I have been wondering what the story behind the Russia vs. Chechnya conflict is. I know that it has something to do with the way (or the very fact of) Russia ruling Chechnya when it was part of the U. S. S. R. but I would like to know more about it.
When did the conflict start? What started it? Who are the primary contestants (is it govnmt. vs. govnmnt. or is it some group inside Chechnya). Why doesn’t this conflict get as much attention as the middle east?
Also, what, if anything, does the Croatia/Armenian conflict have to do with this?
Chechnya and the rest of the caucasus were conquered by the Tsarist Russian army in the late 19th century, largely from the Ottomans, although the Ottoman rule over the region was often highly theoretical.
None of the Caucusian states/peoples have ever been particularly enthusiastic about Russian rule, period, although the Xian peoples moderately less so than the Muslims, among whom are the Chechens.
Post-USSR demise, almost everyone made a bid for independence. Chechens, insofar as they were not an ‘independent republic’ in Soviet nomenclature, got squashed by the Russians.
The actors at present are the Russian Fed Gov’t versus guerilla groups of various stripes, in part supported by neighbors. No Chechen government worthy of the name remains, although the Russian’s sponsored a highly dubious replacement gov.
I have no idea what you refer to in re Armenian versus Croat, the Croatians are catholic slavs of the Balkans (ex-Yugoslavia) and the Armenians are an Xian group of the Caucasuses.
You might mean the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict. Azerbaijan and Armenia are in dispute over an area called Nagorno- Karabakh, which was once part of Armenia but was given to Azerbaijan in the 1930s.
If you want some further reading suggestions, I’d be happy to oblige. There are also a bunch of articles on recent events at Human Rights Watch’s site (www.hrw.org) and more than you could ever hope to digest at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.rferl.org).
