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

After October 1992, the war in North Ossetia was the major factor in distracting the
Kabardinians and Balkars from their conflict—a warning of what might be to come if they persisted
in their claims and counter-claims. Prior to the war in Chechnya, there was still, however, no
decision on the ultimate status of the Balkars in the republic, and the government and the KNK
leadership under Shanibov continued to snipe at each other and trade accusations on an intermittent
basis.
Karachaevo-Cherkessia:
The major disputes in Karachaevo-Cherkessia center around the issue of the complete
rehabilitation of the Karachai people deported in 1943; the need to find a compromise between the
aspirations of the deportees and other repressed groups; and the restructuring of the republic’s
government to reflect Karachaevo-Cherkessia’s ethnic diversity. The republic’s ethnic composition
is 42% Russian (including Cossacks), 31% Karachai, 9% Cherkess, 7% Abazin, and 3% Nogai. 97
As far as the rehabilitation of the Karachai people is concerned, the first Congress of the
Karachais was held in 1988 to demand that their problems be addressed. Since 1988, the main
initiatives have emanated from Dzhamagat, the Karachai national movement, and its Executive
Committee, which like the Balkar national movement has demanded the restoration of Karachai
autonomy and the creation of a Karachai republic within the borders of the pre-1943 autonomous
oblast’. Dzhamagat’s demands were affirmed by a congress of Karachai deputies from the republic’s
parliament in November 1990. Since this juncture, the Karachais have met firm opposition from the
other main constituent groups in the republic: Russians (including the Cossacks), the Cherkess,
Abazins, and Nogais.
The Cossack movement in the republic was first activated in 1991 after Karachaevo-
Cherkessia’s status was upgraded from AO to ASSR by the Russian Supreme Soviet. The Cossacks
began to push counter-claims on Karachaevo-Cherkessia’s territory by promoting the possible
secession of traditional pre-Revolutionary Cossack districts. In August 1991, for example, two
Cossack districts were declared: Batalpashinsky with its center in the republican capital, Cherkessk,
and Zelenchuksko-Urupsky. These were presented as the basis for the formation of a larger Cossack
republic under the jurisdiction of Stavropol’ Krai to which Karachaevo-Cherkessia was formerly
subordinated as an AO.
In October 1991, following the Cossack démarche, the Cherkess national movement, Adyge-
Khase, 98 and the Abazin national movement, Adylar, held a joint congress to declare the creation of
97 The Karachai are a Sunni Muslim people of mixed Turkic, Caucasian and Persian (Iranian) origin with close
linguistic ties to the Balkars. The Cherkess are a branch of the Circassian peoples (see section on Adygeia), but
are also predominantly Sunni Muslim.
98 As part of the divided Circassian peoples of the northwestern reaches of the Caucasus, the Karachai have been
very active in promoting their ethno-cultural ties with the neighboring Adygei republic in Krasnodar Krai (see
section on Adygeia below) and with the Kabardinians. As a result the national movements of the three groups
bear the same name––Adyge-Khase.
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