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Ekaterina TREGLAZOVA
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of International Relations, World Economy and International Law, Pyatigorsk State University of Linguistics (Pyatigorsk, the Russian Federation).
LOCAL SELF-ADMINISTRATION AND SETTLEMENT OF ETHNIC CONFLICTS IN THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS
Abstract
The Northern Caucasus can best be described as a complicated system of ethnic relations, the stabilization of which remains one of the top priorities despite the obvious progress achieved in this sphere. "Export" of local contradictions and conflicts to other regions, as well as "tar-
geted" terrorist acts that produce casualties and destabilize sociopolitical and ethnic relations remain the gravest dangers. The author has turned to the varied methods and instruments used to decrease tension and defuse conflicts and looked at the role local self-administrations can play in this process.
Introduction
Ethnic and ethnoconfessional relations are unfolding in the ethnopolitical and socioeconomic context of the North Caucasian constituent entities. The following macroeconomic and social factors determine the situation in each of them: per capita GRD (Gross Regional Product); level of capital investments; standard of living; shadow economy indices; level of unemployment, etc.
The content of ethnic relations, on the one hand, reflects and, on the other, affects the level of cohesion of the regional elites and their mutual support, the degree of popularity and cohesion of the regional elites and of the legitimate and informal leaders. The degree of ethnic tension largely depends on the presence of variously directed ethnic interests, the numerical strength, and the support level of the oppositional public organizations1; the degree of confessional tension depends on varied or even contradictory confessional interests, the numerical strength of their followers, and the level of popular support.2
Despite the factors conducive to ethnic tension that figure prominently in the social, economic and political processes, the region demonstrates a trend toward stabilization. In fact, it is very hard, if at all possible, to achieve peace and stability in one region, which means that cooperation among the government and administration bodies inside the regions and between them should be achieved by all
ed.
1 See: Stabilnost i konflikt v Rossiyskom prigranichie. Etnopoliticheskie protsessy v Sibiri i na Kavkaze, by V.I. Diatlov, S.V. Riazantsev, Nauchno-obrazovatelny forum po mezhdunarodnym otnosheniiam, Moscow, 2005.
2 See: Iu.V. Vassiliev, Vosproizvodstvennye faktory etnosotsialnykh konfliktov kak ugroza obshchestvennoy bezo-pasnosti regiona. Sbornik dokladov i soobshcheni III nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii "Bezopasnost Stavropolia: dialog vlasti i obshchestva," Stavropol, 2007, p. 47.
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means.3 The current dynamics of Russian society, administrative reform, and reform of local self-administration presuppose the more active involvement of local societies. Cities are expected to play the main role in the process: they are the terrain in which democratic changes, dialog practices, and public compromises are realized.
The Nationalities Strategy in the Northern Caucasus
Within the nationalities strategy in the Northern Caucasus, the government and administration bodies of the Northern Caucasus are expected to continue integrating all sorts of urban communities inside the urban municipal entities and urban communities as a whole into the common Russian cultural and information space. To achieve this, we should first identify the new systemic correlation between the all-Russia social-cultural and local ethnocultural component. This is directly related to the problem of ethnic cooperation, since under definite conditions ethnocultural consolidation becomes a source of local ethno-radicalism and separatism. It should be said that at all times the large sociocultural centers in the North Caucasian cities (universities, creative unions and alliances) concentrated groups of ethnically oriented intelligentsia and sometimes developed into seats of spiritual separatism.
Today, comprehensive integration of urban ethnic groups and diasporas united in ethnocultural public alliances and national cultural centers is the central task of the nationalities strategy in the Northern Caucasus. This integration is one of the dimensions of a much bigger systemic process of mutual understanding, that is, mutual sociocultural and mental adjustment. It should be said that ethnic groups adapted to the polyethnic environment of a Russian city develop into the vehicles of new practices and orientations among the main part of their ethnicities.4
Joint socialization in urban collectives has produced a unique community of peoples, languages, and religions; this unique phenomenon was further developed and today has acquired a new content and new forms. Cities should be involved in civil consolidation while developing common Russian values and preserving ethnocultural specifics: today this task has come to the fore.
At the same time, urban societies are manifesting destabilizing factors that undermine the relations between ethnicities and threaten the stability of social processes. These factors manifest themselves as typical in the context of ethnic relations of the urban municipal entities of the Stavropol territory. Sociological polls conducted by the Committee of the Stavropol Territory for Nationalities and the Cossacks produced the following results:
■ 32.77% of the Territory's population believes that there are national groups whose interests and rights are infringed upon;
■ 31.43% is convinced that ethnic origins produce certain privileges;
■ 48.0% believes that national relations are fraught with latent or open enmity among people of different nationalities.
The same committee, acting together with the Territory's expert community, has identified the causes of ethnopolitical instability in municipalities, the main ones being:
3 See: Sotsialnye konflikty. Ekspertiza. Prognozirovanie. Tekhnologiia razresheniia. Etnicheskaia i regionalnaia konfliktologiia, Moscow, Stavropol, 2002; Grazhdanskaia identichnost i patrioticheskoe vospitanie v polietnicheskom re-gione, YuNTs RAS Publishers, Stavropol, Rostov on Don, 2007.
4 See: M.A. Astvatsaturova, V.Iu. Saveliev, Diaspory Stavropolskogo kraia v sovremennykh etnopoliticheskikh protsessakh, SKAGS, Rostov on Don, Pyatigorsk, 2000; M.A. Astvatsaturova, Diaspory v Rossiiskoy Federatsii: formi-rovanie i upravlenie, SKAGS, Rostov on Don, 2000.
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■ The contradictory and latent conflict-prone nature of some of the legal acts and administrative decisions that contradict the traditions local peoples inherited from the past;
■ The absence of profound analysis of ethnopolitical processes; unqualified forecasting of their development and its possible repercussions; and long overdue political and administrative decisions taken at different levels to prevent negative development in national relations;
■ Rivalry among ethnic groups when it comes to distribution and redistribution of land and competition in trade, private business, and services, including sanatorium services and in the labor market;
■ Ethnodemographic changes and changes in numerical strength of ethnic groups caused by migration and population growth;
■ The far-from-easy adaptation of migrants to the local social-cultural landscape because of the different mentality of the old timers and the newcomers and the very slow cultural adaptation and adaptation to customs, as well as problems that slow down mutual understanding, especially in the territory's eastern parts;
■ Problems of social adaption of young people and lack of jobs in some districts.
Successive sociological polls reveal that negative stereotypes are fairly widespread in the Stavropol Territory, which calls for new forms of adjustment of the relations between ethnic groups, especially in places of their compact settlement.5 This is important both at the territorial and local level, where the resources of local self-administrations (operating in close proximity with local interests and local problems) can and should be used. The role of local self-administrations is especially important in the context of ethnic contradictions and conflicts.
In May-June 2007 in Stavropol, the largest municipal entity and the capital of the Territory, a banal fight among young people developed into massive riots and caused casualties. It spread far and wide and became an ethnic conflict, into which the sides drew supporters from their own ethnic and confessional groups. Sociological polls conducted in October-November 2007 revealed that half of the city's population knew that riots might flare up. People expected terrorist acts and national conflicts. The local self-administrations, government bodies, and civil society joined forces to carry out systemic and comprehensive work to strengthen ethnic relations, patriotism, and civil awareness.
The 1999 Decision of the Governor of the Stavropol Territory "Main Trends of National and Regional Policy of the Stavropol Territory" and the related Comprehensive Program of Harmonization of Ethnic Relations in the Stavropol Territory for 2000-2005 are two important documents that laid the foundation of what the government bodies and the Territory heads were doing to manage ethnic relations and geopolitical processes. A new decision of the Governor of the Stavropol Territory of 26 March, 2007 (No. 163) was a follow-up to the previous document which endorsed the Territorial Special-Purpose Program "Development of Ethnic and Ethnoconfessional Relations in the Stavropol Territory for 2007-2009." It consisted of several subprograms.
> Subprogram 1. Drawing up regulatory and legal documents indispensable to the imple-
mentation of state national policy in the Stavropol Territory.
> Subprogram 2. Developing and implementing models designed to regulate the ethnopo-
litical processes.
> Subprogram 3. Coordinating what the government bodies, local self-administrations of mu-
nicipal units, and the national-cultural autonomies are doing in the Territory.
5 See: V.A. Avksentiev, "Modelirovanie regionalnogo konfliktogennogo protsessa: osnovnye printsipy i formirov-anie banka dannykh," in: Sovremennoe sostoianie i stsenarii razvitia Yuga Rossii, YuNTs RAS Publishers, Rostov on Don, 2006.
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> Subprogram 4. Educating young people in the spirit of patriotism, tolerance, and the cul-
ture of peace.
> Subprogram 5. Inculcating a shared Russian identity, the culture of peace, and harmony
by means of education.
> Subprogram 6. Developing cultural integration and forming civil solidarity through culture.
> Subprogram 7. Involving the media more in covering ethnosocial processes and ethno-
confessional relations.
> Subprogram 8. Supporting national-cultural public structures and harmonizing national
relations; creating civil solidarity, a culture of peace and harmony; and
adapting and integrating migrant ethnic groups into public life.
> Subprogram 9. Preserving and maintaining ethnoconfessional peace and harmony in the
Stavropol Territory.
This document is much better, both in content and in the organizational and material respect, than its predecessor of 2000-2005, which was never completely executed. This methodologically and methodically substantiated document has good prospects because of its systemic compatibility with the Security Concept of the city of Stavropol and the corresponding plans of the administration of Stavropol related to prevention of terrorism and extremism. These documents are geared toward interaction between peoples and ethnic groups through a dialog on ethnic and confessional issues.
The cities of the protected ecological zone of health resorts of the Caucasian Mineral Waters have acquired greater resources, possibilities, and prospects in national harmony and civilian consolidation. The Caucasian Mineral Waters can be described as an area of very special social and cultural makeup, ethnic relations, and ethnopolitical processes. The ethnodemographic context consists of compact settlements of Abazins, Azeris, Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Georgians, Jews, Karachays, Germans, No-gays, Ossets, Poles, Ukrainians, Circassians, and Chechens; members of these ethnic groups are also scattered all over the Territory, where they live among other ethnic groups. Russians predominate in the cities of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, followed by Armenians (the second largest group in Pyatigorsk, Kislovodsk, and Georgievsk); Greeks (Essentuki and the village of Essentukskaia), and Ukrainians (Mineralnye Vody, Zheleznovodsk, and Lermontov). There are about 40 registered ethnic public organizations in the area, including organizations of Abazins, Azeris, Armenians, Balkarians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Georgians, Jews, Karachays, Daghestanis, Germans, Nogays, Ossets, Poles, Russians, Tatars, Ukrainians, Chechens and Ingushes, and Circassians; there are also very active Cossack societies.
How the Administration of Pyatigorsk Settled Ethnic Conflicts
Pyatigorsk, a city of extreme ethnic and confessional variety, stands apart from the other cities and towns of the Caucasian Mineral Waters area. Its unique diversity is a result of historical ethnogen-esis and ethnic migrations. This is a city in which followers of several religions live side by side. Christianity is represented by Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are several parishes of the Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church; the Surb Sargis church belongs to the Armenian Apostolic Church; there is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church; a mosque of the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and the Stavropol Territory; a synagogue, etc. The dialog in which all confessions are involved keeps the negative effects of their rivalry within acceptable limits; practically all of them figure prominently in public life through their social involvement; they work with the youth and do a lot to maintain peace in the region, a task of vital importance in the Northern Caucasus. Their communication reveals
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to the people the vast potential of the spiritual brotherhood of followers of different confessions and stresses the importance of the moral foundations of human life as opposed to aggression, violence, xenophobia, and greediness.
Pyatigorsk is a rapidly developing city; the three factors of its success—security, uniqueness, and prestige—are objective and, at the same time, are recognized at the subjective-administrative level.
> The factor of security is determined by the ethnopolitical specifics of the Northern Caucasus, which has been moving toward stability and dampened conflict potential. In the context of an "ethnopolitical timeout," security is the central political issue determining the region's future. Security attracts investments to the entire Caucasian Mineral Waters area and its cities and is absolutely necessary for the continued peaceful coexistence of all peoples and ethnic groups.
> The factor of uniqueness is determined by the city's advantageous geographic and geopolitical location in the very center of the Caucasian Mineral Waters area, which also includes the special territories of the Stavropol Territory, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria. Pyatigorsk stands apart for its recreational and balneological properties and the variety of its mineral sources; its unique historical heritage and culture recognized inside and outside Russia add to the city's other attractions.
> The factor ofprestige is determined by the city's status as a resort of federal importance, as well as its developed infrastructure, social diversity, and extensive ethnocultural landscape. The city's further development and its prestige are connected with the general development trends of Russia's South as outlined in the federal programs, the "points of growth" concept addressed to the subjects of the Southern Federal District, and taking account of the socioeconomic and social-cultural differentiation of the constituent entities.
The city is successfully developing the well-substantiated three-sector social model, the entities of which—administration, public organizations, and business structures—are working actively together. The most important role in the process belongs to the following structures—the Duma of Pyatigorsk, the city administration, the municipal structures and enterprises, the institutions of civil society, business, the city branches of political parties, etc.
In Pyatigorsk, people willingly join public structures according to their interests; there are over 20 public organizations, the most important among them being the national-cultural, veterans, women, charity, migrant, peacekeeping, youth, and organizations of disabled. There is a fairly well-developed movement of young volunteers involved in peacekeeping and charity; they work with children, disabled, veterans, and old age pensioners. Public organizations are involved in different initiatives and socially important projects: they find jobs for invalids; help migrant settle; address ecological problems; popularize a healthy way of life among the youth; and teach schoolchildren tolerance as opposed to xenophobia and negative ethnic stereotypes.
The people in Pyatigorsk are especially interested in national-cultural self-identity; in fact, from time immemorial, the local people prefer to live in communities. From the very beginning, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Kabardins, Germans, Poles, Ossets, and Cossacks have been living in ethnocultural communities. Today, there are thirteen national-cultural public organizations in Pyatigorsk (3 of them are regional; 2 are national-cultural autonomies) founded on the basis of national-cultural self-identification by Adighes (Adighes, Abazins, Kabardins, and Circassians), Armenians (national-cultural autonomy); Bulgarians, Greeks, Jews, and Germans (national-cultural autonomy); peoples of Daghestan (regional organization); Ossets, Chechens and Ingushes, Poles (regional organization), Russians, Tatars, and Ukrainians. The Cossacks (the Pyatigorsk division of the Terek Cossack Army) play an important role in public relations.
Despite efficient cultural cooperation and consistent development of ethnic and cultural processes, there are still risks and conflict factors in the city and the region as a whole. Both risks and conflict-prone factors are rooted in the region, including:
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■ Terrorism and religious extremism in the neighboring regions of the North Caucasian Federal District;
■ Uncontrolled migration
■ Nationalist and xenophobic sentiments among the young people
■ Local self-administrations react rather than prevent
■ Lack of objectivity in the media
■ Prejudiced public opinion, widespread negative ethnic stereotypes and anti-migrant feelings.
This means that the local self-administration should pay more attention to ethnic and ethnocon-fessional relations as a very complicated and sensitive sphere of public life. The Duma and the city administration regard ethnic relations as an important sphere of their activities. Ethnic relations in the system of social relations need systematic, specific, and organizational impacts. In doing this, the Duma and the city administration are invariably guided by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the laws On the General Principles of Organization of Self-Administration in the Russian Federation, On Public Associations, On the National-Cultural Autonomy, On Opposing Extremist Activities, as well as the Concept of State National Policy of the RF, National Security Concept of the RF, and the Concept of Regulating Migration Processes in the RF.
In the last 10 years, the Stavropol Territory has acquired a system of regulatory-legal acts which directly and indirectly deal with ethnic and ethno-cultural relations. The Stavropol Territory was among the first to declare the principles of its policies in this sphere at the level of doctrine. The local-self administration structures of Pyatigorsk are guided by the following documents: 1994 Charter of Stavropol Territory (2002 version) and the Territory's laws On Local Self-Administration in the Stavropol Territory (2005), On Measures of Stemming Illegal Migration to Stavropol Territory (2002), and On the Cossacks of the Stavropol Territory (2002).
The revised draft of the Charter of the Municipal Unit of Resort City Pyatigorsk offered for wide discussion in December 2007 says in Art 9 (The Guarantees of the Local Self-Administration of Resort City Pyatigorsk), Para 3: "The inalienable rights of all peoples and nationalities, ethnic minorities at their national specifics, culture, language, customs and traditions are recognized and ensured in Pyatigorsk." The local self-administrations proceed from this legal regulation to use adequate mechanisms to strengthen ethnic cooperation and satisfy ethnocultural interests. I have in mind the municipal target-oriented programs, public hearings, days of Letter to the City Head, reports in the media, etc.
These mechanisms are in line with the main trends in administration and local self-administration reform; they not only improve the quality of administration (which is their main task), but also improve the quality of the state's public services and ensure that the government remains open for the people.
The Duma and the administration of Pyatigorsk regulate the ethnocultural and ethnoconfession-al processes to achieve ethnic harmony on the basis of civil values common to all Russian citizens. The tasks are formulated as: strengthening ethnic cohesion; optimizing cooperation between confessions; and preventing xenophobia, tension, and conflicts. There are several aspects of this task: political-ideological, regulatory legal, organizational, and administrative. To achieve these aims the local self-administrations of Pyatigorsk cooperate with:
■ the Committee of the Stavropol Territory for Nationalities and the Cossacks;
■ the Council on Ethnic Relations under the Governor of the Stavropol Territory;
■ the Administration of the specially protected ecological resort region of the Caucasian Mineral Waters area;
■ the Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Eparchy of ROC;
■ the Spiritual Administration of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and the Stavropol Territory;
■ the Armenian Apostolic Church in the South of Russia;
■ public organizations and movements and the Cossacks.
> Administrative Model 2.
> Administrative Model 3.
The regulatory legal relations and the fact that local self-administrations are also included in the territorial administration system of ethnocultural and ethnoconfessional relations allowed them to arrive at several administrative models designed to consolidate agreement and harmony in the urban community. They correspond, first, to the sociocultural parameters of Pyatigorsk and, second, they correspond to the territorial strategies and tactics of ethnic relations.
> Administrative Model 1. Cooperation between the people and local self-administrations;
realized on the basis of the Public Council of Pyatigorsk and designed to maintain a dialog between local self-administrations and the public and discuss urgent problems. The commissions of the Public Council concentrate on the development of the institutions of civil society, preservation of traditions, and, at the same time, modernization of the city's social-cultural image and the education of young people.
Realization of ethnocultural interests through a dialog between cultures on the basis of the House of National Culture of Pyatigorsk. It organizes presentations of the ethnocultural interests of local communities; celebrations of national culture days and red-letter days; exchanges of cultural values in the context of values typical of the Stavropol Territory.
Consolidation of all-Russia identity realized within socially important actions:
■ Day of People's Unity;
■ Day of Russia;
■ Day of the Russian Flag;
■ Victory Day;
■ Day of the Stavropol Territory.
Day of Pyatigorsk stresses the city's multi-cultural and polyeth-nic factors; this is a factor for consolidating citizens as patriots of Russia. On that day, ethnic groups and Cossacks present their cultures at national exhibitions and concerts of folk ensembles.
> Administrative Model 4. Cooperation with other regions and countries. It is realized
through interaction of the cities of the Caucasian Mineral Waters area, as well as cooperation between Pyatigorsk and other North Caucasian cities—Nalchik (the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria); Cherkessk (the capital of Karachaevo-Cherkessia); Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia-Alania), and others. Pyatigorsk is the twin city of Schwerte (Germany); Trikala (Greece); Panagyurishte (Bulgaria), and Dubuque (the U.S.), which presupposed exchange of members of municipal structures, businessmen, and academic and cultural figures.
The situation in the Northern Caucasus demands that cultural interaction in the cities of the Stavropol Territory remains consistent and continues to develop. The following looks advisable:
■ Elaboration and adoption of municipal programs called Interaction between Local Self-Administration Bodies and Civil Society Institutions for the Sake of Stronger Ethnocultural Relations;
■ Special issues of Stavropol pravda, Pyatigorsk pravda, and other newspapers dealing with the foundations and prospects of unity of urban communities—both multicultural and poly-confessional;
■ Sessions of the youth multinational council at the Youth Committee of the Stavropol Territory held at higher educational establishments of the Northern Caucasus;
■ The twin cities institutions should be used to consolidate cultural exchange and develop multiethnic communities.
Conclusion
The city assemblies (Dumas) and city administrations should be more actively involved in inculcating "Russian identity," "civil identity," and the idea of a "multinational people." The self-administration structures should be more actively involved in the peacekeeping system when cooperating with civil society institutions and national-cultural public associations. The road toward closer ethnic interaction and cultural dialog for the sake of national and universal values lies through more active and closer cooperation between government and administration bodies and civil society institutions.
