Participants of All-Ossetian Forum organized the International Congress
At the extraordinary Congress of the Ossetian people, held on June 17-18 in Vladikavkaz, which gathered about 700 delegates from North and South Ossetia, Russian regions and foreign countries, the «South Ossetian» subject matter was the most dominant. A special coloring to the event was given by attendance of the President of unrecognized Trans-Dniester Moldovan Republic Igor Smirnov as an honorary guest.
- I welcome the participants of the congress, - said Mr. Smirnov, - and on behalf of the people of Trans-Dniester I wish the forum fruitful work and once again congratulate the people of South Ossetia on independence.
Solidarity with Tskhinval, however, the official Tiraspol clearly identified before the known August events. Of this, in particular, the audience was reminded by South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity. It turns out that exactly on the opening day of the Year of Trans-Dniester Moldovan Republic in South Ossetia, another shelling of Tskhinval began. The artists of creative groups from Trans-Dniester, speaking on the central square in the capital of the Republic of South Ossetia, turned to Mr. Kokoity with an unexpected proposal. - They asked me to give them weapons, - Eduard Kokoity remembered - to protect Tskhinval from attack together: that is worth a lot...
In addition to the statements and speeches, voiced straight by their authors, the congress participants had an opportunity to hear the appeals and greetings from the public men who could not come to congress for a number of reasons. For example, Senator from North Ossetia, Valery Kadokhov read a greeting from the President of the Federation Council of Federal Assembly of Russia Sergei Mironov, in which Mr. Mironov mentioned «worthy contribution of the Ossetian people to the development of Russia». The Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov emphasized the «centuries-old culture of Ossetins».
But, according to the congress participants, not everything is so smooth with the culture today. In their view, the main problem is that many Ossetians, for various reasons have become citizens of other countries and began to forget about their roots away from the historic homeland. They forget not only the way of life of their ancestors, traditional culture and customs, but even native Ossetic language. Oblivion of the native language, however, is the headache of not only foreign diasporas, but the present North Ossetia as well. - The Parliament of RNO-A adopted a program for further development of the Ossetic language, but there are no real results yet, - said one of the participants of the congress, veteran of work Yuri Bagayev, - not by chance in 2009, UNESCO included our language into the list of the languages of extinction - it's time to sound the alarm in this connection.
Therefore, on the first day of the congress, chairman of the Council of Elders «Styr Nykhas» Boris Basayev proposed to establish an international Ossetian congress, which could resist assimilation of the Ossetian ethnos. No sooner said than done: a day after the congress participants discussed the formation of the working bodies of the Executive Committee, the promptly established International Ossetian Congress, as well as the All-Russian public organization, into which the regional organization «Styr Nykhas» had been reorganized the day before. Delegates of the congress introduced and unanimously approved a single candidacy for both posts - the former chairman of «Styr Nykhas» Boris Basayev. Among the major outcomes of the congress political scientists see both the Appeal on recognition of the independence of South Ossetia, and the Declaration on the right of South Ossetia on security, self-determination and safe future: these documents have been sent to the UN Secretary General, as well as to the OSCE, PACE, the President of Russia, Chairman of the Federation Council and RF State Duma. |
FACT
