CHECHEN REPUBLIC OF ICHKERIYA

   Also called the Noxçiyn Respublika, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya was a secessionist republic established by Jokhar Dudayev on 1 November 1991. The only country to recognize Chechnya’s independence as Ichkeriya was Georgia, under the leadership of Zviad Gamsakhurdia. After several years of Ichkeriya’s de facto independence, Boris Yeltsin ordered federal troops into the region, initiating the first Chechen War, effectively bringing the region back under Russian control. Ichkeriya is an old place name from the Turkic Kumyk language meaning “that place over there,” and was adopted by Dudayev for its romantic connotations from Russian literature and its ease of pronunciation in foreign languages. The Chechen government in exile continues to use the appellation.