In the past few days Russian media have been full of reports and speculations
regarding ''the imminent end ''of the campaign that President Vladimir Putin
has led against insurgents in Aleppo, Syria's second largest city.
The Kremlin controlled Sputnik agency claims that Russia and the remnants of
Syrian head of regime Bashar Al-Assad's army plus Lebanese, Iraqi, Afghan and
Iranian ''volunteers'' controlled by Tehran are about to ''finish it off.''
If that happens, Aleppo, one of Islam's greatest historic centers, won't be
the first city of its stature to be ''finished off'' by Russians. What is
happening in Aleppo contains echoes of what Russia, always helped by local
''allies'' did in a dozen other Islamic cities.
The first in the line of Islamic cities to be'' finished off'' was, of course,
Kazan, capital of the Muslim Khanate that had ruled Russia itself for almost
two centuries. Kazan had been found at the start of the 11th century AD as a
trading post linking the steppes to the Siberian vastness.
Several Caliphs sent missionaries to the region to convert the locals to
Islam. In time, Kazan and its environs became one of the few territories to
adopt Islam without being conquered by an Islamic army. From early 15th
century Kazan became the main city of the main city of Tatars, the remnants of
Chengiz Khan's Golden Horde, who had converted to Islam. It was officially
declared the capital of the Khanate in 1438, a status it retained until 1552
when it was conquered by the Russian Tsar Ivan the Awe-Inspiring ( or
Terrible).
Ivan was able to seize Kazan thanks to the collaboration of Bashkir beys
(chiefs) who, like Bashar Al-Assad today, claimed to be Muslims but were
prepared to help an ''Infidel'' army seize a city of Islam. Ivan and his local
allies razed the city to the ground and beheaded over 100 Tatar chiefs. The
onion-shaped cupolas of the Saint Basil Cathedral in Moscow, built in 1561 to
mark Ivan's victory over Muslims, represent the chopped heads of the Tatar
chiefs with their turbans and headgears.
Over the centuries, the people of Kazan rebuilt their cities, including many
of the mosques and madrassahs razed to the ground by the Russians.
A second wave of Russian destruction came between 1920 and 1930 when Lenin and
his successor Stalin ordered that all traces of Islam be effaced in Kazan.
Again, Russia's local allies, including followers of the Muslim Communist the
Tatar Sultan Aliev (Galiev in Russian) helped the Russians as Assad is doing
in Aleppo today.
The Bashkir Muslims who had helped Ivan destroy Kazan, didn't escape a
terrible fate at the hands of the Terrible Tsar. Their capital Oufa was razed
to the ground in 1557 and the city's biggest mosque replaced with the Saint
Trinity Basilica. This time a band of Tatar marauders led by one Sheybak Bey
played Assad's role by collaborating with the Russian invader.
Another great Muslim city the Russian destroyed was Merv, a Central Asian
metropolis that had dazzled people during the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC).
The Russians captured the city in 1881. This time the Muslim traitor was the
adventurer Ali Khanov, who had joined the Tsarist army and obtained the rank
of colonel. Unlike Kazan and Oufa which were to recover from their ordeal
centuries later, Merv never recovered.
Even today it is little more than a heap of ruins.
In the 18th century it was the turn of Baku, capital of the Iranian province
of Shirvan, now re-named Azerbaijan, to suffer an assault by Russia.
For the following half a century, Baku changed hands between a rising Russia
and a declining Iran three times. Its final annexation by Russia came under
the Treaty of Turkmanchai (1828) after local traitors, this time led by Turkic
tribal chiefs and Christian minorities, sided with Russians. The population of
the city, estimated at fewer than 20,000 at the time, most of them ethnic Tats
and Taleshis were deported to Iran where they settled as ''immigrants'' (mujahers).
In more recent times, Russia has orchestrated the turning of at least two
other Muslim cities into rabble: Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and Grozny
the capital of the autonomous Chechen republic. Kabul was destroyed during the
Soviet invasion and occupation of 1980-89 when the local collaborators were
Afghan Communist factions Khalq (People) and Parcham (Banner). The Ubzek
militia, known as Glim-Jam (Carpet Stealers) recruited by the Red Army played
the role that Assad's loyal forces have assumed in Aleppo today.
Grozny had bene a battlefield between Russia and Chechens since the 18th
century. But its final destruction came in January 2000 when Vladimir Putin
ordered carpet-bombing operations of the kind witnessed in Aleppo. Like now in
Aleppo, Russia ordered a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave. Once this had
been done, Russian forces launched the final assault. By 6 February the
Russian flag was hoisted at the center of a city which was now a heap of
rabble. Sixteen years later, Grozny's population is only two-thirds of what it
was in 2000. Of the city's 6700 houses and apartments in 2000, only 900 have
been rebuilt.
In Grozny, Assad's role was played by Ramzan Qadyrov and his Sufi group of
followers.
In the case of
Russia and its Muslim neighbors, history repeats itself, always as a deeper
tragedy. END
Amir Taheri was born in Ahvaz, southwest Iran, and educated in Tehran,
London and Paris. He was Executive Editor-in-Chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran
(1972-79). In 1980-84, he was Middle East Editor for the Sunday Times. In
1984-92, he served as member of the Executive Board of the International Press
Institute (IPI). Between 1980 and 2004, he was a contributor to the
International Herald Tribune. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the
New York Post, the New York Times, the London Times, the French magazine
Politique Internationale, and the German weekly Focus. Between 1989 and 2005,
he was editorial writer for the German daily Die Welt. Taheri has published 11
books, some of which have been translated into 20 languages. He has been a
columnist for Asharq Alawsat since 1987. Taheri's latest book "The Persian
Night" is published by Encounter Books in London and New York.
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