Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 29 – Some in
Daghestan now think that it is time for each Daghestani nation to have a
separate republic rather than continue to live in a single “all-Daghestan ‘collective
farm,’” an attitude that may be indicative of what other larger nations are
thinking about their status relative to the Russian Federation.
In a Daghestani Internet forum,
Murad Abdullayev says that the current multi-national republic has had its day
and that “possibly the time has come” for each of its various peoples to form
their own republics within the Russian Federation, given their increasing size
and increasing conflicts (forum-dag.ru/content/mozhet-dagestan-luchshe-razdelit).
Since the Daghestan ASSR was formed,
“the share of the population of [that republic] in Russia has increased by a
factor of eight,” and “the current Republic of Daghestan has become a headache
for Moscow.” It doesn’t pay its taxes and now owes Moscow more than anyone else
except Ukraine, and on its territory, there is a war going on which the
leadership change did nothing to stop.
The problem of taxes would be solved
if each people had its own republic. “The majority of Avars are too proud to
steal and lie; the Darghins are able to divide up their profits, and the
Lezgins are law-abiding … Now, [none of them] pays taxes because each thinks
that someone else must solve the problem.”
“The Lezgins consider,” Abdullayev
writes, “that the Avars must solve the problem because they are ‘in power’ in
Daghestan; the Avars think that the Dargins must pay because they live better,
but the Dargins respond that the Lezgins are the wealthiest Daghestanis in
Russia.”
None of them is prepared to take responsibility for “’the
collective farm’” because none of them feels a part of it. Given that, the writer says, they view
Daghestan not as a mother but as an evil stepmother, someone from whom it is
almost an act of nobility to take something from to help their own.
No comments:
Post a Comment