T G, 70 years old, Zardiantkari
‘When they started setting houses on fire, and burned down my cousins’ houses, we were forced to run away. We were afraid that they would burn us all. So we ran.’
Voice | ‘What I hate the most is the injustice of it’
Mako Gomuri (Ana Vakhtangadze / On.ge)
Mako Gomuri, 20, a student and a supermarket cashier, is one of several people to lose an eye on 20 June during anti-Russia protests in Tbilisi. As the situation was escalating, she spent the entire day working, disconnected from the events unfolding outside. [Read more…]
Voice | ‘My destiny depends not on the political regime but the way of thinking’
(Photo: minorityaze.org)
Queer people in Azerbaijan frequently face hatred, violence, and isolation. Below is the story of one gay man who for years hid who he was from those closest to him, faced violence and rape during his military service, and despite fleeing to Europe, still faces death threats from his family because of his sexuality. [Read more…]
Voice | ‘I have finally accepted myself’ — an Ingush woman’s coming-of-age tale
Growing up in Ingushetia, Zarina (not her real name), struggled with traditions that she felt restricted her. After fights with her family, a brief marriage, and a religious awakening, Zarina says she has now finally accepted herself for who she is. [Read more…]
Vitali Safarov’s mother: I must know why they killed my son
Marina Alanakyan (Dato Parulava /OC Media)
Vitali Safarov, a 25-year-old Jewish Georgian man, was stabbed to death in Tbilisi in September 2018. Two men were jailed for 15 years each on charges of group murder, however, the court ruled his killing was not ethnically motivated despite witness testimony that he was killed by neo-Nazis because he was Jewish.
Voice | ‘I have a child, a house, and a business, why on earth would I wash your socks?’
Keti Tomeishvili (Nina Baidauri / Women of Georgia)
‘I was 29 when I had to emigrate and returned 14 years later. My sister was very young when she was diagnosed with an aneurysm. The doctors told her her chances of survival were only 2%, but I really wanted even this tiny chance.’ [Read more…]
Voice | ‘Our families are as holy as yours’ — stories of acceptance
‘I’m proud that I have come so far being who I am and didn’t give in’, Drago says. (Tamuna Chkareuli / OC Media)
Despite widespread homophobic attitudes throughout the Caucasus, there are some queer people who find acceptance for who they are — from their co-workers, their friends, and their families. Below are the stories of three queer people, from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. [Read more…]
Voice | ‘My family and I have been made refugees twice’
(Illustration: Dato Parulava/OC Media)
The Kodori Valley, populated mainly by Svans, was the only corner of Abkhazia under Georgian Government control before the August 2008 War. According to the Tbilisi-based Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, around 2,860 people lived in the valley before the war, all of whom fled their homes. Only 55 families have returned; Raisa Khachvani, 62, is still waiting to do so. [Read more…]
Voice | ‘We still believed that he was alive and that he would come back one day’
Lika Managadze (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
On 16 March, the bodies of 12 people who died during the 1992–1993 conflict in Abkhazia were returned to their families. Lika Managadze, whose father Akaki was among the dead, reflects on her memories of her father and how the war shaped the course of her life. [Read more…]
Voice | The bitterness of the Kvankhidatli salt — the women salt miners of Daghestan
(Magomed Gadzhidadayev/Daptar)
The women of Kvankhidatli, a village in the mountains of south-west Daghestan, are known as the people who mine salt. The women recall gathering sand by hand to dissolve the salt since the beginning of the 20th century but say the tradition is now dying out. [Read more…]
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