|
Since the re-establishment of the Russian state as a reformed asymmetric federation, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with the acceptance of Federal Constitution of 1993 a number of ethno-republics within it have come into the limelight for the tensions within them between the titular and non-titular nations, such as the Republics of Bashkortostan, North Ossetia-Alania, Adygeya and Tuva. The language laws that put Russian and the language of the titular nation of the republic concerned on equal footing or the laws that are designed to lure members of the Diaspora of the titular nation to settle in the homeland to tilt the balance of demography to the advantage of the titular nation have created much controversy. Among all these cases, Adygeya has attracted the greatest attention of the Russian national media as well as specialists in the Russian Caucasus. A number of articles have appeared in the Russian newspapers in the last few years that even accused the republican government of conducting an “apartheid policy ” towards the Russian majority. This paper is aimed to explore the local politics in the Republic of Adygeya in the light of the local conditions of ethnic relations as well as the nationality policy of the federal centre in the last decade. Part I is to provide the necessary information on Adygeya and the history of its titular nation, the Adyge. This is essential if one wishes to understand the motives behind the strong desire on the part of the Adyge intelligentsia elite to continue with the Soviet ‘policy of positive discrimination towards the titular nation’ within the local political and legal realms even after the Soviet state collapsed. Part II is concerned with the contentious issues and the political actors of the republican politics. Consequently, the role of the nationalist organisations the Adyge Xase and the Union of Slavs of Adygeya will be investigated. In the last part, the recent developments with regards to the latest presidential elections in Adygeya and Moscow’s role in the future of this republic and its multinational people. PART I: THE REPUBLIC OF ADYGEYA AND THE ADYGE
The republic of Adygeya, extending from the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains to the Kuban Plain in the Northern Caucasus, lies landlocked in the middle of Krasnodar Krai. Adygeya, which is a small republic with 7800km2-land area, has no borders with any other North Caucasian republics. According to 1995 figures, the population of the republic is 541.000 of whom 22 % are Adyge. The Russians and the other Eastern Slavs who make up 68 % of the population are in the absolute majority in Adygeya, making the republic demographically the most “Russianized” national unit of the whole Northern Caucasus. However, there are around 40.000 more Adyge living in the adjacent areas of Krasnodar Krai, apart from their ethnic kin the Cherkess, the Abaza and the Kabardians living further east. Adygeya was founded as an autonomous region in 1922 and until it was upgraded to republican status in July 1991 it had been subordinate to Krasnodar Krai. Because of their coexistence for more than 50 years within the same administrative unit, there are close economical, cultural, historical and ethnic ties between Krasnodar and Adygeya both for the ethnic Adyge and the Russians including the local Cossack population. Aslan Alievich Dzharimov, an ethnic Adyge, has been the president of Adygeya since its becoming a national republic in 1991. He had been the First Secretary of the Communist Party’s Regional Committee in Adygeya as well as being a People’s Deputy of the USSR between 1989-1991, representing Adygeya. He won two presidential elections, in 1992 and 1997. In the 1997 elections, when he competed against two other Adyge candidates, he gained 57.88 % of the valid votes. In the all-federation level politics, he is known to have been a supporter of Our Home is Russia and later the Unity Movement. He is a Soviet–era apparatchik as the likes of Mintimer Shaimiev of Tatarstan and Murthaza Rakhimov of Baskhortostan who after the collapse of the Soviet Union have turned into moderate nationalist leaders who reigned in the more radical nationalists within their own ranks but, nevertheless, also challenged Moscow on the issues of the rights of the republics vis-à-vis the Centre. The Adyge Xase as an organisation is an all-Circassian nationalist movement with branches in the Republics of Karachai-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria and the Shapsough populated areas of the Krasnodar Krai. Although these branches are independent establishments, they are nevertheless part of the wider Circassian umbrella organisation the International Circassian Association (ICA), whose declared aim is to protect the rights of the Circassians wherever they live and to facilitate the return of the substantial portion of the Circassian Diaspora to the Circassian inhabited lands of the Northwest Caucasus to change the demographic structure where the Circassians constitute the minority of the population. Although the Xase has lost considerable strength in Adygeya and Kabardino-Balkaria, it still is a very powerful public movement in the Republic of Karachai-Cherkessia which it wants to break up into separate Circassian and Karachai national units. In the early 1990s, the Adyge Xase was the most powerful opposition movement to the leaderships of Dzharimov, whom radicals within the Xase even labelled an enemy of the Adyge nation. However, once Adygeya was upgraded to republican status and the rights of the Adyge as the titular nation were enshrined in the republican constitution it became a staunch supporter of the president and the status quo, to the extent that its current chairmen Ruslan Peneshov has served in the successive republican governments under Dzharimov’s presidency. The organisation’s major objective is to keep the “positive discrimination” for the Adyge secure and to attract the members of the large Circassian Diaspora to Adygeya so that the Adyge can become a majority in the republic. The Union of Slavs of Adygeya led by Boris Karataev and Nina Konovalova was created in 1991 as a counter-balance to the Adyge Xase but failed to gain much prominence. However in the early 1990s it categorically opposed the separation of Adygeya from Krasnodar Krai and later the upgrading of its status to a republic. At various times the Union advocated a referendum on the return of the capitol City of the republic, Maikop, which is overwhelmingly inhabited by Russians, to Krasnodar Krai. In this paper, I intend to draw attention not to what has happened in Adygeya after the collapse of the Soviet Union but, on the contrary, to what has not occurred, which was expected to occur, that is no major rallies or protest meetings have occurred in Adygeya for years and that there has been no talk of the Adyge Xase or the Union of Slavs creating paramilitary forces in preparation for a ‘coming’ conflict. Instead, multicultural dance and art festivals attended by the representatives of the Russians, the Adyge and the other peoples of the Northern Caucasus are regularly organised. President Dzharimov’s every public speech is addressed to “the multinational people of the Republic of Adygeya” not to the Adyge people, which is a sign of a new republican identity emerging against all the odds. Traditionally, the Adyge and the Russians have shared the governmental posts. The current Prime Minister and the chairman of the upper wing of the local parliament are Russians. This new republican identity beyond one’s ethnic affiliation seems to have given way to a new voting pattern in the last presidential election that took place on 13 January 2002. For the first time since the foundation of the republic of Adygeya, candidates of different nationalities participated in the presidential election regardless of their knowledge of Adyge language, which was the result of the suspension, for ten years, of the language law which requires the president to be bilingual in Adyge and the Russian. The local Adyge businessmen Khazret Sovmen, who owns gold mines in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia and is known across the whole federation as a philanthropist, won the election, as was expected, by taking 68 % of the valid votes by securing the support of the bulk of the population, Russian and Adyge alike, who have been suffering from the economic hardship for years and have been ready to lay their hopes not on his ethnic background but on his managerial skills, to govern the republic. In this race, the old foes, the incumbent president Aslan Dzharimov, and the leader of the Union of Slavs Nina Konovalova received 9 % and 8 % of the vote respectively. Although no official statement has been made by Moscow about the result of the election, the outcome must also be welcomed by Putin administration for he is more than happy to see Aslan Dzharimov, just as Ruslan Aushev of Inghushetia, leave his post as Dzharimov, like Aushev, has long been an outspoken critic of Putin’s re-centralising policies and an advocate of the rights of the republics vis-à-vis the centre. Although the success of Sovmen will evidently surpass the ethnic boundaries for the near future, in the long term, however, Moscow should take into account the local conditions of the Northern Caucasus, especially the case of the Adyge’s ethnic kin, the Abkhaz and the war in Abkhazia that has set an example of how a titular nation, that is made minority in its own country, can resist outside pressure to abolish the positive discrimination for the titular nation. This is a region where the past is not only a distant memory but also an everyday reality. It is constantly reminded and reproduced by local elites. Only by allowing to remain intact the above mentioned language law, that has a great symbolic meaning for the Adyge, and thus offering a incentive to the local Russians, who want to hold governmental posts, to learn the language of the titular nation- a decision which may even pave the way in the end for an Adyge speaker of Russian majority to become president-can Moscow ensure that Adygeya can put aside its problems of ethnic nature and instead concentrate on implementing economic reforms and creating a democratic, prosperous society where the particularities of the Adyge are also respected alongside the wider republican population and taken into consideration. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1) Alla Chirikova and Natalia Lapina, Political Power and Political Stability in the Russian Regions in Contemporary Russian Politics, edited by Archie T. Brown, p. 384-397, Oxford University Press, New York, 2001 3)Alexei M. Lavrov and Alexei G. Lakushkin, The Fiscal Structure of the Russian Federation: Financial Flows Between the Center and the Regions, East West Institute, New York, London, 1999 6) Anna Matveeva, The North Caucasus: Russia’s Fragile Borderland, The Royal Institute Of International Affairs, London, 1999 15) Valery Tishkov, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict In And After The Soviet Union: The Mind Aflame, Sage Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, 1997
These 1995 population figures are taken from Robertson’s Russia &Eurasia Facts &Figures Annual, volume 22,1997, pp 20-23 as cited in Anna Matveeva, The North Caucasus: Russia’s Fragile Borderland, page 82.
Regiony Rossii, Moscow: Situatsionny tsentr pri Presidente RF, FAPSI, 1997 as cited in Matveeva, p.82.
The Republic of Adygheya
Articles, Publications & Documents | Links | Last Updates | Archive | About Site | Home Page
Please send your comments, opinions, questions and suggestions by e-mail : info@circassianworld.com
|
|