Congress of Nogais on June 14th. Nogais are afraid of losing their historical homeland
KAVPOLIT Author of the articleResidents of the Nogai region of Dagestan voiced an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the people's congress.
Address of the Congress delegates Nogai people to the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin (text of appeal):
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
We, representatives of the Nogai people living in various regions of Russia, are concerned about the current situation in the Nogai region of Dagestan.
On June 14, in the Nogai region of Dagestan, the All-Russian Congress of the Nogai people was held in connection with the aggravated land issue related to the plans of the Dagestan government to take away the territories of compact residence of the Nogais, as well as ecological problem on lands of transhumance livestock farming. More than 6 thousand representatives of the Nogai people from Dagestan, Stavropol, Chechnya, Karachay-Cherkessia, Astrakhan region, Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs took part in the congress
On May 11, 2017 in Makhachkala, under the leadership of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Dagestan, B.Z. Omarov. A meeting was held on the implementation of land reform. According to the protocol, new ones should appear in three regions of the republic, including Nogai settlements, formed on the lands of transhumance livestock farming (HLS), which are used by farms in a number of regions of Nagorno-Dagestan.
With this decision, the authorities of Dagestan deprive the Nogai, Russian, Kumyk peoples of guarantees of preserving their territories of compact residence. The government forcibly alienates the lands of these peoples and transfers them to residents of unauthorized settlements that illegally arose on the lands of transhumance.
The Nogai people express concern about the aggravation of the land issue in the Nogai region of the Republic of Dagestan and believe that land reform is being carried out in socially dangerous and illegal forms.
The Nogai region of Dagestan is the center of Nogai culture and an “oasis” of the native Nogai language. The events taking place on its territory are of concern not only local residents, but affect the interests of Nogais throughout Russia. All complex and problematic issues must be resolved, first of all, in the interests of preserving the traditional heritage and socio-cultural potential of the local population.
The Nogais repeatedly appealed to all bodies of the republican region, but other than completely ignoring their legal demands, they received nothing in response. The last straw that broke the patience of the Nogai people was the attempt to take away the lands of the Nogai region without the consent of representatives of the municipality of the Nogai people.
How is the mobilization of the Nogais going? About the congress and the division of the people.
The fate of the Nogai people is unique and dramatic in its own way. People with a once wide area of residence today it is scattered into small enclaves from Turkey to the Russian North. This fate made him vulnerable , because the Nogais are almost never represented as the titular people, and where they are formally represented, noticeably inferior to neighboring peoples in protecting their interests.
This was shown by the last All-Russian Congress of the Nogai people, which brought together representatives from different regions of Dagestan and regions of Russia. The geography of the congress is truly amazing, and these are not some diasporas (although they were also present, for example, from Moscow), but representatives of villages and entire regions in which Nogais predominantly live. How did it happen that the Nogais today are scattered across different regions of Russia and why is there such zealous defense of the Nogai region in Dagestan?
From Istanbul to Kazakhstan
The formation of the Nogai people began as part of the Golden Horde at the end of the 14th century under Ulubi Edigei, the ruler of the Mangyt yurt, who made a great contribution to the independence of the Mangyt yurt, from which, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Nogai Horde was formed. The process of isolation of the Nogais from the Golden Horde, and then from the khanates, was complicated by the fact that representatives of the dynasty of Nogai biys (princes) were not descendants of Genghis Khan, and therefore could not have the khan title (such a system operated throughout the entire territory of the former Mongol Empire, for example, Tamerlane could not receive the title of khan and therefore was called emir), which always made them lower in rank than any khan. For this reason, the Nogai Horde, starting from the middle of the 15th century, was forced to maintain vassal (at least formally) relations with the khan dynasties, between which the Nogai biys maneuvered.
In the 16th century, the Nogai Horde became more independent; its relations with the Astrakhan and Crimean Khanates could hardly be called relations of vassal and overlord, but more like allies. During the same period, fragmentation within the Nogai Horde intensified, the descendants of Edigei tried to pursue policies independent of each other, the gradual disintegration of the Horde began, and the struggle for the title of bey of the Nogai Horde became more and more intense.
In the middle of the 16th century, the Nogai Horde finally split into three parts - the Greater and Lesser Nogai Hordes, as well as the Altyul Horde.
With the collapse of the Nogai Horde into three parts, the further fate Nogais as a divided people. The Nogais of the Altyul Horde, who lived on the territory of modern Western Kazakhstan (Younger Zhuz), in the 17th century found themselves under the rule of the Kalmyks, and then the Kazakhs, which predetermined their assimilation into the Kazakh environment.
The Great Nogai Horde wandered between the Volga and Ural rivers, their rulers adopted a pro-Russian policy and became citizens Russian state. Like the Altyul Horde, the Great Nogai Horde ceased to exist under the onslaught of the Kalmyks, and the Russian lands were also attacked by the Kalmyks. Due to the lack of proper assistance from the Russians to the Great Nogai, the remnants of the Great Nogai Horde went into the possession of the Crimean Khanate.
Map of the Crimean Khanate
The Little Nogai Horde came under the control of the Crimean Khan and settled in the Kuban; the biys of the Little Nogais took an active part in the politics of the Crimean khans, including in the struggle for succession to the throne. Small Nogai become the main force of the Crimean Khans in the Western Caucasus. After the defeat of the Great Nogai Horde by the Kalmyks, the remnants of the Great Nogais go to the Little Nogais and join them. The Crimean Kuban of Malye Nogai was conquered by Russia along with Crimea in 1783. The Kuban Nogais did not accept the annexation of Crimea and began an uprising in 1783, but in the fall of that year the uprising was brutally suppressed, the remnants of the Nogai hordes were resettled to the Eastern Caspian Sea, where the Nogais live to this day.
In 2014, the Nogai people of Russia were replenished with Crimean Tatar Nogais, whose history largely predetermined the future range of the people.
In the Crimean Khanate, the Nogais lived in the Kuban and southern Ukraine, thereby constituting the main military stronghold of the state. It was from among the Nogais that the army of the Khanate consisted of the campaigns in the Transcaucasus and the Balkans, and it was with the loss of the continental possessions in which the Nogais lived that the decline of the Crimean Khanate began.
After the Crimean Khanate lost its continental possessions, the Nogais, who lived from the Kuban to Moldova, began to move to the foothills of the Caucasus and to the Ottoman Empire, and after the fall of Crimea, the Kuban Nogais were resettled to the Caspian Sea.
At first, the Nogais lived in Ottoman Empire was in the Balkans, where they settled mainly in Romania and Bulgaria. However, after Russian-Turkish wars, when Russia achieved the independence of Romania, Bulgaria and other Balkan countries, the Nogais continued their migration south until they moved to Anatolia. Only a small part of the Nogais still lives in Romania in the Dobruja region, while the majority of the former Ottoman Nogais today live in the Turkish provinces of Eskisehir, Ankara, Gazientep and other provinces. In both Romania and Turkey, the Nogais remain under the threat of assimilation, but in our time, the Nogais of Turkey are increasingly actively establishing contacts with the Russian Nogais and Crimean Tatars, and their isolation from the Turkish mass is becoming more and more distinct.
The Nogais also remained in Crimea; some of the Crimean Khan Nogais were resettled to the Crimean peninsula when Crimean khans it became clear that the continental part of the Khanate would be conquered by Russia. Thus, the Nogais settled in the steppe (northern) part of Crimea. Usually people who are little familiar with the Crimean Tatar people mistakenly perceive the Crimean Tatars as a single ethnic group; everything is much more complicated. The Crimean Tatar people are a nation formed from three ethnic groups - Nogai (steppe) Tatars, mountain (central) Tatars-Tats and coastal (Yalyboylu). Despite the common self-name, among the Crimean Tatars the dialects of each ethnic group are preserved.
But if the coastal and mountain Tatars do not have significant isolation in identity, the Crimean Nogais are establishing contacts with their North Caucasian fellow tribesmen, who are interested in restoring the Nogai identity of the Crimean Nogais.
On the territory of Kazakhstan, the inhabitants of the Nogai Horde became part of the Kazakh people, but even today a subethnic group of Nogai-Kazakhs stands out, whose identity is ambiguous for the Nogai-Kazakhs themselves. To be considered a Kazakh clan or part of the Nogai people - now this issue is increasingly being raised among the Nogai-Kazakhs and more and more attention is being paid to the history of the Kazakh Nogai. Today, Russian Nogais are establishing contacts with them, who recognize them as their fellow tribesmen, this contributes to the isolation of the Nogai-Kazakhs, and the relatively close languages of the Kazakhs and Nogais only simplify the consolidation of the Nogai identity. Nogai-Kazakhs live mainly in Western Kazakhstan.
To the north of them live the Russian Astrakhan Nogai, who in many ways have become Astrakhan Tatars today. Their history goes back to the Astrakhan Khanate, like the history of the Crimean Khanate, the Nogai were the main military force and in the Astrakhan Khanate. The Astrakhan Khanate had active contacts with the Kazan and Crimean Khanates, and in all cases the Nogai princes played a leading role in this. After the conquest of the Astrakhan Khanate, the decline of the Nogais began and in lower Volga region, there was partial assimilation and emigration of the Astrakhan Nogai. Tsarist policy assigned the name Tatars to the Nogai; it should be understood that not only the Astrakhan Nogai, but the Nogai as a whole were almost always mentioned in Russian censuses as Tatars (or Nogai Tatars), only in the Soviet era the Nogais of the North Caucasus and Siberia began to be recognized as Nogais.
The policy of “Tatarization” of the Astrakhan Nogais continued during the Soviet period, until the 1989 census, when the Nogais were first recorded as a people independent from the Astrakhan Tatars. Today the number of Nogais in the Astrakhan region is approximately 8 thousand people, and the Astrakhan Tatars are 60 thousand people. It is worth considering that the dialect of the Astrakhan Tatars is quite different from the Tatars of Tatarstan; in dialect it is closer to the Nogai language, which only emphasizes their Nogai origin.
On North
The largest area of residence of the Nogais is the North Caucasus; this is where the majority of Russian Nogais live. The main residence of the Nogais in the Caucasus is in the republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Karachay-Cherkessia and the Stavropol Territory. But it is in the main zone of their residence that the Nogais experience the greatest problems, to which Nogais from other regions of Russia react. The main problem arose in the Nogai region of Dagestan, most of the region was allocated for transhumance livestock farming (for rent) to other regions of Dagestan, and according to the decree of the Dagestan government on land reform, leased lands for transhumance livestock farming should be transferred to the full economy of farmers from mountainous regions. This policy of legal theft of land shook up the Nogai public, which is why on June 14, 2017, an All-Russian Congress of the Nogai people was held to condemn the initiative of the republican government.
Neighboring the Nogai district is the Neftekumsky district of the Stavropol Territory, where Nogais also live compactly, making up 20 percent of the district’s population. The economic life of the Nogais in both regions is traditionally animal husbandry and agriculture, and the Nogais of the village of Sulak in the Republic of Dagestan mainly earn money from fishing, and Nogai villages are located in the Tarumovsky, Kizlyar and Babayurt regions. But the life itself of the Nogais of Dagestan and the Stavropol Territory remains economically difficult. Living on the outskirts of the republic, young people go to work. Unlike residents of mountainous regions and the Kumyk plane, Dagestan Nogais do not seek to develop Makhachkala, but leave for the northern regions of Russia, beyond higher education Nogais also predominantly travel to other regions of Russia than to Makhachkala, and the almost complete absence of Nogais in the Dagestan elite leaves no chance for economic development Nogai district.
This socio-economic situation created the preconditions for the isolation of the Nogais in Dagestan, but at the same time, political life made the Nogais most vulnerable to the initiatives of the Dagestan elite. The confrontation between the Nogai people and the republican authorities became the catalyst for the idea of the Nogai region secession from Dagestan; this idea was also voiced at the last congress of the Nogais.
A positive trend emerged for the Nogais of Karachay-Cherkessia in 2006, where a referendum was held in 5 Nogai villages on the creation of the Nogai district, and in 2007 the Nogai district was officially created on their territory. Nevertheless general position in the North Caucasus forces the Nogais to move to the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs Tyumen region to industrial, oil-producing areas ( New Urengoy, Fedorovsky village).
Coat of arms of the Nogai region of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic
Colonization and redrawing of borders
The desire of the government of Dagestan to give the lands of transhumance livestock farming (HLS) to people from mountainous regions into full ownership, probably to create new municipalities and possibly redraw the map of the Nogai region - this is something that can explode the situation in the north of the republic.
The Nogais understand that with their population numbering less than 19 thousand in the Nogai region, the resettlement of the Ando-Tsez peoples, Avars and Dargins, from the mountains can easily shake the ethnic balance in the region, and then in 10-20 years the name of the region “Nogai” will become a sham, and the Nogai the affiliation of the head of the district will already be disputed.
In the city of Yuzhno-Sukhokumsk, around which the Nogai district is located, it is a separate administrative unit with a population of more than 10 thousand and at the same time there is no significant presence of Nogais in it. Among Nogai activists, they are considering the possibility that the republican authorities will want to create a new district at the expense of the lands of the Nogai region. According to activists, this will be a lesser evil, since the settlement of the newly formed (conventionally called “South Sukhokumsky District”) district will preserve the ethnic balance of the remnants of the Nogai District. But the Nogais do not intend to agree to any of the options; at the congress they unequivocally stated from the rostrum that the Nogais should be the masters of the Nogai steppe.
Popular mobilization
The policy pursued with enviable persistence by the head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov and the government of Dagestan on the issue of lands for transhumance is increasingly aggravating the idea of autonomization of the Nogai region and its separation from Dagestan. Considering the current socio-economic realities, the Nogais themselves will not feel the negative effects of the separation of Dagestan, but they will have their own budget, which will not depend on Makhachkala, and renting space for transhumance livestock farming will no longer be an innocent formulation for the colonization of the Nogai region. This means that residents of kutans (winter camps of shepherds) and illegal settlements will feel the difference.
The fact that representatives of Nogais from outside the region came to the congress speaks of the potential that a divided people has and which is increasingly beginning to work for the benefit of its people.
You need to understand the essence of the congress - this event is only to attract attention, popular mobilization, and the main work begins after the congress. Their main task is to fight back the ruling in court, gain socio-political support and unleash an information war against their opponents.
The regional center of Terekli-Mekteb has become the social, cultural and even informal political center of the Nogai people, so it has already gathered around itself the most active Nogai patriots.
Despite the difficult fate, the Nogai people are fighting to preserve themselves and defend their interests. Total number Nogais in Russia are estimated at just over 100 thousand people, but taking into account peoples close to the North Caucasian Nogais, such as the Astrakhan Tatars and Crimean Nogais, the real number of Nogais may be twice as large.
The work of Nogai social activists in this direction can bear fruit not only in Russia, there is the potential to revive the Nogai identity among the Kazakh Nogais, another problem is the preservation native language and identity to avoid assimilation. Only in two regions Russian Federation Nogai is one of the official languages - these are Dagestan and Karachay-Cherkessia, but here too there is a problem of preserving the identity of the people. However, now the main concern of Nogai social activists is the events in the Nogai region of Dagestan, on which the future fate of the people themselves in Dagestan depends.
The scattering of the Nogais across Eurasia would seem to be a curse for the people, but now the Nogais have a chance to make a trump card out of this.
16:40 — REGNUM
Land problems of residents of the Nogai region of Dagestan are discussed at the all-Russian congress of the Nogai people in the village of Terekli-Mekteb. About six thousand people are participating in the event, it was reported IA REGNUM June 14 at the organizing committee of the congress.
In addition to representatives of the Nogai people from the Tarumovsky, Kizlyar and Babayurt regions of Dagestan, delegates from Chechnya, Karachay-Cherkessia, the Stavropol Territory and the Astrakhan region came to Terekli-Mekteb. Among the participants are also representatives of the Nogai communities of Moscow, North Ossetia and Western Siberia, as well as the Kumyk community and Terek Cossacks.
“The main demands are the abolition of the resolution on the legalization of illegal settlements on lands of transhumance, the return of lands to municipal ownership with the corresponding consequences in the form of deductions of taxes and rent to the budget of the Nogai region” , said a member of the organizing committee Abdul-Alim Makhsutov.
He calls illegal settlements the settlements that were formed on the territory of transhumance lands in the Nogai region. Legally, these lands are the property of the government of Dagestan and are under long-term lease from farms in the mountainous regions of the republic, which use them as winter pastures. Since the beginning of the 1990s, residents of the mountainous regions of the republic began to move to these lands, and thus large settlements were created there, which administratively belong to the mountainous regions, but are territorially located on the plain.
As reported IA REGNUM, in 2012 public organization“The Nogai diaspora of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug"turned to the President of Russia with a request to pay attention to land problems in the Nogai region of Dagestan. The fears of social activists were associated with the bill on amendments to the Federal Law “On the turnover of agricultural land”, which was introduced into State Duma of the Russian Federation by deputies of the People's Assembly of the Republic.
Activists claim that the document will limit local residents’ right to manage agricultural lands in the area. Of the 900 thousand hectares of local farmland, about 600 thousand hectares are lands for transhumance. Regional legislation prohibits the privatization of these lands, and only the government of Dagestan has the right to lease them. Activists regarded the bill as an attempt by the republic’s leadership to consolidate the current legal status of these territories in federal legislation.
Let us remind you that the users of transhumance land in the Nogai region are mainly farms in the mountainous regions of Dagestan. For more than half a century, settlements have formed on these lands, the legal status of which has not yet been determined.
How the Tatars were called to help in distant Dagestan
Today the Congress of the Nogai People will take place in Dagestan. Moreover, this kurultai is meeting on an emergency basis. Activists of a people who do not have their own autonomy are trying to attract Tatars to their problems; a group from Kazan also went to the congress in Dagestan. The fact is that representatives of this Turkic people, related to the Tatars, fear the consequences of the decision of the regional government to legalize the settlements located in the three regions of the republic in which the Nogais live. The famous historian-ethnographer Akhmet Yarlykapov, who is one of the prominent representatives of the Nogais, explains in his column written for Realnoe Vremya how such an initiative threatens an entire nation.
Controversial document, strange decision
Nogais throughout Russia were shocked by the document, which spread with lightning speed across all social networks and instant messengers at the end of May. This document stated that on May 11, 2017, at a meeting on the implementation of land reform in Dagestan under the leadership of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Dagestan B.Z. Omarov, it was decided to begin measures to legalize settlements that arose on former lands of transhumance, used by farms in mountainous regions.
Despite the fact that this problem concerns the whole of Dagestan, the protocol dealt with only three regions in which Russians and Nogais live compactly: Nogaisky, Tarumovsky and Kizlyarsky. In the last two regions, due to the uncontrolled migration of the mountain population, Nogais and Russians have long become a minority. And only in the Nogai region the Nogais still constitute a formal majority.
The ill-considered policy of the Dagestan authorities is leading to the fact that the Nogai steppe is gradually turning into a desert. Photo dagmo.ru
To understand the scale of what they are going to do with the land, for example, in the Nogai region, let’s give some numbers. Former lands transhumance, which are transferred to the category of state lands, account for 600 thousand hectares out of 887 thousand hectares in the Nogai region, which is no less than 2/3 of the region’s lands. The Nogais understand that the legalization of settlements that have arisen illegally on these lands with the transfer of land to them will deprive the indigenous residents themselves of the opportunity to manage their lands. That is why the Nogais demand to stop the so-called “reform” and listen to their opinion.
Nogais unanimously opposed the plunder native steppe. They want to be heard
The Nogai steppe is dying
At a round table held in Moscow on June 9, 2017, the experts present unanimously expressed the idea that such actions by the republican authorities contradict federal laws and are an attempt to legitimize the consequences of illegal actions that were carried out with the full connivance of the regional authorities. Experts drew attention to the fact that manipulations with the land on which the Nogais have lived since ancient times are carried out without the knowledge of the local population.
In addition, the ill-considered policy of the Dagestan authorities is leading to the fact that the Nogai steppe is gradually turning into a desert. The fact is that with the collapse of collective farms in the mountains, transhumance livestock breeding also ceased, but for some reason the lands allocated for transhumance livestock farming remained in use in the mountainous regions. If in the 1950s the share of degraded lands in the Nogai region was about 7-8%, then in the 1990s their share increased 10 times - to 70%!
This is due to the fact that pastures in the Nogai steppe are under enormous pressure when livestock grazes there in numbers several times higher than all norms. And with the collapse of the USSR, transhumance livestock farming stopped - but this does not mean that the cattle were driven back to the mountains, they are simply grazed in the steppe all year round, which is why the steppe no longer has the ability to recover and is becoming desertified at an alarming rate.
Hear the Nogais!
On June 14, 2017, in the center of the Nogai region of the Republic of Dagestan, the village of Terekli-Mekteb, the All-Russian Congress of the Nogai people will be held, which will be attended by Nogais from all the regions in which they live.
On June 14, the All-Russian Congress of the Nogai People will take place in the center of the Nogai region of the Republic of Dagestan, the village of Terekli-Mekteb. Photo dgom.ru
It so happened that the Nogais have no autonomy, and they are settled quite widely. This is a legacy of their nomadic past, tragic history and modern economic problems that have led to the fact that over 20 recent years a third of the people found themselves outside their native places, mostly in major cities Russia and the Russian North. They do not have any resources; in all the regions in which the Nogais live, they are a minority.
In this sense, they are the most vulnerable people, who have only one opportunity to convey their opinion about what is happening - to gather and express themselves. The Nogais unanimously opposed the plunder of their native steppe. Nogais today want to be heard.
Akhmet Yarlykapov
Reference
Akhmet Aminovich Yarlykapov- Russian historian, ethnographer, Islamic scholar. Candidate historical sciences. Senior researcher at MGIMO University.
- Born in 1970 in the village. Terekli-Mekteb, Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
- In 1995 he graduated from the history department of Rostov state university.
- In 1999 he defended candidate's thesis
Participants in the congress of the Nogai people asked Putin to solve the land problem
Following the results of the All-Russian Congress of the Nogai People, which was held on June 14 in the village of Terekli-Mekteb, a resolution and an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin were adopted. The congress delegates stated the reluctance of the Dagestan authorities to solve the land problem in the Nogai region and the need for federal authorities to intervene in the current situation.
The "Caucasian Knot" informed that on June 14, an all-Russian congress of the Nogai people was held in the village of Terekli-Mekteb, in which about six thousand delegates from different regions of Russia took part. The congress was organized by an initiative group that announced the aggravation of the land issue related to the plans of the government of Dagestan to assign the status of settlements to settlements located on lands of transhumance. According to residents of the Nogai region of Dagestan, this is how an offensive is taking place in the territory densely populated by Nogais.
“We demand that the Law of the Republic of Dagestan dated October 9, 1996 No. 18 “On the status of transhumance lands in the Republic of Dagestan” be declared ineffective (cancelled) as not complying with federal legislation. We demand that the lands of the Nogai district be transferred to the authorities local government in accordance with federal legislation,” says the final resolution of the congress.
The congress delegates demand an inventory and audit of the lands of transhumance in the Nogai region and all illegal settlements that have arisen there.
On May 11, 2017, in Makhachkala, the government of Dagestan held a meeting on the implementation of land reform, during which it was decided that in three regions of the republic, including Nogai, new settlements should appear, formed on lands of transhumance, used by farmers farms in a number of regions of Nagorny Dagestan.
Nogais demand from the authorities state power take comprehensive measures to forcibly terminate the rights to use land plots from lands provided for transhumance livestock farming used in violation of their intended purpose. The congress delegates also demanded strict control over compliance with the standards and seasonality of livestock keeping on transhumance lands.
“We consider it necessary for the federal authorities to intervene in the current situation, since at the regional level the conflict is not resolved and has reached a dead end; We ask Russian President V.V. Putin to take the situation under personal control and accept the leaders of the Nogai people,” the congress resolution states.
Rustam Adilgereev: hope is only in the federal government
“A lot of people gathered at the congress; the opinions of so many people should not be ignored. We hope that the authorities will pay attention to our problems, since we do not demand anything illegal, we demand respect for the rule of law and justice,” the chairman of the organizing committee for the congress told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent Rustam Adilgereev.
“Our people have no more trust in the republican government; now their only hope is in the federal government, they have proven themselves that way. Delegate Enali Kapiev spoke here, he is 80 years old. So he said that many times he and other representatives of the people went to the officials of Dagestan. They were even pushed out of doors and were not accepted anywhere. Even if they did, they didn’t decide anything,” Adilgereev said.
Temirkhan Orazbayev: up to 70% of land in the Nogai district does not belong to the municipality
When Nogai people talk about the Nogai region, they are talking about their homeland - the Nogai steppe, said a delegate from Moscow, a lawyer and public figure Temirkhan Orazbaev.
“The Nogai steppe and the Nogais are inseparable concepts. The Law of the Republic of Dagestan on the status of lands for transhumance cattle breeding establishes the republic's ownership rights over these lands. That is, the Government of the Republic of Dagestan, and not the administration of the Nogai region, manages and disposes of these lands,” explained Orazbayev.
According to him, up to 70% of the land in the Nogai region does not belong to this region.
“Since the owner of the lands of transhumance is the Republic of Dagestan, land tax is not paid, the Nogai region is deprived of this income... Uncontrolled round-the-clock grazing of livestock, lack of control over the tenants of lands of transhumance leads to environmental disaster in the Nogai region. Desertification is underway, soil erosion is occurring,” Orazbayev stated.
Nogais are forced to leave the region in search of work, a teacher told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent primary classes high school aul Kalinin, Nogai district of Dagestan Agaruv Kulunchakova .
“This is our area. We must use our land. There are no jobs, no land, Nogais are leaving the region in search of work. They mostly work in the north; they are forced to leave, even if they have a profession and diplomas. My daughter has three diplomas, but she can’t find a job,” said Agaruv Kulunchakova.
Murat Avezov: Dagestan authorities do not listen to Nogais
Nogais have previously raised the land problem at congresses in the Nogai region of Dagestan, a member of the Union of Writers of the Russian Federation, a public figure from the village of Terekli-Mekteb, told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent Murat Avezov.
“This congress differs from previous ones in that it is attended by representatives of the district authorities, deputies of districts and villages, heads of rural administrations. There was no such unity among the Nogais. This suggests that the Nogais realized what a deplorable state they were in in the Nogai steppe,” Avezov said.
He added that the Dagestan authorities do not listen to the Nogais. “That’s why at this congress we decided to contact the federal center. In our opinion, legislative acts that relate to distant lands contradict federal legislation. Until the land becomes the property of the municipality, everything will continue and get worse,” Avezov added.
“We are indigenous people and want to live and work here. If the land problem were solved, the Nogais would not leave their native lands in search of work, they would take up farming, livestock farming, and vegetable growing. We feel discrimination towards our people,” concluded Murat Avezov.
First of all, the Nogais of Dagestan and other regions of Russia raise the land issue, the head of the village of Karagas, Nogai region of Dagestan, told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent Koshmanbet Mamaev.
“The Nogai lands have belonged to the Nogais from time immemorial. They want to transfer our distant lands to residents from Nagorno-Dagestan. From the use of these lands we do not receive taxes into our budget. It's about on the use of about 600 thousand hectares of land. We demand that our lands be left behind the district,” Mamaev said.
Information on the reaction of the Dagestan authorities to the statements of the congress participants has not yet been received.