Ethnic clashes in southwest Dagestan incite Chechen nationalism
The following covers the events of late June 2017 in the area.
Dagestan has long been wracked by instability. In late June, however, an older conflict, unrelated to the long-running Islamist insurgency, erupted back into the fore as the latest in a series of profound ethnic clashes that could tear the republic apart. The small towns of Leninaul and Kalininaul, near Dagestan’s border with Chechnya, recently bore witness to unprecedented intercommunal fighting between ethnic Chechens and Avars that threaten to spiral out of control.
Southwestern Dagestan has been a contentious issue for Chechens for deacdes The region was initially the Aukh district of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR in the early Soviet period, home to the Akkin tukhum, one of nine such large tribal grouping that comprise the Chechen nation. Aukh was deprived of its Chechen population during Stalin’s wholesale deportations in 1944. Upon the Akkin Chechens’ return from exile in 1957, they found their houses inhabited by ethnic Avars and Laks resettled there from rural Dagestan. An agreement was signed to restore Aukh district in 1991, but owing to lack of funds and instability it was never implemented.
The towns of Leninaul and Kalininaul are in many ways the heart of the Aukh region, the latter still known in Chechen as Yurt-Aukh. While the Laks who resettled there have little quarrel with the Chechens and have been slowly moving to designated areas north of Makhachkala, the Avars have refused to leave. The Avar and Chechen communities in Leninaul and Kalininaul have lived since in a state of uneasy coexistence for years, praying at separate mosques and having little interethnic engagement. A set of previous clashes in 2007 highlighted the volatility of the situation.
The present events began on June 25, when an ethnic confrontation in Leninaul left 12 people injured. Events became more serious on July 7, when a major brawl between groups of Avars and Chechens broke out. Within hours, dozens of vehicles were rushing to the scene from Chechnya proper, including both emergency services and Chechen civilians rushing to aid their compatriots. Avar reinforcements arrived from Khasavyurt and guns were fired, with a total deterioration only avoided by the intervention of top Chechen official Magomed Daudov, whose car was targeted with stones from Avar participants. Dagestani officials did not address the situation until July 9, when Dagestani President Ramazan Abdulatipov visited the region. However, it was largely due to the Chechen officials, acting unilaterally in Dagestan for the first time, that escalation was avoided.
The present calm is not likely to prove durable. Chechens and Ingush, collectively known as the Vainakh, are very sensitive about Aukh district, having already lost a significant portion of their traditional lands in the west as a result of the deportations. When Chechnya announced its independence in 1991, the Ingush decided to break off and remain with the Russian Federation, hoping to be granted the lands of the Prigorodny region in west Ingushetia that had been transferred to North Ossetia in 1944. Instead, Russian troops aided Ossetian militias in expelling the remaining Ingush population from the area. The Vainakh are thus determined to not see a repetition of this scenario in Aukh.
One of the most ominous elements of the present clashes was the arrival of 500 cars of Chechens and Ingush from their own republics, called by their relatives, to aid the Akkin Chechens. This sort of behaviour creates an alarming potential for greater ethnic clashes drawing in citizens of other districts. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has indicated he may take a more active role in supporting Aukh’s Chechens as well. Kadyrov recently verbally attacked Dagestan’s leadership over the recent incident, accusing them of calling the Chechens “enemies” in a session of Chechnya’s parliament. The Chechen strongman has a history of tense relations with the heads of neighbouring republics, namely his notorious feud with Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and has sent his security forces into other Caucasian republics previously with little consequence.
There is also little to suggest that Dagestan’s authorities will prove effective in resolving the situation. The head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, has suffered heavy criticism lately for his ineffectual response to the deteriorating situation in the republic’s northern Nogai region, where an ongoing standoff between ethnic Nogai and Dagestani authorities continues to worsen. His delayed and ineffective action in Aukh drew more criticism from Dagestani journalists. Additionally, Abdulatipov is an ethnic Avar, a fact which makes him suspicious to many Akkin Chechens. The Dagestani leader’s claim that Aukh district would be restored only without the two central towns of Leninaul and Kalininaul further harmed his image in the eyes of Chechens, who demand their inclusion.
Chechen-Avar tensions in southwest Dagestan continue to fester. Social media is torn: while some Chechens and other North Caucasians have posted videos declaring that Chechens and Dagestanis are brothers, other groups are fully in favour of more active support for the Akkin Chechens. It remains to be seen if Moscow will intervene in the situation, but meanwhile in Dagestan, resurfacing ethnic conflicts are severely impacting the republic’s stability.
