"A part of the students of #Tbilisi State University announced the boycott of the academic process and said that they will refuse to enter the lecture halls from Monday, May 13. The students of TSU call upon their lecturers and students of other universities to go on strike and stop the academic process
"We are witnessing a historic process -- Russians are leaving for the first time in two centuries," independent Azerbaijani analyst Elhan Shahinoglu told AFP.
Happy to share my new article, "Letters from the Ottoman Empire: Migration from the Caucasus and Russia's Pan-Islamic Panic," published by Slavic Review. https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2023.164
For years, I have been searching for Muslim refugees' letters exchanged between the #Ottoman and Russian empires in the 1850s–1914. I was lucky to find quite a few: in archives in Tbilisi, Baku, Moscow, Vladikavkaz, and Makhachkala and private collections in #Jordan and Dagestan. The article explores the secret transborder #letter exchange of Caucasus Muslims and reactions by #Russia.
I argue that Muslims' letters from the Ottoman Empire fueled the Russian government's paranoia about Pan-Islamism that purportedly threatened Russia's colonial project in the #Caucasus. The Pan-Islamic panic shaped Russia's migration policies and colonial governance, including bans on Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, emigration, and return migration.
Ongoing antisemitic demonstrations in the Republic of #Dagestan and elsewhere in the North #Caucasus are highlighting heightened interethnic and interreligious tensions in #Russia.
Ukrainian forces advanced near #Bakhmut amid continued offensive operations near Bakhmut and in western #Zaporizhia Oblast on October 29.
V Yaroslav Trofimov of WSJ:
This is a video from the ChP_Kavkaz telegram channel purportedly showing a sort of preemptive police raid in Dagestan - in majority 'Muslim areas of Russia’s north Caucasus mobs raid hotels looking for Jews after rumors spread that some Israelis had moved there to flee the war. This video is from Dagestan, but similar incidents happened in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia.'
Many people out now on the runway in #Makhachkala airport ( #Dagestan , North #Caucasus , #Russia ) surrounding the plane from Tel Aviv - no authorities in sight ' there were police at the gates of the airport but got overwhelmed
(T.me/askrasul is a local telegram channel is worth checking - he says the captain asked the passengers to stay on board)
Iz.ru had a correspondent at the airport - on telegram iz.ru
Info on manyfold #Russian telegram channels:
'Meanwhile Israel's National Security Council said to have announced that 'there were no #Israeli citizens or Jews' on the plane on the tarmac in #Makhachkala airport #Israel#Russia#Caucasus#Dagestan
Because both sides were once controlled by Georgia, with no official agreement to separate them, the "border" fence runs right through many people's farms and even back yards.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday accused Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh but said he stood ready to normalise relations with Baku by the end of the year. ...
An investigation, carried on over the past several years among various peoples of the Caucasus, has made possible the assembly of a file containing more than 500 statements by witnesses, who claim to have observed hominoid creatures personally, sometimes for lengthy periods of time. These hominoids are described as bipedal,...
I have a new article in Kritika! It is on the attempted return of the North Caucasian diaspora in the Middle East to its homeland within the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation since the 1960s. https://doi.org/10.1353/kri.2023.a904386
The article looks at the relationship between North Caucasians—especially #Circassians—in #Turkey, #Jordan, and #Syria with the #Caucasus. It focuses on (a) #Soviet propaganda tours for the diaspora and (b) diasporic efforts to secure the right of return to #Russia.
I show that the Soviet government's and the Circassian diaspora's goals did not align. The USSR wanted to extend its soft power in the Middle East through the diaspora, while Circassians wanted a pathway to repatriation. Yet these contacts in the 1960s–80s paved the way for transnational Circassian activism and repatriation demands after 1991. The article is based on archival research in Nalchik & fieldwork in Jordan and Istanbul.
Feel free to send me a message for a full pdf of the article!
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Karabakh (www.thenews.com.pk)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday accused Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh but said he stood ready to normalise relations with Baku by the end of the year. ...
The Almasty – Yeti of the Caucasus - Marie-Jeanne Koffman (www.isu.edu)
An investigation, carried on over the past several years among various peoples of the Caucasus, has made possible the assembly of a file containing more than 500 statements by witnesses, who claim to have observed hominoid creatures personally, sometimes for lengthy periods of time. These hominoids are described as bipedal,...