Russian-speaking residents of Naurskaya opposed the renaming
At public hearings, Russian-speaking residents of Naurskaya spoke out against the renaming of the village to Nevre, claiming that those who recorded a video in support of the new name did so after being threatened with dismissal. Authorities promised to hold a follow-up hearing.
As reported by the " Caucasian Knot ," on September 25, the State Duma debated bills to rename three Chechen cities, and deputies approved them in the first reading. General Vladimir Shamanov, a veteran of the Chechen wars, called the renaming of Cossack villages in Chechnya an erasure of historical memory. Afterward, Ramzan Kadyrov called Shamanov a criminal who should be brought to trial. That same day, Kadyrov called Shamanov a "hyena," while State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov called him a coward and a saboteur.
The bill to rename Naurskaya to Nevra states that the new name, which means "north" in Chechen, reflects the "most characteristic features" of the geographic feature. The Caucasian Knot report " Discussion on Renaming Chechen Cities " provides more details on the renamings and the resulting criticism .
Locals: "Keep our name, it's dear to us."
Residents of Naurskaya spoke out against the renaming of the village during a public discussion. The full video of the meeting was published by the Telegram channel "Mnogonatsional."
According to the video recordings, local residents asked for the name Naurskaya to be retained. "Some deputies passed some decision. We don't know them, I don't know them. Show me the basis for this decision if the deputies didn't consult the residents of Naurskaya. 'Show me the documents,' one of the local residents says in the recording," the woman said.
According to her, the villagers faced threats. "Who did you question? Show me this population. <...> You brought out these unfortunate women, and they made some stupid speech. I know they forced people: 'We'll fire you from your jobs if you don't write down right now that you're for Nevre.' Of course, people won't rise up because they're afraid of losing their jobs. You don't want to lose your jobs now either—I understand you," she tells the officials sitting in the presidium.
Meeting participants disagreed with the argument that the city must be masculine, pointing out that the word "Moscow" is feminine. "If you don't like Naurskaya, fine, it's the city of Naur. Why do you have to change it so radically?" a participant in the hearing protested.
She noted that she had been collecting signatures against the renaming "when the uproar had just begun." "It wasn't just the Russian-speaking population that signed," the activist said. "Stop Nevre. Keep our name, it's dear to us," she urged officials.
"This is our name, you see, we live here," the man supported her.
Another resident stated that she opposes renaming the village even to the city of Naur. "I want the name stanitsa Naurskaya to remain," she said.
A Caucasian Knot reader drew attention to the video, noting that it would be interesting to see how the Chechen leadership would react to "this demarche by the local residents." "You can't call them 'Wahhabis,' 'extremists,' 'Kharijites,' 'possessed by jinn,' 'Ukronazi collaborators,' 'agents of the West,' or any other labels, nor can you force them to publicly repent and apologize in the presence of relatives and elders, as is usually the case with Chechens. In short, the residents of Naurskaya have done a huge disservice to Ramzan Akhmatovich and the Chechen parliament. We'll see whether the Chechen authorities back down on this matter or actually get their way. In the latter case, Kadyrov risks seriously damaging his authority even among his closest circle," he suggested .
The head of the district promised to hold repeated discussions
According to the recording, the head of the Naursky District, Rizvan Dzhankhotov, and approximately 30 people, including a large number of women wearing headscarves, attended the discussion. After the meeting, he thanked those present and promised to hold follow-up discussions with at least a week's notice, as residents had complained that they learned of the meeting 10 minutes before it began. Those present promised to invite representatives of the Cossack community and residents of the rest of the Naursky District.
The Telegram channel "Multinational" published nine videos in total, including one from the meeting in its entirety, lasting 17 minutes and 44 seconds. According to a review by the "Caucasian Knot," no signs of neural network generation were found in the videos. This follows from data from the deepfake analysis program Deepware, which estimates the probability of a deepfake being less than 1%.
The campaign to change toponyms in Chechnya has been ongoing for several years. On December 10, 2020, authorities conducted a poll among Grozny residents asking for their consent to renaming all four city districts and eight inner-city settlements in honor of national heroes. Specifically, it was proposed to rename Grozny's Leninsky District to Akhmatovsky (in honor of Ramzan Kadyrov's father), Oktyabrsky to Baysangurovsky, Zavodskoy to Sheikh-Mansurovsky, and Staropromyslovsky to Visaitovsky. On December 29, 2020, Ramzan Kadyrov announced that 69.68% of voters participated in the vote and supported the proposal. Specifically, 98.07% of respondents supported renaming the Leninsky District to Akhmatovsky .
Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/416208
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