Salau Aliyev or Salau Aliev is a Kumyk nationalist and politician. In 1990, Aliyev was one of the founders of the Tenglik, or "Kumyk Peoples' Party". Aliyev believes that the Kumyks are descended from the medieval

Khazars The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

and cites the Khazar

Khaganate A khaganate or khanate was a polity ruled by a khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. That political territory was typically found on the Eurasian Steppe and could be equivalent in status to tribal chiefdom, principality, kingdom or empire. Mongol ...

and the later Shamkhalate of

Tarki Tarki ( kum, Таргъу, Tarğu; russian: Тарки́) formerly also spelled Tarkou and also known as Tarku, is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) under the administrative jurisdiction of Sovetsky City District of the City of M ...

as inspiring his vision of a Kumyk-dominated, independent

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...

. His critics contend that such a state would be ruled by a minority of its population.

References

* Yoav Karny. ''Highlanders: A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory.'' New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1999. People from Makhachkala Russian politicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Russia-politician-stub