Caucasus Reporting Service: Mozdok Russians Complain of Discrimination

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Subject: Caucasus Reporting Service: Mozdok Russians Complain of Discrimination

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Caucasus Reporting Service: Mozdok Russians Complain of
Discrimination


WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 69, February 9, 2001
 
PRESS SPECULATION REACHES FEVER PITCH Some Russian observers suspect
the FSB of having staged the abduction of an American aid worker as
part of a broader political agenda. Mikhail Ivanov comments from
Moscow
 
DEATH ROW CONVICT PROTESTS INNOCENCE For the first time in post-Soviet
Armenia, a convicted murderer faces the death penalty but campaigners
claim the real killers are still at large. Jeanna Alexanian reports
from Yerevan
 
MOZDOK RUSSIANS COMPLAIN OF DISCRIMINATION Russians living in Mozdok
have won little support for their bid to secede to the neighbouring
Stavropolsky Kray. Valeri Dzutsev reports from Vladikavkaz

STAVROPOL POLICE SMASH ARMS RING Top officials could be implicated in
an arms smuggling ring operated from inside the Stavropol police
force. Yuri Akbashev reports from Stavropol
 
********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net **************
 

................

Mozdok Russians Complain of Discrimination
 
Russians living in Mozdok have won little support for their bid to
secede to the neighbouring Stavropolsky Kray
 
By Valeri Dzutsev in Vladikavkaz
 
A simmering hotbed of separatist tendencies, the Mozdok region has
always been a thorn in the side of the Vladikavkaz government.
 
Situated in the extreme north of the republic, Mozdok is connected to
the rest of North Ossetia by a narrow isthmus. The land here is flat
with rich soils and a well-developed irrigation system which guarantee
Mozdok the highest agricultural yields of any part of the republic.
 
However, of a population numbering around 80,000, only 6,000 are
ethnic Ossetians. And the predominantly Russian population nurses
ambitions to secede to the neighbouring Stavropolsky Kray.
 
In fact, Mozdok only became part of North Ossetia shortly after the
Second World War when the Soviet leadership decided the region "did
not have enough ploughed land to sustain its population". The move was
part of a general trend in the North Caucasus during the 1950s. Each
of the potentially mutinous republics was "awarded" a stretch of
Russian- or Cossack-populated land in a bid to dilute its ethnic
make-up.
 
A few Ossetian settlers had moved down to Mozdok in the late 18th
century but they never made up more than 10 per cent of the
population. And, after Mozdok was assimilated into North Ossetia, the
proportion of ethnic Ossetians across the republic dropped to 50 per
cent - a level that remained consistent until the 1980s.
 
The Vladikavkaz government of the time was quick to accept the offer
of fertile land. Like many North Caucasian states, North Ossetia is
densely populated and prime farmland has always been at a premium in a
society which relies heavily on subsistence farming.
 
In the early 1990s, the district authorities in Mozdok were gripped by
the fever of self-determination which was then sweeping through the
former Soviet Union. They openly trumpeted their desire to be
reintegrated into the Stavropolsky Kray and sever all ties with
Vladikavkaz.
 
Separatist leaders - including the mayor, Adamov - complained that
Mozdok was not represented in the North Ossetian parliament and felt
that the clan loyalties which dominated local government discriminated
against the Russian population.
 
Both geographically and politically, Mozdok had always enjoyed a large
degree of autonomy from the regional capital and, shortly before the
Ossetian-Ingush conflict of 1992, the strip of land joining Mozdok
with North Ossetia became almost impassable for ethnic Ossetians and
has remained so ever since.
 
However, since it was founded in 1763, Mozdok never developed into an
industrial centre and has little to offer the vast Stavropolsky Kray -
which boasts more than enough agricultural land. Consequently, the
authorities in Stavropol have been loathe to encourage the separatist
movement.
 
The separatists also ran into strong opposition from the non-Russian
nationalities living in Mozdok - mainly Kumyks and Ossetians. In the
mid 1990s, thousands of Kumyks living in the town of Kizlyar signed an
official protest against the separatist murmurings.
 
And Moscow itself is unwilling to support the cause for fear of
straining traditional Ossetian loyalties to the Russian state.
 
The war with Chechnya has heralded new problems for the Mozdok region.
The influx of Russian military personnel and an estimated 15,000
Chechen refugees has tested the local infrastructure to breaking
point.
 
And many of the Chechens apparently have little intention of leaving.
The sympathies of the local population and the proximity to the border
have encouraged thousands to settle in and around Mozdok.

News that Chechens are buying up local properties has driven many
Russians away - and, although they still make up two-thirds of the
local population, there are fears that such dramatic changes in the
region's ethnic balance could trigger civil unrest.
 
Valeri Dzutsev is the coordinator for a non-governmental organisation
in Vladikavkaz

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Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
Assistant Editor: Alan Davis. Commissioning Editors: Giorgi Topouria
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Copyright (c) IWPR 2000
 
IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 69

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