RFE/RL on Russia: controversy over ethnicity in census, Krasnodar fights
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 14:12:48 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: RFE/RL on Russia: controversy over ethnicity in census, Krasnodar fights
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: RFE/RL <[email protected]>
RFE/RL: Controversy over ethnicity in Russia's census
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL Russian Federation Report
Vol. 4, No. 10, 20 March 2002
A Survey of Developments in the Regions Outside Moscow Prepared by the
Staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
************************************************************
..............
.AS KIRIENKO PLAYED ROLE IN CENSUS CONTROVERSY.
A 15 March meeting at the Moscow-based Russian Ethnology and
Anthropology Institute reportedly highlighted objections by the
country's territorial entities regarding the nationalities list
proposed by the institute for the upcoming national census, RFE/RL's
Kazan bureau reported on 18 March. Ethnology Professor Damir Iskhakov
told RFE/RL that the issue of "Baptized Tatars" and "Kryashens" was
the most disputed item on an agenda that included issues regarding
Tatarstan, Daghestan, and Komi republics. Iskhakov asserted that the
institute's Valerii Tishkov agreed with Tatarstan's arguments over
including such ethnic subgroups as Mishers, Tiptyers, and Siberian
Tatars in the Tatar ethnic family - thus responding to protests made
by Tatar leaders across the Russian Federation. Radical Kryashen
leaders who joined the meeting, supported by the Russian Orthodox
Church and the Russian presidential envoy to the Volga federal
district, Sergei Kirienko, managed to include the nationality in the
census questionnaires despite protests from the Tatar side. JAC
..............
KRASNODAR
OFFICIALS ROLL OUT THE UNWELCOME MAT FOR REFUGEES.
At a recent meeting on migration policy in Krasnodar Krai, more than
400 heads of cities and raions, law enforcement officials and
migration service workers, including krai Governor Aleksandr Tkachev,
came up with a number of suggestions on how to reduce the number of
migrants in the krai, "Izvestiya" reported on 19 March. Tkachev
suggested that the fine for persons being caught without registration
would be increased to 6,000 rubles ($192). "This is will encourage
illegal migrants to leave the krai's territory," Tkachev explained.
Other proposals included creating "filtration points" through the
raion-level Interior Ministry departments which would deport migrants
after three days, organizing monthly charter flights from Krasnodar to
Tashkent to ship out Meskhetian Turks, and conduct negotiations with
Armenian President Robert Kocharian on the subject of repatriating
Armenians for "the preservation of friendly relations with the
republics in the Caucasus." JAC
..............
TATARSTAN
TATAR GROUPS FEAR LOSS OF TATAR-LANGUAGE RADIO STATION...
The Chally branch of the moderate nationalist group Tatar Public
Center (TPC) appealed to Russian Media Minister Mikhail Lesin on 13
March, asking him to cancel bidding for the 105.3 FM frequency in
Chally that was formerly occupied by the Tatar-language Dulkin
station, RFE/RL's Kazan bureau reported. The TPC warns that cutting
off Dulkin's broadcasts will undermine Russian authority among the
Tatar, Bashkir, Chavash, and Mari peoples. The TPC asserts that Dulkin
presented all the necessary documents for resuming its broadcasting;
however, the ministry decided to organize a tender for the station's
broadcasting rights to be held on 27 March. Russian-language Radio
Shanson and Radio Retro, along with Tatarstan's TAIF group, have
applied to take over the frequency. Dulkin's general manager, Ravil
Rustyamov, told Tatar-Inform that he is afraid that the other stations
such as Radio Shanson and Retor have much more money and better
political connections than Dulkin. He added that the station has
received tens of thousands of letters from Tatars all over the world
and also broadcasts in Tatar on the Internet 24 hours a day. JAC
.AS MORE PROTESTS OF CENSUS DIVISION VOICED.
The Tatar and Bashkir public movement Tugan Tel held a forum on 10
March in Ulyanovsk Oblast at which they condemned the federal center's
ethnic policies, Tatar-Inform reported on 14 March. It adopted an
appeal criticizing the Russian government's decision to divide the
Tatar people into various categories, including Kryashens (or baptized
Tatars), when the national census is conducted (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
14 November and 14 December 2001). It said that if the same logic were
applied to the Russian people then they should be divided into Old
Believers, Molokans, Kulugurs, Kuban and Don Cossacks, etc. JAC
..............
*********************************************************
Copyright (c) 2002. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
"RFE/RL Russian Federation Report" is prepared by Julie A. Corwin
(JAC) on the basis of a variety of sources, including reporting by
"RFE/RL Newsline" and RFE/RL's broadcast services. Regular
contributors are Liz Fuller (LF), and Virginie Coulloudon (VC). It is
distributed every Wednesday.
Direct comments to Julie A. Corwin at [email protected]. For
information on reprints, see:
http://www.rferl.org/requests/requestnew.asp.
Back issues are online at http://www.rferl.org/russianreport/
Technical queries should be e-mailed to: [email protected]
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
Send an e-mail to [email protected].
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE
Send an e-mail to [email protected].
_______________________________________________________
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
--
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================