By Fehim Taştekin, World Bulletin
Never before did we see Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while he was giving the people the right to determine their own destiny: "Decision makers must take the ideas of the people into consideration. Without the will of the people, the state cannot resolve a single issue." It should not be thought that the Russian leader was talking about Chechnya which chose to remain independent and not sign a common agreement with the Russian Federation while the soviets were dispersing. Or the other republics in North Circassia whose vein of independence is always ready to pulse... While visiting Abkhazia on August 12th, Putin's words resembled those of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin who said, "Take as much independence as you can handle." He said, "The people of Abkhazia and South Osetia should be treated respectfully in order to protect Georgia's regional unity." It was as if during last year's war Russia's shielding the two de facto republics of Abkhazia and Southern Osetia, who had chosen to live as free and independent peoples in their historical motherlands, and recognizing them as independent states on August 26, 2008, was blood money to the Circassian people for the big massacres and exiles it has imposed on the Circassian people. In fact, this blood money is mentioned with gratitude and Putin is treated as a hero in these two republics. What about the North? The cost of the Chechnya's independent will was 250 thousand lives. Can Putin ask the Northern peoples what they want? Without putting the barrels of guns on their foreheads and without directing tanks towards their houses... It would be in vain to think that Putin, who speaking nine years earlier about "Killing Chechens in the toilet and then flushing them," would become merciful towards the North after being victorious in the South.
Russia seeks a new strategy
While attacks followed one another in Northern Circassia after the Abkhazia visit, Putin made no comments. However, known as the milder peddler on the tandem bicycle, President Dmitri Medvedev did not fail to stand in for Putin: "The war against terrorists should be made in a rough way. Without feeling for them or having any doubts, the terrorists should be eliminated or else we cannot be successful."
On August 17th there was a suicide attack in Nazran, the former capital of Ingushetia, where 25 people died and 160 were wounded. This was a moment that made those who saw it say, "Northern Circassia is out of control." Medvedev made these comments after this event which left the Ingush security forces helpless. This event was followed by suicide protests in Chechnya, attacks on security forces in Dagestan, and pursuits of resistors in Kabardino-Balkaria that were not reported by the agencies.
Russia is now debating how to reign in on Northern Circassia. Some are recommending that Northern Circassia be declared fully as a military region. This wing thinks that it was a mistake for the "anti-terror regime" to be removed on April 16th or, in other words, that the war was officially terminated. More "civil" Russian intellectuals and politicians emphasize that armed formations will not be contained until corruption, degeneration and unemployment are eliminated.
Turning to the Kremlin, even if it is trying to keep at bay big military operations like those against Chechnya in 1994 and 1999, still it is speaking in violent terms. No one intends to remember that it is devastated Chechnya that is at the root of the problem. Moreover, it has absolutely no intention of discussing the reflections today of Circassia's historical tragedies. With verbal consensus Russia forbids people from thinking about the problem with its propaganda that foreign powers, who are trying to prevent Russia from gaining its former power during the time of the Soviets, are interfering in Circassia. Even Yulia Latinina, who has written the strongest articles related to the resistors, repeatedly emphasizes that the resistance in Circassia has not received international assistance, not even ideological nurturing. According to him, the financial resource of the resistance is completely the federal budget! The corrupt and degenerate system facilitates the resistance's reaching every kind of resource.
An excuse for state terror: Wahhabism
In short, the common password in Russian political discourse and practice is "Exterminate." In the August 26th speech of Russian-controlled Chechen president Ramzan Kadirov made to the security forces, these words which are an open invitation to state terror is actually a repetition on behalf of Moscow: "Do not be merciful to them. Only mass and unconditional death."
However, it would be erroneous to see the other leaders in Northern Circassia to be as interested in killing as Kadirov. It is necessary to note that Dagestan president Mukhu Aliyev has said repeatedly that power is not a solution.
To date the Kremlin has acted with a plot that the ideology of Wahhabism with foreign support is in the basis of this. The focal point of a meeting that Medvedev held in Soci on August 28th with political and religious leaders of Northern Circassia was the struggle with Wahhabism. What they have understood until now by struggle with Wahhabism is to open files on young people going to the mosque, to follow them, to bully them, to kidnap and torture them and to kill them. Or to burn bookstores that sell books that the Religious Administration finds objectionable. For instance, on the night of August 16th a book store was burned in Dagestan. On March 8th another shop named Lotos was attacked, and after the books were taken outside, they were burned. Another bookstore named Sunna managed to escape being set on fire.
to be continued...