NOGAIS DEMAND AUTONOMOUS DISTRICT

The Nogai community of the Karachaevo-Cherkessia Republic (KChR), which numbers a little fewer than 15,000 people and accounts for just 3.4 percent of the republic's total population, has convened its fourth congress in Cherkessk, which focused on the problems that community faces, regnum.ru and 09biz.ru reported on March 14. Those problems include the lack of employment opportunities in the rural districts where most Nogais live, and which has resulted in the emigration of many young Nogai men to Russia's Far North in search of work. The Nogais agreed that the first step towards resolving those problems should be the creation of a Nogai autonomous district, an initiative which KChR President Mustafa Batdyev has termed expedient, according to caucasustimes.com.

Addressing the congress, writer Isa Kapaev deplored the negative press coverage given to the Nogais in the wake of last month's clashes in Stavropol Krai between police and security forces and a so-called "Nogai battalion" aligned with the Chechen resistance. Kapaev claimed that no such battalion exists, and he protested the media's tendency "to equate Nogais with terrorists." The congress set up a National Council and elected as chairman of the social-political organization Birlik Valery Sanglibaev, who is a factory director and deputy to the KChR parliament. (Liz Fuller)

Comments

[zorba]

The real problem of the Nogai not an autonomous district but yo infuse in the Great Russian christian comunity and become true beliver of OUR LORd