Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Ingush National Commission Takes Hard Line on Border Disputes

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 9 – The All-National Commission for Reviewing Issues Connected with the Definition of the Territory and Borders of Ingushetia that was formed by the World Congress of the Ingush People in October 2018 has now released its final report on the basis of more than two years of research, consultations and discussion.

            The commission which was created in response to the border deal between former Ingush republic head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov which itself sparked massive protests in Ingushetia (fortanga.org/2021/07/doklad-o-graniczah-i-territorii-ingushetii/), draws the following conclusions:

1.      The Ingush people emerged as a result of the coming together of various component parts of Vaynakh society, all of which deserve further study.

2.      “As a result of the discriminatory and repressive policy of tsarism and the Soviet authorities, a significant part of the historically Ingush lands have been without justification torn away from the nation and are illegally included within the republics of North Ossetia and Chechnya.”

3.      Territories given to North Ossetia as a result of the deportation of the Ingush in 1944 must be restored to Ingushetia.

4.      “The Republic of Ingushetia is an equal legal successor of the former Chechen-Ingush ASSR” and thus it has the right to receive “a proportional share” of the territory of that former state formation.

5.      The September 2018 deal between Yevkurov and Kadyrov cannot be the basis for shifting land from Ingushetia to Chechnya.

6.      That accord was not ratified by a referendum as the republic constitution requires.

7.      The two republics should form a bi-lateral commission to examine all issues. If it cannot reach an agreement, then the question of where the border lies must be resolved on the basis of shariat law.

8.      Until a final resolution of the border dispute is achieved, Ingush people must have unimpeded access to the lands the Chechen side has seized.

9.      All disputes between Ingushetia and its neighbors must be solved by peaceful means.

10.  The response of the Ingush nation to the September 2018 shows that the Ingush nation now forms a powerful and effective civil society.

11.  And the commission concludes: “we understand the historical territory of Ingushetia to be the lands of the Ingush district in the middle of the 1860s,” a position far more forward leaning than any the Ingush have advanced up to now.

 

Two other important developments in Ingushetia this week include the following. On the one hand, the republic has decided to establish a Day of the Ingush Towers on the third Saturday of May. This is more important than it seems because the self-designation of the Ingush derives from the word for tower and they are literally “the people of the towers” (ingushetia.ru/news/v_ingushetii_uchrezhden_novyy_respublikanskiy_prazdnik_den_ingushskikh_bashen/).

And on the other, despite complaints and threats, a group of Ingush men and women have been able to hold an online conference on feminism in the republic and in Islam at which some truly radical views were expressed (kavkazr.com/a/31350001.html, kavkazr.com/a/31339402.html and daptar.ru/2021/07/09/monolog-ingusha-profeminista/).

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