Historians explain ethnic conflict around Kanjali Battle in KBR

The scale and significance of the Kanjali Battle can be a subject of discussion, but the ethnic conflict in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic has arisen on this ground because of harsh political restrictions, historians believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 18, residents of the village of Kendelen refused to let the participants of the equestrian march organized in honour of the 310th anniversary of the Kanjali Battle through the village. Several people received traumas in clashes with marchers.

The Kanjali Battle that took place in September 1708 is perceived by KBR historians as a major milestone in the Adygs' history. At the same time, a number of historians have questioned its scale and consequences.

The 2013 conclusion of the Centre for Military History of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences states that the Kanjali Battle "was of paramount importance in the national history of Kabardians, Balkars and Ossetians," noted Timur Aloev, a senior research fellow at the KBR Institute for Humanitarian Studies.

Alexander Yalbulganov, an expert on military history of the Nogais, has doubted the described scale of the Kanjali Battle.

In the opinion of Vladimir Bobrovnikov, an Orientalist, regardless of its scale, the Kanjali Battle belongs to the sphere of "historical and cultural memory."

Timur Aloev believes that misunderstandings in the evaluation of historical events in Russia are the result of the absence of political freedom.

"The attitude of the federal centre to North-Caucasian republics is purely colonialist ... We can't elect the head of our republic," the historian has pointed out.