Moscow Worries: Dagestan & other Freedom Nations

 

By Dr. Abdul

Once regained its independence from the then occupying forces, and subsequently settled down, Russia began invading the neighboring free nations and annexing them to Russian empire. There have been a few such nations, like Chechnya, Dagestan and Tatarstan, all Muslim nations (but have got a plenty of Russians as a result of official settlement policy of the past Kremlin rulers in non-Russian regions), have been demanding sovereignty from Russia, but the movements are being ruthlessly suppressed by Russian military forces, especially in Chechnya the forefront nation championing the cause of freedom. While Chechnya struggle is a global issue, other conflicts, effectively controlled and contained by Moscow, have only the simmering effect.    

During the erstwhile Soviet era, many under developed countries that included India and Pakistan obtained independence from the colonizers, but they discouraged freedom for the struggling non-Russians, like Chechens, Dagestanis and Tatars. In order to promote communism across the globe, Soviet leadership encouraged and supported the freedom movement across the globe, much against the chagrins of the European powers.  

Last Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev allowed the constituent Republics that constituted the USSR to cede form the Union and become independent, but he over looked the issue of freedom for Chechnya and Dagestan and other regions  that were annexed in the past, hoping that in due course they all get freedom form Russian Federation. The first president of post-Soviet Russia did allow plenty of autonomy to these regions, but eventually started war to stop their freedom moves, especially with Chechnya, the most prominent among the freedom seeking nations.  President Putin ‘finished’ off the movement stock and barrel killing thousands of Chechens, but the war, as it is seen today, did not die down.   

Dagestan

Dagestan is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world, counting 30 ethnic groups and 80-odd nationalities. The Republic of Dagestan is located in the eastern part of the North Caucasus on the northeastern slopes of the Caucasus Range and the southwestern Caspian Lowlands. It is the southernmost part of the Russian Federation. In size (50 300 km2) and population (2 120 100 as of 1999), the Republic of Dagestan is the largest Caucasian republic in the Russian Federation. 

Like Chechnya, Dagestan is one of the nations currently in Russia Federation struggling to gain independence from Moscow, but they are being brutally oppressed by the Federal authorities and their terror forces. Earlier the USA championed the cause of their independence. Dagestan has not hit the international attention so far, because of their belief that Moscow would let the have freedom in “due course”. But the freedom leader are targeted and killed regularly by Russian forces using remote surveillance gadgets. Russia allows rampant corruption in Dagestan so as to keep the pro-Moscow elements in good hours. 

Recently, Russian Security Service FSB killed 10 freedom leaders in Dagestan on Sept 17. Dagestan branch of the FSB said in a statement that the commandos along with arms and explosives ambushed a Gazel minivan carrying the “insurgents”, on a road near Russia’s border with Azerbaijan. They fired several rocket-propelled grenades into the minibus and sprayed the rebels with automatic gunfire.  In the process of killing the Dagestanis, dozens of law enforcement officers are also killed each year in Dagestan, where ethnic rivalries and Islamist freedom — exacerbated by police brutality and official corruption — prompt young men to join violent anti-government groups. Recent sting operation came after two recent crackdowns by security services on the same Islamist rebel network, which is active in southern Dagestan. In a major operation by Moscow in a Sept. 7 clash, Ilgar Mollachiyev, whom the Chechen rebel leadership had appointed last fall as commander of the Dagestan insurgents, was among several Muslim leaders killed in a skirmish with members of Mollachiyev’s group whom law enforcers attempted to encircle near the village of Sirtych. 

People generally are disgusted with rampant corruption and crime promoted by Russian authorities in Dagestan. The all pervasive corruption and entrenched nepotism in Dagestan and Ingushetia have forced the people to resort to deadly violence having become the only available form of political protest for those unhappy with the status quo. An expert on Caucasus said the latest events in Dagestan demonstrate that the Kremlin’s claims of having crushed the insurgent networks in the Caucasus are not true. 

People of Dagestan have time and again warned against brutality against the freedom leaders and supporters. Dagestan leader Mukhu Aliyev has repeatedly demanded — to no avail — that police desist from brutal attacks on local residents. A campaign is under way in the republic to oust Dagestan Interior Minister Adilgirei Magomedtagirov, who answers to the federal government. Moscow mixes its terror campaign with politics of freedom nations to confuse the people and media. This is how every colonizer does in its captured colonies. 

The trouble has its history when these freedom seeking nations like Dagestan had been cheated by Russian rulers. In December 1994, Russian federal troops transited through Dagestan en route to Chechnya, to confront the separatist government of President J.Dudaev. The attack provoked an outcry of indignation all over the Caucasus. Thousands of Dagestanis, Avars, Chechens, Lak, Dargins and others formed human blockades to stop the advance. This massive popular reaction caused anxiety that the war in Chechnya would be the start of an all-Caucasian war including Dagestan. The political elite has succeeded, however, in keeping nationalist ambitions in check. They were helped by the fact that the mountainous and ethnically diverse nature of Dagestan renders irrelevant any idea of an independent state based on the concept of a single nation.   

The incursion into Dagestan leading to the start of the new Russian-Chechen conflict was regarded by many as a provocation initiated from Moscow to start war in Chechnya, because Russian forces provided safe passage for Islamic fighters back to Chechnya. 

Moscow took care to see the war in Chechnya has had surprisingly little impact on Dagestan. The ethnic conflicts that emerged in Dagestan in 1990-1991 have lost most of their political relevance by 1995. to do their share in “liberating Dagestan and the Caucasus from the Russian colonial yoke.” Putin double-crossed the Chechens and started an all-out war. A transcript of the conversation was leaked to one of Moscow tabloids on September 10, 1999. The Chechen victory was essential to boost the image of Putin as a reliable Iran ruler of the Kremlin. Incapacitated President Boiris Yetsin appointed him in 2000 as acting president as a gift for his “bravery”. 

Struggle 

The fighting erupted in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, “country of mountains”, about the size of Scotland and counting approximately two million inhabitants, Chechnya’s eastern neighbor is a Muslim republic, home to more than 36 nationalities in addition to Russians transplanted during the Soviet era. The Republic is mostly mountainous, and although its mineral and oil potential remains untapped, it has strategic importance due to its location on the oil-rich Caspian Sea and its close proximity to Azerbaijan, a main conduit for Caspian oil. 

Combating anti-Islamism is a tough task. USA fights for Human Rights selectively, but it did support Chechnya and other nations in Russia seeking independence. With advent of Sept 11, the US-led West stopped harboring any human rights in Chechnya and Dagestan and other freedom regions. They are killing Muslims around the world and their media arousing Islamophobia. This reality has worsened the life and situation in general in these Autonomous Republics of Russia. But actions by Russia encourage countries like India sporting imperialist ambitions to kill the innocent Kashmiris.

HISTORY 

According to historical information, humans were living in the territory of present-day Dagestan as far back as the Paleolithic Age. The Sassanid Persians seized Dagestan in the 3rd century A.D., and the Huns invaded the northern plains in the 4th century. Tatar-Mongol forces invaded Dagestan in the 13th century, and forces under the leadership of Uzbek, Tokhtamysh and Tamerlane [also known as Timur] invaded in the 14th century. For a prolonged period in the 16th century, Dagestan was caught up in a conflict among three powerful political forces: Persia, Turkey, and Russia. Russian fortress towns subsequently began to appear in Dagestan. Tsarist Russia’s colonial policy in Dagestan gave rise to a political movement for independence and unification that was suppressed. Unrest broke out repeatedly from then on, but it was always put down with the full force of colonial brutality. Participants in the uprisings were arrested along with their families and exiled to hard labor and permanent residence in the interior provinces of Russia.  

Starting in the mid-19th century and especially in the 1890s after the construction of the Vladikavkaz Railway connecting Dagestan with central Russia, Baku, and Grozny, Dagestan entered the stream of capitalist development. By the early 20th century, there were nearly 70 companies in Dagestan and local bourgeois and working classes were forming. Dagestan gained political status after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. On November 13, 1920, an Extraordinary Congress of the people of Dagestan declared Dagestan’s autonomy. Since 1991, Dagestan has been a republic within the Russian Federation. A new Constitution of the Republic of Dagestan was passed on July 26, 1994. 

As with much of the Caucasus region, Dagestan’s native Islam consists of Sunni Sufi orders that have been in place for centuries. Resul Magomedov, who is a contemporary writer of Dagestan, writes about the unifying role of Islam: “Before Islam, all Dagestan tribes were divided in respect of language, religion, ethnic structure and geography like all other Caucasian peoples. This situation caused severe hostility and conflicts. After all native tribes became Muslims, a unity in belief could be sustained among Dagestan tribes which also stopped ethnic conflicts among them.  

Russia originally annexed Dagestan in 1813, although the inhabitants resisted Russian domination throughout the nineteenth century. The country was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1920 and became an autonomous republic in 1921. After the breakup of the Union in 1991, Dagestan became a signatory to the March 1992 Treaty of Federation which created a new Russian state. As such, Dagestan is legally a Russian republic and a member of the Russian Federation. Despite the reshuffling of the Russian government, President Boris Yeltsin has kept his “no compromise” policy, saying that he will never give up Dagestan. In a telling move, Yeltsin replaced Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin with the experienced Federal Security Service and National Security Head Vladimir Putin, a hardened ex-KGB official who pledged to crush the rebels.  

Economy

Dagestan has a well-developed transportation system. The Rostov-Baku railway line and the Caucasus federal highway pass through the republic, and republican roads within it reach even the most remote areas. The republic extends nearly 400 km from north to south and an average of 200 km from west to east. It borders on Kalmykia in the north, Stavropol Territory in the northwest, the Chechen Republic in the west, Georgia along the Divide Range of the Greater Caucasus, and the Republic of Azerbaijan in the south. Eastern Dagestan has nearly 530 km of coastline on the Caspian Sea, the hotspot of regional energy politics. 90.7% percent of Dagestan’s population is Muslim, with Christians accounting for much of the remaining 9.3%. Engineering and metalworking and the flavoring, light, and chemical industries are important economic sectors in the republic. Dagestan also has five hydroelectric power plants on the Sulak River. Oil and gas, hard coal, quartz glassmaking sand, building materials (sand, limestone, marl, dolomite, gypsum, marble, and gravel), oil shale, and iron and polymetallic ores are among the commercially important mineral resources. There are also mineral springs.

The capital is Makhachkala, a port on the Caspian Sea and a large center of the engineering, metalworking, light, and food industries. There are about 1800 rivers in Dagestan; for the most part, they are rain and snow-fed. Dagestan is part of the Northern Caucasus economic district and is among the Russian regions with a low concentration of industries that in addition are mainly oriented toward supplying raw materials and components for industries in other regions. The fuel and energy complex is especially important to Dagestan’s economy. This industry is based on oil and gas production from fields within the republic. The oil is of high quality and is delivered to other regions. Natural gas goes mainly toward satisfying the republic’s domestic needs and is used as a high-calorific fuel for industry, agriculture, and gas supply systems of cities and villages.  

 The Caucasus

The Caucasus, also referred to as Caucasia, is a geopolitical, mountain-barrier region located between the two continents of Europe and Asia, or Eurasia, with various altitude highlands and lowlands. The Caucasus comprises Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, southern Russia, northwestern Iran, northeastern Turkey and includes the disputed territories of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The Caucasus is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse regions on Earth. The nation-states that comprise the Caucasus today are the post-Soviet states Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Russian divisions include Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, and the autonomous republics of Adygea, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan. Three territories in the region claim independence but are not acknowledged as nation-states by the international community: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia. 

Located on the peripheries of Armenia, Turkey, and Russia, the region has been an arena for political, military, religious, and cultural rivalries and expansionism for centuries. Throughout its history, the Caucasus was usually incorporated into the Iranian world. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire conquered the territory from the Qajars. The region was unified as a single political entity twice – during the Russian Civil War (Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic) from 9 April 1918 to 26 May 1918, and under the Soviet rule (Transcaucasian SFSR) from 12 March 1922 to 5 December 1936. Following the end of the Soviet Union, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia became independent in 1991. The Caucasus region is subject to various territorial disputes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994), the Ossetian-Ingush conflict (1989-1991), the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), the First Chechen War, 1994–1996, the Second Chechen War (1999–present), and the 2008 South Ossetian War.                                    

The hydroelectric power industry is developing rapidly. A cascade of five power plants has been built on the Sulak River: Specialists estimate Dagestan’s total potential hydroelectric power resources at 4.4 billion kW. Engineering and metalworking are Dagestan’s leading industries. Dagestan produces electric welding and electro-thermal equipment, computer-aided devices and facilities, electronic goods, separators, centrifugal pumps, and other consumer goods. The chemical and building material industries account for about 9% of industrial output. Light industry comprises companies in the textile, leather shoe, knitwear, clothing, and carpeting sectors. The food industry in Dagestan specializes in canning, winemaking, fishing, and processing and accounts for 25% of all industrial output. The Caspian Sea, the Terek, Sulak, and Samur rivers, and numerous inland water bodies provide plenty of stock for various fish products. More than half of the companies in this sector are located in Makhachkala. The most important agricultural sectors in Dagestan are winegrowing, vegetable and melon growing, and sheep farming.    

As with much of the Caucasus region, Dagestan ’s native Islam consists of Sunni Sufi orders that have been in place for centuries. Resul Magomedov, who is a contemporary writer of Daghestan, writes about the unifying role of Islam: “Before Islam, all Daghestan tribes were divided in respect of language, religion, ethnic structure and geography like all other Caucasian peoples. This situation caused severe hostility and conflicts. After all native tribes became Muslims, a unity in belief could be sustained among Dagestan tribes which also stopped ethnic conflicts among them.  

Russia originally annexed Dagestan in 1813, although the inhabitants resisted Russian domination throughout the nineteenth century. The country was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1920 and became an autonomous republic in 1921. After the breakup of the Union in 1991, Dagestan became a signatory to the March 1992 Treaty of Federation which created a new Russian state. As such, Dagestan is legally a Russian republic and a member of the Russian Federation. Despite the reshuffling of the Russian government, President Boris Yeltsin has kept his “no compromise” policy, saying that he will never give up Dagestan. In a telling move, Yeltsin replaced Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin with the experienced Federal Security Service and National Security Head Vladimir Putin, a hardened ex-KGB official who pledged to crush the rebels.  

Since 2000, Dagestan has been the venue of a low-level guerilla war, bleeding over from Chechnya ; the fighting has claimed the lives of hundreds of federal servicemen and officials – mostly members of local police forces – as well as many Dagestan national rebels and civilians. Militia numbers include Arabs and Africans as well as Dagestanis and Chechens.                                 

Tatarstan 

Tatarstan is an autonomous republic of west-central Russia. The majority of the population support Tatatrstan’s independence. Along with Chechnya, the republic was not a signatory to the 1992 treaty that created the Russian Federation, but it did join later, in 1994. 

In 1992 Tatarstan held a referendum on independence from Russia, and 62 percent of those who took part voted in favor of independence. On February 15, 1994 the Treaty On Delimitation of Jurisdictional Subjects and Mutual Delegation of Authority between the State Bodies of the Russian Federation and the State Bodies of the Republic of Tatarstan and Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan (On Delimitation of Authority in the Sphere of Foreign Economic Relations) were signed. These agreements may be considered as temporary recognition of Tatarstan’s independence by the Russian Federation, because it mentions the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Republic of Tatarstan. Tatarstan was conquered by the troops of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible in the 1550s, with Kazan being taken in 1552. Some Tatars were forcibly converted to Christianity and cathedrals were built in Kazan; by 1593 all mosques in the area were destroyed. The Russian government forbade the construction of mosques, a prohibition that was not lifted until the 18th century by Catherine II. The first mosque to be rebuilt under Catherine’s auspices was constructed in 1766-1770. Under the influence of local Jadidist theologians, the Tatars were renowned for their friendly relations with other peoples of the Russian Empire. However, after the October Revolution religion was largely outlawed and all theologians were repressed. 

Tatar soldiers took part in all Russian wars, sometimes in national units (as was the case during the Napoleonic Wars. During the chaos of the Russian Revolutions of 1917, Tatarstan became functionally independent with a national parliament, but the Moscow Bolshevist government moved to prevent an independent Tatarstan on its flank. The “Muslim Council” was overthrown by a “Workers’ Bolshevik Council” in a mostly Tatar-populated part of Kazan province called Bolaq artı or Zabulachye. In 1919 the Bolsheviks declared an autonomous Tatar-Bashkir Soviet Socialistic Republic, but the region was at the time largely occupied by the Whites, the leader of whom, General Kolchak, did not support an independent Muslim republic. The Russian Civil War ended in Tatarstan with the suppression of anti-communist peasan Pitchfork Uprising in March 1920. As a result of war communism policy the 1921-1922 Famine in Tatarstan had began and annihilated neraby half a million. In the late 1920s the Soviet government under Stalin began to place restrictions on the use of the Tatar language (among many other minority languages in the Soviet Union).

From the 1930s through the 1950s Tatar-language press, cultural institutions, theatres, national schools and institutes gradually disappeared, as education was required to be conducted in the Russian language. Industrialization, the rise of the collective farms kolektivizatsiya and persecutions such as the Great Purge contributed to this decline. The religion also was repressed. However, the Tatars fought for Russians during the World War II and more than 560,000 Tatarstan soldiers took part in World War II and more than 300,000 of them were killed.

Tatarstan is one of the richest regions of Russia, primary because of its oil industry (it was a leading oil-supplier in USSR in 1960s). Industrial production constitutes 45% of the Republic’s gross regional domestic product. The most developed manufacturing industries are petrochemical industry and heavy truck production (KamAZ). The territory of Tatarstan is crossed by the main gas pipelines carrying natural gas from Urengoy and Yamburg to the west and the major oil pipelines supplying oil to various cities in the European part of Russia. 

A Word

It is true, Russian rulers coerced the Muslim nations after annexing them into Russian mould. It is also true Islam had been threatened by Russian rulers. It is also true, even a real progressive leader like Michael Gorbachev, Nobel laureate did not think right to let Chechnya, Tatarstan and Dagestan to go free from Moscow’s rigor of control mechanism.  

But in the fast changing times of globalization and democratization processes, it is worthwhile for the new Russian rulers like president Medvedev and Vladimir Putin to consider granting sovereignty back to these nations at least as a gift for their services to Russia even by scarifying lives in honor of the Kremlin’s rule. It is a wrong notion to assume that more free nations would harm the potentials of the strong nations around, but on the contrary, the existence of more of free nations promote many human virtues to the world over.  

One hopes, Russian leadership initiates steps to address the long pending issue of freedom of these nations under Russian control for centuries quite sympathetically.