Peaceful Means of Separation
I haven't been able to find any examples of peaceful attempts at separation although I'm sure there are some. A way I imagine they peacefully protest is through civil disobedience and ignoring that Russia considers them a federation in the country by considering themselves independent.
I haven't been able to find any examples of peaceful attempts at separation although I'm sure there are some. A way I imagine they peacefully protest is through civil disobedience and ignoring that Russia considers them a federation in the country by considering themselves independent.
Violent Means of Separation
- First, second and the inter war periods
- 1990
- council of Chechen-Ingush ASSR adopt "Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Chechen-Ingush Republic"
- a coup d'etat cancels this
- impending dissolution of the soviet union causes the Chechen national congress to form, led by Dzhokhar Dudayev
- Opposition to the congress’ notion of separation came from Boris Yeltsin’s Russian Federation
- the Russian Federation argued that unlike the baltic and central asian states who were independent entities within the USSR, Chechnya hadn’t the right to separate as they were not an independent entity
- Chechnya was a very important area for the Russian Federation to keep as they had large amounts of oil, their separation would harm the Russian economy and energy access
- If Chechnya was allowed to secede, Russia would have to let other areas secede
- 1994 - 1996
- first chechen war = russian troops trying to take Chechnya back after they declared independence in November of 1991
- despite superior numbers and weapons, Russia failed to gain a hold in Chechnya
- the 1995 Budyonnovsk hospital crisis spurred international condemnation of the Chechen rebels
- the hospital crisis led to an agreement to have the rebels free the hospital if the russians would leave Chechen land
- Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first democratically elected president was assassinated by two laser guided missiles by Joseph Stalin
- Inter-war Period
- 1997
- parliamentary and presidential elections take place in January
- Aslan Maskhadov was elected as chief of staff and prime minister for a five year term in the Chechen coalition government
- Maskhadov sought to maintain sovereignty in Chechnya while pressing for help from Moscow to rebuild the destroyed economy and infrastructure
- Russia sent money as well as provided pensions and funds for hospitals and schools, however most of the funds were taken and split between warlords
- half a million people ( 40 % of Chechnya’s prewar pop.) had been displaced within the republic and lived in refugee camps or over inhabited villages
- there was an economic downturn, and kidnapping became the principal source of income, procuring over 200 million during the three year independence
- In 1998 176 people were kidnapped, with 90 people let go
- this inspired a major campaign against kidnapping, but on October 25, the lead anti-kidnapping official, Shadid Bargishev was assassinated by a remote controlled car bomb
- Bargishev’s colleagues would not be detered, this caused political violence and religous extremism, islams were mainly blamed
- tensions led to clashes between the islamist militants and the Chechen National Guard, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency as well as confrontation in Gudermes
- 1999
- on August 7, the Islamic International Brigade (IIPB) began an unsuccesful incursion into the republic of Dagestan
- this was favoured by the council of Dagestan, which wanted independence from Russia
- In September, there was a series of apartment bombs in several Russian cities that killed about 300 people
- many blamed the Chechen rebels , however, Journalists felt it was the Russian secret service trying to garner support for a new military campaign against the Chechens
- The response to these bombings was prolonged campaigns of retaliatory air strikes against the Ichkerian regime as well as a ground offense in October
- these events marked the beginning of the second Chechen war
- 1999-
- The Russians were organized better and had better plans this time
- this resulted in them taking control of most of the regions
- using brutal force, the Russians killed 60 Chechen civilians in Aldy, Chechnya during a mop-up operation in 2000
- The Ichkerian regime fell apart after Grozny was re-taken in February
- The Chechen rebels continued fighting with Russian troops as well as conducting terrorist attacks
- In october of 2002, a Moscow theatre was seized by 40-50 Chechen rebels
- about 900 civilians were taken hostage
- The Russian special forces ended up pumping an unknown aerosol through the building to incapacitate those inside, this garnered a large death toll though
- In September of 2004, the rebels took over a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, taking 1 100 people hostage
- they demanded recognition of Chechnya's independence as well as the withdrawal of Russian troops
- lasting three days, 331 people, including 186 out of the 777 child hostages were killed
- Russia responded to the increase in terrorism by expanding its anti-terrorist operations and tightening its hold on Chechnya
- Russia then installed a pro-Moscow Chechen regime
- In 2003 there was a referendum that was held for a constitution that would reintegrate Chechnya, but provided a small amount of autonomy
- The Chechen government claimed that the referendum passed with 95.5% of the votes as well as an almost 80% turnout
- Skeptics of this claim argued that "few outside the Kremlin regard the referendum as fair"
- In 2005 and 2006, separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov and were killed
- In April 2009, Russia pulled out the bulk of its army and ended its counter-terrorism operation
- Three months after this, the leader of the separatist government, Akhmed Zakayev, called for a halt to armed resistance against the Chechen police starting on August 1, 2009
- Most of the fighting between Russia and Chechnya has stopped, with an exception for the mountainous areas and the south
Chechen protesters - todayszaman.com - Chechen protesters protesting the killing of chechen people in Turkey - http://cdncms.todayszaman.com/todayszaman/2011/09/25/chechen-protestors_newsdetail.jpg
War summary - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Since_1990