The War in Ingushetia (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Война в Ингушетии) began in 2007 as an escalation of an insurgency in Ingushetia connected to the separatist conflict in Chechnya. The conflict has been described as a

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

by local

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activists and opposition politicians;Galpin, Richard
Ingushetia in 'state of civil war'
,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, 23 November 2008 others have referred to it as an uprising. By mid-2009 Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as the most violent of the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

republics. However, by 2015 the insurgency in the Republic had greatly weakened, and the casualty toll declined substantially in the intervening years.

History

On 26 July 2007, a massive security operation was launched in Ingushetia, sparked by a series of attacks including an assassination attempt on President Murat Zyazikov five days earlier. Moscow sent in an additional 2,500 MVD troops, almost tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia. In the next few days, hundreds of men were rounded up in the sweeps, while several security officers were killed and wounded in the continued attacks. By October 2007, police and security forces in Ingushetia were issued orders to stop informing the media of any "incidents of a terrorist nature." In 2008, Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the highly critical opposition website Ingushetia.ru, was killed while in police custody. The aftermath of the killing was marked by an upsurge in separatist activity and animosity towards Russia and Russians among the Ingush population. At the center of this controversy was the deeply unpopular President Murat Zyazikov, a former

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

general who was criticized both by human rights groups and by some in the Russian government. The Ingush Interior Minister Musa Medov was targeted by a

suicide bomber A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

in October 2008. Eventually, Zyazikov was asked to resign. On 30 October 2008, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to remove Zyazikov from office and replace him with Lieutenant Colonel Yunus-bek Yevkurov. This was hailed by the Ingush opposition as a victory. However, the violence did not end. According to police sources, nearly 50 people (including 27 rebels, 18 policemen and two civilians) died in the almost daily clashes in this small republic (less than 500,000 inhabitants) in the first three months of 2009. Assassinations and attempted assassinations of high-profile figures continued. On 10 June 2009 Aza Gazgireeva, the Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, was gunned down, and on 13 June former Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev was shot dead outside his home. Ingush President Yevkurov was seriously wounded in a suicide bomb attack on 22 June, and Construction Minister Ruslan Amerkhanov was shot dead in his office in August. In October 2010, the Ingush branch of the Islamist

Caucasus Emirate The Caucasus Emirate ( ce, Имарат Кавказ, Imarat Kavkaz, IK; russian: Кавказский эмират, Kavkazskiy emirat), also known as the Caucasian Emirate, Emirate of Caucasus, or Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, was a Jihadist ...

group announced a moratorium on killing police officers; according to President Yevkurov, 400 police officers had been killed in Ingushetia in the five years to 2 October 2010. After 2010, the levels of violence in Ingushetia began to decline, this trend continued, with total

casualties A casualty, as a term in military usage, is a person in military service, combatant or non-combatant, who becomes unavailable for duty due to any of several circumstances, including death, injury, illness, capture or desertion. In civilian usag ...

in the Republic falling by over 60 percent from 2013 to 2014. In 2014, the insurgency's leader Arthur Getagazhev was killed by security forces. In mid-2015, Yevkurov stated that the insurgency in the Republic had been 'defeated'. He said that 80 fighters from the group had turned themselves in and been given

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

and that the remaining active insurgents were greatly reduced in numbers. Reasons suggested for this decline, which was reflected more broadly throughout the

Insurgency in the North Caucasus The insurgency in the North Caucasus (russian: Борьба с терроризмом на Северном Кавказе) was a low-level armed conflict between Russia and militants associated with the Caucasus Emirate and, from June 2015, ...

, included the deaths of high-ranking insurgency commanders, the increased targeting by security forces of the support infrastructure relied on by the insurgents, and an exodus of insurgents to other conflict zones.

References

External links

*Lokshina, Tanya
How Chechnya came to Ingushetia
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 8 July 2008 *Leahy, Kevin Daniel
Ingushetia Insurgency Adds to Russia's North Caucasus Instability
World Politics Review, 18 Nov 2008 *Lokshina, Tanya
Ingushetia Under Siege

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

, July 1, 2009 *Pakhomenko, Varvara
Ingushetia abandoned

OpenDemocracy openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage de ...

, 16 August 2009
Ingushetia insurgency worsening

, 12 Nov 2009 (video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ingushetia Civil War Insurgency in the North Caucasus 2000s in Russia 2010s in Russia 2000s conflicts 2010s conflicts Civil wars involving the states and peoples of Europe History of Ingushetia Wars involving Russia Chechen–Russian conflict Civil wars post-1945 21st-century military history of Russia

History

See also

References

External links