Aliy Totorkulov: we want our youth to have moral values

Welcome to the program Take My Word, I am Oleg Kusov. Today our guest is a politician, businessman, philanthropist and head of the Presidium of the Russian Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus, the president of the Foundation for Assistance to Karachai-Balkar youth "Elbrusoid", member of the Presidium of the Council of Nationalities of the Government of Moscow Aliy Totorkulov. Good afternoon, Aliy!

- Hello!

- I propose starting the conversation with "Elbrusoid". What are the objectives of this fund? The aims? How did it appear? And the name is very interesting.

- In the full name of the fund you can read the goals and objectives. This fund is created to assist the Karachai-Balkar youth in education, promotion, training, as they say, it is for advanced youth. And it appeared 11 years ago in Moscow. In principle, it was created for young Muscovites who live, learn, work here. Young people want something different, would get together to make their own website. And this idea gradually developed into a fund that got from Moscow to the Caucasus. We have branches in Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia. In March this year we opened a branch in Stavropol. We have "Elbrusoid on the Neva," it is not a direct subsidiary of ours, but also the same friendly organization in St. Petersburg. Active youngsters. We try to support young people in education, creative, scientific youth, to steer them in the right direction, in the direction of integration. And, naturally, the Karachai-Balkar youth here know each other. In general, this was the goal of the fund. And it is 11 years old, thank God, it works.

- Educational and social objectives.

- We have three pillars - morality, education and patriotism. We want our youth to be moral, highly educated and, of course, patriotic.

- I remember well the processes in the 1990s in the North Caucasus, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and then, in these hard times even the public association Karachai-Balkar by some politicians, journalists, experts were regarded as something on the verge of separatism, nationalism, an attempt to split the two republics. Even the local authorities treated such associations with suspicion. Today do you never hear such allegations? That you want to rearrange the two republics?

- I do not think it's a great bother. I see nothing criminal if the Karachays and Balkars want to create a common republic. We have, for example, Karachai, Balkar, Ossetians who created a public organization "Alan", which included everyone.

- Did it happen in Karachayevsk?

- No, this is a long-established, old organization "Alan", which is in Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia. That's not to say that we are all now gathered to unite. It is a natural desire of a people - to live in the same country. Another thing that we, thank God, do not live in different countries. We live in neighboring republics. And we just geographically understand that between us there is Elbrus, and in order to be in the same country, it is necessary to go around through Stavropol Territory, through Kabardino and so on. We all want us to have one informational and cultural space. And since we live in one country, there is no strict need to create a republic.

- That is to say, in principle, the question is moved to another plan, yes?

- Honestly, I have not paid much attention to it. Because I understand that it is really impossible to do, hard to do. But there is no such desire. While the desire to live in one country is understandable. For example, Ossetians - South Ossetia and North Ossetia republic want to be together.

- This is how it all began in South Ossetia. They did not plan their future as an independent state. Only in North Ossetia.

- I do not see anything wrong. Naturally, there are always people who are dissatisfied with something. We have, for example, Kabardinians in Kabardino-Balkaria, Circassians in Karachay-Cherkessia, Adygs in the Adygei Republic, Shapsugs near Sochi - they are more scattered than the Karachai-Balkar, among them there are long distances. And then, they have a desire to create one republic. And I can understand it. Another thing is that you have to be realistic and understand whether it is possible.

- Do not rush the process. Then let's get away from the politics of cultural and ethnic themes. Are Karachays and Balkars close nationalities? Is their language close? How close are their traditions?

- You know, Karachays and Balkars are almost one people. It just so happened historically that they separated. Tatar-Mongols, Tamerlane, Timur the Lame went through the Caucasus, then there was, as in Europe and elsewhere, the plague that took away so many lives. And it happened that Karachays and Balkars ended up on different sides of Elbrus. While before they had been on the same one. And it so happened that Balkars stayed on one side of Elbrus, Karachays on the other.

- Their area of residence has changed, right?

- It narrowed. And on this basis, it happened that already for 200 years we have been called Karachays and Balkars. But we have one language, culture and traditions - they are all the same. Again, I can cite the example of the Ossetians. Ossetians are divided into several groups and there are different dialects. We also have three dialects. Some say "dzh", some "zh", some "z". But in general, if you look at the language, it is almost 100% identical, only in Balkaria, maybe more than one word is used, we have different meanings. But this is due to the fact that we have long lived apart.

- Not communicating with each other.

- Yes. And so, we assume, are the Chechens and Ingush. Everyone knows that these are fraternal peoples, but their differences are much greater than that of Karachay and Balkar. We have virtually no differences. And culturally, historically, fairy tales, we do not distinguish between Karachay and Balkar tales. It is impossible to say: "This is a purely Karachai tale" or "This is purely Balkar."

- The folklore is the same?

- Yes. And the songs. I just do not see any difference, except in dialects. And because of the mentality, due to the fact that we lived apart for many years, as they say, Balkars are softer, calmer than Karachays. Karachays, in this respect, are probably more violent people.
- The character is different. As North and South Ossetians have different characters. South Ossetians are more passionate, more mobile. Northerners have a Russian cultural environment that made ​​them calmer. Apparently, it is something similar to Karachays and Balkars.

- Yes. But it's nuances, so we are one people.

- Karachay-Cherkessia is a multinational republic. There are not only the Karachais and Circassians, there is a large Russian population and Abaza.

- Abaza, Nogais.

- Still, after all, this country, thank God, was able to avoid internal ethnic strife. This experience of interethnic accord, can we say that it exists in the country and could be applicable to other areas?

- Small misunderstandings happen even in the same family, not to mention among different peoples. But in Karachay-Cherkessia, thank God, it has been calm over the last decade - when we constantly hear about shooting in the Caucasus. The village in which I grew up is called New Karachai. And near our village, across the river Kuban, there is Costa Khetagurova Ossetian village, then a Russian village, then the settlement of Ordzhonikidze, then the Circassian village of Humara. And we lived like that from childhood. There are certainly areas of Karachay, of Circassians, Cossack villages. It happened like this in Karachay-Cherkessia. I want to say that, for national peace and harmony, in the past decade we have created two ethnic districts - the Abaza area and the Nogai district - in areas where these ethnic groups live. And if you do not talk about any extremes of some nationalists, almost all the people who live in Karachay-Cherkessia - Abazins, Nogais, Karachais, Cherkassians, Russians, Ossetians and Greeks - live in peace. That's enough representatives of many nations and, thank God, we have no problems.