Could there be Caucasian riots in Moscow?
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Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 21:56:28 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Could there be Caucasian riots in Moscow?
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>
Could there be Caucasian riots in Moscow?
COULD THERE BE CAUCASIAN RIOTS IN MOSCOW?
Komsomolskaya Pravda, June 11, 1998. Abridged.
One can often hear in shops and markets that Moscow is flooded with
people of Caucasian origin and there will allegedly be no room for
Russians here soon. The demonstration of Azerbaijanians who were
enraged with the murder of one of them in Luzhniki added food for such
talk. But is the problem of inter-ethnic relations really so acute in
Moscow? This issue is discussed by chairman of the State Duma
committee for nationalities affairs Vladimir Zorin in an interview
with Komsomolskaya Pravda's Vassily Ustyuzhanin.
>From the Komsomoloskaya Pravda files:
According to the latest census (conducted in 1989, Moscow has a
population of 8,875,000, including 7,963,000 Russians, 252,000
Ukrainians, 174,000 Jews, 157,000 Tatars and Byelorussians, 73,000
Armenians, 43,000 Mordovians, 30,000 Azerbaijanians, 20,000 Georgians,
19,000 Chuvashis, 9,000 Kazakhs, 8,000 Ossetians, 7,000 Moldovians,
6,000 Bashkirians and Poles and 5,000 Germans. All in all,
representatives of 150 nationalities, including Greeks, Lezghinians,
Tats, Abkhazians, Arabs, Karels and Spaniards, live in the capital of
Russia.
Question: Mr. Zorin, have these numbers radically changed lately?
Answer: Of course they have changed. Moscow's population has been
growing particularly due to the influx of people from the Caucasus.
The number of Armenians, Azerbaijanians, Georgians, Ossetians and
other Caucasians has grown by 50,000 and the number of Tatars by
26,000. Small wonder that the Moscow authorities declared the Tatar
national holiday of Sabantui as an official city holiday in 1996.
Question: How many Russians have arrived in Moscow?
Answer: More than 800,000. These are mostly those who used to live in
ex-Soviet republics and refugees and migrants from the hot spots.
Question: What is the religious picture?
Answer: As of January 1, 1996, 753 different religious organisations
were registered in Moscow. Three hundred and nineteen of them are
under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchy and 434 belong to
other confessions. It is indicative that in the beginning of the
century 93.75% of Muscovites were Russian Orthodox believers, 0.4%
Moslems, 2% Lutherans and 0.8% Judaists. Right now there are about a
million of Moslems alone in Moscow.
Question: Has Moscow turned into the cauldron of nations and
nationalities?
Answer: But nations and nationalities do not lose their uniqueness in
this cauldron.
Question: Oh, yes. This was vividly borne out when fifteen hundred
Azerbaijanians took to the streets of Moscow not long ago, carrying
the body of their killed brother.
Answer: I am convinced that there was no national tint to that tragic
episode. It was a purely criminal dispute. It could have happened to a
Russians, an Armenian or a Uzbek and not only in Moscow, but in
Madrid, Istanbul or Ryazan as well.
Question: But we all remember OMON's operations in the markets of
Moscow, when Caucasians were forced to lie down on the ground. It all
was sanctioned by the authorities.
Answer: Yes, this has happened. I can also remember an attack on a
mosque. It is a concrete police operation. But no one had explained
the policemen that it is sacrilege to rush into a mosque. But it
happened during hostilities in Chechnya. People, including policemen
and members of the OMON teams, were dying. When politicians cannot
come to agreement, the chance of the extremes similar to the ones you
have mention grow by many fold. I personally protested against the
imprudent actions by the authorities. The President's decree on the
impermissibility of discrimination against the Chechens in the
provision of jobs has also cooled down some hot heads. There is the
ground to state that it is lull in the sphere of inter-ethnic
relations in Moscow today.
Question: Is it temporary?
Answer: I hope that it will be for a long time.
Question: What gives you the ground to think so?
Answer: To use official parlance, it is the prudent policy of the
Government of Moscow aimed to harmonize inter-ethnic relations.
Question: Is there really such a policy?
Answer: Yes, there is. Not long ago the Government of Moscow
discussed the state of inter-ethnic relations in the city. I do not
remember any other instance when such an issue would be considered
specifically and at such a high level. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov participated
in the discussion. Moscow is the only Russian city to have a special
budget item concerning the development of inter-ethnic relations. Even
though the stipulated allocations are not as large as, say, those
under the section "Capital Construction" or "Proceeds from
Privatisation", they in fact allow to do some concrete work in this
sphere. Because, as you know, nothing costs dearer than a free
nationality policy.
Question: On what are these allocations used?
Answer: On many things, including the financing of schools with
ethno-cultural or multi-ethnic education. There are more than 40 of
them in Moscow today, including Armenian, Gypsy, Jewish and Ukrainian.
Different national holidays are celebrated. Suffice it to mention
Navruz. This also requires money. The Mayor intends to open a special
television channel of inter-ethnic communication and a magazine. In
other words the leaders of the city realize the importance of this
problem. The Department of Education and Committee for public and
inter-regional relations work jointly and actively.
Question: What is your attitude to the idea of nationality quotas in
the structures of power in general?
Answer: This is what the Khanty-Mansi area has been doing.
Representatives of the titular nationalities - the Khanty and the
Mansi - have 30% of the seats in the local legislature. It may be a
correct decision, taking into consideration the specificities of the
region. Moscow's government has chosen a different road: it has
organised a permanent city inter-ethnic conference. Representatives of
ethnic communities and diasporas come together once a week to decide
concrete questions.
Question: And my last question. You claim that an atmosphere of
inter-ethnic accord reigns supreme in Moscow. But how come then that
groups of skinheads freely walk in Moscow and that Nazism is clearly
gaining momentum?
Answer: There is such a tendency, indeed. Unfortunately, it could not
but have reveal itself. Imagine yourself waking up in Alma-Ata,
Tashkent or Tallinn one morning only to find out that your people
turned from the elder brother into an ethnic minority overnight. And
this is exactly what happened in December 1991. Could such a shock be
overcome without any consequences? No way. Manifestations of
ultra-radical nationalism are a kind of compensation for the loss of
great-power grandeur. But I am sure that the Russian people will
reject fascism. It is a refuge for marginals and an ulcer on a healthy
body. Outrageous manifestations of Nazism happen everywhere, including
such prosperous countries as Britain, Belgium and France. Only the law
and propaganda of respect for one another and attention to every
nation and nationality can be the best antidote to them.
--
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