Just eight days after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev named
Magomedsalam Magomedov to succeed Mukhu Aliyev as president of
Daghestan, that republic's third-largest ethnic group has taken to the
streets to
protest
the violation of the unwritten agreement on the distribution between
the various nationalities of the three top leadership posts.
Between
500 and over 2,000 Kumyks attended a meeting in Makhachkala on February
16 to protest the anticipated dismissal of the republic's Prime
Minister Shamil Zaynalov (a Kumyk) following Magomedov's inauguration.
Attendance at the demonstration would reportedly have been far higher
had not police and security forces cordoned off the square where it
took place.
The Makhachkala correspondent for the Russian daily "
Kommersant"
reported that the angry Kumyks adopted an appeal to Medvedev protesting
that for decades, Moscow has favored the Avars and Dargins, while
ignoring the interests of Daghestan's other ethnic groups. At the time
of the 2002 Russian census, the Avars were the largest ethnic group in
Daghestan, accounting for 29.4 percent of the total population of 2.6
million. In second place were the Dargins (16.5 percent), followed by
the Kumyks (14 percent).
But the Kumyks (a Turkic ethnic group)
tend to look down on the Avars, and a study of Daghestan's various
ethnic groups published in Moscow in 1988 claimed that the Kumyks were
in fact the dominant nationality, accounting for 22.6 percent of the
population, followed by the Avars 18.9 percent), the Lezgins (11.6) and
the Dargins (11.5).
Since 2006, when Aliyev, an Avar, was named
president, the post of prime minister has been held by a Kumyk, and
that of parliament speaker by a Dargin.
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1347755.html
The
"Kommersant" correspondent recalled that in the summer of 2008, some
16,000 Kumyks signed an open letter to Medvedev describing their
"catastrophic" situation and enumerating their grievances. In the
February 16 missive, they warned that replacing Zaynalov as prime
minister by one of the four Avar candidates who figured on the
presidential shortlist would be a gross violation of Kumyk national interests and could trigger a string of mass protests.
They also reiterated their long-standing objections to the ongoing
resettlement of Laks from mountain districts bordering Chechnya on land in northern Daghestan traditionally inhabited by Kumyks.
Magomedov told Daghestan's parliament on February 8 that in order to observe "
ethnic parity,"
the next prime minister should be an Avar. But following the unanimous
approval of his nomination by parliament on February 10, he
told journalists that he is not yet ready to divulge his proposed candidates for top posts. He also
said he will try to promote social consolidation.
Magomedov,
46, served for one year as parliament speaker after his father,
Magomedali Magomedov, stepped down in 2006 after serving for 12 years
as president of Daghestan. His most recent position was as head of the
economy faculty at Daghestan State University.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Kumyks_Stage_Protest_In_Daghestan/1960893.html
