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confessional tolerance, preservation and consolidation of ethnic-confessional space of the republic, peaceful coexistence and cooperation of various peoples and confessions within the framework of the united territorial and religious space of Dagestan, of Russia and also should create the foundations of the religious model of confessional policy taking into account of the region.
"Rossiya i ee regiony v poiskah grazhdanskogo edinstva i mezhnatsionalnogo soglasiya", Ufa, 2011, pp. 77-80.
I. Khubiyev,
Political analyst (Karachay-Cherkessian state university named after U. Aliyev) ETHNOPOLITICAL-PROCESSES IN POST-SOVIET KARACHAY-CHERKESSIA: LESSONS AND CONCLUSIONS
The ethnopolitical processes going on in the post-Soviet area during the past two decades draw close attention of Russian scholars (E. Stepanov, L. Polyakov, V. Tishkov, and others). Many of them note that one of the common features for all post-Soviet regions is that everywhere tension in the relations between various ethnoses and conflicts provoked by this tension hampers the implementation of economic and political transformations and retard the unification of the public around humanistic demographic ideals.
These problems are urgent to this day, including in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, and they call for thorough investigation.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union in August 1991 and the proclamation of independence of a number of former Union republics caused the rapid growth of separatist sentiments and determined the main development vector of the ethnopolitical processes in different
regions of Russia. The Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia has lived through at least four acute political crises: in 1991-1992, 1994-1996, 1999-2000, and in 2003. All of them, in one way or another, were connected with the attempts to realize political, territorial and status claims of the peoples living there.
During the year 1991 the following republics were proclaimed one after the other: the Republic of Karachay, two Cossack republics, the Republic of Abaza (Abazinskaya Republic) and the Cherkessian Republic.
The Law of the Russian Federation "On Rehabilitation of the Peoples Who Suffered from Reprisals", which also envisaged territorial rehabilitation, adopted in April 1991, rendered unintentional support to these claims.
In December 1991 several congresses of Karachay Republic took place, which put forward the demand to restore the autonomy of the Karachay people abolished in 1943. As a result, a draft of the Law "On Restoration of Karachay Autonomous Region and Cherkessian Autonomous Region within the bounds and jurisdiction of the Russian Federation" was prepared.
In turn, the Cossacks of the Zelenchuk and Urup districts took a decision to secede from the Karachay-Cercessian Region and join the Krasnodar Territory. The proclamation of the Zelenchuk-Urup Cossack Republic at the end of 1999 had serious repercussions. A continuous meeting was convened in the city of Karachayevsk calling for the creation of the Republic of Karachay. Tension was growing between the Cossacks and Karachays which was actively fanned up from without.
Other peoples living in Karachay-Cherkessia also put forward their demands.
Among the main demands of the Abazins were the return of lands to Abazin mountain villages which had been confiscated at
different times, and the creation of the independent Abazin national district.
The Nogais were also quite active. There were 14,000 of them in the republic, less than one quarter of all Nogais living in the North Caucasus. However, it was precisely there that the idea originated to form an independent national-territorial unit in the Nogai steppe area.
The Cherkassians were dissatisfied with their status and claimed the leading position in the political and economic spheres, despite their small number.
The peak of the exacerbation of the situation in Karachay-Cherkessia was reached in 1991-1992, when the present and future of the newly-proclaimed national-territorial units was discussed and simultaneously parliamentary elections were held in the republic.
The "Organizing Committee for Stabilization of the Situation" was set up, and consultations were carried on between the leaders of the associations of the Cossacks and the Karachays, as well as a general meeting of the inhabitants of the Zelenchuk district was held, at which the sides reached mutual understanding. As a result a confrontation between the Karachays and Cossaks was prevented from breaking out.
The successful solution of the conflict was also facilitated by raising the status of Karachay-Cherkessia to the level of republic - an independent part of the Russian Federation at the end of 1991.
An important role in resolving the conflict in 1991-1992 was played by two referendums on the preservation of a unified republic within the Russian Federation on March 28 and June 11, 1992. Surveillance polls showed that the overwhelming number of the republican population (78.6 percent and 89 percent respectively) wanted to preserve the unity of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic.
The next political crisis (in 1994-1996) coincided with the general crisis of power in the republic connected with the expiry of the
term of office of the People's Assembly of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic. The situation was determined, as before, by political ambitions, heat and self-esteem of leaders, big and small, the irrational behavior of chance people, and influence of various chimeras, like old ethnic offences and claims.
The political interest of different national elites, financial groups and criminal groupings was one of the key components of the conflict during the period under investigation. Claiming that a policy advantageous to one people and infringing on the interests of others is impermissible, they at the same time tired to achieve their own personal aims and promote themselves or those serving them to power. All this caused an exacerbation of interethnic contradictions which often turned into ethnic conflicts.
During that period the question about the division of the republic on the national basis was raised again. On December 24, 1994, a Unifying Congress of Cherkessians, Abazins and Russians took place at which it was proposed to create the Cherkessian Autonomous Region as part of Stavropol Territory.
Quite a few problems emerged during the discussion of the system of the legislative branch of power. In 1994 it was suggested to make the People's Assembly a two-chamber body, the upper chamber to be elected on the ethnic basis at citizens' congresses: five deputies from each people - the Abazin, Karachay, Nogai, Russians and Cherkessians, and two deputies from each other nationality.
After prolonged debates the Constitution of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic was adopted in March 1996, which envisaged direct elections of the head of the region. V.I. Khubiyev remained the head of the republic until the expiry of a five-year term. The republican parliament was one-chamber and elected by the usual system proportionately to the number of different ethnoses living in the
republic and with territorial districts equal in size. Thus, tension was alleviated and brought to a latent state. However, all conflict-provoking factors have not been eliminated.
A multitude of unresolved problems have resulted in a flare-up of acute interethnic tension in 1999. The pretext for it was dissatisfaction of part of the voters (mainly Cherkessians and Abazins) with the results of the first elections of the head of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (V.M. Semyonov was elected head of the republic representing the Karachay and Russian part of the population).
After the elections of the head of the republic, the supporters of S. Derev, who lost the elections, put forward the demand to create the Cherkessian autonomy within Stavropol Territory.
The conflict in the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic continued to grow quite rapidly, and the republic faced the threat of political destabilization and mass disorders.
In the obtaining situation the federal authorities, after a prolonged pause and non-interference in the conflict, undertook a number of urgent measures in search of a compromise between the Karachays and Cherkessians. Prime Minister V. Putin, during his meeting with V. Semyonov on August 31, 1999, reaffirmed unofficially his powers as the head of the Karachay-Cherressian Republic, spoke in favor of the unity of the republic and emphasized that the Central authorities were not going to send military units to the republic. Earlier, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation issued a statement to the effect that the creation of a new subject of the Federation could only be made in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation. In this connection V. Semyonov and S. Derev jointly adopted an appeal to the citizens of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic calling on them "to stop their feud and look for reconciliation."
After the stormy elections of 1999 Vladimir Semyonov took his office. In order to mitigate the conflict S. Derev was given the job of Counsellor of the Presidential representative in the Southern Federal Region. The problem was taken off the agenda, but only for some time.
V. Semyonov, who won the elections in 1999, which nearly turned into an ethnic armed conflict, failed to create an efficient team of fellow-thinkers, establish constructive relations with parliament, organize an interethnic dialogue, and rally together the people of the republic.
In 2003 there were another elections of the President of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic. By that time the Karachay-Cherkessia was split into different ethnopolitical and social groups which were hostile to one another, and torn apart by different national elites and financial and criminal groupings. The economy was in a state of stagnation, unemployment was very high, the population's standards of living dropped considerably, and crime was rampant. People's trust in the state and bodies of state power, which were in disrepute in the republic, was critically low.
After the first tour of the elections of the President of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic in March 2003 the results were absolutely clear to everybody. The choice was made in favor of Mustafa Batdyev, who succeeded in rallying around himself the public movements of all nationalities of the republic, regional sections of various political parties and national elites and formulating a clear, understandable and attractive economic program. Besides, he was able to organize his election campaign properly and draw support from most voters in Karachay-Cherkessia.
After M. Batdyev came to power ethnopolitical problems changed their form and essence. The acute interethnic confrontation was replaced by intra-ethnic problems. However, it is too early to make
an analysis of the current situation or predictions of its subsequent development.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the above-said:
1. The ethnopolitical processes in post-Soviet Karachay-Cherkessia are distinguished by an objective character of their origin, cyclic nature of emergence, short duration, rather high tension and concomitant conflicts, contradictory nature of the tasks put forward by their participants and incompleteness of arising ethnic conflicts.
2. The main reasons for the periodical breaks-out of ethnopolitical conflicts in the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic during this period, in our view, are connected with the attempts to realize various wishes and aspirations of separate nationalities of the republic which lends an objective character to these processes. However, one cannot fail to see that more often than not ethnopolitical conflicts and processes were initiated and supported by different mononational financial groups and clans with a view to promoting their representatives to state power bodies and protecting their economic interests. As soon as the personal interests and ambitions of some or other "behind-the-scene leaders" were satisfied, the tension of conflicts went down, ethnopolitical processes retarded, but the conflict itself remained unresolved.
The ethnic conflicts under investigation can be referred to a territorial-status type by the aims and demands put forward by their participants. They include: changes of administrative-territorial borders; higher status; greater volume of real rights and powers of a given ethnos.
In the early 2000s the ethnopolitical processes in Karachay-Cherkessia for the first time acquired a confessional component, both Muslim and Orthodox Christian.
Religious leaders and religious rhetoric began to be actively drawn in the current ethnopolitical processes. In our view, this is a rather dangerous trend for the positive development of our republic.
The ethnopolitical processes under review also show the weakness of the regional and federal authorities of the time and the unwillingness and inability of the federal center to resolve a regional or local conflict even with the use of force, if necessary.
They demonstrated the alienation of the local authorities from people and the absence of a constant and equal dialogue between society and the powers that be on the most vital problems, in short, the undeveloped character of civil society in the republic.
In our view, the absence of a federal nationalities and national-cultural policy and large-scale program of training political and managerial personnel has a negative influence on the ethnopolitical processes going on in the republic. In this context, the project of the "United Russia" party of creating a professional reserve of the country is quite timely.
"De Caucaso: Istoriko-etnograficheskii almanakh ", Karachayevsk, 2011, pp. 103-109.
A. Areshev,
Political analyst
THE CONTEMPORARY CAUCASUS: UNSTABLE PERIPHERY OF "GREAT NEAR EAST" AS A NATURALLY DETERMINED RESULT OF THE POST-SOVIET DEVELOPMENT
The rising geopolitical role of the Caucasian region as a main geopolitical trend of the XX century attracted a greater attention to it on the part of regional and global players. The Soviet Union sustained a
