210
According to the Ministry, the organisation encompassed as collective members,
eight associations and political parties in the North Caucasus, and had set itself the
task of bringing together various public and political forces to achieve peace and
reconciliation in the region and to develop friendship and cooperation there.
528
The
Association’s general-secretary was Schimidt Dzoblayev, and its executive
committee was located in Moscow.
In addition, Moscow began to be closely interested in the economic
problems of the North Caucasus republics. Through the Council of Associations of
Socio-economic Cooperation of the Republics, Territories and Regions in the North
Caucasus, Moscow implemented a socio-economic development program, which,
in fact, aimed to control the region and establish a foothold to prevent any kind of a
separatist activity.
7- The Cossack Factor and the CPC:
During the October 1992 Congress, the Confederation renamed itself the
Confederation of the Caucasian Peoples (CCP) ( Konfederatsiia Narodov Kavkaza),
representing a comprehensive and powerful consolidated body of organization,
comprising mainly Cossacks and other peoples. In Shanibov’s words, this decision
made this congress a turning point in the history of the entire Caucasus. At this
very moment, he said, “the Caucasus was facing the acute question: to be or not to
be”.
528
“New organization set up to promote peace in Northern Caucasus,” SWB SU/1661, B/11, 13
April 1993.
211
Initially, membership of the Assembly was restricted to mountaineers and
native non-Slavic population of the North Caucasus. However, the reputation had
been growing Confederation in parallel with the size of its member peoples. At last,
the Confederation opened itself to the Cossacks of the region. By so doing, the
Confederation’s leadership aimed to change the extremely negative view the
Russian population of the North Caucasus had of it, and to neutralise Russian
reservations about its activities. In fact, the Cossacks and other Slavic populations,
during that period, were among the component parts of the North Caucasus and had
a lot of power in the region, causing some territorial disputes with other North
Caucasian groups.
The Cossack revival went back to the period of 1989 and 1990. As Hill
pointed out, Cossack clubs first began to spring up in the North Caucasus in 1989
with Kuban Cossack clubs formed in Krasnodar and Don Cossack clubs in
Stavropol. The first Congress of the Cossacks of the North Caucasus took place in
December 1991. These clubs focused on ethno-cultural revival, encouraging a dual
Russian-Cossack identity among the region’s Slavic inhabitants, and promoting
Cossacks as indigenous inhabitants of the North Caucasus on a par with the non-
Russian “titular nationalities”.
529
Thus, the interests of these Cossack groups’ coincided with those of the
peoples of the North Caucasus and their clubs inevitably clashed with nationalist
organisations of the peoples of the North Caucasus. Summer 1992 to winter 1993
saw the peak of confrontation between the Cossacks and the governments and
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peoples of the North Caucasian republics. Following the meeting of the Union of
Cossack Armies of Russia in Moscow in January 1992, at which Sergey Shakhray
participated a loose coalition of the Cossacks of Terek, Kuban, Don and Stavropol
was established.
In its early period, the Union of Cossacks of South Russia presented itself
as a direct competitor to the Confederation. It issued demands on the recognition of
the Cossacks as a repressed people, to the creation of national-territorial formations
headed by an elected ataman with representation in organs of local governments at
all levels. In addition, the Union offered to form a Cossack military force to guard
Russia’s international borders in the region.
To prevent this revival causing armed clashes with the North Caucasian
peoples, the Confederation tried to accommodate the Cossacks as an “indigenous
people” of the region. Then, in early 1993, the renamed Confederation met with
Cossacks’ representatives to negotiate a cooperation agreement. The first official
meeting of these groups was held in Pitsunda, Abkhazia on 4-5 April 1993. In this
conference, the representatives from the Confederation and the Cossacks’ Union of
the South Russia, decided there was to be roundtables of the Confederation and the
Cossacks’ Union, with an agreement on different issues ensuing.
530
On 28 April 1993, in Stavropol, the representatives of the Confederation
and the Cossacks’ Union signed an agreement on the principles of cooperation and
529
Fiona Hill, Russia’s Tinderbox, 67-73.
530
See Stanislav Lakoba, 1995. “Abkhazia is Abkhazia,” Central Asian Survey, 14(1): 103 and
Gueorgui Otyrba, 1994. “War in Abkhazia: The Regional Significance of the Georgian-Abkhazian
conflict.” In Roman Szporluk, ed., National Identity, 301.
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mutual assistance.
531
This document guarantees collective security in case of the
danger of the use of force against the Confederation and the Cossacks.
The agreement proposed cooperation in defending rights and freedoms in
the region, eliminating the use of force in solving territorial problems, and
respecting the right of peoples to self-determination, without raising any territorial
claims on each other. It stressed in particular that neither the roundtables, nor the
agreement contradict the Russian Federation Treaty or the new principles.
532
The conclusion of this agreement was disturbed mainly to the authorities in
Moscow. While Yeltsin and his cadre were seeking to co-opt the Cossacks against
the secessionist movements and organizations in the North Caucasus, thıs initiative
of reconciliation with the well-defined enemy of Moscow’s interests in the region
provoked Russian interference. In June 1992 Yeltsin issued a decree supporting the
Cossacks revival movement and the restoration of Cossack economic, cultural and
patriotic forms of self-governance in the Russian Federation. The decree
recognized the rights of Cossacks to practice traditional forms of local
administration and land ownership in areas that would be defined by plebiscite.
Under the provisions of the decree, Cossacks were to be given grants of land and
Cossack regiments were to be created by the Ministry of Defence to defend
international borders and maintain law and order. In March 1993, while the
Confederation’s leaders were continuing their efforts to establish an alliance with
531
While Yusup Soslambekov and Musa Shanibov were signing the document on behalf of the
Confederation, Vladimir Gromov, ataman of the all-Kuban host, Petr Fedesov, ataman of the
Stavropol Krai Union of Cossacks, Pavel Shirminzhinov, ataman of the Union of Cossacks of
Kalmykia, and Vasiliy Kaledin, ataman of the Don signed the document in the name of the
Cossacks. However, ataman of the Tersk Starodubtsev refused to sign the agreement.
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