Regional Conflict 385

Regional ConflictHow do new nations establish law and order?

Main Ideas• Regional tensions, once

under Soviet control, have

flared up in Russia and the

Republics.

• Some of the most violent

conflicts have occurred in

the Caucasus region.

Places & TermsCaucasus

Chechnya

Nagorno-Karabakh

RU

SS

IA &

REP

.

A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE The powerful central government of theSoviet Union once maintained tight control over Russia and theRepublics. But when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, centralauthority weakened. Crime, conflict, and other signs of instabilityincreased. As one former Soviet citizen put it, “We’re floating in a zoneof half-lawlessness, half-law. . . . We destroyed the old system butreplaced it with nothing. There is a vacuum.”

A number of ethnic and religious groups have taken advantage ofthis vacuum to seek control over their own affairs. In several regions,their demands have resulted in conflict. Leaders in these regions havetried to gain control over the conflicts and bring them to an end. Thetest for many leaders has been how to preserve law and order withoutreturning to the undemocraticrule of the Soviet era.

A Troubled CaucasusAmong the different subregions of the former Soviet Union, theCaucasus has experienced some of the most violent conflicts. TheCaucasus, or Caucasia, is a regionthat straddles the Caucasus Moun-tains, which stretch between theBlack and Caspian seas. To thenorth of the mountains lie repub-lics that are part of Russia—including Chechnya, Dagestan,Ingushetia, and North Ossetia. To the south are the republics of Transcaucasia, which were oncepart of the Soviet Union but are now independent countries:Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

The Caucasus is a land of greatcomplexity. Inhabitants of theregion, which is about the size ofthe state of California, speakdozens of distinct languages andbelong to approximately 50 dif-ferent ethnic groups.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH

DAGESTAN

CHECHNYA

INGUSHETIA

NORTHOSSETIA

SOUTHOSSETIA

ABKHAZIA

AJARIA

BlackSea

Ca

sp

ia

nS

ea

GEORGIA

TURKEY

R U S S I A

IRAN

AZERBAIJAN

AZER.

ARMENIA

BakuYerevan

Tbilisi

Grozny

C A U C A S U S

M T S .

N

S

EW

0

0 100 200 kilometers

100 200 miles

Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area Projection

International boundary

Administrative boundary

ArabianSea

AFRICA

A S I AEUROPE

The Caucasus

SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting MapsLOCATION On what seacoast is Abkhazia situated?

LOCATION In what countries do North and South Ossetia lie?

386 CHAPTER 17

PLACE This television

image shows the

results of a bomb

attack in August 2000

in the Chechen town

of Argun. A Russian

soldier leads away a

captured prisoner.

Why might theRussian army havetrouble defeating theChechen rebels?

As the Soviet Union began to break up in the late 1980s, several ofthese ethnic groups began to take up arms to win their own indepen-dent territories. In the following decade, hundreds of thousands of people died in the conflicts that resulted.

CHECHNYA Among the republics that remained part of Russia after thecollapse of the Soviet Union, Chechnya has experienced the worst vio-

lence. In response to Chechnya’sdemand for independence, Russiainvaded Chechnya twice in the 1990s,causing over 100,000 casualties.

Russia first invaded Chechnya in1994. By the spring of 1995, Russiantroops were in control of more thantwo-thirds of the republic’s territory,and they had captured the capital,Grozny, and other major towns. ButChechen rebels continued to fightfrom hideouts in the surroundingmountains. Unable to defeat therebels, Russia reluctantly entered intoa peace agreement with Chechnya,ending the first phase of the war inAugust 1996.

Russia invaded Chechnya again inOctober 1999. The invasion beganafter a series of bombings in Moscow

and other Russian cities that Russian leaders blamed on Chechen ter-rorists. The invasion continued into 2001. As of that time, no one wascertain when the conflict would end.

GEORGIA Russia is not the only former Soviet republic that has experi-enced instability. The Ossetian people living in the central Georgianregion of South Ossetia fought against Georgian troops off and on from1989 to 1992. They wanted to unite South Ossetia with North Ossetia,located in Russia. This violent struggle resulted in 2,000 deaths and over40,000 refugees before a truce put an end to the conflict in June 1992.

Following the truce in South Ossetia, another violent conflict erupt-ed in Abkhazia, a once-popular resort region in northwestern Georgia.Abkhazians declared independence in July 1992. In the followingmonths, they forced Abkhazia’s Georgian population—over 250,000people—to leave the region. Many died while crossing snow-coveredmountains to safer areas. By September 1993, the Abkhazians had driv-en Georgian troops from the region. In spite of their success, Abkhaziastill lay in ruins in 2001. And the fate of the Georgian refugeesremained to be settled.

ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN Conflict has also plagued the regionsouth of Georgia, where Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over a moun-tainous area of Azerbaijan called Nagorno–Karabakh. Leaders inAzerbaijan say that the region’s history proves that Nagorno-Karabakhbelongs to them. Armenia claims Nagorno-Karabakh because overthree-quarters of its population is ethnic Armenian.

Background

Chechens are

the largest

ethnic group in

Chechnya and are

predominantly

Muslim.

Seeing PatternsHow are the

two conflicts in

Georgia that you

read about similar?

Regional Conflict 387

The dispute began long ago and was raging in theearly 1920s, when the Soviet army took control of theregion. Soviet authorities kept the dispute under controluntil the late 1980s, when Armenians and Azerbaijanisbegan to fight for control over the region.

The fighting continued on and off for nearly six years.Eventually Armenia won control of the territory. A cease-fire was declared in 1994, but by then, tens of thousandsof people had died. Nearly a million had become refugees.

Hope on the Horizon?In spite of all this conflict in the region, many believe thatthere is some hope for the future. In April 2001, U.S.Secretary of State Colin Powell hosted the latest round ofdirect talks between the presidents of Armenia andAzerbaijan. The talks, which were held in Florida, wereaimed at reaching a lasting peace settlement between thetwo nations. In Georgia, the government of PresidentEdvard Shevardnadze has been a stabilizing force.

Fighting has continued in Chechnya, and the humancosts of the war have continued to mount. In February2001, Russian officials reported that more than 15,000 sol-diers (2,700 Russians and 13,000 Chechen guerrillas) haddied since the second war began. Public support for thewar, which was high when it began in October 1999, isnow declining. The economic costs of the war have alsobecome a burden. These factors may help to bring an end to the conflict.In the next section, you will read more about the economic challengesfaced by Russian leaders since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Places & TermsExplain the importance

of each of the following

places.

• Caucasus

• Chechnya

• Nagorno-Karabakh

Taking Notes REGION Review the notes you

took for this section.

• Why might Abkhazia’s tourist

industry have declined in the

1990s?

Main Ideas a. Why did ethnic tensions in

Russia and the Republics

seldom result in armed

conflict before the 1990s?

b. Why did Russian troops

invade Chechnya in 1994

and 1999?

c. What led to the conflict

between Armenia and

Azerbaijan?

Geographic ThinkingMaking Comparisons Why

might ethnic differences

cause problems in one region

or society but not in another?

Think about:

• the type of government in

the region

ASKING GEOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS Search for articles on a conflict in Caucasia. Create flashcards that raise geographic questions about the conflict, such as “How did geography help keep

Russian troops from defeating Chechen rebels?” The back of the card might read “Rebels hid in

the region’s mountainous terrain.” Consider features of both physical and human geography.

RU

SS

IA &

REP

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ExclavesArmenians claim that Nagorno-

Karabakh is an “exclave” of

Armenia. Geographers define an

exclave as part of a country that

is isolated from the main part and

is surrounded by foreign territory.

(See map below.)

Like other exclaves, Nagorno-

Karabakh has presented regional

leaders with difficult challenges,

such as how to accommodate

the wishes of a region’s minority

population when they differ from

those of the region’s majority.

These challenges have severely

tested the stability of Azerbaijan—

the country that surrounds

Nagorno-Karabakh.

Causes Effects

Issue 1:Conflict

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