Ethics of qunaqship for interethnic harmony

In Kabardino-Balkaria another stage of the “Qunaqship” youth project has been completed Kabardian, Balkarian and Russian senior pupils families from different regions of the republic have participated in the project. The program’s essence is that pupils spend several days in "strange" families, thus conceiving their neighbors’ traditions and mentality from within. At the same time, cultural and ethnographical events devoted to national cultures and cuisines of Kabardinians, Balkars and Russians are carried out in the republic.

A custom once widespread in the North Caucasus has been revived for the sake of interethnic harmony. According to this custom, two men belonging to different clans, tribes or peoples, establish close friendly relations and support and protect each other. Members of the Ministry of Information Communications of Kabardino-Balkaria hope that soon qunaqship will become not only a mass, but also a spontaneous process, and the desire for establishing friendship between people of different nationalities will start arising by itself,  not just in the framework of the social project.

The ethics of qunaqship is considered the basis for relations between peoples also among the Vaynakhs. The Ingush sealed sworn brotherhood by exchanging weapons. This oath was unbreakable, people remained faithful to the oath whatever happened. Such  friendship often passed down from father to son. Chechens revered qunaqship equally with kinship, but treatment of friends even more responsibly than that of relatives.
Displays of discourtesy in relation to a brother were considered pardonable, but those expressed to a friend(qunaq) were considered unforgivable. To swear brotherhood,  the Chechens either gave a solemn oath in the presence of a "third party" or put a golden ring into a bowl, drinking milk from it. The ring symbolized fidelity and was put into a bowl so that friendship didn’t become rusty. The third way to conclude a friendly alliance was the bonding of blood (sworn brothers cut their fingers and mixed drops of blood). Having performed the abovementioned ritual, sworn brothers exchanged sabres, bashlyks, and felt cloaks and told their families and friends about the rite performed.

Kunachestvo was widely spread not only among Vainakhs, Balkars and Kabardins, but also among the Georgians and Ossetians. An expert specializing in Caucasus studies, Boris Kaloyev, wrote: "Any member of these peoples could become a qunaq to the Ossetian, and after joining with Russia and the founding of Cossack settlements in the plains of Ossetia, Russians could also become their qunaqs.” Qunaqship has played an important role in the espread of foreign languages, especially Georgian and Russian, as well as several cultural
achievements and traditions of the Russian and Georgian peoples in Ossetia. Some Ossetians bring their children to their qunaq Russian families for their offspring to learn Russian.

Mustafa Konakov writes: “The institutions of hospitality and qunaqship are foundations for the development of close and comprehensive cooperation between the Russian people and the peoples of the Caucasus in various fields of communication. Qunaqship embodied the traditional techniques of highland diplomacy. Qunaqship was a major component in the constant search for formulas of survival and compromise”. The author, the police chief of the Cherek district of Kabardino-Balkaria, was killed by Chechen militants.