Russia’s North Caucasus people won’t see South Ossetia renamed as Alania

Russia’s Karachai have decried South Ossetia’s plan to change its name to Alania, saying it “contradicts the real history of peoples and regions of Russia,” media agency Caucasus Knot reports.

The Karachai People Congress has sent a letter to the Russian foreign ministry, calling on it to stop the renaming happening.

Historically, Alania was home to many indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus and spanned much of the territory of today’s Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachai-Cherkessia, Stavropol and Krasnodar regions, the petitioners argued. On top of that, they said, it is the Karachai and Balkars who were the last people to bear the ethnic name of “Alans”.

“The willful, unilateral appropriation of the name “Alania” should be seen as an official claim laid on the historic legacy of the peoples of the Russian Federation, which may lead to future claims on our country’s territories,” the letter said.

South Ossetia plans to vote on changing its name to “Republic South Ossetia – State of Alania” on April 9, the same day as it is due to elect a new president.

Tbilisi has decried the referendum as illegitimate and called for the international community’s response.

• Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian-speaking tribes of Alans and local Caucasus tribes that flourished from early middle ages until the 14^th century. Apart from the Ossetians, some other peoples of the North Caucasus have also claimed the Alanian historical legacy as their own.

• Currently, the name Alania is part of the official name of only one republic – North Ossetia–Alania.