Page 48 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

The Winter of

ISLAM

and the Spring to Come CHECHNYA

Oppression as the

whole world watches

A fter the collapse of the Soviet
Union over a decade ago now, a
difficult period was, and still is
being experienced in many of the countries
that formerly comprised it. The effects of
Russian expansionist policy in Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan and Dagestan have not been
erased properly, yet. These countries, which
believed that they would be able to establish
an order of peace and brotherhood after
being liberated from the oppression of the
Soviet regime, then found themselves con-
fronted by an altered form of oppression.
On the other hand, there is also one nation
whose courage and yearning for indepen-