Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria ( /ɪtʃˈkɛriə/; Chechen Latin: Noxc̈iyn Pac̈ẋalq Noxc̈iyc̈ó, Chechen Cyrillic: Нохчийн Пачхьалкх Нохчийчоь; Russian: Чеченская Республика Ичкерия; abbreviated as "ChRI" or "CRI") is the unrecognized secessionist government of Chechnya. The republic was proclaimed in late 1991 by Dzokhar Dudayev, and fought two devastating wars with the Russian Federation, which denounced the secession. In late 2007, the President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov declared that he had renamed the republic to Noxc̈iyc̈ó and converted it into a province of the much larger Caucasus Emirate, with himself as Emir. This change has been widely rejected by some members of the former Chechen government-in-exile.

Ichkeria was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Former president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, deposed in a military coup of 1991 and a leading participant in the Georgian Civil War, recognised the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1993. Diplomatic relations with Ichkeria were also established by the partially recognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban government on January 16, 2000. This recognition ceased with the fall of the Taliban in 2001. However, despite Taliban recognition, there were no friendly relations between the Taliban and Ichkeria- Maskhadov rejected their recognition, stating that the Taliban were illegitimate. Ichkeria also received vocal support from the Baltic countries, a group of Ukrainian nationalists and Poland; Estonia once voted to recognize, but the act never was followed through with due to pressure applied by both Russia and the pro-Russian elements within the EU.