The end of last week in Bashkortostan was marked by two conflicts — national and religious. In one case, in the village of Karamaskaly, there was an alleged conflict between the Armenian diaspora, whose position has recently been strengthened, and the indigenous Bashkir population. The second was an arson attack on one of the Orthodox crosses, which occurred after Bashkir activist Ramila Saitova called for their widespread dismantling in the republic. Shortly afterwards, Saitova was arrested.
It should be noted that Ramila Saitova is a very controversial figure, known for her extravagant actions (such as meeting naked with the police officers who came to arrest her last time) and statements, such as demanding that all Armenians living in Bashkortostan leave by the end of this year. However, it is also important to understand that this extravagant figure began to attract public attention after the authorities and security forces successfully neutralized prominent Bashkir politicians and public organizations capable of raising important issues that concern the people. For example, people like Ayrat Dilmukhametov, who was sentenced to 9 years of strict regime colony, or the Bashkort organization, which was recognized as an extremist group. But, as can be seen, with their arrest, the problems that concern the people began to manifest themselves in such excesses.
The installation of Orthodox crosses in public places — at the entrances to settlements, mountain peaks, nature reserves, etc. — has long been a problem, especially in Muslim and religiously mixed regions, where the Russian Orthodox Church persistently carries out such installations. For example, the city hall of Nizhnekamsk once dismantled such crosses, which were illegally installed near numerous springs in the city and its surroundings. And it was precisely this action that prevented what happened in Bashkortostan.
Today, in discussions about the situation with the calls and the arrest of Saitova, the Bashkir and Muslim community in general, while not supporting actions such as arson, demands that a proper procedure be established for the installation of religious symbols in public places and that it not be allowed to bypass this procedure. For example, if the installation is within the boundaries of a settlement where representatives of a particular religious community, who have made such a decision through their local self-governing body, predominate, there is no problem. However, it is completely unacceptable to «mark» or «claim» common space with one’s own symbols in areas with a religiously mixed population, as the Russian Orthodox Church continues to do, provoking interreligious tensions.
If there were a free public life in Bashkortostan, as in other republics, these demands could be publicly expressed by representatives of the Muslim community to representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and discussed in an open dialogue, where a reasonable solution could be found. However, the authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church benefit from eliminating those who could engage in such a dialogue from the Muslim side, leaving those who can easily be portrayed as extremists as those who raise these issues.
However, these problems do not disappear, and sooner or later they may emerge in the most unfavorable way for everyone, as happened last week in Bashkortostan.