Country: Russia

Group: Kumyk

Date Finalized: 3/1/2022

Team: Ashlee Greenier (lead), Hannah Goldman, Hajer Rahee, Anthony Un, Isabella Boker

Content Warning: Forced migration

Approximate Time Period: 1944-present

            The Kumyk are Turkic speaking people living in the northern Caucasus of Russia, mostly in the Northern Dagestan area (Adjiev et al., 2018). In 1944, the government deported Kumyks from the Tarki area (Kalgan 2018), and in the 1950s and 1970s, local authorities encouraged a mass resettlement of highlanders into the “Kumyk plain” of Dagestan due to a shortage of available land in the highlands (Shnirelman, 2018; Eldarov et al., 2007). In the 1990s, the Russian government also relocated Laks on lands that had been vacated during the 1940s deportation. The government had planned to establish an autonomous Lak region in the “Kumyk plain” which generated further discontent from the Kumyk. (Shnirelman, 2018). The Kumyk continue to advocate for territorial autonomy to ensure a cultural survival in Dagestan but remains controversial due to the many migrations and diversity of ethnic cultures established in the land over the last 100 years (Krag & Funch, 1994).

Data Quality: Data Quality for the forced away of Kumyk is 3/3 due to the substantial evidence from peer reviewed journals, books, and non-profit organizations.

References

  1. Adjiev, A. M., Alieva, F. A., Gasharova, A. R., Murtuzaliev Yu, M., & Mukhamedova, F. H. (2018). Dagestan people folklore phenomenon as a unity in diversity. The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication, 475-481.
  2. Eldarov, E. M., Holland, E. C., Aliyev, S. M., Abdulagatov, Z. M., & Atayev, Z. V. (2007). Resettlement and Migration in Post-Soviet Dagestan. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 48(2), 226-248. https://doi.org/10.2747/1538-7216.48.2.226
  3. Kalgan, M. (2018). Seventy years on, the Kumyk people in Dagestan are still fighting territorial claims. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/kumyk-people-are-still-fighting-territorial-claims/
  4. Krag, H., & Funch, L. (1994). The North Caucasus. Minority Rights Group International.
  5. Shnirelman, V. (2018). The Politics of the Past in Dagestan: National Unity and Symbolic Revolt. Europe-Asia Studies, 70(6), 966-990. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2018.1487681
  6. Ware, R. B., & Kisriev, E. (1997). After Chechnya: New dangers in Daghestan. Central Asian Survey, 16(3), 401-412. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634939708400999