North Caucasus

North Caucasus regions within the Russian Federation

The North Caucasus (or Ciscaucasia) is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia.

Politically, the Northern Caucasus (territory north of the Greater Caucasus Range) includes the Russian Republics of the North Caucasus. As part of the Russian Federation, the Northern Caucasus region is included in the North Caucasian and Southern Federal Districts and consists of Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, and the constituent republics, approximately from west to east: Republic of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia-Alania, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Republic of Dagestan.^[1] Since October 2007, separatists and Caucasus Front soldiers led by Dokka Umarov and Akhmed Yevloyev have claimed all of the North Caucasian regions from Karachay-Cherkessia to the Caspian Sea as part of their territory invaded by Russia during the 18th century that have expulsed most of the Caucasians towards Turkey, Bulgaria, Syria, and Jordan. This proclaimed Caucasus Emirate has been met with opposition within the Caucasus region from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.^{[citation needed]}

Geographically, the term North Caucasus comprises the northern slope and western extremity of the Caucasus Major mountain range, as well as a part of its southern slope to the West (until the Psou River). The Forecaucasus steppe area is often also encompassed under the notion of "North Caucasus", thus the northern boundary of the geographical region is generally considered to be the Kuma-Manych Depression. It is bounded by the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait on the west, and the Caspian Sea on the east. According to the Concise Atlas of the World, Second Edition (2008), most of the Ciscaucasian region lies on the European side of the "commonly accepted division" that separates Europe from Asia.

Recently, Russian Government has put forward plans to create a Caucasian Silicon Valley, at a cost of 32 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) as part of on-going efforts to generate opportunities in the troubled Russian region.^[2]

See also

• Insurgency in the North Caucasus
• List of clashes in the North Caucasus
• North Caucasian Federal District
• Caucasian War
• Caucasus Imamate
• Dolmens of North Caucasus
• Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus
• Kuban People's Republic
• North Caucasian Soviet Republic
• Caucasus Emirate
• South Caucasus (Transcaucasia)

References

1. ^ A small schematic map of the regions can be seen at
2. ^ Silicon Valley planned for Russia's North Caucasus

Links

• Silicon Valley planned for Russia's North Caucasus

• In Quest for God and Freedom: Sufi Responses to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus By Anna Zelkina
• Russia in the Modern World: a new geography By Denis J. B. Shaw, Institute of British Geographers