A Balancing Act, By Paul Abelsky

A Balancing Act

By Paul Abelsky, Russia Profile, August 1, 2007

Adygeya Seeks to Maintain its Identity

KRASNODAR/MAIKOP "Anything you write, just be objective." It is a refrain heard from all sides in Maikop, capital of Adygeya, a beleaguered republic in northwestern Caucasus that has remained, against some odds, the only preserve of peace in the war-torn region.

Objectivity is ever so elusive, but the situation in Adygeya presents a particularly jarring overlap of subjectivities, a product of clashing and self-serving historical narratives.

Carved out in its present form in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet collapse, Adygeya is an ethnic republic where the "titular nationality" of Adygs makes up less than a third of the total population of around 500,000. "Adyg" is an ethnonym for the Circassians, who until the 1860s inhabited a swathe of the western Caucasus to the Black Sea.

Adygeya presents a vivid and revealing case study in the complex balancing act underway in southern Russia between nationalist sentiments, federal ambitions and the stated priorities of long-term socio-economic development. "In the North Caucasus, especially in Adygeya, Russians face two closely related problems: awkward historical memory and political governance," said Georgi Derluguian, associate professor of sociology at Northwestern University and a specialist on ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Kremlin's initiative aimed at unifying the disparate pieces of the Russian Federation into larger administrative units hit its first significant hurdle in Adygeya two years ago. Completely encircled by Krasnodar Territory, one of the country's most dynamic regional economies, struggling Adygeya with an unemployment rate of around 50 percent seemed ripe to be absorbed into the larger territorial unit. Although the unification project has already done away with several nominally ethnic regions--Komi-Permyatsky Autonomous District, Evenkia, Taimyr, Aginsk Buryat Autonomous District--rearranging the volatile jigsaw of the North Caucasus has long been seen as the distant objective of the federal campaign.

The local Adygeyan elites have closed ranks, however, with then-President Khazret Sovmen ably playing a precarious game of brinkmanship with federal officials; meanwhile, latent interethnic tensions started to escalate into a volley of mutual accusations and fears, with the issue of unification pulled into the orbit of nationalist oratory. And although the unification drive has seemingly stalled and a compromise candidate, Aslanchery Tkhakushinov, was appointed to succeed Sovmen, the explosive rhetoric has barely subsided.

Peace, but for How Long?

Throughout the carnage that befell the North Caucasus in the 1990s, the western part of the region--comprising Adygeya, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachayevo-Cherkessia--seemed like a bastion of relative stability, maintaining a strong Russian presence and seemingly insulated from Islamist extremism.

The unification drive, however, has the potential to destabilize the republic. During the parliamentary campaign in Adygeya last March, the LDPR and Communist parties showed their support for the initiative part of their electoral platforms. At the same time, Adyg organizations framed the issue not in economic or political terms, but characterized it as a threat to their national identity. A gathering of influential groups convened in Maikop a month later and passed a resolution against unification, warning of negative consequences for the region and Russia as a whole.

Similarly to the rest of Russia, the interethnic shadow-boxing in Adygeya conceals a clash of more mundane concerns. Although the possibility of unification soon became submerged in the rhetoric of identity politics, with the Adygs fearing the loss of their privileged standing and warning that the rising discontent could spill into violence, the plan divided the elites on both sides of the Kuban River, which separates Adygeya from Krasnodar Territory. "The federal initiative may be sensible economically, but it also contains a lot of shortcomings, most of them political in nature," said Mikhail Savva of the Southern Regional Resource Center, one of the most respected Krasnodar commentators and a professor at Kuban State University.

"Evening out the economic development would be one obvious benefit, but the Adyg elite clearly fears the loss of its status and of the access to financial resources that comes with power," he added. "But the proposals also threaten Krasnodar elites, since it will bring an inevitable reworking of the region's business and administrative structures. With the newly instituted system of direct gubernatorial appointments, it is possible that an Adyg candidate could be put forward, and the local legislature will have no option but to back him."

Still, Savva does not see any ulterior ethnic motives in the federal center's effort to redefine the borders. The reaction it provoked among the Adyg intelligentsia, he says, is indicative of their "reluctance to embark on processes of modernization, reflexively defending collective national interests."

Adyg activists in Maikop disagree not only in the approach to the region's predicament, but also apply entirely different categories to set out their vision of the challenges faced by their people. Murat Berzegov heads Circassian Congress (Cherkessky congress) one of the most vocal Adyg groups opposed to encroachments on republican autonomy. For Berzegov, the economic rationale and all other justifications are secondary to the inviolable ethnic rights of the indigenous people. In his unassuming office in central Maikop, Berzegov's assistants line up evidence of numerous international treaties and practices that he says preclude any infringement of Adyg political rights.

Indeed, he counters a merger on supposedly economic grounds by proposing to unify the remaining Circassian peoples in Adygeya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Cherkessia and the district around Sochi into a single entity that would both streamline governance and respect indigenous rights. "We are a distinct nation, we are one people living in our ancestral land, carrying on a thousand-year-old culture, language and customs," Berzegov said. "Any new partition of territories must respect the rights of the indigenous population. Russia is a signatory to international conventions that uphold national self-determination and the people's prerogative to decide for themselves their political standing and affiliation."

E Pluribus Unum

Berzegov sees the elimination of Adygeya's separate political standing as not only another step toward a breach of national rights, but also as a move designed to push out the remaining Adygs from their ancestral lands by first depriving them of their protected standing. "What is being proposed is a form of genocide," he said. "Taking advantage of our minority status in the republic and having deprived us of our political status, the authorities can easily undertake a new wave of deportations."

The fate of the Meskhetian Turks, he says, has set a disquieting precedent for a scenario that could await the Adygs. The Meskhetian community is a small ethnic group that was deported from southern Georgia to Central Asia in 1944 and was allowed to return to Krasnodar Territory in the late 1980s before being forced to resettle as refugees in the United States after persistent conflicts with the local authorities and population.

The opponents of the Adyg campaign say it is little more than a nationalist ploy to safeguard ethnic privileges to the detriment of the region's economic growth. "Resorting to past wars is simply an attempt to consolidate their people, replacing history with myths," said Vladimir Karatayev, editor of Zakubanye newspaper and chairman of the executive committee of The Slavic Union (Soyuz slavyan) of Adygeya, a Maikop-based organization that has frequently sparred with Adyg activists. "These myths were concocted by the Turks long ago, and the most regrettable thing is that the federal authorities have largely kept silent on the matter."

The Slavic Union has made sure that silence is often broken, advocating the idea of unification as a path to economic empowerment and a sure remedy for the ethnic turmoil in the republic. It has engaged the Adyg activists in vociferous but mostly rhetorical battles, although the signs posted in the modest house the group occupies in Maikop may indicate where their future priorities lie. A notice in the lobby advertises lessons "for those interested in martial arts." Another sign posted in the kitchen area stipulates neatness in a peremptory manner: "Attention. Russian order governs this place!" Almost reflexively, the organization frames many incidents in Adygeya in ethnic terms, including a recent fight in March between groups of local youths in a village of Khamyshki of the Maikop district.

Nina Konovalova is the union's long-standing leader and a veteran politician in Adygeya. She says the Adyg aim is not separatism as such, but creation of an autonomy that will continue to bleed the federal authorities dry while remaining unaccountable to anyone but the community's own national interests. If anything, Konovalova says, the situation has become worse under Tkhakushinov, even though the new president has tried to put an end to the ruling ethnocracy, appointing ethnic Russians to key cabinet posts.

"Their goal is to forge a state within a state and they are ready to follow the example of Chechnya if necessary," she said. "The Adygs are looking for unfettered independence inside Russia and high-placed officials often let slip their notion of Adyg statehood."

Local observers identify the revival of Kuban Cossacks as a factor in the Adyg nationalist mobilization. "Their drive for the recognition of Circassian genocide may itself be part of a political game, but it was undoubtedly provoked by the rise of the Cossacks as a potent political force," said Alexei Kochergin, an expert at the Krasnodar-based Center for Pontic and Caucasian Studies.

Besides channeling funds and public support to Cossack activities, Krasnodar authorities have to contend with the region's infamous, albeit fading, reputation for xenophobia. Nikolai Kondratenko, who preceded current Governor Alexander Tkachev in the territory's top post, was one of Russia's most notorious and vocal anti-Semites. Tkachev has staked out a more pragmatic course despite his largely anti-immigration stance, and Kochergin says the ethnic agenda is no longer batted around by public officials. Although several persecuted groups hoped to follow the Meskhetian community to the United States, the local government has realized the likely disastrous resonance for Krasnodar's image. Promoting investor-friendly attitude and looking to welcome the Winter Olympics to Sochi seven years from now, chauvinism is going out of fashion.

"Tkachev has gradually stopped using this explosive nationalistic resource for political gain," Kochergin said. "And yet the discriminatory sentiments are not decreed from above. It is a widespread feeling shared by many Russian residents of the region. But following the Meskhetian exodus, the authorities have clamped down on any similar ideas of mass emigration. The program is now closed."

However deep-rooted the prejudices among the local population, this bigotry is not helped by existing economic antagonisms. Kochergin describes a popular resentment of the more multi-ethnic coastal areas that have benefited from the ongoing economic boom to a greater extent than the poorer inland areas settled by ethnic Russians. In addition, as far back as the 1970s, the authorities started to cultivate a distinct regional Kuban identity that persists to this day in the Cossack revival, local institutions and a guarded attitude to outsiders.

One of the clearest testaments to this outlook is the layout of the city of Krasnodar itself. Although it occupies a site on the Kuban River, it is spatially withdrawn from the waterway and lacks stately embankments and riverfront promenades so typical of other Russian towns. "Kuban is a very idiosyncratic area," said Savva. "If you take the Volga region, the Фother' across the river was seen there as a possible partner in trade or other dealings. But a certain cautious frontier mentality here has given rise to particular character traits. The Kuban River is a psychological barrier, beyond which extends Adygeya. So, for example, it is a common practice in rural areas not to let in anyone, including even your neighbor, behind the fence that rings the house. This is a harsh setting indeed, one that dictates conformity and integration."

This tradition of regionalism, and a degree of reserve and circumspection in dealing with outsiders, has predictably created problems with migrants. Even so, Savva believes the Meskhetian case should not be seen as precedent-setting for the Adygs, despite the fear it has purportedly struck in their hearts. Lacking citizenship and registration permits, the Meskhetians fell victim to regional prejudices and shortsighted administrative policies. Their language and Muslim faith rendered them alien in the eyes of local residents, a situation exacerbated by fears of the supposed Meskhetian ties to Turkey.

"All this added up to a sense of socio-cultural distance, making the Meskhetians the most representative, the most hostile, the most ostracized ethnic minority," Savva said. "This perception came about as a result of a kind of psychological filter through which they were viewed here. And that's despite the fact that the processes of assimilation and integration finally started to take off after 15 years, with studies indicating a rise in mixed marriages and behavioral adjustments. But it was too late. It's as if the information was not being registered because of this mental buffer."

Olympic Prospects

Even as many rejoiced at the July selection of Sochi as the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics, this achievement has the potential to become a new flashpoint in ethnic tensions. Several thousand Shapsugs, a Circassian subgroup, inhabit areas in the Lazarevsky and Tuapse districts in the vicinity of Sochi. Following the Russian Revolution, the Shapsugs were granted a separate district but the entity was later abolished. In recent years, they have gained an official recognition as one of Russia's "small indigenous peoples," which entitles them to financial support, but the Shapsug community leaders have vied for greater recognition and access to the area's resources.

Not only are the coastal areas considered Shapsug ancestral land, but the territory also bears direct legacy of the carnage and the exodus of the native population. Circassian activists in Maikop openly declare Sochi and its environs the site of genocide, making it an inappropriate host for festive sporting events. With the exception of the general infrastructure facelift that is expected to reshape the region, Adygeya has not been included in any plans for the construction of Olympic venues. Zaurbek Shu, a Shapsug campaigner in Maikop who has served as a legal consultant on several of the suits filed in pursuit of greater indigenous rights, says the Shapsug rancor is justified, but the group should not contest the future of the Olympics in Sochi. "That Adygeya was not included is hardly accidental, and we consider it unjust," Shu said. "But we don't want to foist the Shapsug issue on the organizers. It would only cause a negative reaction, seen as some kind of blackmail on the part of the Shapsugs. We think our rights should be considered separately in the legal field."

Kochergin of the Center for Pontic and Caucasian Studies sees the Shapsug dilemma as part of the general set of challenges faced by the Adyg nation. Although they continue to reside in places of their traditional habitat, the Shapsugs were stripped of their political autonomy in the Stalin era and succeeded in recovering little beyond the recognition of their indigenous status and the annual financial subsidies from regional authorities. The Sixth Shapsug Congress held in Tuapse this May reiterated some of the group's long-time demands, but abandoned the call for the reconstitution of a separate Shapsug political entity in the region.

Critics believe even the existing funding mechanisms are inappropriately applied to the Shapsugs, who comprise a largely modernized group while the subsidies were intended to support the peoples still clinging to a traditional lifestyle. "The law was not at all tailored for the Shapsugs, although they were later included in the list of small indigenous peoples, a move backed by the Krasnodar authorities under Kondratenko," Savva said. "It's even debatable if they comprise a separate ethnic group. I attended a congress of Shapsugs in 1991, when nationalist threats sounded from the podium with ultimatums to the effect that they will blow up nuclear power stations if the Shapsug autonomous district is not restored. Krasnodar's political elites have a good reason to bear in mind these bullying words."

The tensions around Sochi, and Adygeya more generally, bring out one of the key tendencies in the region--the projection of ethnicity onto land, an attitude all sides share in Adygeya. "The main criterion for the inhabitants of the Caucasus, including the Russians, is land and land ownership," Kochergin said. "Ethnic mobilization is beginning to play an increasingly important role in that context. Most tensions in Krasnodar derive from the linking of ethnicity and exclusive territorial claims. Casting this in ethnic terms has fueled continuous friction, involving Russians, Adygs, Armenians and other groups."

Equally important for understanding the conflict in the Krasnodar territory and Adygeya--a quilt of ethnicities most of which, with the sole exception of the Circassians, were migrants at one time--is a feeling of insecurity that results from these shallow roots. It is not surprising that people overcompensate for such anxieties with strident territorial and ethnic claims in defense of their privileges. The Circassians, as the area's most "entrenched" people with deep-seated memories and an exaggerated sense of ancestral entitlement, cause inevitable apprehension among the Russians. With a shared civic identity failing to take shape in the region, the tug of war over who "belongs" threatens to spiral into endless altercations. And the specter of violence is never far away, even in Adygeya. Says Berzegov of the Circassian Congress, "In the Caucasus, when people see no other outlet, they take up arms."

Russia Profile, Culture & Living, August 1, 2007

The Republic of Adygheya

A Country Study: The Republic of Adygeya
By Zeynel A. Besleney