Q.18) Explain the chief causes

of the conflict in Chechnya.

      Name:

In this essay I would like to highlight my understanding to the conflicts in Chechnya. The massacre of the innocents in Beslan, has demonstrated the helplessness of the Russian authorities to the continuous threats of the Chechen terrorism.  However, the conflicts is either not known or misunderstood by the world community.  The view of the Western world is that Russia, just like India in Kashmir, is trying to suppress a legitimate movement for the right of self-determinations of the Chechen tribe. The truth is far from it. The tacit supports of the Western countries for the Chechen terrorists, by providing asylum to the leaders of this separatist movement in both UK and USA, have a very different motive. The aim of this essay is firstly to explain the origin of the Chechen people. Second chapter will seek the conflicts with Russia. Finally, analyzing the chief causes (reasons) of the conflict in Chechnya.

“When war broke out that winter, the Russian army was expected to put a quick end to this people’s rag-tag revolt. Instead, Chechen fighters gave the Russians a horrific mauling from the first day, worse many said than the Soviet experience in Afghanistan. The Russian response - bombing Grozny, a city of 400,000 people, to the ground, and then doing the same thing to village after village - was sick beyond comprehension”.    

           

                                                        (Sebastian.2006, P.135)

Russia is a country of great ethnic diversity, consisting of more than one hundred ethno-linguistic groups. Chechnya is just one of Russia’s 21 ethnically defined republics, but it is “only here that one of the most ghastly conflicts in the recent times has flared up” (Sakwa, 2003, p.59). What are the reasons that provoked Chechnya to seek secession, while other areas remain relatively stable and within the existing constitutional order? What factors have prompted Chechnya to embark on a tragic and self-destructive path?

The Chechens people are not the original people of the Caucasus region.  Ethnic Chechens believe themselves to be an ancient tribal people of Turkic origin who have lived in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia for many centuries.  The Turks first came from the wide plains of Central Asia.  These nomadic horsemen migrated westwards, converting to Islam along the way, until they finally reached Anatolia.  In 1071, the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was defeated by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert, and thus opened the way for Turks into Asia Minor.  Today the ethnic cousins left behind in Central Asia are the Azerbaijanis, Kazaks, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kyrgyzs, Ugyur, as well as smaller groups like the Chechens and the Gagauz.  The downfall of the Soviet Union has resulted in a rise of a feeling of Pan-Turkism - that of the unity of Turkic peoples that transcends centuries of separation.

There are seven autonomous republics in the region of North Caucasus: Dagestan, Chechnya, Inghushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Blakraia, Karachai-cherkessia, and Adygea. The population of this region is around 5-6 million. On first impressions, many of these regions look like other non-ethnic Russian regions, with a long history of “Russification.” Russian is the official language in all these places. However, just beneath the surface, the people of these regions are highly conscious of their separate identity and are fiercely proud of their differences from Russia and its culture. Local languages thrive even after a century of intense Russification. “According to 1989 census, 98 per cent of Chechens spoke their own language” (Smith, 2006, p.144). The Ingush, Kabardians, Avars and other North Caucasians are very fluent in their native tongues, although these languages themselves bear an imprint of Russian influence.

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Although people of Caucasus originally belonged to different tribes, the Caucasian mountains became a melting pot, and over the centuries, most of the people in this region ended up adopting Islam. They also found a common cause against Russian colonization.  However, for various historical and political reasons, the trend of separatism has been much more pronounced in Chechnya than in any other regions of Russia. The fundamental reason behind the ruthless and protracted conflict in Chechnya is simply the unrelenting desire of Chechens to achieve total independence and liberation from Russian control – at any cost. At heart, the Chechen ...

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