On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords, disbanding the USSR and forming the CIS. Two and a half weeks later, eight more republics joined the new agreement. The participants at a round-table conference entitled “The South Caucasus and new tendencies in the transformation of post-Soviet space”, organized by the MSU History Faculty, Vestnik Kavkaza and the North-South Politological Center, have discussed the lessons of the past decades, disintegration of the “empire,” conflicts on the post-USSR territories and other problems.
Ismail Agakishiyev, a docent of the MSU History Faculty, an expert of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that there was not a single place in the Caucasus that at least three people would not be claiming as their own. “We can say that about the North Caucasus too, where one patch of land may be disputed by Ossetians, Ingushetians and Chechens. This is normal, because the Caucasus is a densely-populated territory. In its time, Moskovsky Komsomolets came up with a strange term that quickly spread – “a face of Caucasian nationality,” but I would like to recall the words of Ramazan Abdulatipov that, thank God, the Caucasus keeps its face,” said Agakishiyev.
He disagrees that the Caucasus is a conflictive region inhabited by people prone to conflicts. “Yes, the Caucasus is populated by temperamental, hot-tempered people. But the countries of the South Caucasus are quite young. Not one of them has a real army that could guarantee security from the threats of larger established countries. The problems of the young countries of the South Caucasus are not in being prone to conflicts, they are in the lack of a strong state that could enforce territorial integrity, withstand stronger states pursuing the divide-and-rule-principle of foreign policy.”
The expert believes that the divide-and-rule principle is being implemented in modern Ukraine: “We know who the war is waged against. We know the interests of the countries that imposed sanctions on Russia. We know what is being decided. But calling Ukrainians a very conflictive nation is hard. New tendencies prove again that we need to negotiate, all of us. Russia with Ukraine, Armenia with Azerbaijan, Georgians with Abkhazians and Ossetians.”
The legal interests of people encourage this, assumes Agakishiyev: “Let’s say interethnic marriages. An Armenian and an Azerbaijani. What do they do? Or Abkhazia, where over 50% of interethnic marriages are between Georgians and Abkhazians. There are many such marriages in South Ossetia.”
According to the expert, “the sides to a conflict need to negotiate. We should control events, events should not control us. A lot depends on every one of us. We cannot look at each other with hostility, we need to understand that a man of a certain nationality did not pick his parents. Radicals, nationalists and extremists must not be associated with a whole nation. If we seek opportunities to negotiate, we will find them and come to an agreement for sure. And then no one will draw distinctions between Caucasians, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Arabs, Kurds, Turks, or have interethnic hostilities between each other."
Says Ismail AgakishiyevOn December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords, disbanding the USSR and forming the CIS. Two and a half weeks later, eight more republics joined the new agreement. The participants at a round-table conference entitled “The South Caucasus and new tendencies in the transformation of post-Soviet space”, organized by the MSU History Faculty, Vestnik Kavkaza and the North-South Politological Center, have discussed the lessons of the past decades, disintegration of the “empire,” conflicts on the post-USSR territories and other problems.Ismail Agakishiyev, a docent of the MSU History Faculty, an expert of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that there was not a single place in the Caucasus that at least three people would not be claiming as their own. “We can say that about the North Caucasus too, where one patch of land may be disputed by Ossetians, Ingushetians and Chechens. This is normal, because the Caucasus is a densely-populated territory. In its time, Moskovsky Komsomolets came up with a strange term that quickly spread – “a face of Caucasian nationality,” but I would like to recall the words of Ramazan Abdulatipov that, thank God, the Caucasus keeps its face,” said Agakishiyev.He disagrees that the Caucasus is a conflictive region inhabited by people prone to conflicts. “Yes, the Caucasus is populated by temperamental, hot-tempered people. But the countries of the South Caucasus are quite young. Not one of them has a real army that could guarantee security from the threats of larger established countries. The problems of the young countries of the South Caucasus are not in being prone to conflicts, they are in the lack of a strong state that could enforce territorial integrity, withstand stronger states pursuing the divide-and-rule-principle of foreign policy.”The expert believes that the divide-and-rule principle is being implemented in modern Ukraine: “We know who the war is waged against. We know the interests of the countries that imposed sanctions on Russia. We know what is being decided. But calling Ukrainians a very conflictive nation is hard. New tendencies prove again that we need to negotiate, all of us. Russia with Ukraine, Armenia with Azerbaijan, Georgians with Abkhazians and Ossetians.”The legal interests of people encourage this, assumes Agakishiyev: “Let’s say interethnic marriages. An Armenian and an Azerbaijani. What do they do? Or Abkhazia, where over 50% of interethnic marriages are between Georgians and Abkhazians. There are many such marriages in South Ossetia.”According to the expert, “the sides to a conflict need to negotiate. We should control events, events should not control us. A lot depends on every one of us. We cannot look at each other with hostility, we need to understand that a man of a certain nationality did not pick his parents. Radicals, nationalists and extremists must not be associated with a whole nation. If we seek opportunities to negotiate, we will find them and come to an agreement for sure. And then no one will draw distinctions between Caucasians, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Arabs, Kurds, Turks, or have interethnic hostilities between each othe
