Caucasus Emirate

Not to be confused with the Caucasian Imamates

ال-كوكص' بىàًàٍ تàâêàç Имарат Кавказ
Official languages	Russian (de facto)
Government	Emirate
• Emir	Dokka Umarov
Proclaimed on  October 27, 2007

The Caucasus Emirate (Chechen Cyrillic: Имарат Кавказ Imarat Kavkaz, [ Эмират Кавказ Emirat Kavkaz] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) also known as the Caucasian Emirate is a self-proclaimed successor state to the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and was officially announced on October 31, 2007 by former President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov. Its military branch is the Caucasian Front.

Declaration

See also: History of Chechnya

On October 31, 2007, the separatist news agency Chechenpress reported that the President of Ichkeria Doka 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. On his part, Umarov rejected any criticism of his move and warned all Chechen separatists not to cooperate with "infidels" or Western countries, and not to negotiate with the Russian government behind his back. He especially stressed that he was against all "infidel" laws or rules, including democracy. Umarov also 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 also said he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev to this already 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

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

• Vilayat Noxçiyçö (Chechnya)
• Vilayat Ġalġayçö (Ingushetia and North Ossetia)
• Vilayat Dagestan
• The joint Vilayat of Kabarda, Balkar (Kabardino-Balkaria) and Karachay (the greater part of Karachay-Cherkessia)
• Vilayat Nogay steppe (areas inhabited by the Nogay people in 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."

Foreign relations

Abortive declaration of hostility towards the West

In the same statement in which Umarov proclaimed the Caucasian Emirate, he also described the United States, the Great Britain and Israel as common enemies of Muslims worldwide. Umarov later changed his statement saying the U.S. and Britain were not enemies of Muslims, but still regarding Israel as an enemy of Muslims.

However, on November 20, 2007, Anzor Astemirov 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]" and added, “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 not 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."

See also

• Pan-Islamism

Externals links

• KAVKAZ CENTER (in Arab, English, Russian, Turkish and Ukrainian)
• Statements and news of the Caucasian Emirate in English