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personal ambitions of the politicians or stability in the south of the
country.”
539
Because of the complete disarray of the federal policy owing to the
deepening conflict between Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet in Moscow, the
situation in the North Caucasus remained relatively quiet and a decision on the
Confederation was postponed. After the October crisis in Moscow, Yeltsin pushed
forward his own version of the constitution and organized a referendum on 12
December. Aware of the initial disturbances after the Federal Treaty of 1992, the
chapters dealing with the delimitation of powers in the Russian constitution were
rewritten and resubmitted to the republics and regions for approval prior to the
referendum. The Confederation, as in earlier referenda, opposed the new draft
constitution. In November, it appealed to the peoples of the North Caucasus to vote
against the Constitution as it alleged that the article on the private ownership of
land contained prerequisites for eliminating the traditional lifestyle of Russia’s
people.
540
Before the referendum, Yeltsin with his team or the heads of the top
Russian federal ministries and governmental departments visited the North
Caucasus on 6-7 December, campaigning for the new constitution. During his visit,
he attended a conference of all North Caucasian republican leaders in Nalchik and
promised them more attention to their problems, which in essence meant more
donations from the state budget. And, announced that on the day after the
539
“Caucasus Confederation Chief on Dudayev, Chechnya,” FBIS-USR-93-161, p.46, 18 December
1993.
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referendum, and elections to the Federal assembly, a decree of the Russian
President on the settlement of the long, protracted and tragic conflicts would be
published.
541
Despite the words of support from the official leaders of the region, a
number of republics that had initially signed the Federal Treaty, including Adygea,
Dagestan and Karachay-Cherkess now rejected the constitution on the grounds that
it violated the original provisions of the Treaty. Moreover, elections that were held
at the same time as the referendum resulted in significant success for the Russian
radical nationalists and communists. From then on, a new phase for the Russian
Federation and of course for the Confederation began.
540
“Confederation of Peoples of Caucasus opposes draft of new constitution,” SWB SU/1850, B/14,
19 November 1993.
541
“Statement on stabilization of North Caucasus signed in Nalchik,” SWB SU/1866 B/5-6, 8
December 1993.
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CHAPTER V
REGIONAL DISPUTES AND THE CONFEDERATION
In order to understand the Confederation’s growing influence among the
peoples of the North Caucasus, the conversion of the regional problems from
discord to military clash and the response of the Confederation to these clashes
should be analyzed in detail. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the North
Caucasus faced with several ethnically based clashes primarily in 1992 and 1993.
These clashes determined the Confederations rise and fall.
In this context, while the organization was functioning under the title of
Assembly, the dispute between the Chechens of Dagestan, named as Chechen-
Akkintsy (or Auxhovs) and Laks emerged as the first test to understand its power
over the peoples of the North Caucasus.
When the Chechens were deported from their lands in what was taken
Eastern Chechnya, the territory forming the Aukhovsky district was given to
Dagestan. The Laks were forcibly settled with the loss of 2,500 lives to the lands
left by the Chechens and this region renamed as Novolaksky. After the return of
these Chechens from deportation, they claimed the rehabilitation and asked for the
resettlement to their lands of pre-deportation period. As early as 1989, the clashes
erupted and the Chechens attacked to the tent-city of Laks settled near the village
of Leninaul and Laks reacted quickly together with Avars.
The Assembly took this issue into its agenda and Shanibov issued a call to
the parties to prevent the clashes. In this call the Assembly was giving the massage
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to the parties that “who will open the fire to its brothers first, would be damned
eternally by the peoples of the Caucasus”.
542
The clashing parties took this call
seriously and the commission for settling the problem established with the
participation of the representatives from the Dagestani government. By the work of
this commission and by the help of the April 1991 law on the rehabilitation of
repressed peoples, the solution was found to the conflict. The Laks, in a rare
concession, agreed to resettle elsewhere in Dagestan, and the funding for their new
homes was to come from the central government.
543
This was accepted by the
Assembly and its leaders as the first real success of the Assembly on solving the
problems in the region without participation of outside powers.
In November 1991, when the Assembly converted itself to Confederation,
one of its constituent members, the Chechens declared the independence of the
Chechen Republic. In response, Yeltsin imposed state of emergency in Chechnya
with a decree and decided to send Russian troops to Chechnya on 9 November.
This was the first serious threat to a well being of newly established
Confederation. Therefore, in order to discuss the situation, the Confederation’s
Parliament, and Presidential Council together with the Chechen Parliament met in
Grozny on 9 November. In this meeting, Confederation declared that territories of
the North Caucasus and Chechnya the combat area and decided to recruit
volunteers on the territory of the North Caucasus to show Confederation’s support
542
Şenıbe, Birliğin Zaferi, 35.
543
Svante E. Cornell, 2001. Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in
the Caucasus, Surrey: 278.
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