Window on Eurasia

Russia’s Muslims View Regional Policies in EU as Possible Models

 

Paul Goble

Vienna, August 23, 2006 – Muslim scholars in Nizhniy Novgorod are examining the regional and ethnic policies of European Union countries with an eye to incorporting that experience in their own political demands, the latest indication of the extent to which the EU is having an impact well beyond its own borders.

In advance of a September conference on interethnic and
interconfessional tolerance being organized by the Council of Europe
and the EU commissar for human rights, Muslim researchers at the Amal
Analytic Center in Nizhniy Novgorod have begun to consider the regional
and religious policies in EU member states.

So far, they have published two studies, one about these policies in
Great Britain last week
[http://www.islamnn.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1220]
and a second on regional and ethnic policy developments in Spain posted
online on Monday
[http://www.islamnn.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1223].

Their reporting on what is taking place in these two EU countries
appears to be both balanced and accurate, and had these articles been
limited to that, they would not merit much attention. But the Amal
analysts specifically talk about the ways in which these EU approaches
might be employed to advance the interests of Russia’s Muslims.

Indeed, at the end of the article about the UK, the Nizhniy experts
pointedly ask: “What lesson from what has been said above can the
national minorities of Russia draw?” And they suggest that the
British case provides some useful ideas on how ethnic groups can advance their
interests within a regional context.

That is what the Scots and the Welsh have done in Great Britain, and
the Amal Center suggests that is precisely what the Kazan Tatars should do
as well, especially given the Kremlin’s course which is reducing the
importance of autonomous republics but increasing the role of federal
districts.

Drawing on the British experience, the Amal Center argues, “the
Tatars must use their numbers [and invoke] the example of European ethnoses
and the regional factor so that the [Russian] state will officially defend
the Tatar language in those federal districts where they are the native
(before the arrival of the Slavs) population.”

Of course, for that to happen, Moscow will have to “’grow up’
psychologically to the level of London of the 1970s and cease to be
afraid of those of its citizens who are members of national and
religious minorities.” Once that occurs, “devolution” on the
British model could become possible in the Russian Federation.

In its second article, on the situation in Spain, the Amal Center is
equally frank. It suggests that the regional approach Spain has
adopted, one that links people to their place of residence whatever it may be
rather than to their ethnic community, would not work in the Russian
Federation.

“Such a scheme of regionalization, were it to be attempted in the
CIS, would call forth with us remarkable resistance from representatives of
all nationalists.” That is because “the terms ‘Kazakhstantsy,’
‘Tatarstantsy,’ or ‘Bashkortostantsy’ were and are unacceptable
not only for Russian nationalists but also for local ones.”

But that does not make Spanish policy irrelevant for Muslim
nationalities in the Russian Federation, the Nizhniy center says.
“The experience of Spain shows that given a historical precedent and
political will, the establishment of a ‘Volga’ supra-ethnic
community, although it may appear utopian now, is fact is
realizable.”

Moreover, it could be acceptable in the Russian Federation, the Amal
Center suggests, if “the historic roots [as well as] the regional and
national characteristics of the population” are taken into account.
Indeed, such an arrangement could allow for “an even greater degree
of cultural-linguistic autonomy” than national republics have provided.

And because Moscow appears set on liquidating those republics over
time, the Muslim scholars say, Tatars and other Muslim peoples should
consider whether they might best protect the interests of their peoples and
religion by framing their political programs as some Spanish groups
have done in regional rather than ethnic terms.

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