Ingush Mufti Denounces Magas Effort to Keep Imams from Talking about 1992 War

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 4 – Mufti Abdurakhman Martazanov has denounced efforts by Ruslan Volkov, the new head of the republic nationalities ministry, to tell imams what they should and should not say in their weekly homilies and especially Volkov’s demand that they not talk about the 1992 clash between Ingush and Ossetians over the Prigorodny District.

            According to the republic mufti, Volkov told the imams to forget about that clash and to avoid any suggestion that Ingushetia should seek to recover its lands.  Such official interference, Martazanov said, is absolutely unacceptable (doshdu.com/muftijat-ingushetii-osudil-glavu-minnaca-za-popytki-povlijat-na-imamov/).

            In a commentary for Portal Six, Akhmed Buzutanov pointed to another development that has sparked controversy over the last few days: the tendency of online discussions of republic problems to go to extremes and provoke far deeper divisions than occur when people talk to each other directly (6portal.ru/posts/процесс-роста-нетерпимости-мнений-и-с/).

            When people defined their position on the basis of personal conversations, he argues, “there was understanding and a common attitude toward events.” But with the Internet becoming the main place for discussions and with people expressing themselves more sharply, this unity is breaking down to the detriment of the Ingush people.

            Today, there were four other noteworthy developments in Ingushetia. First, Murad Daskiyev, head of the Union of Teips, says his group represents democracy in action and that it has showed the Ingush people what can be done when issues are discussed and then votes are taken (fortanga.org/2019/12/murad-daskiev-my-delaem-chto-dolzhny/).

            Second, Sultan Kodzoyev, a commentator for Portal Six, says that Ingush should not be mislead that there has been a real campaign against corruption. A few officials have in fact been charged, but how many other Yevkurov-era corrupt figures are “coming out of the water dry?” (6portal.ru/posts/коррупционное-десятилетие-кто-еще-по/).

            Three, Ingush people living near the border with North Ossetia have organized to demand that Magas open a new border post so that they can come and go to their ancestral lands more easily.  Officials say they will consider the demand (fortanga.org/2019/12/na-granitse-s-osetiej-mogut-ustanovit-novyj-post/).

            And fourth, the Nazran draft commission said it had sent 546 young men into army in places far away from the North Caucasus. More sought to be drafted than there were spaces for – those with higher education got preference --and no one who was called sought to escape service (gazetaingush.ru/obshchestvo/v-nazranovskom-rayone-uspeshno-osushchestvlyaetsya-prizyvnaya-kampaniya).