What ethnicity are Chechens?
Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism
Two ethnic groups that were specifically targeted for persecution by Stalin's Soviet Union were the Chechens and the Ingush. Unlike the other nationalities that could be suspected of connection to foreign states which shared their ethnic background, the Chechens and the Ingush were completely indigenous people of the Soviet Union. Rather than being accused of collaboration with foreign enemies, these two ethnic groups were considered to have cultures which did not fit in with Soviet culture – such as accusing Chechens of being associated with “banditism” – and the authorities claimed that the Soviet Union had to intervene in order to “remake” and “reform” these cultures. In practice this meant heavily armed punitive operations carried out against Chechen “bandits” that failed to achieve forced assimilation, culminating in an ethnic cleansing operation in 1944, which involved the arrests and deportation of over 500,000 Chechens and Ingush from the Caucasus to Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The deportations of the Chechens and Ingush also involved the outright massacre of thousands of people, and severe conditions placed upon the deportees – they were put in unsealed train cars, with little to no food for a four-week journey during which many died from hunger and exhaustion.
Czechs
The Czechs (, ; singular masculine: "Čech" , singular feminine: "Češka" ) or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and Czech language.
History of Chechens in the Russian Empire
Ethnic discrimination occurred in many forms against Chechens during the Tsarist era of Chechen history, largely due to the colonialist viewpoint of the Russian government, viewing Chechens as inferior, savage and subversive, one of many peoples who Russia had a "moral duty to civilize".
Chechens in Syria
There are no reliable figures on ethnic minorities in Syria, however, estimates on the Chechen minority ranged from 6,000 to 35,000 in 2008.
Chechens
Chechen society is structured around "tukhum" (unions of clans) and about 130 "teip", or clans. The teips are based more on land and one-side lineage than on blood (as exogamy is prevalent and encouraged), and are bonded together to form the Chechen nation. Teips are further subdivided into "gar" (branches), and gars into "nekye" (patronymic families). The Chechen social code is called "nokhchallah" (where "Nokhchuo" stands for "Chechen") and may be loosely translated as "Chechen character". The Chechen code of honor implies moral and ethical behaviour, generosity and the will to safeguard the honor of women. The traditional Chechen saying goes that the members of Chechen society, like its teips, are (ideally) "free and equal like wolves".
Tamerlan Tsarnaev
The Tsarnaev family was forcibly moved from Chechnya to the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in the years following World War II. Anzor Tsarnaev is a Chechen, and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is an Avar. The couple had two sons, with Tamerlan Tsarnaev born in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1986, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev born in Kyrgyzstan in 1993. The parents also have two daughters. According to some, other Chechen Americans in the area apparently did not consider the American branch of the family to be fully Chechen because they had not ever lived in Chechnya.
History of Chechnya
The independence years of 1991–94 for the "Chechen Republic of Ichkeria" were marked by growing tension with Russia, a declining economy (due both to a Russian economic blockade and due to Dudayev's poor economic policies- described as such even by his own economic minister), and an increasingly unstable and divided internal political scene, with parts of the opposition being armed by Russia (see below) while the government in Groznyi resorting to more and more drastic measures. 90,000 people (mainly Russians and Ukrainians) fled Chechnya during 1991–93 due to fears of, and possibly actual manifestation of ethnic tension (the situation was exacerbated by their lack of incorporation into the Chechen clan system, which protects its members to a degree from crime, as well).
Chechen language
Chechens in Jordan have good relations with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and are able to practice their own culture and language. Chechen language usage is strong among the Chechen community in Jordan. Chechens are bilingual in both Chechen and Arabic, but do not speak Arabic among themselves, only speaking Chechen to other Chechens. Some Jordanians are literate in Chechen as well, having managed to read and write to people visiting Jordan from Chechnya.
Chechens
The isolated terrain of the Caucasus mountains and the strategic value outsiders have placed on the areas settled by Chechens has contributed much to the Chechen community ethos and helped shape its fiercely independent national character. Chechen society has traditionally been egalitarian and organized around many autonomous local clans, called teips.
Czechs
The Czech ethnic group is part of the West Slavic subgroup of the larger Slavic ethno-linguistical group. The West Slavs have their origin in early Slavic tribes which settled in Central Europe after East Germanic tribes had left this area during the migration period. The West Slavic tribe of Bohemians settled in the area of Bohemia during the migration period, and assimilated the remaining Celtic and Germanic populations. They formed a principality in the 9th century, the Duchy of Bohemia, under the Přemyslid dynasty which was part of the Great Moravia under Svatopluk I. According to mythology, the founding father of the Czech people were Forefather Čech, who according to legend brought the tribe of Czechs into its land.
History of Chechnya
The remains include dwellings, cobble bridges, altars, iron objects, bones, and clay and stone objects. There were sickles and stone grain grinders. Grains that were grown included wheat, rye and barley. Cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs and horses were kept. There were shops, where artisans worked on and sold pottery, stone-casting, bone-carving, and stone-carving. There is evidence of an advanced stage of metallurgy. There was differentiation of professionals organized within clans. Jaimoukha argues that while all these cultures probably were made by people included among the genetic ancestors of the Chechens, it was either the Koban or Kharachoi culture that was the first culture made by the cultural and linguistic ancestors of the Chechens (meaning the Chechens first arrived in their homeland 3000–4000 years ago). However, many others disagree, holding the Chechens to have lived in their present-day lands for over 10000 years.
Hidden Nations, Enduring Crimes conference
Chechen activists have now taken to making steps to publicizing what they view as genocide to the west. In October 2010, Anzor Maskhadov (son of the former president of Ichkeria) issued an appeal to gather materials on what he called "the genocides against Chechens in the 20th and 21st centuries" A website (currently only in Russian) on the genocides was also put up, available at http://www.chechentragedy.com. Other websites, such as World Chechnya Day.org were also set up to try to win the sympathy of the West for both historical and modern occurrences.
History of Chechens in the Russian Empire
Chechnya was first incorporated as a whole into the Russian Empire in 1859, after decades-long Caucasian War. Tsarist rule was marked by a transition into modern times including the formation (or re-formation) of a Chechen bourgeoisie, the emergence of social movements, reorientation of the Chechen economy towards oil, heavy ethnic discrimination at the expense of Chechens and others in favor of Russians and Kuban Cossacks, and a religious transition among the Chechens towards the Qadiri sect of Sufism.
Chechens
Chechens are sometimes referred to as the "French of the Caucasus", for a number of reasons (it is notable that the Circassians are the "English of the Caucasus", and the Georgians are the "Italians of the Caucasus"). This comparison may refer to either political/historical traits, or to personality characteristics. Like the French, who overthrew their age-old monarchy in the French Revolution, the Chechens had a similar revolution a century or two earlier, and like the French, they bore the distinction (for a period) of being the only egalitarian society in an area full of monarchic states. Like the French, the Chechens preferred swift, revolutionary (and often violent) methods to realize the change they wished to see – unlike the Circassians (called the "English of the Caucasus" both for their political and personality characteristics) who preferred more gradualist methods. Chechens were also called "French" by early Russian military officers and the French anthropologist Ernest Chantre who noted their "happy and witty" nature.
History of Chechnya
Today, the Ingush view themselves as a separate nation, but this, as before, is mainly due to political differences. Akhiev's various use of ethnonyms in his "Chechen fairytales" (published 1870, it was actually a collection of Chechen and Ingush fairytales, primarily told with the Ingush versions) illustrates the Ingush's confusion over their identities (Akhiev himself was in fact Ingush)- throughout both of his works, he alternatively refers to the Ingush as a distinct nation at some parts, but as a Chechen subdivision at others. Nonetheless, both Ingush and Chechens frequently assert that they are "brothers", and will often take an insult to the others nation personally even if they do not view it to be their own. This sort of relationship is comparable to that of the Czechs and the Slovaks, with the Chechens playing the role of the Czechs and the Ingush that of the Slovaks. It is notable that the separation of the Ingush from the rest of Chechendom was a gradual process, beginning around Timurlane's invasion, when the Ingush were conquered but the Chechens did not. In the 16th century, the Ingush, formerly a collection of Chechen clans known as the Angusht, broke off formally.
Czechs
Ethnic Czechs were called Bohemians in English until the early 20th century, referring to the medieval land of Bohemia which in turn was adapted from late Iron Age tribe of Celtic Boii. During the Migration Period, West Slavic tribes of Bohemians settled in the area, "assimilated the remaining Celtic and Germanic populations", and formed a principality in the 9th century, which was part of Great Moravia, in form of Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia, the predecessors of the modern republic.
Chechens
A 2004 study of the mtDNA showed Chechens to be extremely diverse in the mitochondrial genome, with 18 different haplogroups out of only 23 samples. Chechens clustered closest to Azeris, Georgians and Kabardins. They clustered closer to European populations than Middle Eastern populations this time, but were closer to Western European populations (Basques and Britons) than to Eastern European populations (Russians and other Slavs, as well as Estonians), despite living in the East. They actually clustered about as close to Basques as they did to Ingush (Chechens also cluster closer to many other populations than Ingush, such as Abazins), but the Chechens were the closer to the Ingush than any other population, the imbalance probably largely being due to the uniqueness of the Ingush on the mitochondrial DNA among those tested.
Bohemian
It was not until the 19th century that other European languages began to use words related to "Czechs" (as in English, "Tschechien" in German, "Tchèques" in French) in a deliberate (and successful) attempt to distinguish between ethnic Slavic-speaking Bohemians and other inhabitants of Bohemia. The latter were mostly ethnic Germans, who identified as "German Bohemians" ("Deutschböhmen") or simply as "Bohemians" ("Böhmen"). In many parts of Europe, state citizenship was not identical with ethnicity and language, and the various peoples were usually identified by their language. Ethnic boundaries in Bohemia were not always sharp, and people very often were bilingual. Intermarriages across language borders were also common. Native Czech speakers often spoke German and many native German speakers spoke Czech with varying fluency, particularly in areas with many Czech speakers.
Chechens
In the Middle Ages, the lowland of Chechnya was dominated by the Khazars and then the Alans. Local culture was also subject to Georgian influence and some Chechens converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Gradually, Islam prevailed, although the Chechens' own pagan religion was still strong until the 19th century. Society was organised along feudal lines. Chechnya was devastated by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century and those of Tamerlane in the 14th. The Vainakh bear the distinction of being one of the few peoples to successfully resist the Mongols and defend themselves against their invasions; not once, but twice, though this came at great cost to them, as their state was utterly destroyed. These events were key in the shaping of the Chechen nationhood and their martial-oriented and clan-based society.
Chechnya
The Chechens and Ingush were allowed to return to their land after 1956 during de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev when Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was restored but both boundaries and ethnic composition of the territory significantly changed. There were many (predominantly Russian) migrants from other parts of the Soviet Union, who often settled in the abandoned family homes of Chechens and Ingushes. The republic lost its Prigorodny District which transferred to North Ossetian ASSR but gained predominantly Russian Naursky District and Shelkovskoy District that is considered the homeland for Terek Cossacks.
Chechen Kurds
Chechen Kurds or Kurdified Chechens refer to the ethnic Chechens who went through a process of kurdification after fleeing to Kurdistan during and after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 1860s. Today, these Chechens are being perceived as being ethnic Kurds of the "Chechen tribe" and "Lezgî tribe".
History of Chechnya
Originally, the advancing Bolsheviks (who were also mainly ethnically Russian, like the Whites they defeated) were viewed as liberators. However, less than half a year after their arrival, rebellion on the part of the Chechens against the Bolsheviks flared up again, because it was discovered by the Chechens that "the Russian Bolsheviks were just a new kind of imperialist, in Communist disguise". Following the end of the conflict in 1921, the Chechnya-Ingushetia had been first made part of the Soviet Mountain Republic, and until it was disbanded in 1924 received the official status of an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union in 1936.
Demographics of the Czech Republic
According to the 2011 census there were 543,000 permanent (i.e. legal) foreign residents in the Czech Republic (5% of the total population). Residents from Ukraine are the largest group (118,000), followed by residents of Slovakia (84,000). There are also Asian minorities in the Czech Republic. The largest is the Vietnamese one (83,000 in 2011). During the communist era the governments of Czechoslovakia and Vietnam had a deal concerning the education of Vietnamese people in Czechoslovakia. Vietnamese people came to Czechoslovakia for the first time in 1956 and then the number of new migrants grew until the fall of communism. First generation Vietnamese work mostly as small-scale businessmen in markets. Still, many Vietnamese are without Czech citizenship. One of the towns with the largest Vietnamese communities is Cheb.
There are also many people from Russia (36,000), Germany (21,000) and Poland (18,000).The Czech language (divided into three dialects in Bohemia, four dialects in Moravia, and two dialects in Czech Silesia) is the official language of the state. There is also the transitional Cieszyn Silesian dialect as well as the Polish language in Cieszyn Silesia, both spoken in Czech Silesia. Various Sudeten German dialects are currently practically extinct: present Czech Germans speak mainly Czech or Standard German. Czech Sign Language is the language of most of the deaf community.
History of Chechnya
In 1958 officially the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was restored by a decree direct from Moscow, but in previous 1936 borders. For example, South Ossetia kept the Prigorodny District, instead the republic was "compensated" with ethnic Russian territory on the left-bank Terek, Naursky district and Shelkovsky Districts. Shelkovsky (Moxne in Chechen) in fact had a Chechen heritage before the invasion of the Cossacks, and Naursky (called Hovran in Chechen) also had Chechens in its Eastern regions before the Russian invasion, though the bulk of Naursky may have been instead Kabardins. Nonetheless, the Russian populace (especially the Cossacks) had come, over the years, to view the lands as being theirs, as they had not been dominantly Chechen (or anything besides Cossack) for well over a century at the time of the return of the Chechens.
Mountain Jews
In Chechnya, Mountain Jews partially assimilated into Chechen society by forming a Jewish teip, the Zhugtii while three other teips, the Shuonoi, Ziloi and Chartoi have also been theorized to have Jewish relations. In Chechen society, ethnic minorities residing in areas demographically dominated by Chechens have the option of forming a teip in order to properly participate in the developments of Chechen society such as making alliances and gaining representation in the "Mekhk Khell", a supreme ethnonational council that is occasionally compared to a parliament. Teips of minority-origin have also been made by ethnic Poles, Germans, Georgians, Kumyks, Russians, Kalmyks, Circassians, Andis, Avars, Dargins, Laks, Persians, Arabs, Ukrainians and Nogais, with the German teip having been formed as recently as the 1940s when Germans in Siberian exile living among Chechens assimilated.
Chechnya
Since 1990, the Chechen Republic has had many legal, military, and civil conflicts involving separatist movements and pro-Russian authorities. Today, Chechnya is a relatively stable federal republic, although there is still some separatist movement activity. Its regional constitution entered into effect on April 2, 2003, after an all-Chechen referendum was held n March 23, 2003. Some Chechens were controlled by regional teips, or clans, despite the existence of pro- and anti-Russian political structures.
Chechen
Chechen may refer to:
List of Chechen people
This is a partial list of notable Chechen people.
Nakh peoples
A 2011 study by Oleg Balanovsky and a number of other geneticists showed that the Y-DNA haplogroup J2a4b* (a subclade of J2, located mainly in the Middle East, Caucasus and Mediterranean) was highly associated with Nakh peoples. J2a4b* accounted for the majority of the Y-chromosomes of Ingush and Chechen men, with the Ingush having a much higher percentage, 87.4%, than Chechens, who had 51–58% depending on region (the lowest being in Malgobek, the highest in Dagestan and Achkhoy-Martan). In their paper, Balanovsky "et al." speculated that the differences between fraternal Caucasian populations may have arisen due to genetic drift, which would have had a greater effect among the Ingush than the Chechens due to their smaller population (another possible reason for the difference is the greater absorption of foreign peoples into the Chechen populace, reflecting an older theory that the Ingush are more 'archaic' than other Caucasian peoples). The Chechens and Ingush have the highest frequencies of J2a4b* yet reported (other relatively high frequencies, between 10 and 20 percent, are found in the Mediterranean and Georgia).
History of Chechnya
The main body of various Nakh tribes were surrounded by Georgians to the South, Alans to the North and West with Khazars beyond them, and various Dagestani peoples to the East. Those Nakh peoples who were in Georgia assimilated into Georgian society. The Nakh on the Northern side of the Greater Caucasus mountains, ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush, saw some southern tribes adopt Christianity due to Georgian influence in the fifth and sixth centuries, but they remained separate from Georgia. Instead, the areas that now make up Ingushetia and Chechnya were either ruled by Khazars, by Alans, by Dagestani peoples such as Avars or (later) Kumyks, or ruled by independent Nakh states such as Durdzuketia and Simsir.
Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book "The Gulag Archipelago", published in 1973, mentioned the Chechens: "They are a nation that refused to accept the psychology of submission... I never saw a Chechen seek to serve the authorities, or even to please them".
Chechens in Turkey
Chechens in Turkey (, ) are Turkish citizens of Chechen descent and Chechen refugees living in Turkey.
Romani people in the Czech Republic
Romani people (, commonly known as Gypsies ) are an ethnic minority in the Czech Republic, currently Roma making up 2–3% of the population. Originally migrants from North Western India sometime between the 6th and 11th centuries, they have long had a presence in the region. Since the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the Romani population have experienced considerable hardship, having been a main target of Nazi extermination programs during World War II, and the subject of forced relocation and other radical social policies during the Communist era. In the successor state, the Czech Republic, challenges remain for the Romani population with respect to education and poverty, and there are frequent tensions with the ethnically Czech majority population over issues including crime and integration.
History of Chechnya
The history of Chechnya may refer to the history of the Chechens, of their land Chechnya, or of the land of Ichkeria.
Chechens in Syria
Chechens in Syria are ethnic Chechens who form a small minority in Syria.
Nakh peoples
By rite, most Chechens are Qadiris, with a considerable Nakshbandi minority. There is also a tiny Salafi minority (Sunni sect). The two main groups (Salafism is more of a modern introduction to the region, and is still considered to be completely foreign) have often had divergent responses to events (for example, the Qadiri authorities initially backing the Bolsheviks after the promised to grant freedom to the Chechens from Russia; while the Nakshbandis were more sceptical of the Bolsheviks' sincerity). And some historic Iranian influence in Chechnya and Azerbaijan, which the majority of Iranians follow Shia Islam.
Nakh peoples
There is considerable tension among Chechens about religion. This largely asserts itself in the conflict between the pan-Islamist/Wahhabi/Salafi creed which vows to "cleanse Islam of impurity and syncretism" (i.e. de-Chechenize Islam in Chechnya to bring it more in line with global Islam), and those who view the indigenous form as superior, or otherwise as a national custom to be defended. Among the claimant governments for the land of Ichkeria, both the Western exiled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Russian installed Kadyrov regime are largely hostile to Wahhabism/Salafism, while the reaction of the Caucasus Emirate is considerably more positive, though still at times rather uncomfortable towards it (see certain statements by Dokka Umarov, for example). The Kadyrov government, meanwhile, opposes Wahhabism in name, but still rules Chechnya with a rather harsh interpretation of Sharia law, including banning of bare-headed women in public, mandatory Qu'ran study in schools (with the interpretation favored by the government promoted), the death penalty for suspected homosexuality and so on. The exiled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, meanwhile, has consistently stated both that the indigenous interpretation is a national trait (to be preserved) and that Ichkeria should be a secular national state, and while Islam may certainly be a part of the Chechen identity at times, it is certainly neither a requirement nor more important than any other aspect.
Chechens
Nakh peoples such as Chechens are thought to either be descended from original settlers of the Caucasus (North and/or South) or supposedly Nakh-speaking ethnic minorities in the north-eastern regions of the ancient state of Urartu (whose people also spoke a language that was possibly related to the Nakh languages). The two theories are not mutually incompatible, and there has been much evidence that seems to link both of the two together (either by dual origins or the "return" theory, in which the Nakh peoples originally lived in the Caucasus and then returned). Chechen genetics show a high level of genetic diversity (see section below).
Terek Cossacks
Cossacks and Russians, unsurprisingly, were staunch foes of Chechen independence from Russia. Chechens feared that Cossacks were variously plotting to undermine the independence which they saw as a desperate necessity and to detach a large part of their state. The chronic economic hardship of Chechnya during and after the Soviet period and the large income gap between Russians and Chechens before 1990 also worsened tensions. For these reasons and for the centuries of fighting between Cossacks and Chechens, ethnic relations were highly hostile.
Chechen Americans
Chechen Americans are Americans of Chechen descent. Chechen people have origins from Chechnya, a federal subject of Russia.
Chechnya
According to some Russian sources, from 1991 to 1994 tens of thousands of people of non-Chechen ethnicity (mostly Russians, Ukrainians, and Armenians) left the republic amidst reports of violence and discrimination against the non-Chechen population, as well as widespread lawlessness and ethnic cleansing under the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev.
Chechens
In particular, the Chechens are descended from the "Durdzuks", a group well known in the Georgian chronicles ("Dourts" in the Armenian version). Other groups linked Amjad Jaimoukha traces the name Durdzuk to an ancient city north of Lake Urmia, near Nakhichevan (Nakhichevan is thought to be a Nakh placename by some). Other groups attributed to being the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush include the "Kists" (in the Georgian chronicles), "Gargareans" (from the Nakh root "gergara"; reported by Strabo to have "returned" from the South Caucasus to the North Caucasus, fleeing the wars in the south) and the "Nakhchmateans" (Armenian chronicles).
History of Chechens in the Russian Empire
During the late 1860s and 1870s, a modest Chechen national awakening in literary circles occurred. The conflict with Russia and its final incorporation into the empire, however, brought about the formation of a modern, European, nationalist identity of some Chechen writers, though it ironically solidified their separation, mainly over politics, from the Ingush. The nation was held to be all-important, trumping religion, political belief, or any other such distinction.
In 1870, Chakh Akhiev wrote a compilation of Chechen and Ingush fairy tales (called "Chechen fairytales"). In 1872, Umalat Laudaev, an early Chechen nationalist, recorded the contemporary customs of the Chechens. Following in his footsteps, Chakh Akhiev did the same for their "brothers", the Ingush, the following year.
Chechen wolf
There is one myth that the mythological founder of the Chechen nation, Turpalo-Noxchuo (Chechen Hero, who Chechens are descended from "like sparks of steel"), was raised by a fabled, loving "Wolf Mother". Old Chechen lore holds that the sheep was actually originally created for the wolf to enjoy, but man "stole" the sheep from the wolf (this is rather interesting considering that many Chechens in the past have in fact been shepherds). According to the ethnographic historian Jaimoukha, in olden times Chechens used to observe a wolf cult that would prevent lupine raids on sheep, by observing Saturday as being a special day.
History of Chechnya
That the Chechens actually were allied to the Germans is highly questionable and usually dismissed as false. They did have contact with the Germans. However, there were profound ideological differences between the Chechens and the Nazis (self-determination versus imperialism), neither trusted the other. The Germans also courted the Coassacks, who were traditionally enemies of the Chechens. Mairbek Sheripov reportedly gave the Ostministerium a sharp warning that "if the liberation of the Caucasus meant only the exchange of one colonizer for another, the Caucasians would consider this [a theoretical fight pitting Chechens and other Caucasians against Germans] only a new stage in the national liberation war."
Caucasus Emirate
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Chechen nationalists, led by Dzhokhar Dudayev, declared the secession of Chechnya from Russia as an independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI). Following two devastating wars with the Russian Federation in the nineties, the ChRI fought an insurgency against the Russian forces and their Chechen allies from 2000, initially under the leadership of Aslan Maskhadov. Although the ChRI was largely founded by Sufi Muslims motivated by nationalism, over time the literalist Salafist form of Islam became increasingly popular with some Chechens, leading to a schism between nationalists and Salafists. As many of the original nationalist figures were killed by Russian forces, the insurgency took on an increasingly Salafist tone embodied by commanders like Shamil Basayev and the Arab fighter Khattab. Many of the surviving nationalists gave up the fight, and by the time Dokka Umarov was declared President of Ichkeria in June 2006, Islamists held increasing influence in the movement.
Chechen diaspora
Outside Russia, Chechens are mainly descendants of people who had to leave Chechnya during the 19th century Caucasian War (which led to the annexation of Chechnya by the Russian Empire) and the 1944 Stalinist deportation to the Soviet Central Asia in the case of Kazakhstan. More recently, tens of thousands of Chechen refugees settled in the European Union and elsewhere as the result of the First and Second Chechen Wars, especially in the wave of emigration to the West after 2002.
Chechens in France
Chechens in France is a small diaspora in France but one of the most important groups in the Chechen diaspora.
Kharotabad Incident
On 31 May 2011, the Vice Consul of Russian Consulate in Karachi, Mr Tural Dzhavadov, said that the five foreigners who died in Quetta were not Chechens. "Four of the five persons appear to be Russian nationals and one of them looks like a Tajik. They are not Chechens".
Chechen language
According to the Russian Census of 2010, 1,350,000 people reported being able to speak Chechen.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
The Tsarnaev family was forcibly moved from Chechnya to the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in the years following World War II. His father, Anzor Tsarnaev, is a Chechen, and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, is an Avar. The couple had two sons, Tamerlan, born in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1986, and Dzhokhar, born in Kyrgyzstan in 1993. The parents also have two daughters, Bella and Aliana. Anzor is a traditional Muslim who shuns religious extremism and raised his children as Muslims. According to some, other Chechen Americans in the area apparently did not consider the American branch of the family to be "fully" Chechen because they had never lived in Chechnya.
Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush
In spite of this, the Chechens intermittently demanded a restoration of their independence and rebelled again against the Russian Empire in 1878. During the era of the USSR, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Chechens rejected the collectivization and Sovietization policies of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. This social resistance was nicknamed the 'Chechen problem'. During this time, Moscow constantly changed their territory, until the Chechen and Ingush Autonomous Oblasts were merged into a single Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936.
Terloy
The Terloy (also Terlo, Teroy) (Chechen: ТIерлой, ТIерой) is a Chechen tukkhum. Nowadays the majority of the Terloy tribe reside in the western part of Chechnya – So'ljan district, Teh'a-Martan district, H'alha-Martan district, Akhmetovsky district of Georgia and in some villages of republic Ingushetia. But the origin place of Terloy tribe is in south-west Chechnya Terloy-Mohk, up on the mountains, Galanchoj district. There are no people living there since February 1944. All villages were destroyed by Soviet government and was forbidden to live there because the region was considered as rebellious and dangerous.
Terloy speak in Iton-Khelan dialect of Chechen language.
The name Terloy comes from the geographical place of origin. Ter – from up, loy – indicates to belonging to a group. The population demographics is not known exactly, but it is considered to have around 30,000 people.
Self-determination
Under Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechnya declared independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, using self-determination, Russia's history of bad treatment of Chechens, and a history of independence before invasion by Russia as main motives. Russia has restored control over Chechnya, but the separatist government functions still in exile, though it has been split into two entities: the Akhmed Zakayev-run secular Chechen Republic (based in Poland, the UK and the US), and the Islamic Caucasus Emirate.
Vainakhia
Vainakhia (Chechen Вайнехачоь, Vaynexaҫö; Russian Вайнахия, Vainakhia), a historical territory of Chechens and Ingush (Vainakhish peoples), is located in the Russian Caucasus. It includes the historic lands of Vainakh Chechnya, Ingushetia, the eastern part of North Ossetia and parts of north and west Dagestan. It has many historical sites. In 2004, rebels attempted to create a Vainakh republic by merging Chechnya and Ingushetia.
History of Chechens in the Russian Empire
In the 1860, Russia commenced with forced emigration to ethnically cleanse the region. Tsar Alexander II forced the exile of millions of Caucasians (including at least 100,000 Chechens) in 1860–1866. Although Circassians were the main (and most notorious) victims (hence the "Circassian Genocide"), the expulsions also gravely affected other peoples in the region. It was estimated that 80% of the Ingush left Ingushetia for the Middle East in 1865. Lowland Chechens as well were evicted in large numbers, and while many came back, the former Chechen Lowlands lacked their historical Chechen populations for a long period until Chechens were settled in the region during their return from their 1944–1957 deportation to Siberia. The Arshtins, at that time a (debatably) separate people, were completely wiped out as a distinct group: according to official documents, 1366 Arshtin families disappeared (i.e. either fled or were killed) and only 75 families remained. These 75 families, realizing the impossibility of existing as a nation of only hundreds of people, joined (or rejoined) the Chechen nation as the Erstkhoi tukkhum.
Chechen language
Chechen is a Northeast Caucasian language. Together with the closely related Ingush, with which there exists a large degree of mutual intelligibility and shared vocabulary, it forms the Vainakh branch.
Kist people
The Kists remained faithful to their family traditions and customs. To this day, they identify themselves as Chechen, and for official purposes declare themselves of Georgian nationality. They are typically bilingual in Chechen and Georgian.
Chechen mafia
The Chechen mafia (, "Noxçiyn mafi"; ) is one of the largest ethnic organized crime groups operating in the former Soviet Union next to established Russian mafia groups.
History of Chechnya
In the 1860s, Russia commenced with forced emigration as well to ethnically cleanse the region. Although Circassians were the main (and most notorious) victims, the expulsions also gravely affected other peoples in the region. It was estimated that 80% of the Ingush left Ingushetia for the Middle East in 1865. Lowland Chechens as well were evicted in large numbers, and while many came back, the former Chechen Lowlands lacked their historical Chechen populations for a long period until Chechens were settled in the region during their return from their 1944–1957 deportation to Siberia. The Arshtins, at that time a (debatably) separate people, were completely wiped out as a distinct group: according to official documents, 1366 Arshtin families disappeared (i.e. either fled or were killed) and only 75 families remained. These 75 families, realizing the impossibility of existing as a nation of only hundreds of people, joined (or rejoined) the Chechen nation as the Erstkhoi tukhum.
Demographics of the Czech Republic
The majority of the /1e6 round 1 million inhabitants of the Czech Republic are ethnically and linguistically Czech (95%). They are descendants of Slavic people from the Black Sea-Carpathian region who settled in Bohemia, Moravia and parts of present-day Austria in the 6th century AD. Other ethnic groups include Germans, Romani, Poles, and Hungarians. Historical minorities like Germans and Poles are declining due to assimilation. The Roma community is growing, while there is also a growing Vietnamese community. Other ethnic communities like Greeks, Turks, Italians, and Yugoslavs are found in the capital city, Prague. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovaks living in the Czech Republic have comprised roughly 3% of the population.
History of Chechens in the Russian Empire
Other notable early Chechen nationalists included Akhmetkhan, Ibraghim Sarakayev, Ismail Mutushev. Later Tsarist-era Chechen nationalists include the five Sheripov brothers, among others. Among these, Sarakayev, Mutushev, Akhmetkhan and Danilbek Sheripov were notably democratic-minded writers, while Danilbek's younger brother, Aslanbek, would adopt communism.
Grozny
Grozny became the administrative center of Grozny Oblast of the Russian SFSR, and the city at the time was again wholly Russian. In 1957, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was restored, and the Chechens were allowed to return. The return of the Chechens to Grozny, which had been lacking of Nakh for thirteen years, would cause massive disruptions to the social, economic and political systems of what had been a Russian city for the period until their return. This caused a self-feeding cycle of ethnic conflict between the two groups, both believing the other's presence in the city was illegitimate. Once again migration of non-Russians into Grozny continued whilst the ethnic Russian population, in turn, moved to other parts of the USSR, notably the Baltic states, after the inter-ethnic conflict broke briefly out in 1958.
According to sociologist Georgy Derluguyan, the Checheno-Ingush Republic's economy was divided into two spheres—much like French settler-ruled Algeria—and the Russian sphere had all the jobs with higher salaries, while non-Russians were systematically kept out of all government positions. Russians (as well as Ukrainians and Armenians) worked in education, health, oil, machinery, and social services. Non-Russians (excluding Ukrainians and Armenians) worked in agriculture, construction, a long host of undesirable jobs, as well as the so-called "informal sector" (i.e., illegal, due to the mass discrimination in the legal sector).
Grozny Oblast
As a result of this, by the mid-1970s a systematic emigration of Russians from the republic started, due to the social discirimation in favour of the only nationality (all administrative roles of Checheno-Ingushetia by the late 1970s were held by Chechens). By the end of the 1980s, Chechens formed the majority in all mountainous regions, and almost half of the population in traditional ethnic Russian/Cossack regions (left banks of the Terek and Sunzha Rivers, cities of Grozny and Gudermes) the catalyst was set for the mass ethnic cleansing of the Russian population that took place in the 1990s. Today Russians make up a tiny minority in both Chechnya and Ingushetia.
Teip
Teip (also taip and taipa; Vaynakh тайпа "taypa" : "family, kin, clan, tribe") is a Chechen and Ingush tribal organization or clan, self-identified through descent from a common ancestor and geographic location. There are about 130-233 teips (though some sources state that there may be as many as 300). More than 20 teips originated from newcomers, in particular Avars, Kumyks, Jews, Georgians, Russians, Turks, Ukrainians. The taips descending of non-Ingush or non-Chechen ancestors are called "impure teips" (in other languages: söli taypa, соьли тайпа). A teip's internal dynamic is based on honor, and blood feuds play a major role.
The teip membership and the tukkhum membership defined the social position of a Chechen. The lack of any affiliation of a person can be described as “This man has neither a teip nor a tukkhum”.
Chechens
Chechen culture puts a strong value on the concept of freedom. This asserts itself in a number of ways. A large majority of the nation's national heroes fought for independence (or otherwise, like the legendary Zelimkhan, robbed from the nation deemed the oppressor in order to feed Chechen children in a Robin Hood-like fashion). A common greeting in the Chechen language, "marsha oylla", is literally translated as "enter in freedom". The word for freedom also encompasses notions of peace and prosperity.
Itelmens
The Itelmens (Itelmen: Итәнмән, ) are an ethnic group native to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family, but it is now virtually extinct, the vast majority of ethnic Itelmens being native speakers of Russian. A. P. Volodin has published a grammar of the Itelmen language.
Chechen refugees
In 2003, some 33,000 Russian citizens (over 90% of them presumed to be Chechens) applied for asylum in the European Union (EU), according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, making them the largest group of new refugees arriving in developed nations. According to unofficial reports from January 2008, the number of Chechens in Europe may reach 70,000. According to another estimate from March 2009, there were some 130,000 Chechen refugees in Europe, including former fighters. In September 2009 Kadyrov said that Chechnya would open representative offices in Europe in an attempt to convince the Chechen migrant communities living there to return to their homeland.
Dagestan
With a population of 2,910,249, Dagestan is very ethnically diverse and Russia's most heterogeneous republic, with the largest ethnicity constituting less than 30% of the population. Largest among the ethnicities are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgian, Laks, Azerbaijani, Tabasaran, and Chechen. Ethnic Russians comprise about 3.6% of Dagestan's total population. Russian is the primary official language and the lingua franca among the ethnicities.
Nakh peoples
The Vainakh peoples (Russian: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush "our people"; also Chechen-Ingush) are the speakers of the Vainakh languages, chiefly the Chechen, Ingush and Kist peoples of the North Caucasus, including closely related minor or historical groups
Chechen refugees
Many ethnic Chechens have also moved to Moscow and other Russian cities. According to the 2008 study by the Norwegian Refugee Council, some 139,000 Chechens remained displaced in the Russian Federation.
Chechens
Since then, there have been various Chechen rebellions against Russian/Soviet power (including during the Russian Civil War and World War II), as well as nonviolent resistance to Russification and the Soviet Union's collectivization and anti-religion campaigns. In 1944, all Chechens, together with several other peoples of the Caucasus, were ordered by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to be ruthlessly deported "en masse" to the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs; and their republic and nation were abolished. At least one-quarter—and perhaps half—of the entire Chechen population perished in the process, and a severe blow was made to their culture and historical records. Though "rehabilitated" in 1956 and allowed to return the next year, the survivors lost economic resources and civil rights and, under both Soviet and post-Soviet governments, they have been the objects of both official and unofficial discrimination and discriminatory public discourse. Chechen attempts to regain independence in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union have led to the first and the second war with the new Russian state, starting in 1994.
Chechens
Chechens are a Nakh people, and discussion of their origins is intertwined with the discussion of the mysterious origins of Nakh peoples as a whole. The only two surviving (and fairly numerous) Nakh peoples are Chechens and Ingush, but they are thought by some scholars to be the remnants of what was once a larger family of peoples.
Chechens
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Russia embarked on full-scale conquest of the North Caucasus in the Caucasian War. Much of the campaign was led by General Yermolov who particularly disliked the Chechens, describing them as "a bold and dangerous people". Angered by Chechen raids, Yermolov resorted to a brutal policy of "scorched earth" and deportations; he also founded the fort of Grozny (now the capital of Chechnya) in 1818. Chechen resistance to Russian rule reached its peak under the leadership of the Dagestani leader Imam Shamil. The Chechens were finally defeated in 1861 after a bloody war that lasted for decades, during which they lost most of their entire population. In the aftermath, large numbers of refugees also emigrated or were forcibly deported to the Ottoman Empire.
Chechens
In 1989, 73.4% spoke Russian, though this figure has declined due to the wars for a large number of reasons (including the lack of proper education, the refusal to learn the language, and the mass dispersal of the Chechen diaspora due to the war). Chechens in the diaspora often speak the language of the country they live in (English, German, Arabic, Polish, Georgian, etc.).
Vilayat Galgaycho
The origins of the Vilayat Galgaycho can be found during the Ossetian-Ingush conflict. The Ingush are closely related to the Chechens. Both peoples are part of the Nakh tribes, speak Nakh languages and share a common culture, language, religions, and fates. Many of the Ingush lived in the Chechen capital of Grozny during the outbreak of the war and fought along with the Chechen separatists. They never aimed at creating their own separate unit as they were scattered among various Chechen units under the commands of Ruslan Gelayev and Shamil Basayev. These Ingush played a large role in the 1996 siege of Grozny; it took Russian forces over 15 months to capture Bamut, a former Soviet ICBM base, because of the impenetrable construction of the ICBM base installations and some help from Ingush rebels. Many Ingush think that it was Ruslan Aushev, then the president of Ingushetia, who officially opposed Russia's military campaign, and did everything possible not to let Ingush people to be dragged into full-scale war, that the conflict did not spread to Ingushetia and didn't cost additional Russian and Ossetian lives.
Chechen Americans
They are a small minority group with a population numbering only several hundred, as of 2013. Exact statistics are difficult to obtain because Chechens are categorized as Russians in asylee reports. The most significant Chechen communities are in the Boston, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Los Angeles areas.
History of Chechnya
Chechens were greatly disadvantaged in their homeland even after being allowed to return. There were no Chechen-language schools in their own homeland until 1990, leading to the crippling effect of lack of education of the populace (which did not universally understand Russian). According to sociologist Georgi Derluguian, the Checheno-Ingush Republic's economy was divided into two spheres -much like French settler-ruled Algeria- and the Russian sphere had all the jobs with higher salaries., and non-Russians were systematically kept out of all government positions. Russians (as well as Ukrainians and Armenians) worked in education, health, oil, machinery, and social services. Non-Russians (excluding Ukrainians and Armenians) worked in agriculture, construction, a long host of undesirable jobs, as well as the so-called "informal sector" (i.e., illegal, due to the mass discrimination in the legal sector). Due to rapid population growth among the non-Russians, combined with unfavorable economic conditions, the non-Russian population frequently engaged in the practice known is Russian as "shabashka", the unofficial migration of republic minorities for economic reasons. This diaspora often later engaged in organized crime partly due to poverty and job discrimination, and the justification that they were only regaining the money that was stolen from them by the Russian elite in their homeland by its institutionalized discrimination. Derluguian (see citation above) describes this further as one of the main causes of the rebirth of the concept of Chechen nationalism in a much more unity-oriented form (that is, unity between Chechens, and Ingush if they want to be part of it).
Nadterechny District
Nadterechny District (; ) is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the fifteen in the Chechen Republic, Russia. It is located in the northwest of the republic. The area of the district is . Its administrative center is the rural locality (a "selo") of Znamenskoye. Population: 51,755 (2002 Census); The population of Znamenskoye accounts for 18.4% of the district's total population.
History of Chechnya
However, like other peoples, divisions arose among the Chechens. The differentiation between classes had by now arisen (or re-arisen) and notably, alliances between the Russians (and other "inogorodtsy") were also splintered. This combined with the ethnic division of Chechnya- between the natives as well as other non-Christian minorities, the "old colonists" (i.e. Cossacks) and the "recent colonists" (non-Cossack Russians), combined with the political divisions among each group, led to a complicated conflict pitting many different forces against each other. At only one year into the conflict, five distinct forces with separate interests had formed with influence in Chechnya: the Terek Cossacks, the "Bourgeois" Chechens following Tapa Chermoev, the Qadiri Communist-Islamists under Ali Mitayev, the urban Russian Bolsheviks in Groznyi, and lastly the relatively insignificant Naqshbandis with loyalties to Islamists in Dagestan.
Demographics of Turkey
Towards the end of the Caucasian War (1817–1864), many Chechens fled their homelands in the North Caucasus and settled in the Ottoman Empire. Chechens number from tens or hundreds of thousands.
Chechens
A stereotype of an average Chechen being a fundamentalist Muslim is incorrect and misleading. By the late 2000s, however, two new trends have emerged in Chechnya. A radicalized remnant of the armed Chechen separatist movement has become dominated by Salafis (popularly known in Russia as Wahhabis and present in Chechnya in small numbers since the 1990s), mostly abandoning nationalism in favor of Pan-Islamism and merging with several other regional Islamic insurgencies to form the Caucasus Emirate. At the same time, Chechnya under Moscow-backed authoritarian rule of Ramzan Kadyrov has undergone its own controversial counter-campaign of Islamization of the republic, with the local government actively promoting and enforcing their own version of a so-called "traditional Islam", including introducing elements of Sharia that replaced Russian official laws.
Chechnya
At the end of the Soviet era, ethnic Russians (including Cossacks) comprised about 23% of the population (269,000 in 1989).
Chechnya
Islam is the predominant religion in Chechnya, practiced by 95% of those polled in Grozny in 2010. Chechens are overwhelmingly adherents to the Shafi'i Madhhab of Sunni Islam, the republic having converted to Islam between the 16th and the 19th centuries. Due to historical importance, many Chechens are Sufis, of either the Qadiri or Naqshbandi orders. Most of the population follows either the Shafi'i or the Hanafi, schools of jurisprudence, fiqh. The Shafi'i school of jurisprudence has a long tradition among the Chechens, and thus it remains the most practiced.
Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
As of 1979 census, its territory was 19,300 km² and population of 611,405 being Chechens, 134,744 Ingushes, the rest being Russians and other ethnic groups.
Chechens
The Nakh languages are a subgroup of Northeast Caucasian, and as such are related to Nakho-Dagestanian family, including the languages of the Avars, Dargins, Lezghins, Laks, etc.
However, this relationship is not a close one: the Nakho-Dagestani family is of comparable or greater time-depth than Indo-European, meaning Chechens are only as linguistically related to Avars or Dargins as the French are to the Russians or Iranians.
Chechen Kurds
Chechen families were first settled in other regions of the Ottoman Empire like the Balkans, but were since moved to Kurdistan by the Sublime Porte. The Ottomans planted Chechen refugees in Kurdistan and Western Armenia to change the demographics, since they feared Armenian separatism and later on Kurdish separatism. The Chechen refugees intermingled with both the local Armenian and Kurdish population, but since the Armenian genocide resulted in the perishment of Armenians from the region, the Chechens only went through a kurdification.
Čačak
Ethnically, the city is largely inhabited by Serbs (95.3%), followed by Roma, Montenegrins and other ethnic groups. The ethnic composition of the city:
From 1885, when Čačak had a population of only 3,000, a small groups of Armenians began settling in town. They mostly originated from the villages of Kemah and Nerkin Bagarij (or Pakarish), near Erzincan in Ottoman Empire, fleeing the forcible draft into the Ottoman army and the general oppression against the Armenians in the empire. The first Armenian in Čačak was Arut Nigosjan, who worked as "tahmiščija", a coffee roaster/grinder. He was followed by the families of Sarkisjan (later changed name to Sarkisović), Nikolić, Sukjasjan, Bricki, Berberjan and Lazarjan, with most of them working in the coffee business. Lazarjan family was the best known Armenian family in Čačak as they expanded their business from just coffee to the grocery stores and were among the founders of the local Red Cross organization. New Communist authorities after World War II, in the massive process of nationalization, confiscated the Armenian businesses in 1948 so some of them emigrated abroad. In time, the Armenians began naming their children with Serbian names and blended with the rest of the population. The book, "Jermeni u Čačku 1885-1950" ("Armenians in Čačak 1885-1950") was published by Marijana Matović in 2018.
History of Chechnya
The experience (in addition to previous memories of conflicts with the Russian state) of the starvation in the 1930s, of Aardakh in 1944 and of the ethnic conflict with the Russian populace after the return from exodus had, according to Derluguian, Wood and others, allowed for the unification of loyalties. Bridges were made between taip, vird, and the like, and relationships were forged with prisonmates, partners in crime, among members of Chechen mafias in Russia, among members of labour teams, while the importance of taip and vird diminished due to the pressures of modernization. The Chechen narrative increasingly took the stance of a united Chechen struggle to escape once and for all the perceived oppression by the Russian state and to escape future hardships. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power as the leader in the Soviet Union, and pursued a policy of openness and non-censorship of controversial issues. This allowed all of these issues to come to the forefront, as Chechen organizations became less and less reserved in their rhetoric and began saying what they had thought the whole time: that Chechens were persecuted time and time again, and continued to be, and that the Russian state was at fault. And the "Question" was asked: how can the Chechen people once and for all escape future persecution?
History of Chechnya
The answer to this "Question" came as independence in the perestroika period when the first Caucasian nationalist movement (in fact, predating all other formalized movements in all parts of the USSR except the Baltic states and Georgia), named Kavkaz was established in 1987. Explicitly Chechen national movements were established a year later, notably including the Vainakh Democratic Party (VDP, though its goal of a unified Vainakh state ended in 1993 with Ingushetia's secession), and its trade union, named (of all things) "Bart" (unity in Chechen), established in 1989 The first target for Chechen historians was the Russian-fabricated myth of Chechens and Ingush voluntarily joining Russia.
Chernarus
The people of Chernarus are referred to as Chernarussians, which is also the name of the predominant ethnic group of the country. The country is home to a sizable Russian minority, particularly in the South Zagoria region. Ethnic Chernarussians speak Chernarussian, which is essentially Czech written with a Cyrillic alphabet. In the game's 2009, the South Zagoria is home to a Communist insurgency led by the Chernarussian Red Star Movement (ChDKZ, pronounced "Chedaki"), among inter-ethnic tensions between Chernarussians and Russians residing there. Chernarus has its own national anthem, based on the Soviet song "Березы" ().
Teip
Historically, if non-Chechen minorities living in Chechen lands wanted to take part in the political processes of the Chechen nation, and integrate into it, they would request admittance as an ethnic teip. They would continue, for a time, to speak their other languages, but also learned Chechen. Due to the encouragement of teip exogamy, as the generations passed, they would come to be heavily intermarried into the Chechen nation and as a result, be slowly Chechenized culturally and linguistically. The level of Chechenization varies between these foreign-origin teips, with some well-preserving their cultural traits and others not. They are nonetheless known as impure teips (not in a derogatory sense), for their foreign origin. Their loyalty to the nation is not any more in question than a Chechen-origin teip.
Borozdinovskaya operation
Borozdinovskaya is a large village in Shelkovsky District, close to the border with Dagestan near Chechnya's easternmost point, with a predominantly Avar (a Dagestani people) ethnic minority population of around 1,000 people. According to residents of Borozdinovskaya, the ethnic conflict in the area began in the mid-1990s during Chechnya's "de facto" independence, when many ethnic minorities such as Dagestanis and Russians were being discriminated against by the Chechens, or otherwise pressured to leave by the poor economic conditions and destruction resulting from the First Chechen War. A local Avar strongman named Shapi Mikatov created an armed militia that effectively protected the village from what they called the 'Chechen gangs,' including the men of Sulim Yamadayev, at the time considered most powerful separatist warlord in eastern Chechnya. According to Hussein Nutayev, the pro-Russian head of Shelkovsky District in 2004, Mikatov's militia was rather "a criminal group we call the Avar jamaat ... headed by the infamous warlord Mitabov, who is accused of numerous murders and kidnappings." Mikatov was allegedly killed in 1998, and the following year the Yamadayev brothers accepted an offer to lead the Special Battalion Vostok, effectively changing sides in the conflict from the separatist side to the Russian side. The Special Battalion Vostok was a predominantly ethnic Chechen Spetsnaz unit of the GRU, the Russian foreign military intelligence agency, and operated throughout eastern Chechnya. Since then, residents claimed they began to be targeted by pro-Russian Chechen forces, and the inter-ethnic tensions escalated further when Chechen authorities began resettling displaced persons from Nozhay-Yurtovsky District in the village.
Chelkans
The Chelkans (native name - Shalgan) are a small Turkic people living in southern Siberia. Those residing in Altai Republic are sometimes grouped together with the Altay ethnic group and those in Kemerovo Oblast are grouped with the Shors; however, they are recognized as a separate ethnic group by ethnographers. According to the 2010 census, there were 1,181 Chelkans in Russia.
Chechens
Genetic tests on Chechens, though sparse and not sufficiently thorough so far, have shown roots mostly in the Caucasus as well as slight connections to and influences from the Middle East as well as Europe. As is the case with many other Caucasian peoples, Chechens are broadly connected with Europe on the Y-DNA (the paternal side) from all European regions, but narrowly closer to Western Europe in terms of mitochondrial DNA (the maternal side).
Chechnya
However, regarding this exodus, there is an alternative view. According to the Russian economists Boris Lvin and Andrei Iliaronov,
The Chechen authorities are regularly accused of crimes against the population, especially the Russian-speaking people. However, before the current war the emigration of the Russian-speaking population from Chechnya was no more intense than that from Kalmykia, Tuva and Sakha-Yakutia. In Grozny itself there remained a 200,000 strong Russian-speaking population which did not hasten to leave it.
The languages used in the Republic are Chechen and Russian. Chechen belongs to the Vaynakh or North-central Caucasian language family, which also includes Ingush and Batsb. Some scholars place it in a wider Iberian-Caucasian super-family.
First Chechen War
However, the issue of contention was not independence from Russia: even the opposition stated there was no alternative to an international boundary separating Chechnya from Russia. In 1992, Russian newspaper "Moscow News" made note that, just like most of the other seceding republics except for Tatarstan, ethnic Chechens universally supported the establishment of an independent Chechen state. Again, in 1995, during the heat of the First Chechen War, Khalid Delmayev, an anti-Dudayev belonging to an Ichkerian liberal coalition, stated that "Chechnya's statehood may be postponed... but cannot be avoided". Opposition to Dudayev came mainly due to his domestic policy and personality: he once notoriously claimed that Russia intended to destabilize his nation by "artificially creating earthquakes" in Georgia and Armenia. This did not go off well with most Chechens, who came to view him as a national embarrassment at times (if still a patriot at others), but it did not, by any means, dismantle the determination for independence, as most Western commentators note.
History of Chechnya
The NKVD gives the statistic of 144,704 people killed in 1944–1948 alone (death rate of 23.5% per all groups), though this is dismissed by many authors such as Tony Wood, John Dunlop, Moshe Gammer and others as a far understatement. Estimates for deaths of the Chechens alone (excluding the NKVD statistic), range from about 170,000 to 200,000, thus ranging from over a third of the total Chechen population to nearly half being killed in those 4 years alone (rates for other groups for those four years hover around 20%). Although the Council of Europe has recognized it as a "genocidal act", no country except the self-declared, unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria officially recognizes the act as a genocide.
Germans in the Czech Republic
In the 2001 census, 39,106 Czech citizens, or around 0.4% of the Czech Republic's total population, declared German ethnicity. In 2011 the census methodology changed and it was newly possible to declare multiple ethnicities or none at all: 25% of the citizens chose the option of not declaring ethnicity. In this census 18,658 citizens declared German as its sole ethnicity, while another 6,563 in combination with another ethnicity. According to regional statistics the largest number of citizens with German ethnicity is 4,431 in Karlovy Vary Region (1.5% of total population in this region). On district level the largest share is in Sokolov District (2.3%) followed by Karlovy Vary District (1.2%), both in Karlovy Vary Region. Today's Germans in the Czech republic form a small minority, remaining after the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans who had formed a majority in several areas of the Czech republic.
History of Chechnya
The habit of raids done by the Chechens (and to a lesser extent Ingush) against Cossacks, by the 20th century, had more or less become a cultural tradition. Both hatred of the oppressor (Chechens generally failed to see the distinction between Russian and Cossack, and to this day they may be used as synonyms) and the need to either fill the mouths of hungry children and to regain lost lands played a role. The Chechen raiders, known as "abreks" were the focal point of this conflict and are almost symbolic of the two different viewpoints. The Russian view on the "abreks" is that they were simple mountain bandits, a typical example of Chechen barbarism (often compared to Russian "civilization", with general Colonialist racist vocabulary); they were depicted as rapists and murderers by Russian authors. The Chechen view is that they were heroes of valor, much like Robin Hood. As Moshe Gammer points out in his book "Lone Wolf and Bear", Soviet ideology fell somewhere in between the two views- and notably, one such "abrek", Zelimkhan, was deified.
Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush
A local report from 1961 indicated that out of 524,000 Vainakhs, 432,000 had resettled to the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, 28,000 to Dagestan and 8,000 to North Ossetiya. However, ethnic clashes continued even in the 1960s: in 1965 alone, 16 such clashes were recorded, resulting in 185 injuries and 19 fatalities. Chechens were greatly disadvantaged after being allowed to return. There were no Chechen-language schools, leading to a lack of education of the populace (which did not universally understand Russian). According to sociologist Georgi Derluguyan, the Checheno-Ingush Republic's economy was divided into two spheres, in which the Russian sphere had all the jobs with higher salaries in the urban areas: no Chechen cadre was promoted to a top position all until 1989. In the 1960s, in order to finance their families, some forty thousand men temporarily migrated from Chechen-Ingushetia each year to find part-time jobs in Kazakhstan and Siberia, thanks to their contacts from the time of their exile. On paper, the Chechen-Ingush Republic enjoyed the same privileges as other Soviet ASSRs, but in reality it had very little actual Chechens or Ingush representing its government, which was run directly by the Russians. Despite being rich with oil, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR remained the second poorest region of the entire USSR. Yusup Soslambekov, a chairman of the Chechen parliament after 1991, lamented that his people returned from exile to their homes "not as masters of that land but as mere inhabitants, tenants. Other people took our jobs in our factories".