Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 10 – Because
significant numbers of the Turkic Nogay nation live in Daghestan, Stavropol,
Karachay-Cherkesia, and Chechnya, a call by the Fourth Conference of the Nogays
of Russia that Moscow create a separate autonomous republic for them could
further destabilize the North Caucasus.
That body, meeting at the end of
October in Terekli-Mekteb in the Nogay District of Daghestan appealed on
November 7 to Russian President Vladimir Putin to create a separate Nogay
republic that would include within its borders the 70,000 Turkic-speaking
Nogays of Stavropol, Chechnya and Daghestan (www.ng.ru/regions/2012-11-08/1_nogaicy.html).
The Nogays, who number just over
100,000 in Russia’s North Caucasus, have been divided territorially since 1957
when Moscow suppressed Grozny oblast at the time of the return of some of the ethnic
groups deported by Stalin and divided the Nogay steppe into three parts. Since then,
the Nogays have repeatedly but unsuccessfully asked for their own autonomy.
But they may have more success this
time. On the one hand, the situation in
Daghestan where a plurality of the Nogays lives is deteriorating rapidly. And on the other, the Nogays have cast their
demand explicitly in terms of “strengthening the security of Russia in the
North Caucasus.”
“Only separation from Daghestan and
the establishment of an autonomy can give the Nogays the opportunity to
preserve themselves as a people-ethnos and to preserve their land for future
generations.” If the Nogays are kept
within Daghestan, the letter continues, “it will be impossible” for them to do
so because of the approach of Makhachkala.
Moreover, the Nogays say in their
appeal, the weakening of Nogay national traditions because of the absence of
territory has opened the way for the spread of Islamist influence, something
that until recently had been entirely alien to Nogay national traditions. Only a territorial autonomy can stop that,
they suggest.
The Daghestani government has
exploited the Nogay steppe to the point of exhaustion, they say, exceeding “by
several times” state-established ecological norms.” If that continues, the
letter says, “then in the near future, Russia will have the first man-made
desert in its European portion.”
But many in the region, including some
Nogays outside of Daghestan, are less enthusiastic. Valery Kazakov, head of the
Karachayevo-Cherkess Nogay El National Cultural Autonomy, says a separate Nogay
republic would create “a bucket of problems” for Russia as a whole (www.bigcaucasus.com/events/topday/08-11-2012/81510-nogay_step-0/).
If
the various existing republics could agree to cede territory, something Kazakov
says is unlikely, then perhaps this would work. But because they won’t, Moscow
dare not create a territorial unit lest it spark more violence in the
Caucasus. He proposes instead an
extra-territorial approach to promote broader national-cultural autonomy.
Nogays have already created such
formations in Sakha, Yamalo-Nenets, and St. Petersburg, and they occupy senior
posts in Karachayevo-Cherkesia, posts they could lose if a separate territorial
autonomy were to be created. Nonetheless, the Nogays may press forward – and for
a reason none of the Russian commentators mention.
The largest Nogay community in the
world is in Turkey, and many Nogays in the North Caucasus feel empowered by
that fact, just as do the Circassians who are vastly more numerous outside the
borders of the Russian Federation than within.
And that sense of empowerment, even if it is based more on fellow
feeling than actual support, is likely to play an increasing role.
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