March, 14th 2010

 In the name of Allah the Merciful and Forgiving!

The past is useless unless we learn vitally important lessons from it. On the fifth anniversary of the death of Aslan Maskhadov, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, it is our duty to recognise that the only realistic way of achieving national independence and ensuring the security of our nation is by abandoning any further experiments on the Chechen people. Our nation must learn to recognise and put a stop to ideological diversionary tactics whose purpose is to undermine our efforts to liberate the Chechen state.

On the anniversary of the death of Aslan Maskhadov we recall not only a heroic life devoted to service of his fatherland, but also recognise the precious political and moral legacy he has bequeathed to the Chechen people.

Before his final return to Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov lived in Vilnius. At the time he had under his command in Lithuania an artillery regiment recognised as the most outstanding in the Baltic Military District. A brilliant army career beckoned, but Maskhadov unhesitatingly abandoned it when Russian troops advanced through Ingushetia to the borders of Chechnya and many commentators predicted the outbreak of armed conflict between Russia and Chechnya. As a true son of his nation, Aslan Maskhadov returned to Chechnya in December 1992 and reported to President Djohar Dudayev his willingness to serve in the Armed Forces of the independent Republic of Chechnya. As First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the ChRI, and from March 1994 as Chief of Staff, Maskhadov defeated attacks by pro-Russian oppositional forces. With cool-headed courage he defended Grozny when the First War broke out. The final dazzling achievement of that campaign was the August operation he masterminded to clear Russian occupying forces from the territory of Chechnya.

Aslan Maskhadov’s personal standing in the history of the Chechen nation is comparable to that of Sheikh Mansur, Beibulat Taimiev and Djohar Dudayev. The destinies of Aslan and Djohar have much in common: a successful military career in the Armed Forces of the USSR, return to the Republic in its time of need, three years of relatively peaceful presidency, and death in war against the Russian occupying forces.

Djohar Dudayev was invited back to Chechnya by figures from the early years of the liberation movement in Chechnya, so that they could draw strength from his authority among Chechens and the generally liberal trends of Gorbachev's perestroika to break the stranglehold of the Communist bureaucracy in the Republic. After winning the Chechen presidential election in 1991, Dudayev surrounded himself with people whose priority was fighting the top Communist Party officials. He listened to them, and they were effectively the ideological and political face of the new independent Chechnya. Populist rhetoric alone, however, is not equal to the serious political task of building up state institutions in extremely difficult circumstances. As president, Djohar Dudayev was well aware of that.

He recognised that, in the face of Russia’s growing hostility to the changes taking place in Chechnya, rallying all sectors of Chechen society round the ideal of national liberation was the only way forward. Unfortunately, the old revolutionaries of his entourage continued to see themselves as tribunes of the people and champions fighting the Communist Party establishment and could not reconcile themselves to the logic of events. They continued fanning the flames of conflict within Chechen society. The Russian secret services had the same policy, and the end result was to strengthen pro-Russian opposition and to bring about armed conflict between Chechens, out of which the first Russo-Chechen War grew.

The confidence shown in the 1997 presidential elections in Aslan Maskhadov, a loyal comrade-in-arms of Djohar Dudayev, was shared by the entire people, and without exaggeration we can say that, for the first time since the era of Baibulat Taimiev, Chechens had a national leader in the full sense of the word. Aslan Maskhadov was recognised as such by our people, by the international community, and even by our military and political opponent, Russia. This was an immense political achievement for our people and provided a real opportunity of establishing a state enjoying the rule of law.

Here too, however, the old revolutionaries played a destructive role, now donning the vestments of "Islamic alims". They formed a new opposition to the authority of Aslan Maskhadov, instigating new and even more dangerous disturbances in Chechen society with ideas which were both radical and totally impractical at that time. It was these people who compelled Maskhadov to focus all his efforts on averting civil war. He was a powerful and strong-willed leader, and used all his strength and willpower to avoid fraternal strife within Chechen society. Failing to unleash a civil war in the Republic, Russia had ultimately to fall back on naked aggression against the Chechen state.

The death of Aslan Maskhadov is comparable with the death of Sheikh Mansur: both of them consciously accepted death in the name of the ideal they were defending. Aslan Maskhadov had the choice of either betraying his principles, accepting "honorary captivity" and enjoying all manner of material benefits; or of dying, true to the destiny of our glorious ancestors who gave their lives in defence of Chechen freedom, and without dishonouring the memory of those who had fought alongside him. Aslan, like his predecessor Sheikh Mansur, chose the latter and with dignity followed his life’s path to the end, the path of a national leader, politician, warrior, and Chechen k”onakh.

The memory of Aslan Maskhadov, a great son of the Chechen people, will remain forever in our hearts and in the history of the Chechen nation.

Dala dek”al voila siilakh nokhchii ba’chcha!
Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!

Akhmed Zakayev, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

ChechenCenter.info