Shamil Basayev

Shamil Salmanovich Basayev (Russian: ?????? ?????????? ??????) (born January 14, 1965) is a Chechen leading an armed group acting in the north Caucasus region of Russia, principally in Chechnya. Although some call him a "separatist" for his goal of achieving independence from Russia, many call him a "terrorist" for his intentional killing of unarmed civilians, including women and children. Since 2003, Basayev has also used the pseudonym and title Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris, "Amir of the Brigade of Shahids 'Riyadus Salihiin'".

Basayev at war

When Communist hardliners attempted to stage a coup in August 1991, Basayev joined supporters of Russian President Boris Yeltsin on the barricades around the Russian parliament building in central Moscow. It is not clear what he was doing there, although it is noteworthy that the pro-Yeltsin chairman of the Supreme Soviet, Ruslan Khasbulatov, was himself a Chechen.

Related Topics:
Communist - Coup - 1991 - Boris Yeltsin - Supreme Soviet - Ruslan Khasbulatov

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A few months later in November 1991, the Chechen nationalist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev unilaterally declared independence from Russia. In response, Yeltsin announced a state of emergency and dispatched troops to the region. The Chechens mobilized 60,000 volunteers to defend against a probable Russian invasion. Basayev realised at the outset that in a conventional military conflict, Russia was bound to prevail due to sheer weight of numbers. Together with a small group of like-minded Chechens, he decided to adopt guerrilla tactics to draw international attention to the situation in Chechnya. On November 9, 1991 he and two companions hijacked an Aeroflot Tu-154 plane, en route from Mineralnye Vody in Russia to Ankara in Turkey to protest the introduction of a state of emergency in Chechnya. The hijack was resolved peacefully in Turkey, with the plane and passengers being allowed to return safely and the hijackers given safe passage back to Chechnya.

Related Topics:
Dzhokhar Dudayev - November 9 - 1991 - Aeroflot - Tu-154 - Mineralnye Vody - Ankara - Turkey

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The following year, Basayev traveled to Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, to assist the local separatist movement against the Georgian government's attempts to regain control of the region. Basayev became the de facto commander of a volunteer army of Caucasian nationalists, representing not just Chechens but many other North Caucasian peoples. Their involvement was crucial in the Abkhazian war and in October 1992 the Georgian government suffered a decisive military defeat, after which the entire ethnic Georgian population of the region was driven out in a large-scale outbreak of ethnic cleansing. Basayev's army killed thousands of Georgian civilians in Sukhumi and the village Leselidze. Ironically, his efforts had the quiet support of Russia, which wanted to create a weak Georgia dependent on its old rulers. If anything, though, this backfired on the Russians; the battle-hardened Chechen volunteers in Abkhazia later became the backbone of the Chechen armed forces and Basayev's own guerrilla movement. He moved on to Azerbaijan, where he aided Azerbaijani forces in their war against Armenian separatists in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, before moving back to Chechnya.

Related Topics:
Abkhazia - Georgia - 1992 - Ethnic cleansing - Sukhumi - Azerbaijan - Armenian - Nagorno-Karabakh

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