192
Chairman of the Committee of Caucasian Associations and the Coordinator for the
Business of the CMPC as the supreme organs of the CMPC.
As a legislative organ, the Caucasian Parliament or Assembly was
proposed. This Parliament would consist of three plenipotentiary representatives
from each member people who would be elected directly by the congresses of the
participating peoples of the CMPC. The Parliament was not dependent on national
parliamentary institutions, but was to have a direct link with them through people
who were deputies simultaneously of the Caucasian and national parliaments.
As an executive organ, the Treaty envisaged the Committee of Caucasian
Associations, consisting of leading employees of the ministries, departments and
public organizations of the republics, who would lead the various specialist
associations.
The President and the Presidential Council, which comprised of one
representative of each nation, were to represent the Confederation.
Article 12 of the Treaty conceived the establishment of the Confederation’s
Court of Arbitration as its judicial organ. This court was given the duty of
examining acute and complex problems between citizens of the Confederation, and
also between citizens and the Confederation. Decisions of the Court would only be
recommendatory in character.
Preventing ethnic conflicts and guaranteeing stability in the region were
among the most important aims of the Confederation. To accomplish these aıms,
the Congress charged the Caucasian Parliament with drawing up a special statute
on the status and functions of established forces for stability. This meant that the
agenda of the Confederation would include the improvement of socio-cultural and
193
political co-operation between the peoples of the North Caucasus, and the creation
of a united defence system against foreign aggression.
487
Beyond that, The Confederation set up 9 special commissions: National
Consent or Reconciliation; Economic Integration; State and Law; Culture;
Environment; Foreign Affairs; Religious Affairs; Defence, and Relations with the
Diasporas.
488
During the Congress, Musa Shanibov, a Kabardin delegate, and Yusup
Soslambekov
489
, a Chechen delegate, were chosen as President of the
Confederation and Speaker of the Parliament respectively. In addition, 13 deputy-
presidents, one from each participating peoples were named.
490
On 3 November 1993, the deputy-presidents signed the Confederation
Treaty, in the name of their own respective peoples, in an Abkhazian village
Likhny that was the historical center of the Abkhazian State and culture.
491
At that
time, the Confederation, as Fiona Hill states, “because of the lack of a regional
native leadership and in the absence of a powerful political party with a regional
manifesto had the only vision that had been offered to the peoples of the region.”
492
487
“Kuzey Kafkasya Halkları Konfederasyonu,” January 1994. Yedi Yıldız, 1: 20.
488
Şenıbe, Birliğin Zaferi, 3-4.
489
At the same time he was the head of the Committee on International Relations of the Chechen
Parliament.
490
The other leading names were as follows: Den’ga Khalidov (Abkhaz), Deputy Speaker of the
Caucasian Parliament; Konstantin Ozgan (Abkhaz), the Chairman of the Committee of the
Caucasian Associations; Zurab Achba (Abkhaz) Chairman of the Confederation’s Court of
Arbitration; Gennadi Alamiya (Abkhaz), deputy-president and the Coordinator for the Business of
the Confederation. Among the other deputy-presidents there were Kargiyev (North Osetia) and
Torez Kulumbekov (South Osetian).
491
Şenıbe, Birliğin Zaferi, 41.
492
Fiona Hill, 1995. Russia’s Tinderbox: Conflict in the North Caucasus and its Implications for the
Future of the Russian Federation, Cambridge: J. F. Kennedy School of Government, 25.
194
Nevertheless, the Confederation had some critical problems even from thıs
initial phase.
493
First of all not all the Mountain peoples of the North Caucasus
joined it. Turkic groups: the Balkars; Karachays; Nogays, and Kumuks did not
respond to the invitation of the AMPC. Moreover, Nogays and Kumuks were
withdrawn from the membership of the Assembly as well. Dargin and Lezgin also
did not take part. The Ingush, even though they had named delegates, did not
participate.
494
Secondly, its members, as Shanibov stressed it, were peoples, or rather their
‘representatives’, not republics. This gave the Confederation and its members the
image of an opposition, which was confronting the existing native governments in
the region, except Chechens and Abkhaz. Propaganda by an old political elite who
knew how to strengthen their own positions by playing on the national aspirations
of the North Caucasian peoples, criticised the Confederation and its leaders.
Related to that, thirdly, the Chechen republic was the only member of the
Confederation from the Russian part of the North Caucasus. This was essential to
Confederation, but at the same time created a danger of Chechen supremacy in the
Confederation, and consequently a danger of the Confederation becoming a tool of
the Chechen regime. The higher number of Abkhaz officials active in the
Confederation, compared to Chechens had no negative consequences for Moscow,
at least for the time being. This Abkhaz supremacy meant, at least for the Russians,
leverage against Georgia. But Chechen supremacy caused serious problems and
created opposition.
493
Moshe Gammer, 1995. “Unity, Diversity and Conflict in the Northern Caucasus,” in Yaacov
Ro'I, eds., Muslim Eurasia: Conflicting Legacies. London: Frank Cass, 173-174.
494
Şenıbe, Birliğin Zaferi, 3.
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