Country: Russia

Group: Kumyk

Date Finalized: 3/15/2022

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

Content Warning: Ethnocide, violence

Approximate Time Period: 1944 – Present Day

            The Kumyks are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to the northern Caucasus of Russia and the Republic of Dagestan (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Kumyks primarily practice the Sunni Islam religion, which they adopted after living under the Ottoman empire. In the present day, there are about 503,060 Kumyks currently residing in Dagestan (Minority Rights Group, 2015).

            In April of 1944, the Soviet Union deported many Kumyk out of their ancestral lands. Their lands have not been restored since. Losing their land has caused a cultural disconnect and loss of traditional livelihood for many of the Kumyks. The Kumyks continue to fight for their rights over their ancestral lands (RFE, 2013). The Russian government has also denied the right to write Kumyk language in traditional Arabic script or to teach the Kumyk language in schools (UNFO, 2018). Finally, the government restricts Kumyk participation in political affairs. As such, the government is unable to meet linguistic and cultural needs of this ethnic group (Magomedkhanov et al., 2018). Kumyks who participate in advocacy often face political violence. Some examples of such violence are assassinations of community leaders and elected delegates for national parliament (RFE, 2013).

Data Quality: Data quality for the ethnocide of the Kumyks ethnocide is rated a 3/3 due to the strong amount of evidence gathered from both nonprofit organizations and peer-reviewed research.

Source

  1. Minority Rights Group. Kumyks. (2015, June 19). https://minorityrights.org/minorities/kumyks/#:~:text=Kumyk%20activists%20have,largely%20been%20ignored.
  2. Magomedkhanov, M., Garunova, S., & Bakanov, A. (2018). Religious and Legal Aspects of Governing by Dagestan Province of the Russian Empire. Dagestan State Pedagogical University. Journal. Social and Humanitarian Sciences, 12, 5–10. https://doi.org/10.31161/1995-0667-2018-12-4-5-10
  3. R. F. E. (2013, August 22). Daghestan’s Kumyks launch new attempt to gain control of ancestral lands. Daghestan’s Kumyks Launch New Attempt To Gain Control Of Ancestral Lands. Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-daghestan-kumyks-laks/25083108.html
  4. UNPO (2018). Kumyk. Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization https://unpo.org/members/20873