On May 27, an international conference was held in Kyiv to celebrate the 105th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of North Caucasus Mountaineers. The event was organized by the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus and the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. The Mountain Republic is a state proclaimed in November 1917 on the territory of Dagestan and the mountainous districts of the Ter region by the Central Committee of the Union of United Mountaineers of the North Caucasus and Dagestan. It existed until 1919.
The main speakers at the conference were Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatar national movement, Ahmed Zakayev, Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ruslan Kutayev, President of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus, Iyad Yugar, Chairman of the International Circassian Council, Ahmad Akhmedov, President of the All-Ukrainian Congress of the Peoples of Dagestan, Volodymyr Tylishchak, deputy head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and a number of other leaders of public organizations of the free peoples of the Caucasus.
Opening the conference, the president of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus, Ruslan Kutaev, declared the need for the collapse of the Moscow empire. “Today, the Russian Federation is on the brink of a civil war,” Kutaev emphasized. – The issue of preparation for the creation of independent states with the right to self-determination is timely. Caucasian peoples never stopped fighting for freedom. We will be able to agree on a peaceful coexistence after the collapse of Russia!”. Ruslan Kutaev also brought up for discussion the idea of creating an “iron belt” – protecting Europe from China’s influence through a network of independent states of the Caucasus and the Volga region, which will emerge on the ruins of the Moscow empire.
Volodymyr Tylishchak, the deputy head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, congratulated the participants of the conference on the fact that it is taking place in the capital of warring Ukraine and emphasized the opinion that the defeat of the Russian Federation in the war opens the way to the liberation of all enslaved peoples. He thanked the free peoples of the Caucasus for the fact that their sons and daughters help Ukrainians to fight against the common enemy and informed the audience that Ukraine has condemned Russia’s imperial policy at the legislative level. “I believe that it is the peoples of the North Caucasus who will drive the last nail into the grave of Russian colonialism,” emphasized Volodymyr Tylishchak and ended his speech with Shevchenko’s “Fight – you will win!”
The Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria Akhmed Zakayev called for an uncompromising struggle against the Kremlin regime. He rightly noted that today it is necessary to talk not just about the change of power in the Russian Federation, but about the creation of new independent states on its territory, based on the principles of international law.
During the conference, two panel discussions took place: the historical and political phenomenon of the Republic of North Caucasus Mountaineers and the geopolitical significance of the North Caucasus in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The participants of the conference adopted the final resolution, in which, in particular, they appealed to the UN and other international organizations regarding the recognition of the Chechen people as a nation fighting for its state independence.
Ukrainian Information Service (UIS)
