Ingush Taip Council Appeals to Chechen Counterpart to Resolve Border Dispute on Basis of Islamic Law

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 8 – A day after the Russian Constitutional Court said the border accord between Ingushetia’s Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov was legitimate under Russian law, the Council of the Taips of Ingushetia has appealed to its Chechen counterpart to resolve the border dispute on the basis of adat and shariat.

            Without mentioning the Russian court’s decision, the council which represents the major clan organizations of the republic said that Muslim customary law and shariat courts will allow the two peoples to resolve the issue in ways that will not divide the two Muslim Vaynakh peoples (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328901/).

            The most tradition of Ingush social institutions used the most modern of communication methods, Youtube, to transmit its appeal to Chechen elders.  The Ingush taips said that “we have historians, there is a shariat court, which on the basis of the materials of historians can make a decision” and do so quickly.  The decision is up to the Chechens, they concluded.

            There has not yet been a reaction from Chechnya, but two developments in that neighboring republic regarding the border are important to note. On the one hand, many Chechens are upset that Kadyrov gave up any land to the Ingush, arguing that they have lost more than the Ingush have (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328889/).

            And on the other, many other Chechens are glad that the Russian court has finally reached a decision and believe that its decision will end the dispute which has seriously compromised relations between the two peoples. They are calling on the Ingush to forget the past and to move forward together.

            Meanwhile, in a development that may prove important in the coming days, Maaz Bilalov of Radio Svoboda reports that some in Ingushetia are upset that those opposed to the border accord are using inappropriate social pressure not only against Yevkurov but against anyone who disagrees with them (kavkazr.com/a/ingushi-stydya-vlasti/29636984.html).
            Instead of seeking to unify the Ingush people, the opposition, in their view, is splitting it by talking about “’purity of blood,’” the unacceptability of marriages with representatives of other people, and about the supposed historical election and mission of the Ingush people. That only produces division and xenophobia, they suggest.