237
solution to the dispute with the support of the Ingush and Osetians. The
Confederation, later repeated this call once more on 28 February 1992 in Grozny.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was collapsed, and throughout the early months of
1992, the war of words between the North Osetia and the Ingush escalated without
any larger disturbances.
On 4 June 1992 the Ingush Republic was founded by a Russian Supreme
Soviet decree which was to consist of three rural districts -Nazran, Malgobek, and
Sunzha- with no defined borders, and no state institutions or administrative bodies
of any kind. The sole decision-making authority rested with President Yeltsin’s
representative in the republic, Isa Kostoyev, a former official in the Russian
Procurator General’s Office. With this decree the transitional phase ranging until
March 1994 was proposed to resolve all the questions related to it, including
administrative issues but mainly its territorial delimitation. In a meeting in Nazran,
the Ingush, including the representatives from Prigorodnyi, welcomed the new law,
but declared that any such republic without Prigorodnyi would be unacceptable,
and called for a congress of the Ingush people. In that power vacuum, the rural
councils and tribal leadership played a symbolic role early on and to some degree
filled in the gaps left by the absence of government structures. Nevertheless, the
other group with any real authority in Ingush Republic at the time of the republic’s
creation was religious organizations.
569
568
Cornell, Small Nations., 262.
569
Osipova, “North Osetia and Ingushetia,” 51-52.
238
In the meantime, the Confederation was still working on the issue and in
order to discuss the developments in the North Osetia, the Parliament and the
Presidential Council called a meeting in the town of Jeyrakh, in a mountain region
of Ingushetia.
570
In this meeting, the Confederation offered the sides of the conflict taking a
decision, which excludes the use of force on the solution of the land dispute. As a
result, the solution to the problem of the partition of the disputed lands would be
postponed and the eruption of the military confrontation (by the active participation
of the Russians) would be obstructed for a time. On this way, the representatives
from North Osetia, by the approval of the President of the North Osetian Supreme
Soviet, put forward a package of proposals that was met with, after the intensive
pressures from the Confederation, understanding by the Ingush side.
571
According to the proposals, the North Osetian Supreme Soviet and the
government would prepare for the return of Ingush people who lived on the
republic’s territory prior to their eviction in 1944 to their homes. The names of the
settlements would reinstitute as they were in the pre-deportation period. The homes
that were occupied by the Osetians or the representatives of other peoples at that
time would be given back to the Ingush people. And, these peoples would pay
compensation and give help to built shelters in any other region, at their own
discretion, or they will be granted flats. The cemeteries belong to the Ingush that
were damaged will be restored. North Osetia was prepared to help with the
570
Şenibe, Birliğin Zaferi, 53 and “Caucasian Parliament Meets to Discuss North and South
Osetia,” SWB SU/1423, B/2, 3 July 1992.
571
Şenibe, Birliğin Zaferi, 53.
239
publication of newspapers in the Ingush language and with the transmission of
signals from the television station in Grozny.
The main thing –once the state bodies of Ingush republic would set up, the
Osetian side was ready to sit down at the negotiating table with official
representatives of the authorities of Ingushetia to resolve territorial disputes. In
order not to waste any time, the Confederation Parliament proposed convocation of
urgent meeting, with the participation of legal and political experts and
representatives of the elders and socio-political movements of the peoples
concerned.
572
However, the difficulties in resolving the question of territorial
rehabilitation for the Ingush soon became clear, and once again, as a result of “the
active Russian participation” the Osetian side violated the agreement.
573
On 3 July
1992, the Russian Supreme Soviet announced a moratorium on raising the
territorial problems until 1995, and criminal penalties were established for any
unauthorised changes in territorial borders.
574
In the case of Ingush, this understood as move to prevent elections within a
defined territory for the new autonomous republic’s parliament and thus prevented
the setting up of both legislative and administrative structures. Thus, the
provisional administration of the Russian parliament, under plenipotentiary
representative General Viktor Yermakov was to remain in July 1992 up to the
outbreak of the conflict in October.
572
“Caucasian Parliament Meets to Discuss North and South Osetia,” SWB SU/1423, B/2, 3 July
1992.
573
Şenibe, Birliğin Zaferi, 53.
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