International Conference to Mark the 105th Anniversary of the Formation of the Republic of the Union of the Peoples of the North Caucasus — the Mountain Peoples’ Republic
May 27, 2023
May 2023 sees the 150th anniversary of the formation of the Republic of the Union of the Peoples of the North Caucasus — the Mountain Peoples’ Republic.
We, the participants of this international Conference, have assembled to celebrate that fateful milestone for the freedom-loving indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus and to pay tribute to the memory of all the participants and leaders of the national liberation movement of our peoples.
Moscow’s fabricated pretence of a ‘national accord’ of the peoples of the North Caucasus and a so-called ‘pan-Caucasian national consensus’ has been achieved at the cost of several bloody colonial wars, including its war against the Mountain Peoples’ Republic. The price paid as a result of our peoples’ losing their independence back then was the physical extermination in the course of the last 100 years of hundreds of thousands of members of the ethnic groups of the Caucasus, and also of their political and religious leaders.
Just as 105 years ago, so today both Ukraine and the peoples of the Caucasus are together opposing Moscow’s imperial expansionism by fighting for their very existence, for the right to live and be alive. In the face of Russia’s armed aggression, the peoples of the North Caucasus have a vital interest as never before in coming together and mutually supporting each other, and also in enjoying the full support of the international community.
Mindful of the serious military threat to the peace and security of the whole of Europe resulting from Russia’s aggressive policy, as also of the challenge posed by the regime in Moscow to the very foundations of the modern world order,
we, the participants of this Conference, seek:
a) to gain the comprehensive support of international institutions and solidarity of the world community in the realization of the inalienable right and desire of the indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus to liberate themselves from the heavy yoke of Moscow and restore their own forms of national state and social arrangements in accordance with the principles and traditions that characterize and shall be established by the peoples of the North Caucasus themselves, and not imposed from outside;
b) to obtain recognition of the inalienable right of all the peoples of the North Caucasus to self-determination and to conduct a just national liberation struggle to emerge from subjection to the neo-colonial oppression of the totalitarian Putin regime;
c) to secure comprehensive practical assistance for the efforts of those fighting for freedom and national liberation which aim to put an end to such colonial persecution of the peoples of the North Caucasus as mass deportations and the practice of eradicating their historical memory and unique traditions instigated by the Kremlin in the Tsarist Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet periods alike;
d) to create the political, organizational and legal prerequisites for the peoples of the North Caucasus to emerge from the colonial oppression of Moscow and coercion by its placemen and overseers, to put an end to the violence, discrimination and mass abuse of the effectively disenfranchised inhabitants of the North Caucasus region, and also to their persecution on political and religious grounds;
e) to consolidate and augment close scrutiny by the international community and leading expert circles of the tragic state of affairs in the North Caucasian region, not least in the field of observance of human rights, which has resulted from the colonial policy pursued by Moscow.
Mindful of the outcomes of the Conference, which include generalization of: the experience of the struggle for freedom and independence of the peoples of the North Caucasus, of the factual genocide of the peoples of the North Caucasus by Russian governments, of the continuation of colonial policy in the North Caucasus, of the ongoing attempts to deprive the peoples of the North Caucasus of their native languages, traditions and customs, of the incitement by the Moscow regime of intolerance on religious grounds; and also speaking on behalf of organizations fighting for the right to freedom of the peoples of the North Caucasus, the participants of the Conference:
1) resolutely condemn Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, but are inspired by and in all respects welcome the courageous deeds of the Ukrainian people in their resistance to occupation; they emphasize that, shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainian people, military operations against the Russian invaders are being carried out by numerous volunteers from the various peoples of the North Caucasus;
2) call upon the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the parliaments of the countries of the European Union, for the purpose of restoring historical justice, to recognize without delay the massacring of the Circassians (Adyghes) by the Russian Empire in the course of implementation of its colonial policies in the Caucasus during the Russo-Caucasian war of 1763–1864, and their forcible expulsion from their historical homeland by an act of genocide on the part of Russia; as well as to contribute to dissemination of the historical truth about this crime with the aim of preventing the perpetration of similar atrocities in the future;
3) for the purpose of appropriately implementing the provisions of the Statement of Condemnation of the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation Against the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the occupation of its territory and the crime of genocide of the Chechen people, passed by decree of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 18 October 2022, call on the authorities of Ukraine and others countries to officially recognize the State Committee for the De-occupation of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as the body leading the struggle for freedom, independence and de-occupation of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria;
4) call on the public and the state institutions of Ukraine to cooperate with the organizations and committees fighting for freedom, independence and de-occupation of Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachai-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Adygheya;
5) call on the peoples and diasporas of the North Caucasus to increase cooperation between themselves to preserve historical memory, traditions and customs, linguistic and religious identity, as well as creating the preconditions for a joint struggle for rights and freedom;
6) invite the peoples and diasporas of the North Caucasus to send representatives to participate in the Third Congress of the Peoples of the North Caucasus to take decisions on the expediency and feasibility of restoring the statehood of the Union of the Peoples of the North Caucasus;
7) propose the formation of an Organizing Committee to prepare and elaborate the programme and practicalities of conducting the Third Congress of the Peoples of the North Caucasus.
