Caucasus Emirate

Not to be confused with Caucasian Imamate or North Caucasian Emirate.

Flag of the Vilayat Noxçiyçö (Chechnya)

The Caucasus Emirate (Chechen Cyrillic: Имарат Кавказ Imarat Kavkaz, Russian: Кавказский Эмират Kavkazskiy Emirat) also known as the Caucasian Emirate is a self-proclaimed virtual state entity, partially successor to the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and was officially announced on October 31, 2007 by former President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov, who became the first Emir. Its military branch is the Caucasian Front organization. Russia and the United States have designated the Caucasus Emirate as a terrorist organisation. The United States government has offered US$5 million for information leading to the capture of the group's leader Dokka Umarov.

Declaration

See also: History of Chechnya

On October 31, 2007, the separatist news agency Chechenpress reported that the President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov had proclaimed an Emirate in the Caucasus and declared himself its Emir, thereby abolishing the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and its presidency. The declaration of the Caucasian Emirate was quickly condemned by Akhmed Zakayev, Umarov's own minister of foreign affairs; Zakayev, who lives in exile in London, called upon all Chechen separatist fighters and politicians to pledge allegiance directly to his government in exile in an attempt to isolate Umarov from power. Zakayev also expressed regret that Umarov had caved in to pressure from "provocateurs" and committed a "crime" that undermines the legitimacy of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Umarov said that he did not need any sanction from the Majlis-ul-Shura (the council of rebel field commanders) or anybody else to declare the Emirate, as it is "his duty as a Muslim" to establish an Islamic state "as required by Sharia."

Anzor Astemirov, a top rebel leader from the Russia's Kabardino-Balkar Republic (KBR), took credit for the idea of establishing the Emirate. He said he already unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev to do this in Nalchik in 2005, but Basayev strongly declined and instead he demanded the KBR rebel leaders to be pledge an oath of loyalty to the Chechen President Abdul-Halim Sadulayev in return of the Chechen assistance in the Nalchik uprising attempt; supposedly, Basayev's death in 2006 paved the way for the declaration of the Emirate.

Structure

Areas claimed by Caucasus Emirate

The Caucasus Emirate is claimed to be composed of the following wilayahs (provinces):

• Vilayat Noxçiyçö (Chechnya)
• Vilayat Ġalġayçö (Ingushetia and North Ossetia)
• Vilayat Cherkessia (Adygea and southern part of Krasnodar Krai)
• Vilayat Dagestan
• The joint Vilayat of Kabarda, Balkar (Kabardino-Balkaria) and Karachay (the greater part of Karachay-Cherkessia)
• Vilayat Nogay steppe (northern part of Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai)

However, according to Umarov, the bases of the rebel fighters loyal to him "spread from Azerbaijan to Abkhazia."

In August 2008 Movladi Udugov, an ideologue and a spokesman for the Caucasus Emirate, said that "as Dokka Umarov very accurately observed, this Islamic state does not yet have any borders. It’s not correct to say that we want to build some sort of enclave on the territory of these North Caucasus republics. No, today many Muslims living in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Russians from the most widely differing regions of Russia who have accepted Islam, swear an oath of allegiance to Dokka Umarov as the legitimate leader of the Muslims. And wherever he is – in Moscow, Blagoveshchensk, Tyumen – when a Muslim swears that oath, he becomes a fighting unit. Just because these people are not visible in their cities just now and are not active, that doesn’t mean that they won’t become active in the future."

On 1 August 2010 Kavkaz Center, the official web site of the Emirate, distributed a video where Doku Umarov indicated that he had stepped down from his position as Emir and appointed Aslambek Vadalov to became his successor. However, on 3 August 2010, the original announcement had been replaced by one which stated, that Umarov only "proposed to appoint" Vadalov his successor. A few days later Umarov said he had no intention of stepping down and called the video announcing his resignation a fabrication. The announcements drove the emirate into a state of turmoil, with several key rebel leaders resigning their loyalty to Umarov. According to STRATFOR Umarov had prerecorded a stepping down message to be used in case of his disappearance, which was most likely leaked prematurely.

Foreign relations

Abortive declaration of hostility towards the West

In the same October 2007 statement in which Umarov proclaimed the Caucasian Emirate, he also described the United States, Great Britain and Israel as common enemies of Muslims worldwide.

However, on November 20, 2007, Anzor Astemirov, head of the Yarmuk Jamaat, said that "Even if we wanted to threaten America and Europe every day, it is clear for anybody who understands politics that we do not have any real clashes of interests [with the West]. The people in the White House know very well that we have nothing to do with America at the moment." In his statement, Astemirov not only described the Caucasian rebels' threats against the West as empty, but also even asked the United States for assistance in their fight against "Russian aggression." Following its criticism, many rebel websites removed the phrase that regarded Western countries as enemies.

Reaction to the 2008 South Ossetia war

Main article: 2008 South Ossetia war

On August 9, 2008 in response to the conflict between Georgia and Russia, Movladi Udugov stated that "for the time being neither Tbilisi nor Washington has appealed to us with any requests or offers" to fight alongside Georgian forces against the Russian forces. Udugov also noted: "But I clearly can say that the command of the Caucasus Emirate is following with great interest the development of the situation."

Planned terrorist attack against NATO

In December 2010, Austrian police arrested a Chechen refugee on suspicion of planning a militant attack on NATO targets. "Belgian authorities suspect a group of Chechen extremists, who were seeking to set up a religious state in northern Chechnya, planned to attack NATO facilities in Belgium," Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said.

List of Emirs of the Caucasus Emirate

Emirs of Caucasus Emirate
Order	Name	Tenure
1	Dokku Umarov	31 October 2007 - 1 August 2010
2	Aslambek Vadalov	1 August 2010 – 3 August 2010
3	Dokku Umarov	3 August 2010 – Present

*Note: There was confusion as to who was Emir, as Umarov issued a second video a few days later saying he had not stepped down.

See also

• Pan-Islamism
• Amiraslan Isgandarov