Chechnya

[Rodion Romanovich]

Ok, I made the mistake of checking this wiki page instead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_I...ubles.E2.80.9D

[IrishArmenian]

Chechnya is a very odd case as the people do not have any real claim to their land. They, like the Azerbajainis (no offense to any of you), are Tatar descendants who were relocated to prevent their baiting of Russia into a full-blown war that the Ottomans could not handle.
The thing that bothers me so much though is that the Chechens are willing to hold a school full of children hostage and shoot them. That really hurts their image as "Freedom Fighters". They have really shifted to terrorists in my mind.
Remember, one man's freedom fighters are another man's terrorists.

[LeftEyeNine]

Chechnya is a very odd case as the people do not have any real claim to their land. They, like the Azerbajainis (no offense to any of you), are Tatar descendants who were relocated to prevent their baiting of Russia into a full-blown war that the Ottomans could not handle.
The thing that bothers me so much though is that the Chechens are willing to hold a school full of children hostage and shoot them. That really hurts their image as "Freedom Fighters". They have really shifted to terrorists in my mind.
Remember, one man's freedom fighters are another man's terrorists.

Um so ? We have come from Middle Asia, Anatolia is not our homeland. So we don't have claim for the land we have fought for centuries? What's the point actually? What do they being relocated against Russia mean? Not rightful to defend where they live for the time being ?

Not that I'm a fan of terrorists -I really don't care about Chechnya, I'm only concerned with the claim above of yours.

[Brenus]

which conflicts do you think the Chechnya conflict is comparable to in terms of motives?
Kosovo (I Metohija) in some aspects, except that Chechnya is not the holly Land of Russia. And the fact that the Serbs campaign was a garden Party comparing what the Russian did and still doing…

which conflicts do you think the Chechnya conflict is comparable to in death tolls and suffering for civilians?
The actual conflict in Iraq. In Bosnia, the main problem was the so-called ethnic-cleansing. No UNPROFOR in Chechnya, no Protected Areas, no Deny Fly, no witnesses, no NGO, no interests from media and others, the Russians can do what they want.

can the Chechnyan combattants be classified as terrorists, or should they be called freedom fighters?
Both. And kidnappers, drug dealers and all kind of illegal (but lucrative) activities… They are actually the very example of victims difficult to love and protect…

are the Russian actions in Chechnya war crimes?
Yes.

[IrishArmenian]

LEN, I'm saying that ithey have only truly occupied the land for 100-200 years, so I find it difficult to find their claims to the land credible when land that other people have occupied for thousands of years can be taken, leaving a small nation which is only a fraction of its former lands.
The Russians do have a terrible way of dealing with the Chechens, but historically, Russia has had few good ways of dealing with anything.

[master of the puppets]

IrishArmenian does your grandfather have to have lived in a place to make it your home and worth fighting for?

but seriously this war in my opinion seems to be most like the Boer wars in south africa, people fighting against a much larger foe who has treated them horribly and denies them a good life. excluding the concentration camps (to a point) the russians have accomplished this. they attempt to smother the chechnyan lifestyle and the chechnyans had every right to fight back against the atrocious russians. they also had every opertunity to become freedom fighters but unfortunatly they chose rather to use obviously dispicable tactics. or at least many do, its not fair to call them all the same.

[IrishArmenian]

It was someone else's land before that.