King of Creation wrote:Do you people read anything? Ethnic cleansing is the forceful removal of an ethnic group from an area. Genocide is the elimination of an entire gene pool. There is a HUGE difference. What is happening in Chechnya is CLEARLY ethnic cleansing, and some say genocide is also taking place. When you have in upwards of 2/3 of an entire population being forcibly removed from an area, that's obviously ethnic cleansing. Don't try to argue against it, because it is a FACT.
True enough, but I think you're looking at it from the wrong angle. Whenever words like ethnic cleansing or genocide pop up, people always assume that the genocide or ethnic cleansing is the reason for itself an sich, like the Holocaust
But it isn't. The famous Armenian genocide happened as a reaction to Armenian resistance which disabled to Ottoman war effort during WW I.
Chechnya is a complex case. It was a war-front from somewhere in the 17th century to the 19th century (at least) and stayed a constant problem. After the fall of the SU Russia had to give back a lot of countries it conquered not only during communism but also during the Tsarist days. They had to draw the line somewhere and Chechnya just kind of drew the short end of the stick.
The problem is a political one. They can't give up Chechnya without sending another house of cards tumbling down, from their Southern countries to disputed borders between China and Russia to the isles between Russia and Japan. That's a political non-option, so it's war. Ethnic cleansing in that sense seems to only viable way out, as they can't grant freedom to Chechnya
But hell, that's rediculous, Russia has little to gain from ethnically cleansing the area. They simply want to win, permanently, and are fighting a war which is costing them many, many lives. If the result is that it looks like ethnic cleansing, so be it, that happens sometimes during war.
