Anti-Chechen sentiment

Last updated

Anti-Chechen sentiment, [1] Chechenophobia, [2] anti-Chechenism, [3] or Nokhchophobia, refers to fear, dislike, hostility, hatred, discrimination, and racism towards ethnic Chechens, the Chechen language, or the Chechen culture in general. Anti-Chechen sentiment has been historically strong in Russia, and to some degree has spread to other countries in the former Soviet Union, such as Azerbaijan, to Europe (Poland, France), the Middle East (Syria, Israel), and to the United States. For decades, the main causes of hatred against Chechens have been largely due to the created narrative which depicts a violent mentality of Chechens, the association of Chechens with Islamic extremism, and Russian imperialist propaganda targeted at Chechens.

Contents

Examples of anti-Chechen hostility

Russia

A mass grave in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War. Chechen exiles accused the Russian military of committing genocide. Mass grave in Chechnya.jpg
A mass grave in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War. Chechen exiles accused the Russian military of committing genocide.

Fear and negative stereotypes of Chechens stem largely from the history of the Russian conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan, when Russia conquered the Chechen territory in 1859 and merged it with the Russian Empire. Russian general Aleksey Yermolov openly disliked Chechens, who considered them bold and dangerous, and called for mass genocide of the Chechens due to their resistance against Russia. [4] Eventually, when Russia absorbed Chechnya into its territory, mass ethnic cleansing of Chechens occurred in the 1860s. [5]

Due to the Chechens' refusal to accept Russian rule, a number of violent conflicts erupted in Chechnya in an attempt to free Chechnya from Russia. This was often met with brutal reprisals by the Russian authorities, such as the bloody repression of Chechens in 1932 by the Soviet military. [6] [7] During World War II, the Soviet authorities blamed Chechens for supporting Nazi Germany, resulting with the tragic Aardakh in which many Chechens were deported to Siberia and Central Asia, with many dying on the journey. [8] These tensions were superseded by ethnic conflict in the 1950s and 1960s where Russians and Chechens clashed in Grozny. Soviet authorities generally sided with Russians against Chechens. [9]

The conflict between Chechens and Russians reached its peak when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and Chechen nationalists, led by Dzhokhar Dudayev, proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and sought to separate from Russia, causing the First and Second Chechen Wars. [10] The Russian military responded harshly against ethnic Chechens, especially in the second war where an estimated thousand or more Chechen civilians were killed by the Russian military. [11]

Ethnic violence between Russians and Chechens was common in 2000s, due to alleged Chechen links with Islamic terrorism,[ citation needed ] leading to an increased number of racist killings against Chechens. [12] In 2007, 18-year-old Artur Ryno claimed responsibility for 37 racially motivated murders in one year, saying that "since school [he] hated people from the Caucasus." [13] On 5 June 2007, an anti-Chechen riot involving hundreds of people took place in the town of Stavropol in southern Russia. Rioters demanded the eviction of ethnic Chechens following the murder of two young Russians who locals believed were killed by Chechens. The event revived memories of a recent clash between Chechens and local Russians in Kondopoga which started when two Russians were killed over an unpaid bill. [14] Chechens in the Russian Armed Forces have also faced frequent violent activities against them by Russian military instructors. [15]

North Ossetia

In North Ossetia–Alania, during the East Prigorodny Conflict of the 1990s, ethnic Ossetian militia groups, many supported by the Russian government, committed ethnic cleansing of Ingush; a close relative of the Chechens, as well as the Chechens themselves, due to Chechen support for Ingush against Ossetians. [16] [17]

Georgia

Pankisi Gorge

Pankisi Gorge is home to a large Chechen population in Georgia, and the region has suffered from poverty and xenophobia due to increasing radical Islamism within the gorge. In addition, the Pankisi Gorge crisis in the early 2000s led to a stereotype of Chechens as terrorists and jihadists. [18] [19] [20]

Poland

Poland welcomed Chechen refugees during the 1990s in support of the Chechen quest to regain freedom from Russia. [21] However, since the 2010s, especially with the rise of the far-right wing party Law and Justice and increasing Islamic terrorism in Europe, the Polish attitude toward Chechens had become increasingly negative. Some have blamed Chechens for inflaming terrorist attacks due to their Islamic belief, notably the Polish interior minister Mariusz Błaszczak in 2016, who accused the Chechens of being terrorists. [22] This was followed by the increasing denial of Chechen asylum seekers, with thousands of Chechens fleeing Russia forcibly sent back by Polish authorities in 2015 and 2016. [23] [24] The anti-Chechen policy by the Polish government has been criticized by the European Union, of which Poland is a member, and the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in 2020 against Poland for perceived Chechenophobia by the Polish authorities. [25]

In 2017, Azamat Baiduyev, son of a former bodyguard to Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev in the 1990s, was forcibly deported from Belgium to Poland due to an uncertain connection to terrorist activities. He was later deported back to Russia by Poland, despite outcries in 2018. [26] Chechen refugee Nurmagomed Nurmagomedov was granted asylum in Poland in 2019, but had his asylum right revoked. He faced charges of terrorism and was about to be deported back to Russia before a Polish lawyer from the border organization intervened. [27]

Germany

German far-right radicals and skinheads often attacked Chechen immigrants because of their origin. After the mass brawl between Germans and Chechens in Reinsberg in 2020, the mayor of Reinsberg Frank Shwokhov admitted that the German integration policy had failed. [28]

United States

Following the Boston Marathon bombing by two Chechen immigrants, anti-Chechen sentiment intermingled with Islamophobia grew in the United States. [29] [30] Many Chechen-Americans had expressed fear of reprisals and racism by American nationalists. [31]

In May 2013 the United States Senate amended laws to tighten visa requirements. The new requirements were thought to be deliberately anti-Chechen. [32]

After Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election and the subsequent "Muslim ban", the new US government helped Moscow assist a Chechen refugee in Europe. [33]

Azerbaijan

Historically, Azerbaijan has been seen as welcoming to Chechens, and during the 1990s there was strong mutual respect between Chechens and Azerbaijanis. The Chechens volunteered to fight for Azerbaijan against Armenia in Karabakh, while Azerbaijan welcomed Chechen refugees fleeing war in their homeland. [34] However, increasing adherence to the Salafi movement by many Chechens, combined with the involvement of Chechens in kidnapping and mass murder, caused the public perception of Chechens to deteriorate in Azerbaijan, which is Shia-majority and has a secular environment. [35]

Syria

Chechens have been largely able to integrate within Syrian society. [36] However, due to the alliance between the al-Assad family and Russia, antagonism against Chechens started to increase in 2011 following Chechen participation with the Syrian opposition against the al-Assad government. [37] Chechens, like most other non-Arab ethnicities in Syria, also endured repression by the Ba'athist regime due to cultural differences, making it harder to preserve their cultural heritage. [36]

Israel

As many Chechens sympathize with Palestinians, there is a significant hostility against Chechens in Israel. In 2010, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly compared Hamas with the Chechens, stating that they are terrorists, in response to Russia and Turkey's quest to not exclude Hamas in the peace process between Israel and Palestine. [38]

In 2013, after Beitar Jerusalem signed two Chechen Muslim players, Zaur Sadayev and Dzhabrail Kadiyev, anti-Chechen protest erupted by Beitar Jerusalem's supporters due to their Islamic belief. [39] Beitar fans also showed anti-Chechen sentiment by leaving the stadium on 3 March when Sadayev scored the first goal for the club. In addition, many openly stated that it was not racist to hate Chechens and Muslims. [40] [41]

France

In 2018, a Chechen-born terrorist carried out a knife attack in Paris. [42] In 2020, a Chechen teen beheaded a teacher over Prophet Muhammad's controversy. [43]

French right-wing politicians, many of whom have pro-Russian sentiments, expressed anti-Chechen statements, such as Eric Zemmour, who called Chechen children "terrorists, rapists, thieves". [44]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chechnya</span> Autonomous Republic in the North Caucasus

Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia-Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.

Pankisi or the Pankisi Gorge is a valley region in Georgia, in the upper reaches of River Alazani just south of Georgia’s historic region of Tusheti between Mt Borbalo and the ruined 17th-century fortress of Bakhtrioni. Administratively, it is included in the Akhmeta municipality of the Kakheti region. An ethnic group called Kists of Chechen roots form the majority (75%) in the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Chechen War</span> 1999–2009 conflict in Chechnya and the North Caucasus

The Second Chechen War took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 to April 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibn al-Khattab</span> Saudi jihadist (1963/1969–2002)

Samir Saleh Abdullah al-Suwailim, commonly known as Ibn al-Khattab or as Emir Khattab, was a Saudi pan-Islamic jihadist. Though he fought in many conflicts, he is best known for his involvement in the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War, which he participated in after moving to Chechnya at the invitation of the Akhmadov brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of North Ossetia–Alania</span>

The Republic of North Ossetia – Alania is a federal subject of Russia, located in the Caucasus region.

During the inter-ethnic strife in Chechnya and the First and Second Chechen Wars for independence hundreds of thousands of Chechen refugees have left their homes and left the republic for elsewhere in Russia and abroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruslan Gelayev</span> Chechen military commander

Ruslan (Khamzat) Germanovich Gelayev was a prominent commander in the Chechen resistance movement against Russia, in which he played a significant, yet controversial, military and political role in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gelayev was commonly viewed as an abrek and a well-respected, ruthless fighter. His operations spread well beyond the borders of Chechnya and even outside the Russian Federation and into Georgia. He was killed while leading a raid into the Russian Republic of Dagestan in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kist people</span> Ethnic group

The Kists are a Chechen subethnic group in Georgia. They primarily live in the Pankisi Gorge, in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, where there are approximately 5,700 Kist people. The modern Kists are not to be confused with the historical term Kists, an ethnonym of Georgian origin, which was used to refer to the Nakh peoples in the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush</span> 1944 Soviet ethnic cleansing and genocide

The deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, or Ardakhar Genocide, and also known as Operation Lentil, was the Soviet forced transfer of the whole of the Vainakh populations of the North Caucasus to Central Asia on 23 February 1944, during World War II. The expulsion was ordered by NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria after approval by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, as a part of a Soviet forced settlement program and population transfer that affected several million members of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union between the 1930s and the 1950s.

Anti-Russian violence in Chechnya refers to acts of violence that were recorded against Russian and non-Chechen civilians in Chechnya from 1991 to 1994, which resulted in tens of thousands of ethnic Russians leaving or being expelled from the republic. Chechen separatists declared independence in 1991 as part of the disintegration of the Soviet Union before the First Chechen War began in 1994.

Balkar and Karachay nationalism is the national sentiment among the Balkars and Karachai. It generally manifests itself in:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pankisi Gorge crisis</span>

The Pankisi Gorge crisis was a spillover of the Second Chechen War, with military dimension in Georgia early in the 2000s. Georgia was pressured by Russia and the United States to repress the threats of Al-Qaeda in the Pankisi Gorge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lopota incident</span> 2012 armed incident in Lopota, Georgia

The Lopota incident, known in Georgia as the special operation against an illegal armed group in Lopota, was an armed incident where the Georgian special forces engaged an unknown paramilitary group of about 17 unknown individuals which had allegedly taken several people hostage in the remote Caucasus gorge of Lopota near the border between Georgia and the Russia's Republic of Dagestan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chechen–Russian conflict</span> Centuries-long conflict in the North Caucasus

The Chechen–Russian conflict was the centuries-long ethnic and political conflict, often armed, between the Russian, Soviet and Imperial Russian governments and various Chechen forces. The recent phase of the conflict started after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and ended with the oppression of Chechen separatist leaders and crushing of the separatist movement in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Omar al-Shishani</span> Islamist warlord

Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, known by his nom de guerreAbu Omar al-Shishani or Omar al-Shishani, was a Georgian-Chechen jihadist who served as a commander for the Islamic State, and was previously a sergeant in the Georgian Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamophobia in China</span> Prejudice towards Islam or Muslims in China

Islamophobia in China refers to the set of discourses, behaviors and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam and/or Muslims in China.

Soviet leaders and authorities officially condemned nationalism and proclaimed internationalism, including the right of nations and peoples to self-determination. The Soviet Union claimed to be supportive of self-determination and rights of many minorities and colonized peoples. However, it significantly marginalized people of certain ethnic groups designated as "enemies of the people", pushed their assimilation, and promoted chauvinistic Russian nationalistic and settler-colonialist activities in their lands. Whereas Vladimir Lenin had supported and implemented policies of korenization, Joseph Stalin reversed much of the previous policies, signing off on orders to deport and exile multiple ethnic-linguistic groups brandished as "traitors to the Fatherland", including the Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Kalmyks, Koreans and Meskhetian Turks, with those, who survived the collective deportation to Siberia or Central Asia, were legally designated "special settlers", meaning that they were officially second-class citizens with few rights and were confined within small perimeters. After the death of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev criticized the deportations based on ethnicity in a secret section of his report to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, describing them as "rude violations of the basic Leninist principles of the nationality policy of the Soviet state". Soon thereafter, in the mid- to late 1950s, some deported peoples were fully rehabilitated, having been allowed the full right of return, and their national republics were restored — except for the Koreans, Crimean Tatars, and Meskhetian Turks, who were not granted the right of return and were instead forced to stay in Central Asia. The government subsequently took a variety of measures to prevent such deported peoples from returning to their native villages, ranging from denying residence permits to people of certain ethnic groups in specific areas, referring to people by incorrect ethnonyms to minimize ties to their homeland, arresting protesters for requesting the right of return and spreading racist propaganda demonizing ethnic minorities.

Refugees in Poland were, until 2022, a relatively small group. Since 1989, the number of people applying for refugee status in Poland has risen from about 1,000 to 10,000 each year; about 1–2% of the applications were approved. The majority of applications were citizens of the former Soviet Union.

Islamophobia in Poland is the fear, hatred of, or prejudice against the Islamic religion or Muslims in Poland. Since the Muslim community in Poland is small the situation has been described as "Islamophobia without Muslims". According to Monika Bobako, Islamophobia is one of the main elements of the Polish nationalist discourse. Islamophobia in Poland takes the form of racism and xenophobia towards Muslims or those perceived as Muslim.

Tatarophobia refers to the fear of, the hatred towards, the demonization of, or the prejudice against people who are generally referred to as Tatars, including but not limited to Volga, Siberian, and Crimean Tatars, although negative attitudes against the latter are by far the most severe, largely as a result of the Soviet media's long-standing practice of only depicting them in a negative way along with its practice of promoting negative stereotypes of them in order to provide a political justification for the deportation and marginalization of them.

References

  1. ↑ "Out of control: Anti-Chechen sentiment in Moscow post-metro blast" (PDF). Amnesty International.
  2. ↑ Shnirelman, Victor A. (2011-07-01). "From social classes to ethnicities: Ethnocentric views in history textbooks in post-Soviet Russia". Journal of Eurasian Studies. 2 (2): 125–133. doi:10.1016/j.euras.2011.03.003. ISSN   1879-3665.
  3. ↑ Williams, Brian Glyn (2016-11-24). "Grozny and Aleppo: a look at the historical parallels". The National. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  4. ↑ "'Proconsul of the Caucasus': a Re-examination of Yermolov". www.socionauki.ru.
  5. ↑ "Sources in Translation: A Chechen Immigrant's Petition to the Ottoman State (1870)". www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com. 25 July 2020.
  6. ↑ Мухтар Ибрагимов, Гунки Хукиев (2014-04-30). "По следам далёкой трагедии". j-vaynah.ru. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  7. ↑ Гудаев Л. (2013-09-23). "Чеченские хроники. 1932 г. Моца Шуанинский – последний имам Чечни". checheninfo.ru. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  8. ↑ "The Massive Deportation of the Chechen People: How and why Chechens were Deported | Sciences Po Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche". massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html. April 29, 2019. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  9. ↑ "THE NORTH CAUCASUS: THE CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATION (I), ETHNICITY AND CONFLICT" (PDF). www.ecoi.net. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  10. ↑ "An analysis of causes of the Chechen wars of the 1990s" (PDF). www.researchgate.net. 2007. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  11. ↑ Perlez, Jane (March 2, 2000). "3 Massacres In Chechnya Are Described (Published 2000)". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ The warlord and the spook Archived 26 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine The Economist, 31 March 2007
  13. ↑ Teenager Admits to Over 30 Murders Archived 22 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine The Moscow Times, 29 May 2007
  14. ↑ Nationalists rally in Russian town near Chechnya Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine Reuters, 5 June 2007
  15. ↑ Racist Violence Plagues Russian Army Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine IWPR, 15-Sep-00
  16. ↑ "East Prigorodny conflict – Ingushetia North Ossetia". June 15, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Five bloody days in North Ossetia". openDemocracy.
  18. ↑ "Chechen refugees in Georgia – Pankisi Gorge and Akhmeta – Georgia". ReliefWeb. 28 January 2003.
  19. ↑ Gould, Rebecca (2011). "Secularism and Belief in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge". www.researchgate.net. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  20. ↑ "Georgia's Pankisi Gorge fights "terrorism" stereotypes | Eurasianet". eurasianet.org.
  21. ↑ Izdebska, Karolina (11 July 2019). "Chechen Refugees in Poland on 'Tolerated Stay': Different Perspectives of Hospitality in the Context of Theatrical Action in a Private Apartment". Journal of Refugee Studies. 34: 741–759. doi:10.1093/jrs/fez052 . Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  22. ↑ "Poland slams door on Chechnyan refugees | DW | 31.08.2016". DW.COM.
  23. ↑ "Chechens waiting at Europe's door | DW | 14.12.2016". DW.COM.
  24. ↑ "How and why Chechen refugees are storming the Polish border with Belarus". July 4, 2019.
  25. ↑ S.A, Telewizja Polska (2020-03-03). "Strasbourg rules against Poland over Chechen migrants". polandin.com. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  26. ↑ "Chechen Refugee Forcibly Disappeared Hours After 'Unlawful' Deportation From Poland". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 4 September 2018.
  27. ↑ "A Chechen refugee Poland wants to give up to Russia".
  28. ↑ "После драки немцев и чеченцев мэр признал провал интеграционной политики". eadaily.com (in Russian). 31 July 2020. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  29. ↑ Gottschalk, Peter (January 1, 2015). Smith, Jane I; Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck (eds.). "Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the United States". The Oxford Handbook of American Islam. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199862634.013.004. ISBN   978-0-19-986263-4.
  30. ↑ "Muslim Bashing in the Wake of Boston Bombing". National Geographic News. April 26, 2013. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019.
  31. ↑ Schwirtz, Michael (April 21, 2013). "Struggle at Home Intrudes on Chechen Haven in America (Published 2013)". The New York Times.
  32. ↑ "Senators tighten student visa rules in immigration bill". Los Angeles Times. May 14, 2013.
  33. ↑ "Россия использовала разведданные США для убийства чеченцев". amp.dw.com. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  34. ↑ "AZERBAIJANI-CHECHEN INTERACTIONS: THE PRESENT AND THE PAST". kafkassam.com. September 20, 2016.
  35. ↑ "Growing Anti-Chechen Sentiment in Azerbaijan". Jamestown.
  36. 1 2 Jaimoukha, Amjad M. (2008), "Syria", The Chechens: A Handbook, Routledge, p. 232, ISBN   978-0415323284
  37. ↑ "Chechens drawn south to fight against Syria's Assad". BBC News. November 20, 2013.
  38. ↑ "Israel to Russia: Hamas is like the Chechen terrorists". Haaretz.
  39. ↑ Boker, Moshe (30 March 2018). "Beitar Jerusalem to Sign Two Muslim Players Despite Fans Protests". Haaretz. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  40. ↑ Dawber, Alistair; Walker, Shaun (4 March 2013). "'It's not racism. The Muslim players just shouldn't be here': Beitar Jerusalem fans walk out over signing of two Muslim Chechen players" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  41. ↑ Zinshtein, Maya (2017-05-30), Forever Pure, Eli Cohen, Arcadi Gaydamak, Ariel Harush, retrieved 2018-05-18
  42. ↑ "Paris knife attack: Suspect 'French citizen born in Russia's Chechnya'". BBC News. May 13, 2018.
  43. ↑ "Chechen Teen Identified in France Beheading". Time. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020.
  44. ↑ Samuel, Henry (January 17, 2022). "Eric Zemmour says child migrants tend to become criminals as he hits back at hate speech verdict". The Telegraph– via www.telegraph.co.uk.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.