Caucasian Knot: Book By Thomas Holtz About Current Caucasian Conflicts…

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 7/17/2007 11:50 PM
CAUCASIAN KNOT / NEWS

17/7/2007
Book by Thomas Holtz about current Caucasian conflicts presented in Georgia

Presentation of the book written by American journalist Thomas Holtz was held in the capital of Georgia. The title of the book is “Georgian Diary. Chronicle of Wars and Political Chaos in Post-Soviet Caucasus” (2006), and it is the final part of the Caucasian trilogy, which comprises, apart of the “Georgian Diary,” the “Azerbaijani Diary” (1998) and the “Chechen Diary” (2003). So far, the “Georgian Diary” has been published in English, although the author would be glad to see his book also in the Georgian language.

“The publishers have named my books the diaries, because they are based on my personal impressions. My work is, so to say, on modern history, the history borrowed from the streets. However, I feel my responsibility for the information that I give out,” Thomas Holtz said to the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

Thomas Holtz is an American journalist who worked for such editions like “The New York Times,” “Washington Post” and “Sunday Times.” At present, he has completely switched over to the teaching activities and conducts a course of lectures on “Post-Soviet Caucasus” and “Turkey and Its Neighbours” at the Montana University.

Thomas Holtz worked and lived in the Caucasus from 1991 to 2005.

http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1192211.html

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Who are the Circassians

Thursday, January 11, 2007
Who are the Circassians

The Circassians

The Circassians (who call themselves “Adyghe”) are an indigenous people of the Northwest Caucasus region.

The term “Circassian” is the English equivalent of the Turkic “Cherkess”. Although this term has sometimes been used in a broad sense to include the Adyghe, the Abkhaz-Abaza and the Ubykhs – whose respective languages belong to the North-West Caucasian family group – or indiscriminately, to all the peoples of the North Caucasus, it should refer more precisely to the inhabitants of historical Circassia, the Adyghe. Today, only a minority of Circassians live in their divided ancestral homeland, mainly in three republics of the Russian Federation (Kabardino Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and Adygheya), the majority having been forced to migrate to the Ottoman Empire following the 19th century Russian conquest of the Caucasus.
History

The Circassians first emerged as a coherent entity somewhere around the tenth century A.D., although references to them exist much earlier. They were never politically united, a fact which reduced their influence in the area and their ability to withstand periodic invasions from groups like the Mongols, Avars, Pechenegs, Huns, and Khazars.

This lack of unity eventually cost the Circassians their independence, as they were slowly conquered by Russia in a series of wars and campaigns in the late 18th and early to mid-19th centuries. During this period, the Circassians plight achieved a certain celebrity status in the West, but pledges of assistance were never fulfilled. After the Crimean War, Russia turned her attention to the Caucasus in earnest, starting with the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan. In 1859, the Russians had finished defeating Imam Shamil in the eastern Caucasus, and turned their attention westward, finally subjugating the Circassians in 1864.

Like other ethnic minorities under Russian rule, the Circassians were subjected to policies of mass resettlement. Collectivization under the Communists also took its toll.
Culture

The Circassians were warlike people. Grown men were expected to carry arms, and boys trained to be warriors. Familial ties were not strongly encouraged; parents fostered their children to other adults rather than raising them themselves. The Circassian society was once matriarchal. Women fought in war alongside their husbands. Although the society is no longer matriarchal, women still give have a high place of respect and dignity.

Circassian society prior to the Russian invasion was highly stratified. While a few tribes in the mountainous regions of Circassia were fairly egalitarian, most were broken into strict castes. The highest was the caste of the “princes”, followed by a caste of lesser nobility, and then commoners, serfs, and slaves. In the decades before Russian rule, two tribes overthrew their traditional rulers and set up democratic processes, but this social experiment was cut short by the end of Circassian independence.

The primary religion among modern Circassians is Sunni Islam.
The Diaspora

Circassians have lived outside the Caucasus region since the Middle Ages. They formed a tradition of joining foreign armies, including those of Persia, Rome, Byzantium, and the Golden Horde. They were particularly well represented in the Mamluks of Turkey and Egypt. In fact, the Burji dynasty which ruled Egypt from 1382 to 1517 was founded by Circassian Mamluks.

Much of Circassian culture was disrupted after their conquest by Russia in 1864. This lead to a Circassian Diaspora, mostly to various parts of the Ottoman Empire. Today, significant communities of Circassians live in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel, Libya, and the United States. The small community in Kosovo expatriated to Adygea in 1998.

Circassians
by John Colarusso, Myths from the Forests of Circassia

In the southwest of the Soviet Union, bordering upon Turkey and Iran, lies one of the most ethnographically complex areas in all Eurasia, the Caucasus. The Caucasus mountains, which dominate this area nearly the size of Spain, are home to a bewildering variety of ethnic groups, some of which seem to be survivors from earlier eras. These groups speak roughly fifty languages, the majority of which are unrelated to any other languages on earth, and show complex and exotic features that set them apart from the other languages of Eurasia. In this one area there are three distinct language families: the Southern or Kartvelian, the Northeastern or Daghestanian, and the Northwestern. The Northwestern languages are perhaps the most complex of any in the region and are spoken by the Abkhazians, the Abazas, the Ubykhs, the Kabardians and the Adygheans. The last two peoples are often grouped together as Circassians.

The Circassians originated in the northwestern quarter of the Caucasus, bounded on the north by the Kuban river. They practiced a mixed economy. Those in the higher vallies and montane forests practiced small scale agriculture and hunting, and often preserved old Christian or pagan customs. Those in the foothills and plains practiced horse-breeding, farming and trade, and usualy espoused Sunni Islam, though in their towns Christian and Jewish Circassians could be found. The Circassians were famed throughout the Middle East for the beauty of their women and the courage of their men. Physically most Circassians are European in appearance with perhaps a slight oriental cast to their features. Many Circassians are blond and blue-eyed, while others show a common feature of the Caucasus: very light skin coupled with black or extremely dark hair. A lithe and erect physique were favored, both for the men and the woman, and many villages even today have large numbers of healthy elderly people, many over a hundred years of age.

Their culture was and still is strongly dominated by a warrior ethic. The battle garb of the men, the Cherkesska, is a fitted caftan-like coat with cartridges sewn across the chest, a sheepskin hat and soft-soled knee-high boots of fine leather. It has been borrowed by many neighboring peoples, most notably the slavic Cossacks, so that this costume is often thought of as being Russian. Until recently the eight tribes into which they were divided showed varying degrees of a caste system similar to that surviving in modern India. There were priest-kings, nobles who formed the warriors, freemen who carried on trade, large scale farming and manufacture, and lastly peasants, former prisoners of war who were either small farmers or who acted as retainers to the princes and nobles. In 1864, five years after their defeat at the hands of the Tsarist armies, most of the freemen and peasants emigrated and settled in the Ottoman Empire. Thus today the majority of the world’s one million or so Circassians now live scattered throughout the Middle East and in cities in Europe and the U.S.A.

**

John Colarusso, Prometheus among the Circassians
http://circassiantoday.blogspot.com/2007/01/who-are-circassians.html#comment-1185457556550531978

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Inmate Rasul Kudaev goes on hunger strike in Kabardino-Balkaria

From: Eagle_wng
CAUCASIAN KNOT / NEWS

14/8/2007
Inmate Rasul Kudaev goes on hunger strike in Kabardino-Balkaria

In Kabardino-Balkaria, Rasul Kudaev, prisoner of SIZO-1 (pre-trial detention facility), has announced a hunger strike. The “Caucasian Knot” correspondent has learnt about it from Magomet Abubakarov, detainee’s advocate.

According to the advocate, the cause of the hunger strike was the fact of beating Rasul Kudaev and some other inmates on August 10 in the facility’s yard. Employees of SIZO-1 in masks kicked them and beat with truncheons, all the time offending them verbally.

Allegedly, the reason of beating was the violation by Rasul Kudaev and others of the custody regulations – they refused to put their hands on the wall and would not allow the guards to search them.

On the fact of beating, Rasul Kudaev filed a complaint to the commander of the SIZO asking for examination and registration of his bodily blows. His complaint was rejected, after which he went on his hunger strike.

According to the advocate, Rasul Kudaev continues to feel sick, however, he still gets no medical care.

See earlier reports: “Kabardino-Balkaria: health condition of detainee Rasul Kudaev has sharply worsened.”

http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1194635.html

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Chairman of Board of Elders fined for holding a meeting in Kabardino-Balkaria

From: Eagle_wng
CAUCASIAN KNOT / NEWS

21/8/2007
Chairman of Board of Elders fined for holding a meeting in Kabardino-Balkaria

Ismail Sabanchiev, Chairman of the Central Body of the Public Organization “Board of Elders of the Balkar People,” one of the organizers of the meeting in Nalchik (capital of Kabardino-Balkaria) on July 14, was brought to administrative responsibility by the Nalchik magistrate court. He was mulcted a sum of 10 MROTs (floor salaries) for holding the meeting in Nalchik, despite the ban of the mayoralty, the IA “REGNUM” informs.

The “Caucasian Knot” has already informed that after the meeting the Prosecutor’s Office of Kabardino-Balkaria has warned Mr Sabanchiev on inadmissibility of extremism. Then, Oleg Zharikov, Public Prosecutor of Kabardino-Balkaria, stated that the leaders of some public organizations of the Republic, in particular, the “Board of Elders of the Balkar People,” sometimes “admit utterances, which do not contribute to strengthening the interethnic peace and accord in the Republic.”

On July 14, the earlier prohibited by the authorities meeting of the Balkar people took place in Nalchik. Ruslan Babayev, Deputy Chairman of the “Board of Elders of the Balkar People,” made the main presentation at the meeting and noted that the Balkar nation “is not kindling interethnic enmity, does not intend to quit Russia and calls on nobody to do so,” however, “would not agree with the current status quo.”

Mr Babayev said that the parity power representation is not observed in Kabardino-Balkaria. Thus, out of 100 deputies of the Parliament of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) only 18 persons are Balkars. In the opinion of the speaker, the top leaders of the Republic should interchange with account of their nationality, and in all power bodies equal representation of the subject-forming nations should be ensured.

http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1195228.html

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Ingush Writer Appeals To World Community

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 8/30/2007 2:40 AM
14.08.2007 13:07
 
Ingush Writer Appeals To World Community

Respected Ingush writer Issa Kodzoyev has addressed an open letter to international organizations and to the presidents and legislatures of Russia, the United States, and almost two dozen other countries, appealing for support to end the arbitrary violence and reprisals to which the population of Ingushetia is subjected on a daily basis. Kodzoyev construed that violence as a concerted effort to provoke a popular uprising in Ingushetia that would serve as a pretext for armed intervention to “restore constitutional order.” Kodzoyev raised the possibility that President Putin’s entourage deliberately misinforms him about the situation in Ingushetia.

Read the open letter (in Russian).
 
http://www.ingushetiya.ru/news/11325.html

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Eyewitness: murderers of the young man in Nazran threatened the witnesses

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 9/1/2007 9:46 AM
CAUCASIAN KNOT / NEWS

31/8/2007
Eyewitness: murderers of the young man in Nazran threatened the witnesses

One of the eyewitnesses of the murder of the young man named Islam Garakoev committed on August 30 in Nazran (Ingushetia) asserts that the killers threatened the witnesses of the incident with their sub-machine guns and shot atop of their heads.

The details of the incident as reported by this eyewitness were published by the web site “Ingushetia. Ru.” The news item runs, in particular, that teenager Islam Garakoev was walking along the road in his headphones listening music. Suddenly, people in sports suits and masks went out of a “Zhiguli” Model 7 car and “without any warnings shot the guy dead from a Stechkin pistol”:

“Then, people in helmets jumped out of the ‘Tablet’ (folk name for ‘Zhiguli-7’) and shot out a whole machine-gun magazine at the lying body, and kicked him like a dog. Then, they put a pistol, a magazine and a brochure beside the body and videoed all that.”

According to the eyewitness, during the murder, quite a lot of people were around and saw everything what happened; one of them made an attempt to film the events to his mobile phone, however, the attackers took the phone away and crushed it. Besides, they shot atop the heads and threatened the witnesses of the murder with their sub-machine guns. An hour later, militia cars arrived and took the body away.

See earlier reports: “Ingushetia: militaries shot dead a boy of 16.”

http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1196094.html

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RIA Novosti: Pipe Blast Cuts Off Gas Supplies To Four North Caucasus Towns

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 9/6/2007 4:02 PM
RIA Novosti
Pipe blast cuts off gas supplies to four North Caucasus towns

06/09/2007 11:41 NALCHIK, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – Gas supplies to four towns in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, in Russia’s North Caucasus region, have been cut off due to a pipe explosion, the republic’s police source said.

The pipe was badly damaged in an explosion late Wednesday in the town of Elbrus, a settlement near a mountain of the same name. Supplies to 173 private homes and six multi-story buildings have been cut off, affecting about 2,000 people in four settlements.

Repairs are underway, and the cause of the explosion is being established. According to preliminary data, the blast was caused by an unidentified explosive device that went off beneath the pipe.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070906/76966631.html

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