechens, were deported to Turkey by the Russian government after the Russian-Caucasian war (1816-1864). In turn, Slavs began settling in the Caucasus in the late 19th century and early in the 20th century, which influenced the ratio of ethnic groups. Lack
of resources in the Caucasus, and first of all, land and water, had
resulted in ethnic tensions and grievances during centuries. After the
1917 revolution, almost all ethnic groups tried to solve their problems
by declaring autonomous status in the ethnic motherland. However, the
boundaries of these autonomies could not be easily defined: territories
of self-proclaimed Georgian Democratic Republic, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Republics of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, and many others often
over-lapped. Soviet national policy based on the idea of
ethno-federalism had smoothened ethnic tensions by providing a national
autonomy for main ethnic groups. However, the frequent change of
national and administrative boundaries as well as a status of ethnic
groups had resulted in new tensions and kept old ones. A
hierarchy of ethnic groups in the Caucasus has been provoked an
additional competition among ethnic groups for rising their status in
the Federation, which in turn, defined access to resources and power
distribution. An ethnic group, which name was used for naming a
republic, began to dominate politically, although it did not always
dominated in numbers. This policy unavoidably led to interethnic
tensions with “minorities,” which strived to change their status
through the separation a new republic. The
creation of national autonomies and republics did in fact constitute the
“right” of the “titular” ethnos (or the dominant ethnic group)
to particular territories, which in case of Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan became independent states after 1991. Meanwhile, other groups
have argued this right on the basis of history and other evidence of
legitimacy. They tried to lobby the Politburo of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union, and sometimes, successfully. This led to frequent
changes of national and administrative boundaries. In 1921, the
All-Union Central Executive Committee (the Soviet government), for
example, established the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of
Dagestan and the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Mountain Republic, which
consisted of six administrative provinces - Kabardinian, Balkarian,
Ossetian, Karachayi, Ingushen and Chechen. Three years later, the
Mountain Republic was separated into the Kabardino-Balkarian,
Karachaevo-Cherkessian, Chechen, North Ossetian, and Ingushen autonomous
oblasts which
were set up as part of the North Caucasian krai.
In December 1936 Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Chechnya-Ingushetia
were granted the status of autonomous republics but since then their
borders had been changed many times. The Soviet policy in the region had involved large-scale industrial (economic) and political resettlements. Political resettlement included not only the deportation of Karachais, Balkarians, Ingushens and Chechens who had been accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II and deported from the Caucasus to Central Asia in 1943-1944 but also forced resettling other Caucasian peoples into the territories of the deported peoples. The
accelerated industrialization of the Caucasian region in the 1930s
trough to the 1960s, which demanded qualified cadre, led to the
migration of European ethnic groups. This policy also has changed ethnic
ratio and boundaries of ethnic territories in the Caucasus, and
especially in its northern part. In such conditions, a claim of the restoration of “historical boundaries” unavoidably results in a chain of conflicts in the Caucasus as it happened after the adoption of the Law of the Russian Federation “About the Rehabilitation in the Repressed Peoples” in 1991. For example, an attempt to restore the Aukhovskii district (the former Chechen district in Dagestan) aggravated the conflict between Chechens, from one hand, and Laks and Avars, which were re-settled in this district in 1944, from the other hand. A new re-settlement of Laks into the plains, where Kumyks have traditionally lived, provoked tensions between Kumyks and Laks. After the adoption of the Law of the Russian Federation “About the Creation of Ingushetia” (June 1992), Ingushen national movement claimed several territories, including “historical” Ingushen territories, which had been part of Ingushetia before 1944 - Prigorodnyi district of the Northern Ossetia and Nazran district of Checheno-Ingushetia, and territories, where Ingushen population has been dominated “demographically” - Maglobek and Sunzha districts. These districts have never been a part of the autonomous Ingushen oblast'. However, Ingushen population began to settle at these territories due to a natural 'shift' of population conditioned by demographic pressure and the fact, the Chechens, who populated this region before 1944, settled in territories, which were in Stavropol kraj before 1957, when Checheno-Ingushen republic was restored. Neither Ossetians nor Chechens has considered Ingushens’ claims as legitimate. Finally, modern Caucasian conflicts have been conditioned by complicated processes of a triple transition - the creation of national institutions in newly independent states, the transition from the command administrative system to a market-oriented economy, and the transition to democracy. The collapse of the USSR led to the formation of newly independent states, which has no adequate state institutions. As a result, many decisions had been done and implemented by illegitimated bodies, and legitimate governments had recognized these decisions. For example, the referendum on the creating of the Ingushen Republic was held by the initiation of the public organization - the Congress of the Ingushen people. According to Law, its results should have had no legal force. According to the reality, however, they created a basis for the adaptation of the Law of the Russian Federation “About the Creation of the Ingushen Republic”. This decision of the Russian parliament could be explained by a desire to reduce the territory controlled by the Dudaev's government, which proclaimed Chechenyan independence in October 1991. The crisis of a state has manifested in the weakening of control over and within the structures of law enforcement and the armed forces, which has led to arms trading and thriving black markets, illegal arms manufacturing and the forming of armed militant groups with a semi-legal status, i.e., whose existence was endorsed by some legislative acts but runs counter to other acts. For example, the National Guard of Northern Ossetia was established on the basis of legal Acts of the Republic of Northern Ossetia, which contradicted the federal legislation. The National Guard played a main role in Ossetian-Ingushen dead conflict in 1992. The Russian government was also involved in the formation of illegal armed units by financing (and, perhaps directly supplying with arms) the opposition in Chechnya during the 1994 civil war. Economic transition inevitably leads to cutting the production and deterioration of socio-economic situation. Privatization and land reform results in a fierce competition among ethnic elites for resources. The economic restructuring can aggravate interethnic tensions even in much less ethnically diverse regions than the Caucasus. In the Caucasus, it has had tremendous impact on conflict development. Conflicts, in turn, have deteriorated the socio-economic situation dramatically, and as a consequence, inter-ethnic tensions. The departure of “non-autochthonous” industrial specialists deepened the industrial crisis. Many people in Transcaucasus and the North Caucasus live at the expense their small agricultural production, which barely covers the demand of a family. Pulling together, all these factors have defined an extremely high conflict potential in the Caucasus.
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