North Caucasus regions within the Russian Federation

The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia.

Politically, the Northern Caucasus (territory north of the Greater Caucasus Range) includes the Russian Republics of the North Caucasus as well as several regions of Georgia and Azerbaijan. As part of the Russian Federation, the Northern Caucasus region is included in the Southern Federal District and consists of Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, and the constituent republics, approximately from west to east: Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia-Alania, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan.^[1] Since October 2007, separatists and Caucasus Front soldiers led by Dokka Umarov and Akhmed Yevloyev have claimed all of the North Caucasian regions from Cherkess to the Caspian Sea as part of an Islamic emirate ruled by sharia law. This proclaimed Caucasus Emirate has been met with opposition within the Caucasus region from Chechen Republic of Ichkeria apologists.

In Georgia, the North Caucasus includes the regions of Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Khevi.^{[citation needed]}

In Azerbaijan, the North Caucasus includes the northeastern regions.^{[citation needed]}

Geographically, the term North Caucasus comprises the northern slope and western extremity of the Caucasus Major mountain range, as well as a part of its southern slope to the West (until the Psou River). The Forecaucasus steppe area is often also encompassed under the notion of "North Caucasus", thus the northern boundary of the geographical region is generally considered to be the Kuma-Manych Depression. It is bounded by the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait on the west, and the Caspian Sea on the east. According to the Concise Atlas of the World, Second Edition (2008), most of the Ciscaucasian region lies on the European side of the "commonly accepted division" that separates Europe from Asia.

[edit] See also

• 2009 insurgency in the North Caucasus
• Caucasian War
• Caucasus Imamate
• Dolmens of North Caucasus
• Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus
• Kuban People's Republic
• North Caucasian Soviet Republic
• Caucasus Emirate
• South Caucasus (Transcaucasia)

[edit] References

1. ^ A small schematic map of the regions can be seen at [1]

[edit] Other References

• In Quest for God and Freedom: Sufi Responses to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus By Anna Zelkina
• Russia in the Modern World: a new geography By Denis J. B. Shaw, Institute of British Geographers