Ethno-nationalism, Islam and the state in the Caucasus : post-Soviet disorder

252 Pages·2008·3.023 MB·English

by  M Gammer

Ethno-Nationalism, Islam
and the State in the Caucasus
The region of the Caucasus with its ongoing, and even deteriorating, crises and
instability, and its strategic and economic importance, is increasingly at the
focus of the world’s attention. A staggering mosaic of ethnic groups, languages
and religions going through the pains of post-Soviet transformation, the Cauca-
sus is too often referred to in the simplistic framework of the ‘clash of civilisa-
tions’ or even as a struggle between ‘civilisation’ and ‘Islamic terrorism’. This
volume presents and discusses some of these complexities and facets of the
interplay among different brands of Islam, nationalisms, ethnic identities, local
bureaucracies, Moscow’s policies and influences from the outside. Scholars
from different disciplines who specialise in the Caucasus analyse inter alia of
grass root perceptions, the influence of informal power structures on ethnic con-
flicts in the Caucasus, Russian policies towards Islam and their destabilising
influence, the influence of Islamic revival on the legal and social situations,
nationalism and the revival of pre- and sub-national identities, shifts in identity
as reflected in demography, the reasons for the Chechen victory in the first
Chechen war, and the involvement of Muslim volunteers in Chechnya. This
book fills the gap for reliable information on the Caucasus.
Moshe Gammeris Associate Professor at the Department of Middle Eastern and
African History, Tel Aviv University. He is the author of Muslim Resistance to
the Tsar(1994) and of The Lone Wolf and the Bear(2005) and the editor of these
books, also published by Routledge: Political Thought and Political History
(2003), The Caspian Region. Vol. I: A Re-emerging Region; Vol. II: The Cauca-
sus(2004) and Community, Identity and the State(2004).
Central Asian studies series
1 Mongolia Today
Science, culture, environment and development
Edited by Dendevin Badarch and Raymond A. Zilinskas
2 Turkestan and the Fate of the Russian Empire
Daniel Brower
3 Church of the East
A concise history
Wilhelm Baum and Dietmar W. Winkler
4 Pre-tsarist and Tsarist Central Asia
Communal commitment and political order in change
Paul Georg Geiss
5 Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia
Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924
Seymour Becker
6 Russian Culture in Uzbekistan
One language in the middle of nowhere
David MacFadyen
7 Everyday Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia
Maria Elisabeth Louw
8 Kazakhstan
Ethnicity, language and power
Bhavna Dave
9 Ethno-Nationalism, Islam and the State in the Caucasus
Post-Soviet disorder
Edited by Moshe Gammer
Ethno-Nationalism, Islam
and the State in the Caucasus
Post-Soviet disorder
Edited by Moshe Gammer
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2008 Selection and editorial matter, Moshe Gammer; individual
chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-93379-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-42345-7 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-93379-6 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-42345-8 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-93379-4 (ebk)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
List of contributors ix
Preface xiv
Abbreviations xvi
1 Informal power structures in Russia and
ethno-political conflict in the Northern Caucasus 1
MAXIM U. BARBASHIN
2 Islam and the legal system in the Northwestern Caucasus 19
IRINA L. BABICH
3 ‘Re-Islamisation’ and ethno-nationalism: the
Circassians (Adyghe) of the Northwestern Caucasus
and their diaspora 28
CHEN BRAM
4 The Republic of Adygheia: perceptions of rights,
freedoms and life chances of ordinary people 50
CEMRE ERCIYES
5 The events of November 1996 in Kabardino-Balkaria
and their prehistory 68
JULIETTA MESKHIDZE
6 Russian policies towards Islamic extremism in the
Northern Caucasus and destabilization in
Kabardino-Balkaria 86
WALTER RICHMOND
vi Contents
7 Ideology and conflict: Chechen political nationalism
prior to, and during, ten years of war 102
EKATERINA SOKIRIANSKAIA
8 The Orstkhoy revival: identity and border dispute
in the Northern Caucasus 139
VICTOR A. SHNIRELMAN
9 ‘I can fight, army against army’: the 1994–1996
Russo-Chechen war, strategies and misconceptions 148
YAGIL HENKIN
10 Allah’s foot soldiers: an assessment of the role of
foreign fighters and Al-Qa‘ida in the Chechen
insurgency 156
BRIAN GLYN WILLIAMS
11 From the challenge of nationalism to the challenge
of Islam: the case of Daghestan 179
MOSHE GAMMER
12 ‘Wahhabis’, Democrats and everything in between:
the development of Islamic activism in post-Soviet
Azerbaijan 194
SOFIE BEDFORD
13 Demography of North Caucasian Jewry: a note on
population dynamics and shifting identity 212
MARK TOLTS
Glossary 225
Index 228
Illustrations
Tables
4.1 Implementation of rights, freedoms and life chances 55
4.2 Territorial breakdown 57
4.3 Demographic breakdown 59
4.4 Economic breakdown 1 61
4.5 Economic breakdown 2 62
4.6 Political breakdown 64
11.1 The titular nationalities of Daghestan 180
13.1 Jewish population in Daghestan and Kabardino-Balkaria,
by sub-group, 1970–1989 213
13.2 Native and second language among the Jewish
population inDaghestan, by sub-group, 1989 213
13.3 ‘Effectively Jewish’ crude birth rate for Jewish
population inDaghestan, by sub-group, per 1,000, 1988 214
13.4 Age structure of the Jewish population in Daghestan,
bysub-group, 1989 215
13.5 Size of Jewish family households in Daghestan,
by sub-group,1989 216
13.6 Jewish population in Daghestan, by sub-group,
1989–1994 217
13.7 Persons included in the 2002 Russian census results as
‘Mountain Jews,’ by self-designation in census forms 218
13.8 Persons included in the 2002 Russian census results as
‘Tats,’byself-designation in census forms 219
13.9 Jewish population in the North Caucasus Republics,
by sub-group,1989–2002 220
13.10 Number of Mountain Jews and Tats presented
separatelyincensus results in Moscow, 1989 and 2002 221
13.a.1 Jewish population in Daghestan, by sub-group
and age, 1989 222
viii Illustrations
Illustrations
Map 1 The Northern Caucasus: administrative division 1
Map 2 The Northwestern Caucasus: ethnic composition 19
Map 3 The Republic of Adygheia: administrative division 51
Map 4 The Kabardino-Balkar Republic: administrative division 68
Map 5 Ingushetia and Chechnya: administrative division
1925–1929 139
Map 6 Daghestan: administrative division 181
Map 7 Daghestan: ethnic composition 189
Contributors
Irina L. Babichis Doctor of History Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of
Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Science, Moscow,
where she is the Director of the Centre on Muslim Law. Her research interest
focuses on the history and anthropology of the Northern Caucasus in the
nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries and more particularly on customary
law, shari‘a law, Russian legal and administrative reforms, Islam and tradi-
tional society. She is the author of many publications on these subjects.
Among these are: The Ethnopolitical Situation in Kabardino-Balkaria
(Moscow, 1994, 2 vols); Some Folk Traditions in the Social Life of the
Kabardians from the mid 19th century to the 1990s (Moscow, 1995); The
Evolution of the Legal Culture of the Adygs(Moscow, 1999); Islamic Revival
in Contemporary Kabardino-Balkaria: Prospects and Consequences
(Moscow, 2003); Islam and Law in Russia: The Northern Caucasus,
Vol.1–4 (Moscow, 2003–2004, all in Russian).
Maxim U. Barbashin is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for System and
Regional Studies and Prognosis, the South Federal University (Rostov-on-
Don, Russia). He is the author of about 30 publications in leading Russian
journals (Nauchnaia mysl’ Kavkaza, Iuzhnorossiiskoe obozrenie, Sotsial’no-
gumanitarnye znaniia, etc.) on ethno-social and ethno-political issues. His
research interests include institutions and nationalism and ethnic conflicts
Sofie Bedford is a PhD Candidate at the Baltic and East European Graduate
School, Södertörn University College/Stockholm University. She has previously
been affiliated with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI), the International Rescue Committee, Imishli, Azerbaijan and the
United Nations Development Programme, Baku. Her publications include ‘State
and religion in Central Asia’, in Thomas Lundén (ed.) Västturkestan. Nations-
byggande under sovjetekologi och islamideologi?, Årsboken Ymer, 2005,
pp.119–140 (in Swedish), ‘On right and wrong Islam – reflecting on fieldwork
in Uzbekistan’, Bulletinen (Sällskapet för studier av Ryssland, Central- och
Östeuropa samt Centralasien), No. 4, (December 2005), pp. 1–5 (in Swedish);
‘The Swedish contribution to PRT in Afghanistan: an evaluation before taking
over the lead for PRT Mazar-e-Sharif’, Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut (FOI)