From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24  (Original Message)    Sent: 9/18/2006 1:15 PM
SHOULD THE CHECHEN REPUBLIC BE RENAMED? Speaking to journalists on
September 4 on the sidelines of a Russian-Arabian Business Council
session in St. Petersburg, pro-Moscow Chechen administration head Alu
Alkhanov suggested that it would be expedient to change the name of
the Chechen Republic to Nokhchiyn Republic. (Nokhchi is the ethnonym
by which the Chechens refer to themselves.) Alkhanov argued that the
toponym "Chechnya" (as opposed to "Chechen Republic") "has negative
connotations" and no legal foundation, according to regnum.ru on
September 4. He added that he has tasked specialists with studying
the implications of changing the republic's official designation,
after which "we shall think about which name to use," regnum.ru
reported.
Alkhanov's reasoning is logical insofar as the Chechens
themselves do not refer to their republic as "Chechnya." Chechen
Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, however, rejected Alkhanov's
suggestion outright on September 5 as untimely and economically
inexpedient, kommersant.ru reported on September 6. Kadyrov claimed
that changing the republic's name would cost "millions of rubles"
that could better be channeled into the social sector. Kadyrov went
on to point out that the republic's official designation is not
"Chechnya" but "the Chechen Republic" (Chechenskaya Republika), and
that the name "Chechnya" is not mentioned in the republic's
constitution. Kadyrov did not, however, touch on the similarity, and
the potential for confusion, between the term "Chechen Republic" used
by the pro-Moscow Chechen administration and enshrined in the
constitution adopted in 2002, and the designation "Chechen Republic
Ichkeria" adopted at the behest of then President Djokhar Dudayev in
1994, three years after Chechnya formally announced its independence
from the Russian Federation.
At one level, Kadyrov's rejection of Alkhanov's
proposal was predictable in light of the increasingly strained
relations between the two men. Many Russian observers have predicted
that Moscow will shunt Alkhanov sideways next month, when Kadyrov
reaches the age of 30, the minimum age for being appointed republic
head. Some other commentators, however, doubt that Alkhanov's
replacement by Kadyrov is a "given." Alkhanov has moved in recent
weeks to strengthen his position, and one of those moves -- the
creation of a council for economic security -- would certainly have
required high-level approval from Moscow (see "RFE/RL Caucasus
Report," August 18, 2006).
There may, however, be a second dimension to Kadyrov's
rejection of any change in Chechnya's official name. In May,
Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, chairman of the lower chamber of the Chechen
parliament and widely seen as a mouthpiece for opinions that Kadyrov
espouses but does not wish to go public with, argued that the process
of "stabilizing" the North Caucasus could be speeded up by merging
Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Daghestan to form a single federation
subject (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," June 19, 2006). Abdurakhmanov
again raised the possibility of merging Chechnya and Ingushetia in an
interview three months later with ANN. On that occasion, however,
although he noted that some districts that historically were part of
Chechnya are now part of Daghestan, he did not advocate
reincorporating those districts into an enlarged federation subject.
One week later, however, on August 30, Kadyrov publicly distanced
himself from Abdurakhmanov's statement, stressing the "close
relations" between Chechnya and Daghestan and denying that the former
has any territorial claims on the latter, according to the official
website of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration
(http://www.chechnya.gov.ru). Kadyrov went on to comment that
Abdurakhmanov was expressing his own personal opinion, and that there
are currently far more pressing issues facing the Chechen leadership
than hypothetical territorial claims.
It is therefore conceivable that Alkhanov's trial balloon
may have been floated deliberately in order to elicit from Kadyrov an
explicit disclaimer of territorial claims on neighboring regions of
the North Caucasus that in other circumstances he might have tacitly
supported. Days after his denial of any territorial claims on
Ingushetia, Kadyrov traveled to that republic for talks with
President Murat Zyazikov (see "RFE/RL Newsline," September 7, 2006).
Zyazikov has consistently rejected proposals, first floated four
years ago, to resurrect the joint Chechen-Ingush republic that was
divided into two constituent parts in 1992 (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
October 10, 2002; October 15 and 23, November 3 and December 30,
2003; January 22, 2004; and January 31, 2006). (Liz Fuller)