(Mystery) Photograph of the Leadership of the the North Caucasian Mountain Republic

Photo 1: The leadership of the the North Caucasian Mountain Republic [1917-1920] in 1919: Tapa Chermoev (Prime Minister; Chechen; middle seated); next to Chermoev to the left is Said Bek, grandson of Shamil, the third imam of Daghestan, essentially the Minister of Defense and one of the founders of the Republic; next to Chermoev to the right is Ahmet Tsalikov (Ossetian). Seated rightmost (we think) is Ismail Hakki Berkok [a Circassian General in the Turkish army who took part in the attempt to wrest the North Caucasus back from Russian control in the 1918; he and Aziz Meker were sent by Ataturk in 1919 on a secret mission to the North Caucasian Mountain Republic, and perhaps the photo was taken during this time], and not Haidar Bammate (Minister of Foreign Affairs; Kumyk), as some people say. The others are unknown to us. One source claims that this is a delegation from the Republic in Paris in 1920. [Original copy available with one of Chermoev’s great grandchildren, who published the photo online but didn’t provide information beyond indicating the location of his great grandfather and that the photograph was commissioned by him:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leaders_of_the_Mountainous_Republic_of_the_Northern_Caucasus.jpg]

The short-lived North Caucasian Republic was able to unite most North Caucasians under one banner, which is no mean feat by any standards. This period has become the point of reference when the emotive issues of North Caucasian unity and freedom are invoked. 

[From Amjad M. Jaimoukha, “The Chechens: A Handbook”, Routledge, 2005, pp. 52-53.]

Following the brutal subjugation of their countries by the Russians in the 19th century, the peoples of the North Caucasus had grown weary of tsarist rule by the beginning of the 20th century, and they longed for the creation of an independent republic in which their aspirations and dreams of freedom could be realized. The first Russian revolution in early 1917 presented the North Caucasians with the opportunity to cast off the oppressive yoke and reclaim their independence. In May 1917, the First North Caucasian Congress convened in Vladikavkaz and elected the Central Committee of the Union of the North Caucasus and Daghestan as a provisional Terek-Daghestan government to prepare for an independent state, with both the North Caucasians and Terek Cossacks united in this aim. Earlier, the Chechen Congress elected a committee of sheikhs and elders to prepare for the new phase of independence.

The Central Committee met on 28 July 1917 in an extraordinary session to prepare for the Second Congress, which was scheduled to take place in Andi, Daghestan. The main resolution was the set up of a committee to prepare for the creation of a standing army. Local meetings were held in August 1917 to elect delegates to the Congress. In September, a provisional constitution was ratified by the Congress. The North Caucasian Mountain Republic seceded from Russia in 1917 and declared its independence on 11 May 1918. It signed an alliance with Turkey and was formally recognized by the Central Powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and by Great Britain. The main figures in the Mountain Republic were the Chechen oil tycoon Tapa Chermoev, who acted as prime minister, the Ingush chairman of parliament Vassan-Giray Jabagi (Djabagui), and Haidar Bammate (Kumyk), Minister of Foreign Affairs. Other ministers included the Kabardian Pshemakho Kotsev [Kwetse Pschimaxwe; Куэцэ Пщымахуэ], Minister of the Interior, Aytek Namitok (Adigean), Abdul Rashid Katkhanov, Ahmet Tsalikov (Ossetian), and Alikhan Kantemir (Ossetian).

In 1918, the Russian Civil War spread to the Caucasus, with both the Reds and Whites in earnest to control the vital region. On 8 June 1918, a team of exiled North Caucasian instructors from the Turkish army arrived in Daghestan to organize a North Caucasian force, which, together with the help of fifteen Turkish divisions under Izzet Yusuf Pasha, a Circassian, routed the White forces of Bicherakhov. Amongst diaspora Circassian officers who took part in the military campaigns in the North Caucasus was Ismail Hakki Berkok (1890-1954; he wrote an account of the history of the Caucasus [Berkok, I., Tarihte Kafkasya [History of the Caucasus], Istanbul, 1958], which was published posthumously; he is the father of the writer Janset Berkok Shami, and maternal grandfather of the anthropologist Seteney Shami). However, the Turks failed to consolidate the military position of the North Caucasians, as they had to withdraw from the Caucasus under the provisions of an armistice. Yet again, an attempt by diaspora North Caucasians to free their lands was botched.

Initially there was some degree of affinity between the mountaineers and Whites, both being united in their anti-communist stance. However, the principal aim of the Whites was the restoration of the Russian Empire and re-incorporation of all its former colonies. For North Caucasians that meant going back to square one. Denikin, the commander of the White Army in the Caucasus, refused to recognize the Mountain Republic and he resolved to undo it by force. In February 1919, contingents of the White Army penetrated into mountainous Chechnya, where they encountered stiff resistance. The Red Army only offered half-hearted support to the out-gunned mountaineers. In August 1919, after quelling serious resistance in Kabarda and North Ossetia, Denikin invaded Ingushetia and Chechnya, burning towns and villages, including Alkhan-Yurt, Chechen-Aul, Dolakovo, Ekazhevo, Gherzel, Gudermes, and Stari-Yurt. With the nationalists crushed to a pulp by 1920, the Mountain Republic was no more.

The short-lived North Caucasian Republic was able to unite most North Caucasians under one banner, which is no mean feat by any standards. The Communist Revolution offered them the opportunity to cast off the oppressive yoke. However, these aspirations ran contrary to the schemes of the communists, and when the Red Army crushed White resistance, the North Caucasian Republic was violently destroyed. 

This period has become the point of reference when the emotive issues of North Caucasian unity and freedom are invoked. There is a poignant lesson in this episode of North Caucasian history. Although both Reds and Whites were engaged in a mortal fight, both parties were united in their goal of destroying Caucasian independence and freedom. Each time the North Caucasians sided with some faction, they ended up with the short end of the stick. This pattern was to be repeated after the demise of the Soviet Union, when Rotskoy and Yeltsin, the bitter enemies, were united in their stance against Chechen independence. History keeps repeating itself. It is the wise who takes heed. 

The following account on the military and diplomatic exploits of Ismail Hakki Berkok is from: Ryan Gingeras, “The Sons of Two Fatherlands: Turkey and the North Caucasian Diaspora, 1914-1923”, European Journal of Turkish Studies, 2011. [http://ejts.revues.org/4424]

“On 4 June 1918, the same day as Istanbul recognized the North Caucasian Republic, a small Ottoman force under the command of İsmail Hakkı (Berkok) entered Daghestan. The son of Adige immigrants from Uzunyayla, İsmail quickly set out to establish a locally recruited force in order to further drive Russian forces out of the Dagestan and secure an Ottoman foothold close to the oil-rich city of Baku. A much larger force under Yusuf İzzet (Met Çanatuka) Pasha, a long-time fixture of the Istanbul’s Circassian circle, arrived in support for this adventure. Even before the signing of the Modros Armistice forced all Ottoman troops to withdraw from the Caucasus, the lack of resources, Bolshevik opposition and local resistance, and indifference spoiled much of their advances.

“In the months after the signing of the Modros armistice, Circassian activists in Istanbul resumed contact with representatives of the North Caucasian Republic. At some point in 1919, a delegation led by the prime minister of the North Caucasian Republic, Abdülmecit Çermoyef, and the Republic’s foreign minister, Haydar Bamat, met with notable Circassian activists in Istanbul in the hopes of gleaning Nationalist support. Mustafa Kemal reportedly consented to the requests of the delegation and in turn sanctioned the sending of a Nationalist delegation to the Caucasus in 1919. Under Ankara’s orders, İsmail Hakkı (Berkok) was picked alongside Aziz Meker, a Caucasian-born teacher based in Istanbul, to lead this clandestine mission.”