The Caucasus: One or Many? A View from the Region

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Notes

1. Geography of Russia. Encyclopaedia, 219.

2. See Political Map of the USSR.

3. A historic-ethnographic complex is defined as territories, the nations of which live together and as a result of common natural environments, historical destiny and close cultural links acquire common features of a traditional culture. See Peoples of Russia. Encyclopaedia, 462; Levin and Cheboksarov.

4. For example, the term “Central Caucasus” can be used to mean Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and RKB, RKC, North and South Ossetia. See Ismailov and Kengerly, About the Meaning of the “Caucasus”; Bubenok, “Multi-ethnic Conflicts in the Central Caucasus,” 108–22.

5. According to Ismailov, the Caucasus needs to include the north-east parts of Turkey (Kars, Ardagan, Artvin and Idgir) and the north-west parts of Iran (eastern Azerbaijan and western Azerbaijan) because for many centuries these areas constituted a single socio-economic and ethno-cultural entity. At the present time they are populated by predominantly Caucasian peoples. Ismailov, “The Geopolitical Premises of the Economic Integration of the Central Caucasus.”

6. Cutler, “About Mutual Energy Security in the South Caucasus,” 69.

7. Panarin, “Territorial and Historical Factors in Caucasian Politics,” 105.

8. History of the Peoples of the North Caucasus, 21.

9. Bzhezinsky, Large Chess Board, 149.

10. Abdulatinov, “Caucasian Civilization.”

11. Thagapsoev, “Regarding Caucasian Cultural Societies,” 130–34; Shadzhe, “The Phenomenon of the Caucasian Identity,” 128–45; Damenia, “The Revelation of Cultures,” 63–127; idem, “Problems of Identification of Caucasian Culture,” 57; idem, “On Caucasian Cultural Entities,” 45–56.

12. Nodiya, “Conflict in Abkhazia,” 32.

13. Avksentiev, “Problems of Formation of New Forms of Conflict-Free Inter-ethnic Relations in the North Caucasus,” 19.

14. Avksentiev, “The Theoretical Dimension of Ethnic Processes in the North Caucasus,” 11.

15. Coppiters, “Introduction to Georgia and Abkhazia,” 14.

16. History of the Ancient East, 62–63.

17. History of the Armenian People, 137.

18. Novoseltsev, Caucasian Albania.

19. In 1557 Kabarda nominally became a part of Russia.

20. Gadzhiev, Geopolitics of the Caucasus.

21. Remote Regions of the Russian Empire, 245.

22. Vinogradov, The Caucasus in the Politics of Paul I (1796–1801).

23. In Georgian historiography these events are described as follows: “Georgia became a colony of Tsarist Russia. Certainly this was an evil against which the Georgian people struggled endlessly. However, given Georgia's political circumstances this was the least of the evils. Out of three rival powers, Russia, Iran and Turkey, Russia was the closest to Georgia in religion and culture. It appeared as the sole progressive power, able to unite all Georgian lands.” History of Georgia, 450.

24. History of Azerbaijan, vol. 2, p. 4.

25. As a result of the Gulistan Peace Treaty, Iran withdrew its claims on Georgia, Azerbaijan and Dagestan.

26. As a result of the Turkmanchai Peace Treaty the whole of North Azerbaijan went to Russia. History of Azerbaijan, vol. 2, 45.

27. Magomedov, History of Dagestan from Antiquity to the End of the XIX Century, vol. 1, 255.

28. The ideology of muridism originated in the Middle Ages. See ibid. 301–05.

29. History of the Peoples of the North Caucasus from the End of the XVIII Century till 1917, 196.

30. Ibid., 201.

31. Remote Regions of the Russian Empire, 314.

32. Gatagova, “The Caucasus after the Caucasian Wars,” 50–51.

33. Panarin, “Territorial and Historical Factors in Caucasian Politics.”

34. History of the USSR, vol. 3, 12.

35. Dzidzoev, From the Union of the Mountain Peoples of the North Caucasus and Dagestan to the Mountain ASSR (1917–1924).

36. Ibid., 124.

37. Shnirelman, “Memory of War,” 76.

38. Shepotev, “On Disputed Territories,” 42–62.

39. Sampiev, “National Politics and Ethno-political Specifics of the Situation in the North Caucasus,” 170.