A1+
Karachai-Cherkessia: Small Minority Asserts Itself
[12:46 pm] 28 October, 2006
The Nogai community wants local autonomy, but that will require
delicate negotiation with other ethnic groups.
In one of the most ethnically diverse parts of the North Caucasus, a
tiny nation is making waves by staking a claim for greater power over
the area in which they live.
The Nogai people in the republic of Karachai-Cherkessia, part of
Russia, have been demanding autonomous status for years. But on
October 8, they took a decisive step by holding a local referendum on
the issue.
Led by a pressure group called Birlik, or Unity, the Nogais want at
least part of the administrative district of Adyge-Khable, where most
of their 14,500-strong community live in eight villages, to be turned
into a Nogai Autonomous Region. Their leaders argue this will keep the
community and its distinctive culture alive.
But boundaries are not neat in the Caucasus, and there are Cherkess
people living in the district who have serious misgivings about the
move.
The vote went off peacefully, unlike many past elections in
Karachai-Cherkessia, and the result was 94 per cent in favour of the
change. Ten thousand people took part in the vote.
But it is only a first step – the Nogais will next have to seek
approval for their plan from other groups through a republic-wide
referendum. Assuming they get this, the matter will then go to the
local parliament, and finally to the Russian prime minister in Moscow.
Aside from the legal process, the key issue is one that probably lies
outside the control of government: whether the Nogais’ claim will be
handled with enough delicacy to ensure that they and the Cherkess can
arrive at some sort of workable solution.
If not, there is a real danger that the issue will join the list of
unsolved disputes that plague the North Caucasus, with the potential
for armed conflict always on the horizon.
Given the somewhat arbitrary manner in which the then Soviet
autonomous republics were sliced up in the USSR, many of the
`nationalities’ or official ethnic groups have kin elsewhere in the
region – and these might be dragged into an escalating conflict. The
Cherkess have the Kabardans and Adygei, who together share the
Circassian identity and culture; the Karachai have the Balkar (sharing
a republic with the Kabardans next door), and there are strong ties
between the Nogai here and others in Stavropol to the west, Dagestan
to the east and as far away as Russia’s lower Volga region.
Politically, Karachai-Cherkessia works by achieving a balance of power
between the main ethnic groups. The substantial ethnic Russian
community tend to side with the Karachai or the Cherkess, while the
two most significant minorities – the Abaza and the Nogai – have to
ally themselves with one or other of these groups to ensure they have
a place at the table.
In the tough world of post-Soviet local politics, the Abaza usually
back the Cherkess, to whom they are related culturally and
linguistically. The Nogai have tended to back the Karachai, who like
them speak a Turkic rather than Caucasian language.
The Nogai have a handful of people high up in regional politics –
Karacha-Cherkessia’s deputy prime minister Janibek Suyunov and the
press and ethnic affairs minister Valery Kazakov among them – but none
in the world of commerce.
In a region in which the republics are called after the bigger ethnic
groups who live there, having one’s own `autonomy’ – political as well
as cultural – is seen as an important way of staking out one’s
position.
If the Nogai get their district, they will get control over cultural
issues such as language, and a degree of self-government. There is
little of economic value on the territory: while on paper they would
seem to have large industrial and agricultural enterprises, in
reality, these businesses are wrecks.
The 30,000 Abaza have pursued their claim more robustly. In autumn
2005, activists seized the parliament building in the city of
Cherkessk and refused to let deputies leave until they agreed to an
Abaza district being set up. Russian prime minister Mikhail Fradkov
signed off on the deal in August this year.
The Circassians, especially those in Adyge-Khabl district, are nervous
about the Nogai laying claim to land that they see as theirs.
Ali Aslanov, who heads the district’s Circassian association, told
IWPR, `We’re not against the Nogais setting up their own district on
our territory. But they want to make our village of Adyge-Khabl its
[administrative] centre. We will never allow this to happen, even if
that means we have to fight them.’
One reason for the Circassians to be especially touchy about the local
administrative centre is that in their language, the very name -Adyge
Khabl – means `Adygei (ie. Circassian) village’.
Originally, the activists of Birlik were calling for the entire
Adyge-Khabl district to be renamed Nogai district, with the village of
the same name to get a new title – Nogai-Yurt (`Nogai Place’).
However, by the time the referendum took place they had backtracked
significantly, and – in recognition of the Circassian’s concerns –
they are now prepared to accept Nogai autonomous status for only that
part of the bigger Adyge-Khabl district where their community is
concentrated.
The Nogai are distinct from most other North Caucasian peoples, who
despite huge linguistic differences share many common cultural
traits. By contrast, the Nogai were originally nomads, and still
occupy the steppes rather than the mountains to the south; their
traditional culture and language resemble those of the Kazaks of
Central Asia.
One tradition they do share with the Circassians, Karachai and others
is Islam. Clerics still enjoy a lot of respect, and mosque attendance
is rising, especially among the young.
`The number of young people coming to the mosques on a regular basis
has been increasing at lightning speed,’ said businessman Magomet
Sanglibayev, who is head of Birlik. `People are happy about this
trend, because the faith saves young people from many bad habits.’
Despite the positive effects of religious observance, Sanglibayev has
some reservations about what the imams are telling people, `We
understand that the kind of Islam that’s being preached in our mosques
is ascetic in character. It shuts off young people’s access not just
to vice, but also to the joys of the modern world. We want modern,
educated young people, not fanatical militants.’
A `Nogai Battalion’ has fought alongside the rebels in Chechnya for
years, but Muslim extremism has not really taken hold among the Nogai
of Karachai-Cherkessia.
As elsewhere in the region, there are Islamist cells operating
covertly here, called `jamaats’ – literally `societies’. But these
seem to coexist with the `official’ Muslim structures – the clergy and
the mosques – in sharp contrast with the situation in
Karachai-dominated areas to the south of the republic, where clerics
have been killed by suspected jamaat members.
It is questionable whether the Nogais’ claim will ever pass all the
bureaucratic hurdles.
The Abaza, who have got the Russian premier’s assent to set up their
district, are finding it hard to make it a reality, as
Karachai-Cherkessia’s government is dragging its feet over the
publication of a map that would show where the new district lies.
There is a major hitch – Karachai people in the current Ust-Jeguta
district are contesting the Abaza claim, in a dispute that has run for
more than a year.
Dana Tsei is the pseudonym of a freelance journalist in
Karachai-Cherkessia.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Caucasus Reporting Service 362