Chechens demand return of their land
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Subject: Chechens demand return of their land
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>
Chechens demand return of their land
Jamestown Foundation
7 August 1998 Monitor - Vol. IV, No. 152
MONITOR - A DAILY BRIEFING ON THE POST-SOVIET STATES
DESCENDANTS OF DEPORTED CHECHENS DEMAND RETURN OF THEIR LAND. A
long-simmering territorial dispute between the Akkin Chechens of
Dagestan's Khasavyurt district and the Avars living in the village of
Novo-Mikhelta of Dagestan's Novolak district has come to the boil in
the past three weeks. Some Akkin Chechens, descendants of people who
were exiled from the former Aukhovsky district, have seized plots of
land in Novo-Mikhelta. A group of Chechens, mostly women and children,
are blockading the Khasavyurt-Novolak highway (not the Baku-Rostov
federal highway, as some of the Russian media had erroneously
reported) to back up their demand for land in Novo-Mikhelta.
(Nezavisimaya gazeta, August 7)
Until 1944, Aukhovsky district was predominantly inhabited by Akkin
Chechens. In that year, Stalin ordered all the Chechens to be deported
to Central Asia, and Aukhovsky district was administratively
abolished. Other people, mainly Avars and Laks, settled on the land
that had belonged to the Chechens. In 1991, under pressure from the
Akkin Chechens, the Dagestani parliament passed a law on the gradual
restoration of Aukhovsky district. A special government commission was
set up to tackle the issue, headed by First Deputy Premier Nabiula
Magomedov.
Last month, Magomedov's commission announced that plots of land would
soon be issued to some 3,000 Akkin Chechens on a 400-hectare stretch
of land near Khasavyurt. Some of the Chechens were dissatisfied with
this decision, and have demanded plots in Novo-Mikhelta instead.
(Nezavisimaya gazeta, August 7)
In fact, it is the federal government, not the Dagestani authorities,
who are responsible for the fact that the issue of Aukhovsky district
continues to fester. Dagestan is the only republic in the Russian
Federation that has passed legislation on the territorial
rehabilitation of deported peoples. The republic authorities have
tried to implement the law conscientiously, and have offered land
elsewhere to the Laks and Avars who now live in what used to be former
Aukhovsky district. The Laks and Avars, initially unwilling to move,
have been persuaded to build houses elsewhere so that the Akkin
Chechens can return to the land where their parents and grandparents
used to live. At present, however, all these efforts are being stymied
by a lack of federal funding.
______________________________________
The Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation. It is
researched and written under the direction of senior analysts
Elizabeth Teague, Vladimir Socor, Stephen Foye, and analysts Igor
Rotar, Douglas Clarke, Peter Rutland, and Sally Cummings. It is
compiled and edited by Helen Glenn Court.
If you would like information on subscribing to the Monitor, or have
any comments, suggestions or questions, please contact us by e-mail at
<[email protected]>, by fax at 202-483-8337, or by postal mail at The
Jamestown Foundation, 1528 18th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036.
Copyright c 1998 The Jamestown Foundation.
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