Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 4 – Ingush officials
actively promoted the celebration of the Day of National Unity emphasizing the
ways in which Ingushetia is part of Russia. According to official accounts,
2,000 people came out in Nazran and 4,000 more in other parts of the republic.
But many Ingush refused to take part, saying people should be remembering the
1992 war instead.
On the official celebrations,
greetings, and claims, see gazetaingush.ru/obshchestvo/den-narodnogo-edinstva-v-ingushetii-otprazdnovali-s-nacionalnym-oloritom
and ingushetia.ru/news/obrashchenie_glavy_respubliki_ingushetiya_makhmud_ali_kalimatova_v_svyazi_s_dnem_narodnogo_edinstva/.
All of these are more or less
expected. They are certainly what officials in Magas and Moscow want to hear. More
interesting are the comments of those who either prefer not to celebrate the
new Russian national holiday at all or who argue that the Ingush should be focusing
on memories of the 1992 Prigorodny war with North Ossetia (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/341976/).
The Instagram Account “News of
Ingushetia” published 102 commentaries about the November 4 holiday. The overwhelming majority, Kavkaz-Uzel
reports, say they want nothing to do with it because “no unity is to be seen or
because in the words of one, “for a true Muslim there are only to holidays –
Uraza Bayram and Kurban Bayram.”
One said he would be happy to
celebrate the unity of the Vaynakh peoples but no unity broader than that. But most who objected did so because they argued
that Ingush people should be focused during these days on the anniversary of the
1992 war in which so many of their co-nationals were killed or expelled from
their homes.
“Why aren’t they organizing events
for honoring those innocent Ingush who were killed then and there?” one asked,
while another said that “on November 4, 1992, I was a hostage like many others.”
On that day, the conflict simply “continued.”
That is what should be remembered not some made up holiday.
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