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From: MSN Nicknamelove_caucasus  (Original Message)    Sent: 6/21/2007 9:43 PM
THE BALKARIANS: AN AGE-OLD LAND DISPUTE

Неполноценный народ» или «Навеки с Россией»MOSCOW, 6 June, Caucasus Times – There are not enough Balkarians in the Northern Caucasus for Moscow to grant them a separate republic, but they are not small enough in number to forget their autonomous ambitions.

Recently Balkarians celebrated their National Revival day. Previously they commemorated another, mournful, date: March 8th, the anniversary of Stalin’s 1944 deportation of the entire people from the republic to Central Asia. However, this year, with the help of the republican government a public organization named “Alan” passed a decision to remove the event from the official state calendar and replace it with the Day of Revival.

Yet many Balkarians oppose the decision. Leaders of the oppositional Council of Elders claim that given the existing problems in the Republic, to speak of revival is, if anything, illogical.

Kabardino-Balkaria is inhabited by some 80,000 Balkarians and almost five times as many ethnically disparate Kabardinians. Historians have no doubts of the close kinship between Kabardinians and Adygs. The Balkarians’ background, however, remains unclear. Some believe that the ethnos was produced by Western Osetins (Alans) and Kipchaks, who migrated to the region in the 14th century. Others say that they are a group of Crimean Tatars, whomoved to the mountains in the 16th century.

Until the 1920s, Balkarians were referred to as “mountain Tatars,” or “Turkified Caucasians,” because their language – like the language of their close cousins the Karachaevtsy – belongs to the Turkic group.

The Balkarian autonomy has existed in the past. On 6 January 1922 part of the Gorskaia Republic was assigned the title of Balkarian Autonomous Region. Ten days later, however, the region was united with Kabardinia to produce the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Region, which in 1937 became an autonomous republic as part of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.

The Soviet government deprived the Balkarians of autonomy due to their territory’s insufficient economic potential. In the mountains and valleys of Prielbrusie an economy can only grow from cattle farming and recreation, an area that only became significant in the second half of the 20th century, and even then was controlled almost entirely by Moscow.

In other words, both in Tsarist and Soviet times, there was no question of Balkarian prosperity. This circumstance enabled the close integration of Balkarians and Kabardinians, which was more or less complete by the 19th century. The Balkarians traveled down river valleys and arrived at the fertile lands of the Kabardinian princes, who willingly rented out their lands and hired them as workers. The two nationalities became united by the land, and a unified social group began to emerge. The Bolsheviks used this to create a “dual” autonomy. A similar process was taking place between two other neighboring peoples: the Karachaevtsy and the Cherkesses.

In 1944, the Balkarians were deprived of their right to live on lands that belonged to their ancestors. Soviet authorities claimed that they were being permanently relocated to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzia. However, the Kremlin’s plan was destined to fail. Thirteen years later, the Balkars, the Chechens, the Ingush and the Karachaevtsy returned to their native mountains. The deported peoples now found themselves decades behind their Northern Caucasian counterparts in terms of development. To make matters worse, the Balkarians lost one-third of their population.

The deportation took a massive blow on the spiritual and material culture of the people and disrupted the formation of an intelligentsia. Industry failed to develop in the abandoned mountainous region of the Republic, and fertile land was scarce. The Tyrnauz wolfram plant, which employed 30 thousand workers, was only built in the mid-1970s.
The Soviet period created numerous national problems in the Northern Caucasus. In Balkaria, there turned out to be no less than in Chechnya and Ingushetia. This is probably why, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Balkarians were so active in trying to solve them. Ethnic leaders saw sovereignty as their only solution.

Unlike Kabardinian public organizations, the Balkarian National Council never considered exiting the Russian Federation. Rather they put their hopes in the Russian law “Concerning the rehabilitation of repressed peoples,” passed in April 1991. It allowed them to petition the reunification of all Balkarian districts, which were eliminated after the deportation, and of a more significant representation in republican power structures (Kabardinians were far more dominant).

However, the committee created by the Kabardino-Balkarian Supreme Council deliberately tried to draw out the process. On 16 November 1991 Balkarian deputies left the Supreme Council assembly hall in protest. The following day, the National Congress decided to establish an independent Republic of Balkaria.

Interestingly enough, the Kabardino-Balkarian Supreme Council supported this initiative. A month later, a referendum took place, where nearly 90% of the population voted in support of the National Congress’ decision. Subsequent events developed rapidly and, it seemed, optimistically.

In early January 1992 the Kabardinian Peoples’ Congress also announced the creation of the Kabardinian Republic. According to some observers, the decision was part of the unofficial Kabardinian leaders’ struggle with the nomenklatura, which was led by recently elected President Valerii Kokov. Representatives of these opposing camps (the nomenklatura was composed of 80-90% Kabardinians) were indifferent to Balkarian problems. In addition the Balkarian National Council lacked experienced politicians, which it could obtain as a result of the split.

The resistance between the Kabardino-Balkarian Supreme Council and the Congress of the Kabardinian People peaked in the autumn of 1992, when the informal leadership attempted to storm the Government Building. The storming was disrupted by Russian forces, who threatened to fire on the assaulting radicals. Moscow gave clear indication of where its loyalties lay, even though just a year ago, the nomenklatura, headed by Valerii Kokov, actively supported the Putsch, while the Kabardinian leaders defended the interests of “democratic Russia.”

The struggle for power in the Republic began to quiet down, especially given that many leaders of the Kabardinian People’s Congress were admitted into the ranks of the nomenklatura, and the chairman of the Congress, Yuri Kalmykov, received the post of Minister of Justice in Russia. Thus, the Balkarians also got a share.

In any case, the National Council’s separatist sentiments had waned significantly. They reemerged in November 1996, two months before the second Presidential election in Kabardino-Balkaria. The Balkarian People’s Congress, organized by the National Council once again declared the formation of the Republic of Balkaria. A few days later, the head of the Council former lieutenant-general Sufyan Beppaev announced on national television that the Congress was forced to make its declaration by “individual Balkarians in the Kabardino-Balkarian government.” The situation was a farce. It should also be noted that general Beppaev later entered the ranks of the nomenklatura and became the head of the republican president’s committee on human rights and victims of political repressions.

By the mid-1990s, the division of power in Kabardino-Balkaria was complete – as it was in most of Russia. The idea of the “Great Cherkessia” and the “Great Balkarian Alania” became a thing of the past; politicians and public figures seemed to have calmed down. This is why it was such a shock to journalists and experts in Moscow when last year a small demonstration was held in the city center, in front of the Lubyanka. The participants claimed they were representatives of the “Balkaria” organization and complained about the oppression of Balkarians in the KBR. The Russian press had already been writing about the intensification of the “land question” in the Republic.
It was turning out that the “island of stability” in the Northern Caucasus, as the KBR was referred to from the mid-1990s, was suddenly riddled with problems that were quite painful for the whole country. The government began dividing land. Large plots entered the hands of the nouveau riches. It is currently not formally possible to purchase land in the KBR, but long-term rent, which is equated to purchase, can be acquired through auctions. The local parliament has introduced the term “inter-settlement lands” – territories that fall between settlements and out of their jurisdiction.

As a result, where previously the villagers had herded their cattle, restaurants and gambling houses now sprouted up. And up in Balkaria’s mountains, the “inter-settlement lands” turned into pensions and resorts. Because the key government posts are occupied by Kabardinians, they have considerable advantage in conducting business. Balkarians are not content with the fact that most of the property in “their” mountains and the environs of their cities are belong to Kabardinian businessmen.

Two large Balkarian settlements – Hasania and Belaia Rechka – ended up being absorbed by the Nalchik periphery. Now, for example, permits to build a house or get pastures for cattle are issued by municipal authorities, not the village council. The inhabitants of the two villages decided to hold a referendum to “leave the boundaries of the city of Nalchik,” but the republican government decalred that such a vote would be classified as illegal. Nonehteless, the Hasanian village council scheduled the referendum for 29 May 2005. Two weeks before the election, the initiator of the idea – the head of the village administration – Artur Zokaev was shot in front of his own house. The murder remains uninvestigated, but the Balkarians have no doubt that it was of a political nature. In Zokaev, the people lost another leader, because, think activists from the “Balkaria” organization, after joining “Alan” general Beppaev has started blatantly catering to the republican government’s interests.

These events have revived slogans of the early 1990s, which called for the formation of an independent republic.

The current KBR government, however, is much stricter than its predecessors have been. That which public organizations were allowed in the past is banned today through the attorney general, courts and SWAT teams.

The Attorney General’s office called for the elimination of the public organization “Gossovet Balkarii” (“Balkaria’s State Council”), and an appropriate motion was passed by the Supreme Court. There is another principle difference. In the early 1990s, the officials and informal leaders shared powers between themselves. Now, the government has sole control over land and property. As a result, ordinary people end up landless, which, given the region’s conditions, renders them without any means of subsistence. Today, Balkarians survive mainly through agriculture, which is dwindling.
One can say that the ethnic factor is not allowing the KBR government the freedom act as lawlessly as they wish. The mountain- and valley-folk will defend their land to the last. But the post-Soviet officials in the Northern Caucasus remain vicious and unused to stopping in the face of ordinary people’s problems in the pursuit of personal gain. Such antagonism could lead to a situation in which a peaceful division of Kabardino-Balkaria could be the luckiest way out of the situation.

The new KBR president, Arsen Kanokov, has tried somewhat to alleviate the situation with “inter-settlement lands.” In the autumn of 2005 the parliament adopted a new version of the law on borders between municipal formations, which has decreased the number of lands such as those in the Elbrus district. Kanokov also called back the former presidential plenipotentiary in the Elbrus district. The official was appointed by Valerii Kokov with the aim, many Balkarians claim, of not letting the district’s administration to sell shares of the Tyrnaz gas plant to “structures unfavorable to Nalchik.”

“However, Balkarian problems remain unsolved,” one of the Balkarian public leaders, Ruslan Boziev, told me. “The concept of ‘inter-settlement lands’ exists in the south of Russia only in tiny Kabardino-Balkaria. In the Elbrus district, one of the graveyards ended up there. The local administration will not be able to do anything if republican officials decide to tear it down. Over 60% of the district’s territories are now, according to law, outside the control of the district administration.”

At a recent meeting with local businessmen, President Kanokov has announced that he will try to accomplish “full-scale privatization” of the land in 2007. These promises have yet again frigthtened the Balkarians. There are rumors going around that the republican government is planning to build luxury recreational territories for sale to rich representatives of the Adyg Diaspora in the Middle East. A similar situation is developing around the villages of Hasania and Belaia Rechka – the two are close to Nalchik and well-suited for the building of luxury cottages, hotels and restaurants.
On March 8, a Balkarian demonstration took place in Nalchik. They were demanding that the term “inter-settlement lands” from the republic’s legislature and restore the “administrative and territorial borders of Balkaria to their former state, as was on the day of the deportation on 8 March 1944.” In 1957, Balkarian activists remind us, of the four “Balkarian” districts only three were restored. The government was oblivious to the demonstration. Then again, few expected an answer. The problems are “suspended in the air.”

The KBR government, while admitting the legitimacy of some of the complaints voiced by the Balkarians, shrugs its shoulders and points to the Federal Direct Action Law.

In an interview with the Caucasus Times President Arsen Kanokov commented on the Balkarians’ claims, saying that the concept of “inter-settlement lands” was introduced by the federal government and that blaming the republican government for its application is unjust: “If we are talking about Law 131, then discontentment is caused by the fact that satellite-cities surrounding Nalchik have lost their representatives organs. I believe that it is the Federal Direct Action Law, and we are not the ones in charge. I don’t object to these settlements having representative organs, but we cannot say today that the republican government is to blame. In any case, we need to return to this question, we need to see whether these municipalities are really hurt and whether their standard of living has really been affected. Of course, we need to help the people figure out what is happening. But to rush and say that someone’s federal rights are being violated… I think the population doesn’t have a clear understanding of the legislature. Go on and ask, how many of them have read Law 131, and who knows where these inter-settlement lands actually lie… If the Balkarians are indeed suffering and if we can do something about it, I think we will do something.” (Full interview available here: http://caucasustimes.com/article.asp?language=2&id=11857)

If in the past, land united the Balkarians and Kabardinians; today it is becoming a cause for conflict, which is increasingly assuming the character of an inter-ethnic clash. And as the representatives from the Council of Elders say, they do not intend to lose their land another time.
Islam Tekushev, Caucasus Times
http://www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=12699


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