MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP INTERNATIONAL R E P O R THE NORTH CAUCASUS: T Minorities at a Crossroads • 94/5 THE NORTH CAUCASUS : Minorities at a Crossroads AN MRG INTERNATIONAL REPORT G R M by HELEN KRAG and LARS FUNCH THE NORTH CAUCASUS: Minorities at a Crossroads by Helen Krag and Lars Funch © Minority Rights Group 1994 Acknowledgements British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Minority Rights Group gratefully acknowledges support A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library of the Danish Commission on Security and ISBN 1 897693 70 2 Disarmament, and all organizations and individuals who ISSN 0303 6252 gave financial and other assistance for this report. Published December 1994 Typeset by Brixton Graphics This report has been commissioned and is published by Printed in the UK on chlorine-free paper by Manchester Free Press Minority Rights Group as a contribution to public under- standing of the issue which forms its subject. The text and the views of the individual authors do not necessarily represent, in every detail and in all its aspects, the collective view of Minority Rights Group. THE AUTHORS DR HELEN KRAG is an associate professor and Head of Minority Studies at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, with a particular interest in minority-majority relations in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Dr Krag is the Chair of MRG’s affiliate in Denmark, and a member of MRG’s Council and Programme Committee. She has written extensively on minority issues in the former USSR and Eastern Europe and acts as an advisor to various international bodies and human rights organi- zations. She has travelled widely in the former Soviet Union and has lectured on the North Caucasus and relat- ed minority issues for several years. LARS FUNCH has written several articles on the North Caucasus region and is currently preparing a thesis on the North Caucasus at Roskilde University, Denmark. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in Russia and the former Soviet Union. MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP is an international non-governmental organization work- MRG has consultative status with the United Nations ing to secure justice for minorities suffering discrimina- Economic and Social Council and has a linked interna- tion and prejudice and to achieve the peaceful tional network of affiliates and partner organizations, as coexistence of majority and minority communities. part of its channels for human rights advocacy. Its Founded in the 1960s, MRG informs and warns international headquarters are in London. Legally it is governments, the international community, non-govern- registered both as a charity and as a limited company mental organizations and the wider public about the under United Kingdom law with an International situation of minorities around the world. This work is Governing Council. based on the publication of well-researched reports, books and papers; direct advocacy on behalf of minority THE PROCESS rights in international fora; the development of a global As part of its methodology, MRG conducts regional network of like-minded organizations and minority research, identifies issues and commissions reports based communities to collaborate on these issues; and by the on its findings. Each author is carefully chosen and all challenging of prejudice and promotion of public scripts are read by no less than eight independent experts understanding through information and education who are knowledgeable about the subject matter. These activities. experts are drawn from the minorities about whom the MRG believes that the best hope for a peaceful world lies reports are written, and from journalists, academics, in identifying and monitoring conflict between commu- researchers and other human rights agencies. Authors are nities, advocating preventive measures to avoid the esca- asked to incorporate comments made by these parties. In lation of conflict and encouraging positive action to this way, MRG aims to publish accurate, authoritative, build trust between majority and minority communities. well-balanced reports. Dagestan © JOCASTA SHAKESPEARE/ THE HUTCHISON LIBRARY THE NORTH CAUCASUS: Minorities at a Crossroads CONTENTS 5 Preface 6 Glossary 7 Introduction The objective of the report The approach Minorities – a term Maps and tables – some pitfalls 9 The region, the republics and the peoples The region The history of the region The administrative and territorial units Diversity Ethnic groups Language Religion An overview of the North Caucasian peoples 26 Current Issues, Claims and Conflicts Introduction Relations to Russia and Russians The Russian Federation’s attitude Russians in the North Caucasian Republics The Cossacks The adjacent Stavropol and Krasnodar Provinces Regional mobilization: cooperation of North Caucasian peoples National mobilization: minorities and republics Republics with more than one group in power Republics led by one titular group North Caucasian peoples in Georgia 37 A summary of major trends 39 Proposals for action 41 Notes 45 Further reading G R M by HELEN KRAG and LARS FUNCH 3 UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS Article 8 BELONGING TO NATIONAL OR ETHNIC, 1. Nothing in this Declaration shall prevent the fulfilment of international RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC MINORITIES obligations of States in relation to persons belonging to minorities. In par- (Adopted by the UN General Assembly; Resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992) ticular, States shall fulfil in good faith the obligations and commitments they have assumed under international treaties and agreements to which Article 1 they are parties. 1. States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, 2. The exercise of the rights as set forth in this Declaration shall not prej- religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective terri- udice the enjoyment by all persons of universally recognized human tories, and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity. rights and fundamental freedoms. 2. States shall adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to achieve 3. Measures taken by States in order to ensure the effective enjoyment of those ends. the rights as set forth in this Declaration shall not prima facie be consid- ered contrary to the principle of equality contained in the Universal Article 2 Declaration of Human Rights. 1. Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minori- 4. Nothing in this Declaration may be construed as permitting any activity ties (hereinafter referred to as persons belonging to minorities) have the contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, including right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of and to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without States. interference or any form of discrimination. 2. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively Article 9 in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life. The organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system shall 3. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively contribute to the full realization of the rights and principles as set forth in in decisions on the national and, where appropriate, regional level con- this Declaration, within their respective fields of competence. cerning the minority to which they belong or the regions in which they live, in a manner not incompatible with national legislation. UNITED NATIONS COVENANT ON CIVIL 4. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and main- AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (1966) tain their own associations. 5. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and main- Article 27 tain, without any discrimination, free and peaceful contacts with other In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, members of their group, with persons belonging to other minorities, as persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in well as contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to whom they community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own are related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties. culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language. Article 3 1. Persons belonging to minorities may exercise their rights including those as set forth in this Declaration individually as well as in community CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL with other members of their group, without any discrimination. FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION 2. No disadvantage shall result for any person belonging to a minority as the consequence of the exercise or non-exercise of the rights as set forth Art icle 2 in this Declaration. 1. States parties condemn racial discrimination and undertake to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating racial Article 4 discriminations in all its forms and promoting understanding among all 1. States shall take measures where required to ensure that persons races, .... belonging to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all their human 2. States parties shall, when the circumstances so warrant, take, in the rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full social, economic cultural and other field, special and concrete measures equality before the law. to ensure the adequate development and protection of certain racial 2.