Background of War in Chechnya
A mountainous region, Chechnya has important oil deposits, as well as natural gas, limestone, gypsum, sulphur, and other minerals. Its mineral waters have made it a spa center. Major production includes oil, petrochemicals, oil-field equipment, foods, wines, and fruits. For centuries, the Chechen people's history and relationship with the regional power, Russia, has been full of turmoil. The recent crisis during the past decade or so has seen numerous human rights violations and draws parallels to many other conflicts around the world. For example:
It is similar to the situation in Africa, where small nations have been trying to break free from their regional superpowers and colonial rulers.
It is similar to Kosovo or the Gulf War, where allied and NATO forces used humanitarian reasons and mass bombings with precise military technology to wage a high-tech war; here Russia attempts (and has attempted in the past) similar measures, albeit with less success compared to their NATO counter-parts.
It is similar to East Timor, Kosovo, various African and other recent conflicts where, again, the civilians are the main casualties who suffer most from this conflict.
It is similar to the above-mentioned conflicts as various international conventions, treaties and laws are violated by powerful nations in their sphere of influence.
And, as with most other conflicts throughout history, there are trade and access related reasons for this conflict as the issue of geopolitics, Caspian Sea oil and control of it comes to the fore.
Of course, that is not to simply degrade this conflict to “yet another conflict” as each war has unique situations and terrible consequences. However, it is another indication of how power struggles are at work throughout the world and throughout history.
Background
Recognized as a distinct people since the 17th century, Chechens were active opponents of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus during the period 1818-1917. In 1858 Russia defeated leader Imam Shamil and his fighters who were aiming to establish an Islamic state. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, a declaration of independence by the Chechens was met with occupation from the Bolsheviks who later established the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Region in 1924. In the mid-1930s, it became an autonomous republic. Like their Ingush neighbors, Chechens are predominantly Sunni Muslim. As well as different cultural and religious beliefs, as for any group of people throughout history subdued by external rule or empire, external rule first by the brutal Russian Czarist empire and then by the Soviets, was unpopular and tenuous.
During World War II, Chechen and Ingush units collaborated with the invading German Nazis. As a result, in 1944 Stalin deported many residents to Central Asia and Siberia. The context of the deportation and hostility towards the Chechens is important.
Since the Soviet's came to power, many Western competing imperial powers cooperated to try to overthrow the regime, including direct intervention in their revolution, a world trade embargo, and Hitler's attempt to destroy them, (as well as the Cold War that followed which, as is slowly being uncovered, included training and flying in assassins and saboteurs). From the perspective of the Soviets then, a ring of steel was surrounding them preventing implementation of their system.
Perceiving a threat to their nation by “external powers manipulating internal ethnic groups”, Stalin's reaction was brutal.
Stalin believed Chechens would welcome Nazi-Germany in return for an independent Chechnya.
The mass deportation of Chechen people, among others, is estimated in the range of 400,000 to 800,000 with perhaps 100,000 or more of these people dying due to the extreme conditions.
With the death of Stalin in 1953, deportees were repatriated in 1956, and the republic was reestablished in 1957.
This legacy helps explain why Chechen nationalism has been more radical and anti-Russian than that of Russia's other Muslim ethnic minorities.
With the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, a number of regions managed to break away and gain independence. Ingushetia voted for separation from Chechnya in a referendum and became an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation the following year. General Dzhokhar Dudayev, seizing power in the capital Grozny in 1991, led Chechnya's drive for independence. The president of the newly formed Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, refused Chechnya's declaration of independence, sending in troops instead, only to withdraw when confronted by armed Chechens.
Chechnya was probably not granted independence for geopolitical and economic reasons. For example:
Russia never accepted Chechnya as a separate republic and was determined not to encourage other areas to secede (perhaps similar to how many have pointed out that western imperial countries were trying hard to prevent their colonies from breaking free in the aftermath of the Second World War);
The resulting anarchy in Chechnya strengthened Russian belief that the region should not become independent and undermine its territorial integrity;
Furthermore, oil is a significant factor in this region.
A major oil pipeline carries oil from fields in Baku on the Caspian Sea and Chechnya toward the Ukraine;
Grozny's major oil refinery along this pipeline and Russia's interest to ensure their oil needs are also met has led them to be more concerned that pipeline discussions by major western oil companies have not involved them;
As long as Chechnya is a part of Russia, Moscow would have a say in the oil flowing through it.
Tensions between the Russian government and that of Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev escalated into warfare in late 1994. When Russia invaded Chechnya, a bloody war ensued. Intending to crush separatist forces, this was Yeltsin's first major confrontation. However, the supposed awesome Russian military strength inherited from the Soviet Union, turned into a humiliating disaster. Grozny was devastated. Some 70-80,000 people died, mostly Chechen civilians, and in 1996, Russia withdrew defeated. In a move that looked as thought Russia was trying to do to Chechnya what the U.S. had done to Iraq in 1991, instead the war revealed how poor Russian military capabilities were.
The aftermath of the 1994-96 war further eroded the Chechen government's control over the militias, while local warlords gained strength. The destroyed Chechen economy left armed but unemployed Chechens. Brutalized by war and atrocities committed by Russian troops, they were easily radicalized.
The Soviet-Afghan war had attracted Islamic militants as well as resistance fighters to Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan, emboldened because the area was free of Russian military. Side Note: It is a sad irony that some of those foreign militants would later form part of the terrorist groups alleged to have taken part in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., leading to the “war on terrorism”. Furthermore the United States' CIA had trained and aided some of those terrorists groups to help weaken the Soviet Union, and had “funneled more than $2 billion in guns and money to the mujaheddin during the 1980s.” Even Osama Bin Laden himself was trained by the CIA. For more on these aspects, see this site's section on the war on terrorism.
Dudayev, killed in a 1995 Russian rocket attack was replaced by Aslan Maskhadov, elected in 1997. At the beginning of 1999, Maskhadov declared Islamic Shari'ah law, to be phased in over the next three years. Some former rebel commanders announced a rival body to govern Chechnya, also based on Shari'ah law, calling on Maskhadov to resign, hinting at internal conflicts.
Side Note:
While it is generally believed that Islamic militants have come into Chechnya, after September 11, 2001, it was claimed by the Bush Administration and others that they specifically had ties with Al Qaeda and even fought in Afghanistan against the U.S. Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, assistant professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, vehemently denies this, pointing out that prior to September 11, 2001, Chechens were seen as moderate, but shortly after were claimed by U.S. President George Bush to be full of terrorists with links to Al Qaeda:
[After September 11, 2001] President Bush now declared that “Arab terrorists” linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization were operating on Chechen territory and ought to be “brought to justice.” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell went a step further and proclaimed “Russia is fighting terrorists in Chechnya, there is no question about that, and we understand that.”
This reassessment in Washington [would now see] the Chechens, a Sovietized nation of moderate Muslims that arguably knew the words of Marx better than Muhammad, ... suspected of being tied to Wahhabi-fundamentalist Arabs at war with the West and modernity. In the process, the Western media and government officials began the character assassination of an entire nation, one that had no previous history of animosity toward the United States or the West.
... [As Operation Enduring Freedom began in Afghanistan to route out Al Qaeda] Chechen-watchers and specialists on conflict and ethnicity in the Caucasus were stunned to hear a variety of newly discovered media “talking heads” matter-of-factly proclaim that, in Afghanistan, the United States and Coalition soldiers were confronting hordes of Chechens....
If one were to swallow uncritically the “expert” testimony of the media “pundits,” the outgunned Army of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (currently considered by Russian sources to consist of 1,200 mountain fighters engaged in a life-and-death struggle with 80,000 Russian Federal troops) had somehow developed the logistic capacity (and the desire) to project “hundreds” of apparently unneeded fighters across Eurasia and through American-controlled air space over Afghanistan to defend illiterate Pashtun-Deobandi-Citing a number of journalists who tried to investigate, it turned out that it was not likely that Chechens were in Afghanistan.
It does seem plausible that while Chechnya may have attracted foreign terrorist members, Chechen rebels themselves were generally more interested in fighting for their own self-determination. However, it is a complex area, and militant or extremist groups are thought to now be influential there. Furthermore, as detailed further below, it is believed that Russian policy is now, ironically, breeding terrorists, potentially. This would almost be like a sad self-fulfilling prophecy.
-- Dr. Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, Shaterring the Al Qaeda-Chechen Myth, The American Committee for Peace In Chechnya, October 2003
It is similar to the situation in Africa, where small nations have been trying to break free from their regional superpowers and colonial rulers.
It is similar to Kosovo or the Gulf War, where allied and NATO forces used humanitarian reasons and mass bombings with precise military technology to wage a high-tech war; here Russia attempts (and has attempted in the past) similar measures, albeit with less success compared to their NATO counter-parts.
It is similar to East Timor, Kosovo, various African and other recent conflicts where, again, the civilians are the main casualties who suffer most from this conflict.
It is similar to the above-mentioned conflicts as various international conventions, treaties and laws are violated by powerful nations in their sphere of influence.
And, as with most other conflicts throughout history, there are trade and access related reasons for this conflict as the issue of geopolitics, Caspian Sea oil and control of it comes to the fore.
Of course, that is not to simply degrade this conflict to “yet another conflict” as each war has unique situations and terrible consequences. However, it is another indication of how power struggles are at work throughout the world and throughout history.
Background
Recognized as a distinct people since the 17th century, Chechens were active opponents of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus during the period 1818-1917. In 1858 Russia defeated leader Imam Shamil and his fighters who were aiming to establish an Islamic state. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, a declaration of independence by the Chechens was met with occupation from the Bolsheviks who later established the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Region in 1924. In the mid-1930s, it became an autonomous republic. Like their Ingush neighbors, Chechens are predominantly Sunni Muslim. As well as different cultural and religious beliefs, as for any group of people throughout history subdued by external rule or empire, external rule first by the brutal Russian Czarist empire and then by the Soviets, was unpopular and tenuous.
During World War II, Chechen and Ingush units collaborated with the invading German Nazis. As a result, in 1944 Stalin deported many residents to Central Asia and Siberia. The context of the deportation and hostility towards the Chechens is important.
Since the Soviet's came to power, many Western competing imperial powers cooperated to try to overthrow the regime, including direct intervention in their revolution, a world trade embargo, and Hitler's attempt to destroy them, (as well as the Cold War that followed which, as is slowly being uncovered, included training and flying in assassins and saboteurs). From the perspective of the Soviets then, a ring of steel was surrounding them preventing implementation of their system.
Perceiving a threat to their nation by “external powers manipulating internal ethnic groups”, Stalin's reaction was brutal.
Stalin believed Chechens would welcome Nazi-Germany in return for an independent Chechnya.
The mass deportation of Chechen people, among others, is estimated in the range of 400,000 to 800,000 with perhaps 100,000 or more of these people dying due to the extreme conditions.
With the death of Stalin in 1953, deportees were repatriated in 1956, and the republic was reestablished in 1957.
This legacy helps explain why Chechen nationalism has been more radical and anti-Russian than that of Russia's other Muslim ethnic minorities.
With the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, a number of regions managed to break away and gain independence. Ingushetia voted for separation from Chechnya in a referendum and became an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation the following year. General Dzhokhar Dudayev, seizing power in the capital Grozny in 1991, led Chechnya's drive for independence. The president of the newly formed Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, refused Chechnya's declaration of independence, sending in troops instead, only to withdraw when confronted by armed Chechens.
Chechnya was probably not granted independence for geopolitical and economic reasons. For example:
Russia never accepted Chechnya as a separate republic and was determined not to encourage other areas to secede (perhaps similar to how many have pointed out that western imperial countries were trying hard to prevent their colonies from breaking free in the aftermath of the Second World War);
The resulting anarchy in Chechnya strengthened Russian belief that the region should not become independent and undermine its territorial integrity;
Furthermore, oil is a significant factor in this region.
A major oil pipeline carries oil from fields in Baku on the Caspian Sea and Chechnya toward the Ukraine;
Grozny's major oil refinery along this pipeline and Russia's interest to ensure their oil needs are also met has led them to be more concerned that pipeline discussions by major western oil companies have not involved them;
As long as Chechnya is a part of Russia, Moscow would have a say in the oil flowing through it.
Tensions between the Russian government and that of Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev escalated into warfare in late 1994. When Russia invaded Chechnya, a bloody war ensued. Intending to crush separatist forces, this was Yeltsin's first major confrontation. However, the supposed awesome Russian military strength inherited from the Soviet Union, turned into a humiliating disaster. Grozny was devastated. Some 70-80,000 people died, mostly Chechen civilians, and in 1996, Russia withdrew defeated. In a move that looked as thought Russia was trying to do to Chechnya what the U.S. had done to Iraq in 1991, instead the war revealed how poor Russian military capabilities were.
The aftermath of the 1994-96 war further eroded the Chechen government's control over the militias, while local warlords gained strength. The destroyed Chechen economy left armed but unemployed Chechens. Brutalized by war and atrocities committed by Russian troops, they were easily radicalized.
The Soviet-Afghan war had attracted Islamic militants as well as resistance fighters to Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan, emboldened because the area was free of Russian military. Side Note: It is a sad irony that some of those foreign militants would later form part of the terrorist groups alleged to have taken part in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., leading to the “war on terrorism”. Furthermore the United States' CIA had trained and aided some of those terrorists groups to help weaken the Soviet Union, and had “funneled more than $2 billion in guns and money to the mujaheddin during the 1980s.” Even Osama Bin Laden himself was trained by the CIA. For more on these aspects, see this site's section on the war on terrorism.
Dudayev, killed in a 1995 Russian rocket attack was replaced by Aslan Maskhadov, elected in 1997. At the beginning of 1999, Maskhadov declared Islamic Shari'ah law, to be phased in over the next three years. Some former rebel commanders announced a rival body to govern Chechnya, also based on Shari'ah law, calling on Maskhadov to resign, hinting at internal conflicts.
Side Note:
While it is generally believed that Islamic militants have come into Chechnya, after September 11, 2001, it was claimed by the Bush Administration and others that they specifically had ties with Al Qaeda and even fought in Afghanistan against the U.S. Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, assistant professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, vehemently denies this, pointing out that prior to September 11, 2001, Chechens were seen as moderate, but shortly after were claimed by U.S. President George Bush to be full of terrorists with links to Al Qaeda:
[After September 11, 2001] President Bush now declared that “Arab terrorists” linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization were operating on Chechen territory and ought to be “brought to justice.” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell went a step further and proclaimed “Russia is fighting terrorists in Chechnya, there is no question about that, and we understand that.”
This reassessment in Washington [would now see] the Chechens, a Sovietized nation of moderate Muslims that arguably knew the words of Marx better than Muhammad, ... suspected of being tied to Wahhabi-fundamentalist Arabs at war with the West and modernity. In the process, the Western media and government officials began the character assassination of an entire nation, one that had no previous history of animosity toward the United States or the West.
... [As Operation Enduring Freedom began in Afghanistan to route out Al Qaeda] Chechen-watchers and specialists on conflict and ethnicity in the Caucasus were stunned to hear a variety of newly discovered media “talking heads” matter-of-factly proclaim that, in Afghanistan, the United States and Coalition soldiers were confronting hordes of Chechens....
If one were to swallow uncritically the “expert” testimony of the media “pundits,” the outgunned Army of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (currently considered by Russian sources to consist of 1,200 mountain fighters engaged in a life-and-death struggle with 80,000 Russian Federal troops) had somehow developed the logistic capacity (and the desire) to project “hundreds” of apparently unneeded fighters across Eurasia and through American-controlled air space over Afghanistan to defend illiterate Pashtun-Deobandi-Citing a number of journalists who tried to investigate, it turned out that it was not likely that Chechens were in Afghanistan.
It does seem plausible that while Chechnya may have attracted foreign terrorist members, Chechen rebels themselves were generally more interested in fighting for their own self-determination. However, it is a complex area, and militant or extremist groups are thought to now be influential there. Furthermore, as detailed further below, it is believed that Russian policy is now, ironically, breeding terrorists, potentially. This would almost be like a sad self-fulfilling prophecy.
-- Dr. Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, Shaterring the Al Qaeda-Chechen Myth, The American Committee for Peace In Chechnya, October 2003
posted by BLONDIE at 10:17 AM
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