Cherkessk/Agency Caucasus – The North Caucasian supporters of Abkhazia joined their forces again, just as they had done the same thing while Abkhazia was at war with Georgia from 1992 to 1993, in response to Georgia’s strengthened resolution to resume its control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the two countries that seek improved chances of international recognition since Kosovo set itself independent in March 2007.Groups of people from Abkhazia, Adygeia, Karachai-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria met in Cherkessk, capital of Karachai-Cherkessia, to attend on April 26 a special congress of the Abkhazian Territorial War Volunteers. The volunteers decided to form an umbrella organization to cover all Volunteers-Veterans of the 1992-1993 Abkhazian Territorial War.
Zaur Borov, who participated as someone of Kabarda origin in the work to organize the congress, put the reason behind the choice of Cherkessk as the point of meeting because it allowed easy access to all who either came from the eastward or from the westward. "This is only the first step towards the unification of volunteers who come from Adygeia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Abkhazia and Karachai-Cherkessia. The Kazakhs of Don and Terek-Greben and the volunteers of South and North Caucasus stated willingness to join the umbrella organization. And President Eduard Kokoiti of South Ossetia and some parliamentarians of North Ossetia supported the idea of establishing the organization," said Borov.
Anzor Gloov, who was among the people attending the congress, reiterated the need for the establishment of the organization: "It has been a necessity for a long time to unite disintegrated organizations. It has been a topic of discussion all the time; however, when Georgia has become all the more involved in activities in the conflict zone, veterans of North Caucasus and Abkhazia felt a growing need to unite their forces. Just as Georgia has its friends in the West, Abkhazia has its friends too; and it is hight time that they united to form a single center for coordination."
Goals
The new organization set it as a principle not to interfere with the political structures of the regions. It structured its goals around this principle:
– To provide financial aid to relatives of the volunteers who either died or remained injured.
– To improve cooperation and friendship between the peoples of Caucasus and of South Russia.
– To provide assistance to administrations at both federal and local levels in preventing terrorism, religious, political and national fanaticism.
– To form suggestions to prevent conflicts in national and religious matters
– To help improve cultural and economic relations between South Russia and Abkhazia by introducing more mutual agreements with civil organizations
– To avoid political interference
The principle of avoiding political interference received verbal support from Ibrahim Yagan, who came from Kabardino-Balkaria to attend the congress: "We all have the right to express our own political views, of course. However, according to the regulations adopted by the newly established umbrella organization, nobody may take part in any political activities and nobody may make political statements on behalf of the organization. This is because the war in Abkhazia was followed by political tricks played on the war volunteers. And it was not easy to avoid such tricks."
Zaur Agmiyev, a member of the Abkhazian parliament, read out loud a message from Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh. His statement read as follows: "The Abkhazians will never lose contact with the people who provided invaluable assistance to them while they went through a tough time. As the Abkhazian economy is on the rise nowadays, we can now luckily talk of providing financial assistance to relatives of the dead volunteers.
Full support for Russian policies
The executive board of the organization was set up with the participation of three people from each region. The congress ended with the issue of following statements: "The volunteers will help once more the Abkhazians in case Georgia attempts to use force and establish its control over Abkhazia. It is hoped that Georgia takes a commonsense approach to and builds awareness of the need to set relations with Abkhazia, with equal rights shared between the two ‘neighboring’ countries. We fully support Russian policies of improving official relations with Abkhazia and of protecting the security as well as rights of its citizens in Abkhazia. We call on the Russian administration to speed up the process by which Abkhazia gets its international recognition without damaging the national interests of the Russian Federation and the regional stability across Caucasus." RE/ÖZ/FT
