IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 59: excerpts
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 59: excerpts
WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 59, November 24,
2000
TENSIONS GROW IN STEPANAKERT For many of Nagorny Karabakh's erstwhile
freedom-fighters, the fruits of victory are rapidly turning sour.
Anatoly Kuprianov reports from Yerevan
SOUTH OSSETIA FACES ISOLATION Harsh economic realities could force
South Ossetia to make its peace with Tbilisi. Valeri Dzutsev reports
from Vladikavkaz
BLACK SEA EXOTICA The last remnants of the Cherkess population on the
Black Sea coast find themselves the unwilling stars of a cheap tourist
pantomime. Askerbi Minasharov reports from Sochi
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...................
SOUTH OSSETIA FACES ISOLATION
Harsh economic realities could force South Ossetia to make its peace
with Tbilisi
By Valeri Dzutsev in Vladikavkaz
Proposed visa controls between Georgia and Russia could leave the tiny
mountain republic of South Ossetia in a state of virtual isolation.
The South Ossetians - who have enjoyed de facto independence from
Georgia since the 1989-1991 war - rely almost entirely on trade links
with their ethnic kin in North Ossetia, just across the Russian
border.
But the new visa regime, which is due to come into effect next
January, could paralyse the South Ossetian economy and leave the
republic at the mercy of an unsympathetic government in Tbilisi.
The separatist movement in South Ossetia was triggered by the growth
of Georgian nationalism in the late 1980s. Strangely enough, there had
been no history of strained relations between the two peoples prior to
this. In fact, mixed marriages were common, most Ossetians spoke
Georgian and there were small Ossetian settlements scattered across
the Soviet republic.
But, when Georgia declared its independence from the USSR, the South
Ossetian autonomous oblast declared its independence from Tbilisi,
claiming it had been singled out as "the enemy within" and had little
chance of preserving its national identity in a "Georgia for
Georgians".
Georgia's first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, immediately branded the
Ossetians "traitors" and "agents of the Soviet empire", before
removing their autonomy and renaming the territory "Inner Georgia".
Ossetia's appeals to Moscow for help fell on deaf ears and fighting
broke out in 1989. Over the next two years, more than 100,000 of the
174,000 Ossetians living both in South Ossetia and Georgia fled to
North Ossetia.
The Georgian army laid siege to Tskhinvali in 1990, shelling the
capital from the surrounding heights. The South Ossetians suffered
heavy losses, burying their dead in the courtyard of School No. 5
because the road to the cemetery was impassable.
However, the Georgians were forced to abandon the siege in the
following year after 36 Ossetian refugees were found murdered near the
Georgian village of Zari. The massacre sent shockwaves across Russia
and North Ossetia where ethnic leaders threatened to declare war on
the Georgian government.
Faced by the possibility of civil unrest spreading on to Russian soil,
the Kremlin decided to intervene, initiating a ceasefire and
dispatching peacekeeping forces to the region.
However, a long-term political solution has proven elusive. Ludvig
Chibirov, the former historian who was elected president of South
Ossetia in 1993, has done little to seek a rapprochement with Tbilisi.
Not least because the Georgian economy is in an advanced state of
collapse and trade opportunities across the Russian border are
infinitely more attractive.
Consequently, in the ongoing peace talks with Georgia, Chibirov
continues to stick to his guns, demanding full independence or
Georgia's reconstitution into a confederate state. Eduard
Shevardnadze's government, however, is prepared to offer little more
than cultural autonomy with very limited administrative powers.
However, the introduction of a visa regime may change all this,
forcing the South Ossetians to go cap in hand to Tbilisi and accept a
political compromise.
Certainly, with a population of 70,000 and little in the way of
natural resources, the mutinous republic has no chance of standing on
its own two feet. When avalanches block the pass through the mountains
during the winter months, South Ossetia is literally cut off from the
rest of the world.
Most South Ossetians have relatives living across the border and rely
on them for material support. The local economy is almost entirely
dependent on sales of agricultural produce such as tangerines and
tomatoes in the markets of North Ossetia. The region has also become
the preserve of criminal cartels smuggling contraband into the Russian
Federation.
Beyond this, the population survives on humanitarian aid from Russia
and abroad - earlier this year the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development earmarked $1 million for a range of projects aimed at
rebuilding South Ossetia's shattered infrastructure and restoring
communal services in Tskhinvali.
And yet, South Ossetia is showing few signs of burying the hatchet. In
fact, the recent appointment of Vyacheslav Gobozov, a hard-line
separatist, to a leading post in the Ossetian parliament indicates a
tougher stance towards Tbilisi.
Probably, the regime in Tskhinvali is hoping for a stay of execution
from Moscow. Possibly this is the last show of bravado before a
humiliating political climb-down. Either way, there is a sense that
South Ossetia is living on borrowed time.
Valeri Dzutsev is the coordinator for an international NGO in North
Ossetia
BLACK SEA EXOTICA
The last remnants of the Cherkess population on the Black Sea coast
find themselves the unwilling stars of a cheap tourist pantomime
By Askerbi Minasharov in Sochi
Near the settlement of Bolshoy Kichmai, in the Park of the
Thirty-three Waterfalls, the locals have built a model village to give
visiting tourists a taste of "traditional Cherkess life".
Attractions include a working smithy and windmill, a smoke-house for
home-made cheeses and a barn on stilts. In the village square, there's
a wooden cage containing a wolf-cub with a heavy chain around its
neck. The animal is scrawny, its yellow eyes dull with misery. It has
already learned to wag its tail and drop to the ground when
approached.
The wolf-cub is symbolic of the Cherkess population as a whole. The
descendants of the proud tribesmen who once controlled this part of
the Black Sea coast are today forced to scrape a living as sideshow
curiosities in a tourist hinterland which stretches from Anapa to the
River Psou.
Numbering just 10,000 people, the Cherkess residents of the Black Sea
coast make up less than one per cent of the total population. It is a
far cry from the days of Tsar Alexander II when the Cherkess inhabited
76 settlements in the region and cultivated the fertile land around
the river valleys.
Their roots can be traced back to 2,000BC when their ancestors, the
Khatts, came north from Anatolia. The Khatts' great contribution to
civilisation was the discovery of a process for smelting iron and its
subsequent use to make weapons and tools.
The Cherkess or Adygeans who settled in the Caucasus survived the
depredations of successive invaders - the Romans, the Persians, the
Mongols, the Crimean Khan and the Ottoman Empire - gaining a fearsome
reputation for military prowess.
However, during the Tsar's first military expeditions into the
Caucasus, the bulk of the Cherkess coastal dwellers were driven
southwards into Turkey while their ethnic homelands were settled by
Cossack clans.
Traditionally inhabitants of the open steppe, the Cossacks soon
abandoned the wooded coastline and were replaced by Greeks and
Armenians - Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire who had been
lured to the Caucasus by promises of free land.
It was in the latter half of the 19th century that the Black Sea coast
became a premier tourist destination for Russia's social and political
elite. And the stunning slopes of the Caucasus mountains became little
more than the backdrop for a banal operetta which was played out there
every summer.
The Communist nomenclature also developed a lasting affection for the
region which was soon littered with state dachas and luxurious
sanatoria. The local population had little choice but to seek
employment in the busy service industry which grew up around the
resorts.
Over recent years, the region has lost much of its prestige. The
nouveau riche prefer to relax abroad and the Black Sea resorts are now
frequented by less affluent Russians with a keen eye for a bargain.
The locals have sensed this change, offering cheap rooms for between
50 and 100 roubles a day whilst providing indifferent standards of
service.
The older Cherkess, for their part, affect to despise both the
tourists and "their lackeys". They complain that the Circassian epics
of days gone by have been replaced by prosaic modern-day legends -
tales of Victor Chernomyrdin's hunting expeditions in the forests or
the magnificent mansion built by some Ossetian water baron.
The old agricultural traditions have been eroded, together with the
ancient beliefs and the values of a patriarchal society.
But economic hardships have forced the Cherkess to swallow their pride
and join in the seasonal carnival. They stand at the doors of the
"traditional village", offering tourists the chance to be photographed
in "authentic surroundings" or even on horseback wearing ethnic dress
with a brass "kinzhal" (dagger).
These living relics of ancient Circassia play heavily on their
military legacy. Typical costumes include the "cherkeska" - a
long-sleeved tunic with felt powder casings sewn to the breast - a
"bashlyk" hood and the "burka" - a felt coat which was so thick that
it could protect the wearer from spears and arrows.
Some of the more amenable Cherkess will even demonstrate the virtues
of the traditional mail shirt, which could withstand pistol shot at up
to four paces; the curved sabre, which could cut through the barrel of
a gun, and the murderous-looking kinzhal which, among other things,
was used for shaving and lighting fires.
Finally, the legendary Cherkess story-tellers will regale their
audiences with accounts of the great confrontation between the
Adygeans and the Amazons when a bloody war was averted by a
soothsayer's vision and the two peoples became one.
Meawhile, the Sochi city administration collects 15 roubles from
anyone entering the Park of the Thirty-three Waterfalls and local
entrepreneurs have opened a rough-and-ready car-lot where they charge
motorists a flat fee.
And the Cherkess, once the masters of all they surveyed, watch
forlornly as Russian tourists carve their initials on the rocks above
the waterfalls and litter the pagan stone circles with assorted
debris.
Askerbi Minasharov is an independent journalist based in Nalchik,
Kabardino-Balkaria
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and
international community with unique insiders' perspective on the
Caucasus. Using our network of local journalists, the service
publishes objective news and analysis from across the region upon a
weekly basis.
The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus Project based in Tbilisi and
London which supports local media development while encouraging better
local and international understanding of a conflicted yet emerging
region.
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service is supported by the UK National
Lottery Charities Board. The service is currently available on the Web
in English and will shortly be available in Russian. All IWPR's
reporting services including Balkan Crisis Reports and Tribunal Update
are available free of charge via e-mail subscription or direct from
the Web.
To subscribe to any of news services, e-mail IWPR Programmes Officer
Anna McTaggart at [email protected].
For further details on this project and other information services and
media programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <www.iwpr.net>.
Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
Assistant Editor: Alan Davis. Commissioning Editors: Giorgi Topouria
in Tbilisi, Shahin Rzayev in Baku, Mark Grigorian in Yerevan, Michael
Randall and Saule Mukhametrakhimova in London. Editorial Assistance:
Felix Corley and Heather Milner. To comment on this service, contact
IWPR's Programme Director: Alan Davis [email protected]
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and
democratic change.
Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, United
Kingdom.Tel: (44 171) 713 7130; Fax: (44 171) 713 7140. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: www.iwpr.net
The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those
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Copyright (c) IWPR 2000
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