RUSSIA'S TINDERBOX - Belfer Center for Science and International ...

The introduction of the Russian troops into the former Aukhovsky district, however, led to
the de-escalation of the Chechen-Lak conflict in a somewhat dramatic manner. Both sides wanted
the Russian troops to be withdrawn and were, therefore, prepared to make concessions to avoid
violence. In the most striking concession, many Laks offered to relocate elsewhere in Dagestan.
These concessions were complemented by the Dagestani government which gave the Chechens
direct material and political assistance in restoring their villages and compensation for the loss of
their former homes. The government also removed discriminatory measures against the Chechens
such as restrictions on the registration of new Chechen residents in the Novolaksky district. In
addition, organizational problems related to the resettlement of Chechen-Akkintsy in Dagestan were
resolved. The internal crisis in Chechnya and the rise of opposition to Dudayev in 1993 and 1994,
also facilitated the de-escalation of the conflict as Chechnya no longer gave active support to the
radical elements in the district. The defusing of the Chechen-Lak conflict is one of the most
important examples of conflict management in the republic by the Dagestani government.
The Chechen-Avar Conflict
The Chechen-Avar conflict emerged in September 1991 in the Kazbegovsky district of
Dagestan as a result of the May 1991 decision to restore the Aukhovsky district. It centered around
the issue of whose jurisdiction villages with mixed Chechen and Avar populations should come
under. The Avars had been resettled in the region from their own lands in the mountains of Dagestan
after 1944, and the Chechen-Akkintsy thus insisted that the villages be transferred to Chechen
jurisdiction. The Avars’ former homes had long been destroyed, however, and the Avar national
movement, Dzhamagat, the Imam Shamil National Front, and the Avar-led Islamic Renaissance
Party all actively opposed the Chechen demands. The three Avar groups demanded in response that
the implementation of the Law on the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples be suspended. The
situation in the district was only defused after a special visit to the area by Ruslan Khasbulatov and
Ramazan Abdulatipov, the two highest ranking North Caucasians in the Russian government, and
the intervention of Dagestan’s Muslim clergy.
Kumyks:
The final conflicts in Dagestan are the legacy not of the deportations, but of the migration in
the 1970s of Laks, Dargins and Avars from the mountainous regions of Dagestan into the traditional
territory of the Kumyks in the lowland areas of the republic around the capital Makhachkala and
along the shores of the Caspian Sea. As a result of this migration, by the late 1980s the Kumyks
were a minority of only 22% of the population in lands where they had predominated before the
1970s. 94 This migration was given a new dimension in May 1991 after the decision was taken by the
Dagestani parliament to restore the Aukhovsky district. Laks who were willing to leave Novolaksky
were offered uninhabited land in the Khasavyurt district and north of Makhachkala which were
originally regarded as Kumyk areas. The Kumyk national movement, Tenglik, opposed the
resettlement of Laks on the basis that it implied further encroachment on Kumyk territory.
94 In Dagestan as a whole, the Kumyks are the third largest ethnic group with 13% of the total population.
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