Fire in the Caucasus

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and government officials to collectivize Chechnya and Ingushetia, but the fact Geography private lands and to maintain order over that terrorists of other nationalities, in- the rebellious Caucasus cultures. The pro- cluding Arabs, were accompanying them in the cesses of collectivization and russification is an ominous threat. This is an indication News™ solidified many of the minority cultures, that international support among terror- particularly when the czarists and Com- ist organizations may have been involved. munists were extremely brutal toward The bombing may have been an ef- the ethnic groups. As an example, in 1944, fort to start a regional war, a catastrophe Neal G. Josef Stalin had hundreds of Chechens, that could widen the Chechen conflict. Lineback Ingush, Karachais, Balkars, and Kalmyks The terrorists may have hoped to ignite hanged or shot and deported 677,988 dean ethnic wars between Ossetians and ported to Kazakhstan, according to au- Ingushetians to draw in Muslims from all FIRE IN THE thor Anatoly V. Isaenko. across the Caucasus. CAUCASUS Shortly after the Soviet Union broke Added to the recent downings of two up in 1991, Chechens announced their Russian domestic airliners allegedly by By Neal Lineback independence. In 1996, the Chechen army suicide bombers, the school bombing & Anatoly V. Isaenko repelled the Russian army. The Russians leaves little doubt that the Chechens are a regrouped and the conflict escalated into serious threat to the Russian society. Among the world’s longest-lived a rebel action, with terrorist activity ex- President Vladimir Putin’s recently hotspots is the Caucasus region, rivaling tending all the way to Moscow. In 1999, won reelection by promoting a strongman only the Balkans as a volatile kettle of the Chechen conflict spilled into neigh- image. The danger is that the Chechen violent and rebellious ethnic cultures. The boring Dagestan, with rebels occupying terrorist action will bring a domestic crack- recent terrorist school bombing in Beslan several border towns and villages. down that will immerse the Caucasus in a that killed more than 336 Russians, half of The recent school bombing in the city regional war, exactly what the Chechen them children, is being blamed on rebels of Beslan occurred in North Ossetia- rebels want. in neighboring Chechnya. Alania, the small Orthodox Christian re- And that is Geography in the News™. The Caucasus mountain chain ex- public to the west of Ingushetia and November 5, 2004. #751. tends generally east-west between the Chechnya. North Ossetians have an eth- Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. These (Co-author/editor Neal Lineback is a Ge- nic conflict with the predominantly Mus- high, rough and rugged mountains are ography Professor and Interim Dean of the lim Igushetians. The focus of the attack over 400 miles long and 100 miles wide College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian was a huge elite Ossetian school, occu- (645 x 161 km.). Isolated valleys separated State University, Boone, NC. Co-author pied by hundreds of children and parents by high mountains dot the region, pro- Anatoly V. Isaenko is a Cossack from North on the first day of school. This was a viding refuge to the numerous different Ossetia-Alania, the former History Chair at terrorist attack, involving heavily armed cultures that sprang up in the region. North Ossetian State University, a Fulbright suicide bombers. Three former Soviet republics located grantee at Duke University, and currently a The terrorists were reportedly mostly in the Caucasus received their indepen- history professor at Appalachian State Uni- Islamists (radical Muslims) from dence from the Soviet Union in 1991- versity.) Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan is predominantly Muslim, Nightmare in the Caucasus Region while Georgia and Armenia are Chris- 0 75 mi tian. ©2004 Kalmykia 0 75 km Other small autonomous Muslim republics lying along the northern flank of RUSSIA the Caucasus are part of greater Russia Caspian and have not been independent in recent Sea history. They were Karachayevo- Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Karachay - Ossetia-Alania, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Cherkessia Kabardino - and Dagestan. Ingushetia and Chechnya Balkaria Ingushetia Grozny have particularly chaffed under czarist, North Beslan Chechnya Soviet and now Russian dominance for Ossetia centuries. C a u c a Dagestan Living among and around the pre- s u s dominantly Muslim populations of these Black GEORGIA Sea small republics are Christians, many of T’bilisi them Russians and Cossacks. Through- out the 20th Century, the Communist TURKEY party sent thousands of Russian soldiers Geography in the News 11/05/04 ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN P. Larkins