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«Chechenia — National Struggle for Freedom»
The speech of Bulat Ruslani Betalgiry, the Chairman of the UK Chechen National Center «Daimohk», at the «Freedom!» Forum — Cambridge University, 14 February, 2003.
Ladies and gentlemen, delegates of the «Freedom» Forum!
I am honoured to be here today and to tell you about the understanding of freedom concept in the national mentality of the Chechen people, forms of perception, evaluation and manifestation of freedom in traditions and demeanour of Chechens throughout the centuries of national struggle for independence.
Let me begin my report with a description of the ethnogeny and history of the Chechen people, for this is a necessary condition for a comprehensive understanding of general character and specific aspects of the mentality of modern Chechens.
In terms of population, the Chechen nation is relatively small — a little more than one million people in pre-war Chechenia (this number has sharply decreased as a result of the two recent Russo-Chechen conflicts). Our Motherland, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria or Chechenia (the Russian name Chechnya is phonetically incorrect) — is a small mountainous republic situated on the northern slopes of the Big Caucasian Mountains (the highest in Europe) in the ancient region of the Caucasus. Different historical and archaeological studies suggest that ancestors of modern Chechens first settled on the territory of Chechenia in about 4000-3500 B.C. The Chechen nation is rightly considered as the indigenous ethnos of the Caucasus, klix its long history back to the great Sumerian civilization of ancient Mesopotamia in 4500-4000 B.C.
The legacy of this relationship is the unique Chechen language which is totally autonomous from all other languages of the modern Indo-European language family. It is noteworthy that the only language in Europe that has remote linguistic parallels with the Chechen tongue is the national language of Basques — another autochthonous European ethnos. Some ethnographers and linguists now believe that several millennia ago the ancestors of modern Basques had migrated to the mountainous part of the Iberian Peninsula (contemporary Spain) from the place of their origin in the Caucasus.
The history of the Chechen national resistance
Over the long history of the Chechen people the concept of freedom has occupied a dominant position in the collective national mentality. This is explained by the fact that from ancient times to the present Chechens have been subjected to systematic attempts of occupation and colonization from different hostile nations and military powers. A strategic geopolitical location of Chechenia on the border of Europe and Asia meant that for many centuries our people had to fight for their independence. The historical period of national resistance begins with battles of ancient Chechens against Scythians (VI century B.C.), nomadic tribes of Sarmatians (III century B.C. — IV century A.D.), Persian armies of Kir the Great (VII century), Mongolian hordes of Genghis Khan (1238), armies of Tamerlan (1395), and ultimately the incessant struggle against our main aggressor — Russia, starting from the late XVI — early XVII centuries until the present days.
Chechens have actively resisted the Russian imperial colonialism for nearly 400 years — an unprecedented fact in the world history of national liberation movements. The unremitting Russo-Chechen confrontation had only strengthened the freedom-loving spirit of many generations of Chechens formed in the atmosphere of numerous battles of the Chechen people against Russian aggressors. It is an acknowledged historical fact that in the XVIII-XIX centuries the Chechens were effectively the driving force of the mountainous peoples’ resistance to the Russian imperialism in the Caucasus. The great leaders of the Chechen national independence movements at different stages were: Ushurma, Sheikh Mansur (1785-1791), Beibulat Taimiyev (1819-1830), Imam Shamil (1834-1859), Baysangur Beno (1860-1862), Alibek-Haji Aldamov (1877-1878); in XX century — Mairbek Sheripov (1943-1944), and finally the first Chechen President General Dzhokhar Dudayev (1991-1996). All of these people, with notable exception of Imam Shamil (an ethnic Avar whose life was spared by tsarist military in return for his total capitulation), heroically died from the hands of Russian aggressors for the sake of Chechen national freedom. In the words of the prominent British historian John Bradley who described a major battle between Chechens and Russian troops in the early 1700’s, "… that was the first clash of the regular Russian army with this tribe in its native forests, which became an evil omen of what happened in countless cases over the next 130 years."
Indeed, the Chechen people never ceased their resistance to the Russian occupation of their land, fearlessly fighting against exceeding armies of the aggressor. The history of the Chechen national liberation movement continues today in the brave struggle of thousands of Chechens led by the active President Aslan Maskhadov against the latest Russian military intervention.
The attitude of the Russian political and military leadership towards the Chechen nation over the length of history can be expressed by the following ominous words of General Yermolov, the tsarist military commandant of the Caucasus in the XIX century and historically the most execrated ethnic Russian among Chechens: ’Your auls will be destroyed, families separated and displaced to mountains, amanats hanged, villages exterminated by fire. I will not rest until there remains a single Chechen alive.’ Such clearly misanthropic and genocidal statement from a Russian military tyrant addressed to the Chechen people more than a century ago was loudly echoed in the early year 2000 by the notorious General Shamanov, an ardent servant of a «new democratic» Russia, who answering the question about numerous facts of abductions, tortures and murders of young Chechen men committed by Russian troops, openly declared that «family members of a bandit (i.e. a Chechen resistance fighter — B. B.) are also bandits, and therefore must be all eliminated." Evidently, Shamanov and other Russian statesmen like him have failed to attain the basic level of intellectual development imperative for comprehension of the fundamental legal concept of presumption of innocence.
Understanding and value of the notion of freedom in the Chechen national mentality
Why is freedom so important to the Chechen people that they are ready to fearlessly defend it, often at the cost of their lives?
The answer to this question is inevitably complex, mainly because the notion of freedom can have diverse forms of manifestation in lives of different individuals. At the same time it can be argued that freedom is of absolute value to every conscientious Chechen regardless of age, gender, political preferences or social status. To be free in the perception of Chechens means to have an opportunity to live in accordance with individual beliefs in close correlation with the adats — Chechen national traditions and customs, formed over many centuries of proactive intellectual and social evolution of the nation.
Thus, for hundreds of thousands of Chechens the quintessence of national freedom represents an integrated notion comprising of three elements:
1. Territorial freedom
2. Political and religious freedom
3. Cultural and social freedom
Territorial freedom — Chechens revere the territorial sovereignty of their native land as the cardinal symbol of national independence. Individual representatives of the Chechen nation always remain spiritually bonded with Chechenia, and the majority of them maintain close contacts with the Motherland for the rest of their lives. Undoubtedly, not a single conscientious Chechen will ever opt for a life under an alien administration regardless of its national or religious denominations.
The supreme value placed for centuries on their Motherland by the Chechens was correctly realized and treacherously used against the nation by the communist regime of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who ordered an action which became the darkest page in the history of the Chechen nation — the deportation of the Chechen people to desolate lands of Central Asia and Siberia on February 23, 1944. Having accused all Chechens without exception of collaboration with Nazi Germany (a complete nonsense, as at that time hundreds of Chechens fought on the Soviet side against German troops at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War), on Stalin’s direct orders virtually the whole Chechen nation was loaded into cattle wagons within one day and then sent to a distant exile which lasted for long 13 years. The lackeys of Stalin headed by the brutal chief of NKVD Lavrenty Beria took the pains of fulfilling their leader’s will and in their rush after victorious reports exterminated whole Chechen settlements which could not be promptly deported. The history of the Chechen nation will preserve forever the terrible tragedy of Haibakh, the small village in mountainous Chechenia, where more than 700 residents were gathered together and burnt alive, the oldest man being 114 years old, and the youngest — the twin brothers Hassan and Hussein Gayevs — born on the night just before the massacre). The people’s memory also recorded the horrible story of the settlement of Galanchozh, where several hundreds of residents were brutally killed by the Soviet NKVD troops and their dead bodies were then drowned in a nearby lake, together with many wounded who were still alive.
Unfortunately, the history of the Soviet-Russian genocide towards the Chechen people has a mournful continuation in our days. Given below is the description of only a few major anti-Chechen atrocities (officially known as ’anti-terrorist punitive operations’) committed by the Russian military with the tacit approval of Russian authorities over the course of two latest Russo-Chechen wars, which have now been widely recognized as crimes against humanity:
— Mass killings and extrajudicial executions of Chechen civilians in the villages of Samashki (1996), Alkhan-Yurt (1999), Aldy (2000), Komsomolskoye (2000) and many other settlements;
— Aviation bombardment of the town market in Shali (1995); shelling of the central market in the Chechen capital Grozny with «Ground-to-Ground» missiles (1999); bombing of a Chechen refugee convoy on «Rostov-Baku» highway (1999); systematic bombardments and shelling of civilian targets across the whole territory of Chechenia;
— Daily abductions of ethnic Chechens (especially young men), their imprisonment in Russian «filtration points» (de-facto — concentration camps — B.B.) with the use of brutal tortures (the list of common tortures: electroshock on the whole body, including face and genitals; beatings with heavy glass bottles and wet towels on back, kidneys and extremities; a «wolf grin» — filing healthy teeth of prisoners; a «round table» — prisoners are put at a wooden table with their hands handcuffed behind the back, and then all of them have their tongues nailed to the table; an «elephant» — semi-suffocation of handcuffed Chechen prisoners in gas masks without oxygen access with the subsequent pumping of teargas, etc. );
— Violence and abuse of Chechen women under the pretext of their alleged participation in the Chechen resistance forces as snipers; numerous facts of rape of young Chechen klix by Russian troops with the demonstrative connivance of official Russian authorities;
— Systematic «zachistka» (’mopping up» — B.B.) operations in different Chechen settlements, when Russian troops apply malicious tactics of ethnic cleansing and detain armless Chechen men. The latter are sent to military concentration camps where they are subjected to sadistic tortures and often die from the hands of Russian executioners, and relatives are forced to ransom their dead bodies. In accordance with a secret directive to all Russian power ministries dated early 2000, each Chechen male aged from 10 to 65 can be (and must be) detained by Russian troops without any legal sanctions, with the military bearing no responsibility for the possible violations of detainees’ human rights and freedoms. The given directive effectively stimulates the genocide of male population in Chechenia on a cumulative scale, i.e. following the principle of «killing less but in a regular basis». This is proved by the fact that about 20 Chechen citizens disappear daily as a result of «mopping up» operations and night attacks on houses of Chechen civilians by Russian military occupants;
— Arbitrary closures of Chechen refugee camps by Russian authorities with subsequent forced displacements of refugees back into the zone of active conflict, regardless of the official protests from representatives of international organisations like the UN, EU, OSCE, PACE, etc.
All these facts show the practical realization of the Russian genocidal policy under the slogan «A good Chechen is a dead Chechen» by many rulers of Russia, starting from Peter the Great and ending with the sinister historical triumvirate of Stalin, Yeltsin and Putin.
Political and religious freedom is a possibility for public expression of thoughts and opinions by all Chechens, as well as professing the religion of Islam in accordance with historical traditions without any risk to life and safety of people. In the present situation, the overwhelming majority of the Chechen population is deprived of opportunity for free expression of political beliefs and opinions under the threat of death from occupying Russian authorities. Apart from that, Chechens are also denied the right to normal religious life because of the incessant raids by Russian military on local mosques under pretexts of locating sympathizers and participants of the Chechen national resistance. Obviously, under such oppressive conditions the existence of political and religious freedoms in modern Chechenia is completely out of the question.
Cultural and social freedom is an opportunity to fully realize the system of Chechen national traditions and customs based on ethical, moral and social canons of the society. Socio-cultural freedom also entails the preservation of national language, art and ancient monuments as the essential components of the multifaceted Chechen ethnos. It is rather indicative that the policy of intensive ’russification’ of Chechens in terms of acquisition of basic knowledge and culture has always been one of the major battling tools of the Soviet state ideological machine in its confrontation with the Chechen people. I will always remember an early September day in 1984, when I was a first-grade schoolboy in Grozny, and a teacher publicly banned me from speaking in the Chechen language, as only a Russian speech was allowed. This example must be regarded as characteristic. Naturally, the prohibitions of such kind had generated massive reactionary effects among the Chechens, when parents passed over their knowledge of native language, literature and art to children by familiarizing them with the unique cultural heritage of the nation. Therefore, the past experience has made most Chechens acutely aware that the threat of socio-cultural expansion and forced assimilation from Russia towards the Chechen nation had always existed and it still maintains a high degree of urgency in modern times.
Conclusion
In conclusion to my report I would like to briefly touch upon the issue of political and legal foundations of the contemporary relations between Chechenia and Russia. On May 12, 1997 in Moscow the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov signed the «Treaty on Peace and the Principles of Interrelations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic Ichkeria», which constituted a de facto recognition of Chechenia as an independent nation state under the norms of international law and practice. Article 1 of the Treaty explicitly declared the universal intention of both states to «renounce forever the use and the threat of use of force in resolution of any disputes». However, the latest Russo-Chechen war deliberately instigated by the Russian government two and a half years after signing the peace treaty with Chechenia leaves no doubts about the real treacherous nature of Russia’s 1997 «peace» declaration.
So, what is the price of the Chechen people’s relentless quest for freedom and independence?
Unfortunately, it is very high. The summarized statistics of the Chechen tragedy given below is a tacit testimony to hundreds of thousands of lost lives and mutilated destinies of people — representatives of the constantly exterminated, but spiritually unconquered Chechen nation:
— More than 200,000 Chechens dead as a result of the first Russo-Chechen war of 1994-1996 and the second war, ongoing from the autumn of 1999;
— More than 350,000 refugees — native residents of Chechenia, created by the latest Russian aggression against the sovereign Chechen nation;
— Tens of thousands of private households and public buildings destroyed by Russian forces across the country. The capital of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria — city of Grozny (Dzhokhar) is almost completely ruined as a result of the war. According to western and Russian military experts, Grozny is the most heavily destroyed European city since the Allied bombardment of Dresden in 1945; the scale of destruction in Grozny is also comparable to Stalingrad of 1944.
— Violations of basic rights and freedoms of the Chechen population by the Russian forces and occupation authorities are of mass and systematic nature, so much so that at present international human rights groups recognize the conflict in the Chechen Republic Ichkeria as the zone of the most atrocious violations of human rights and the worst crimes against humanity in the history of Europe since the end of WWII.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Free Chechens do not want to live in a «golden cage» of the Russian or another foreign state. As for Russia, our people had never wished to be a part of that country (Chechenia was forcibly annexed by imperial Russia), and taking into account the years of deception and treachery of Chechen national interests by Russian authorities, Chechens have now lost any trust to the Russian state. The major desire of modern Chechens is an opportunity to live an independent life in accordance with our centuries-long national traditions and customs, a peaceful building of our statehood without foreign governors trying to impose upon us their alien norms of life and rules of conduct.
Freedom is a fundamental human right, and since all nations consist of individuals, we the Chechens believe in our inalienable right to freedom and independence of our native land and culture — the two priceless properties that many world nations possess, often without realizing their everlasting value. Today we hope that the liberal minded people of the world will not forget the small but proud Chechen people bravely struggling for their freedom from Russian colonialism and attainment of the long-awaited national state independence.
http://www.chechentimes.org/en/chechentimes/7/?id=812
