Pyatigorsk declaration enhances trend of cooperation between Cossacks and mountain people

Political problems in Russia and Northern Caucasus contributed to signing of a declaration on interaction between Cossacks and mountain people. The declaration helps resolve conflicts and raises the issue of territorial rehabilitation of Cossacks, note experts.

On July 22, in Pyatigorsk, the leaders of the "All-Cossack Community Centre" and the "Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus" signed the declaration on political union. Ruslan Kutaev, the chair of the "Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus", noted that the signing of the document was particularly important.

"During 300-400 years, the war between the mountain people and the Cossacks was fuelled by the authorities," Ruslan Kutaev said.

According to him, the signing of the declaration was influenced by the conflicts which arose against the background of the demarcation of the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya and Chechnya and Dagestan.

The chair of the "Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus" also advocated for a republic for Russians and spoke in favour of the creation of a uniform republic in Northern Caucasus.

According to Alexander Dzikovitsky, the head of the "All-Cossack Community Centre", the declaration was adopted with the aim of avoiding clashes between the mountain people and the Cossacks in case of conflicts in the region.

The signed declaration does not affect modern relations between the Cossacks and the mountain people, but it supports the current trend, and that fact should be welcomed, believes ethnologist Yuri Kardanov.

The declaration can be called a positive phenomenon in terms of solution of conflicts between the mountain people and the Cossacks, believes political analyst Andrei Serenko.