Conflict Between Russia And Chechnya example essay topic

Conflicts in a country occur everywhere in the world. Russia and Chechnya's conflict is one example. There were many reasons and factors that led this conflict to grow into a war. Both Russia and Chechnya had different goals and interests that they tried to achieve. This led them to oppose one another and see each other as enemies. The following is a full analysis of the conflict, which explains the background factors, which contributed to it.

The Chechnya- Russia conflict, can be more understood by looking to the past. The historical background is needed to display the whole picture of the war. The area in the southern Russia was called the Caucasus region. Many non-Russian ethnic groups lived there. It all began when the czars started a 300-year attempt to conquer the Northern Caucasus in 1560. They failed to take over Chechnya and other areas of the Caucasus because the Ottoman Empire had conquered them.

The Chechens converted to Islam when they became under the Ottomans rule. Russia still did not give up. It made stronger attempts to invade the area and finally forced the withdrawal of the Ottomans by 1785. After winning the Caucasian War, the Russian government pressured many people to leave from Chechnya to different Muslim countries of the Middle East.

In 1877, 1920, and 1929 the Chechens made unsuccessful rebellion attempts against the czars and later Soviet powers. Their main goal behind this was to resist unification, anti-religion campaigns, and Russification. By 1994, relations between the Chechnya's government and the Russian government became much worse than before. As a result, Russia started a new savage war with Chechnya.

It ended with the Chechens gaining victory and independence, and the Russian government gaining victory for keeping Chechnya as a part of the Russian Federation. In 1995, Chechen rebels attacked the southern part of Russia. They took control of several places, and fought Russian troops, causing Russia to make new military actions. In 1996, President Yeltsin terminated all military actions and offered talks with rebels. A truce was agreed in May 1996.

Till now, Chechnya's situation is still a matter of dispute. After the last war, in 1994-96, Chechnya was devastated and eventually turned into a chaotic uncontrollable place. Its economy declined rapidly, and poverty in the nation increased. Crimes occurred everywhere, and hostage -taking became a famous business for some criminal gangs. Within this overall framework of decay, there have been three main factors that led to the present conflict between Russia and Chechnya. First, in May 1999, an oil pipeline between Azerbaijan and Georgia on the shores of the Black Sea was re-opened with the aid of the West.

This occurred in November when Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed an agreement to build another pipeline. This pipeline connected Azerbaijan and the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, and which completely crossed over Russian territory. Russia took this as a political insult. It was afraid of losing its' influence in the Caucasus.

This made Russia more motivated to start a war. In August 1999 the invasion into Daghestan led by the former Prime Minister Sham il Basayev was set as a warning to Russia of the type of influence that could spread if Chechnya gained complete independence. It was known that Basayev was the most famous and feared Chechen commander who had made various attempts to establish an Islamic state in Dagestan. Russia was fully aware of the growing threat to its control in the strategically key region of the northern Caucasus. From Basayev's invasion into Daghestan, Russia started to make a military move against Chechnya. Yeltsin sent nearly 100,000 Russian troops into Chechnya and recaptured breakaway areas of Dagestan.

Finally, in autumn 1999, bombings of civilian apartment blocks in some Russian cities caused the death of 300 people. The blame was immediately thrown on the Chechens with no proof or evidence. This all created a mood of public outrage toward Chechnya's population from the Russians. Since then, Russian air strikes destroyed Chechnya's ground and communications trying to form a'security zone' and to root out Islamic militants believed to be in Chechnya. The conflict between Russia and Chechnya can be considered as a political, religious, and economical conflict.

It is a political conflict because Russia wants to gain the land of Chechnya. It sees Chechnya as its first stage in re-establishing its domination of the whole Caucasus. It is an economical conflict because Russia wants to possess Chechnya's substantial oil reserves. Finally, it is a religious conflict because the Muslim peoples of Chechnya claim a tradition of opposition to rule from Russia. They want to gain their independence as a muslim country. For all of those factors, Russia started another war with Chechnya...

It can be seen that the russian-chechnya war had a long story behind it. Each nation had a different goal to achieve. The Russians were out to conquer Chechnya as the first stage in re-establishing their domination of the whole Caucasus. Chechnya was resisting foreign domination with all it's power to gain it's full independence. Each was struggling for a different reason and purpose. Until now, both sides are fighting against each other.

Despite Russian claims of an approaching victory, war goes on. Although the solution of ending this war is in their own hands, the dispute between the two nations continues. They can all live in peace by learning to compromise. They won't be able to achieve all the goals that they had put in mind, but they would be able to live together in a much better way.