On the page of the Council of Teips of Ingushetia on Facebook an article was published paying tribute to the civic qualities of the head of the neighboring republic, Vyacheslav Bitarov, who dared to «defend the interests of the people of his republic against the will of the Kremlin» (https://www.facebook.com/soveteipov/posts/272365227222639).
It should be recalled that not long ago the State Duma of the Russian Federation decided to move the date of celebrating the end of the Second World War from September 2 to September 3, and Putin signed the corresponding decree. In North Ossetia, however, September 3 is celebrated as a day of remembrance for the victims of the Beslan tragedy. In this connection, the current head of North Ossetia declared that September 3 will not be celebrated in North Ossetia as the day of the end of the Second World War, despite the decisions made in Moscow.
The article published on the site of the Council of Teips of Ingushetia states: «It would seem that the president’s decree should apply to all regions of Russia and be strictly enforced by all heads of all regions. But not so fast! The head of North Ossetia, Bitarov, immediately after the publication of the presidential decree, made a sensational statement that «…no one in Ossetia will celebrate the end of the Second World War on September 3″. He justified his statement, which contradicts the Kremlin’s policy, by saying that on September 3 the people of Ossetia will commemorate the victims of the Beslan tragedy.
It should be recognized that the statement of the head of Ossetia is logical in its essence. How can one celebrate this event in a region where the same day is observed as a national day of mourning? But the question is different: how did the head of Ossetia dare to go against the decision of the State Duma and the decree signed by the president?».
Paying tribute to the courage of the head of North Ossetia, Ingush public figures compare his behavior with the spineless behavior of the heads of Ingushetia: «…the date of February 23 should be commemorated in the Republic of Ingushetia as a day of remembrance of the unprecedentedly cruel tragedy that befell the Ingush people. However, none of the leaders of Ingushetia dared to show courage, express a civic position and demand from the federal center to postpone the date of celebrating the Defenders of the Fatherland Day, demand from the federal center to allow the people of the Republic of Ingushetia to observe February 23 as a day of mourning for the thousands of victims of mass deportation,» the article says.
Moreover, despite the tragedy that occurred in Beslan, the scale of the tragedy that befell the people of Vainakh in 1944 on February 23, which is still celebrated as a holiday, is incomparable. «On February 23, 1944, as is known, the Ingush people were deported en masse. For 13 long years of exile, they suffered from cold, hunger, diseases and monstrous lawlessness, and almost half of the Ingush population perished,» Ingush public figures recall.
In addition, they point out that if the head of Ingushetia had wanted to, he could have justified moving the Defenders of the Fatherland Day to another date even from the all-Russian point of view, because January 15 or January 29 are the days when the decrees of the SNK (Council of People’s Commissars) on the creation of the Red Army of Workers and Peasants and the Red Fleet of Workers and Peasants were adopted. However, as they rightly point out, «in order to carry out such a civic act, one must have political courage and knowledge of the history of at least the most important periods of one’s own people and all the peoples of Russia».
The Ingush public figures conclude their appeal with a sad joke: «Perhaps all Ingush people should address the President of the Russian Federation with a request to appoint Mr. Bitarov as the head of Ingushetia after the term of the current head of Ingushetia expires.
However, seriously speaking, the solution of the problem may be the abandonment of the system of appointing the heads of republics from Moscow and their free election by the people, as a result of which the politicians defending their interests will win.