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Chairman of Caucasus Peoples Congress: Russian historiography doesnâ€™t touch upon the genocides and deportations committed against Chechens and other peoples

30 January 2014 14:12 (UTC +04:00)

Moscow. Farid Akberov – APA. Russia’s Public Chamber has held an event on the 150th anniversary of the conquest of the North Caucasus.

APA’s Moscow correspondent reports that the disputes happened at the event organized by the representatives of various institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the organizations protecting the interests of the Caucasian people.

There were contradictory views on the topics “Conquest or occupation”, “Arrival of Russians in the Caucasus”.

Addressing the event, Chairman of the Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus Aslanbek Paskachev protested those who want to erect a monument to Viceroy of Caucasus Yermolov: “Don’t the Russian politician, who wants to erect a monument to Yermolov in Caucasus, “who said that I will fight unless I kill the last Chechen”, incite Chechens with this proposal? Let a monument is erected to him in his native village or Moscow, not in the places of the people, who he killed. If everyone recognizes the Holocaust, why the Russian historiography doesn’t touch upon the genocides and deportations committed by Tsarist and Soviet troops against Chechens and other peoples. According to the Russian history, Russian came to the Caucasus to bring discipline. It is not so. What a biased position? It is not an objective attitude. Historians should not humiliate one nation of Russia by honoring another one.

Those defending the interests of North Caucasus people said Caucasus processes were not studied objectively in the Russian history. They also objected to the construction of monuments to the persons not unambiguously considered heroes in the bordering regions between Caucasus and Russia.

“If a Russian officer shed blood in the Caucasus, there must not be a place in the Caucasus named after him. Moreover, Russian historians should not promote Caucasus as a region, where wild tribes live.”

Representative of Karachay Diaspora Aliy Totorkulov also criticized Russian historians.

“The Russian history says Caucasians were wild tribes in the 19th century. Actually, before Russians came to the Caucasus, our ancestors studied at medreses, while at that time only Russian noblemen had high and religious education. So, we call on Russian historians to refrain from groundless accusations.”

Earlier, Chairman of Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky regarded the rise of population in the Caucasus as danger, called on the government to ban more than one child in every family in the Caucasus. Governor of Krasnodar province Alexander Tkachenko said he would force out Caucasians from the region.