Jamestown Foundation, Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 162
August 21, 2009
On August 15 the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
reported that "unknown suspects desecrated the Orthodox holy cross in
the mountains of Adygeya." The report came from Maikop the capital city
of the Republic of Adygeya, located about 40 miles to the north of
Sochi, the location for the 2014 Winter Olympics (www.vob.ru, August 20).
ITAR-TASS and numerous Russian outlets underlined
that a religious reason was behind the act of vandalism. The article
included a comment from the speaker of the Adygeya Orthodox Church
Natalia Shevchenko, who said that the wooden cross, had been sawn off
and thrown from Thkach, the highest mountain in Adygeya (The Mount of
God in Circassian, 2,368 meters).
The cross was installed in 2006 by members of the
military group Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights), famous for their
participation in the wars in Chechnya, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The
same crosses were also placed on the top of every high mountain
throughout the Caucasus, as well as in Russian military bases.
Shevchenko also noted that the same crime was committed in the village
of Kammennomost in 2007.
According to the media, similar criminal acts have occured
frequently in the North Caucasus. The most recent reports of such
incidents came from Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkesia and
Adygeya (www.spektr.info).
The three regions were traditionally known as the "Circassian Belt,"
since the land historically belonged to the Circassians (Adygs, Abazas,
Kabardins, Cherkess) who now constitute a significant element of the
population in these republics. Although the majority of the
Circassians, approximately 5 to 6 million live in exile in 56
countries, such statistics are only estimates since there has never
been a case study on the Circassian diaspora.
Religious hatred is the first and the easiest explanation of these
events, however the history of the relationship between the indigenous
people and the Russian state and its representatives in the Caucasus is
an important factor. Significantly, the potent combination of
recriminations between Russians and Caucasians, which is rooted in a
long history of warfare, has soured the atmosphere. However, for Moscow
the main goal has never changed -to defeat, colonize, assimilate and
control the populace, while the indigenous population focus on survival
or liberation.
Among the numerous Orthodox churches scattered around the North
Caucasus there are no reports of problems being experienced at the
hands of their Muslim hosts. For instance, in Cherkessk, the capital of
Karachaevo-Cherkessia, there are 18 churches in the city, but not one
single mosque. However, holy crosses were thrown off the mountains of
Karachaeva-Cherkessia, as in Adygeya last week (www.spektr.info).
In the view of the local people, these crosses do not represent
religion: they are considered as memorials erected by murderers by
those who killed and continue killing their sons, brothers, husbands,
daughters, wives, sisters. The underlying reasons as to why local
people attack Russian monuments are similar to the general background
to Natalia Estemirova's murder. She once refused to walk on the central
street in Grozny, after the street was renamed by Kadyrov as Putin's
boulevard (www.guardian.co.uk, July 23).
Each of the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church has a
special duty - serving the Russian army in the conflict zones, blessing
the new recruits before they go to war, and honoring those who died
performing their duty (www.tver.eparhia.ru,
December 13, 2001). Although there is nothing unusual in any of these
activities, from a local perspective the Russian army and security
services have waged war on civilians; while the Russian Orthodox has
offered justification for these killings.
After the first war in Chechnya, public opinion in Russia was
critical of the government's action in the republic. Not only because
of solidarity with the people of Chechnya, but also due to the loss of
many young soldiers during the first war. Why did public opinion in
Russia turn from strong protest to ignorance, and even approval on some
levels? (www.specnaz.ru,
December 7, 2005). Moreover, it appears that the Russian Orthodox
Church has successfully fed this campaign by manipulating popular
perceptions of the conflict. The crosses around the North Caucasus are
symbolic of the union between the Church and the State in an effort to
strengthen Velikaya Rus (Great Russia), regardless of the costs
involved - be it the lives of thousands of civilians labeled as
separatists, terrorists, religious extremists, or western spies, or
Russian soldiers who die unknown and unreported, and in many cases even
uncounted. Those deaths have been justified by the Russian Orthodox
Church.
Source: Jamestown Foundation
http://www.circassianworld.com/new/headlines/1377-role-of-orthodox-church-tlisova.html