In Georgia’s anti-government protests, where are the Kists?

Nestled between the mountains in the upper reaches of the River Alazani, the Pankisi Valley is home to around 10,000 Kists, a Chechen sub-ethnos.

Relations between the central government and residents of the valley have long been strained, with the region, where Islam is widely practiced, frequently stereotyped as a hotbed for terrorism.

Tensions with the government have also often boiled over for unrelated reasons.

In 2019, riot police clashed with hundreds of local residents who were attempting to halt construction of a hydroelectric power station in the valley. Seventeen residents and 38 police officers required medical assistance as a result.

In 2022, police painted over graffiti featuring flags of Ichkeria — the independent Chechen state that existed in the 1990s — and Ukraine. At the time, Tamta Mikeladze from the Social Justice Centre, a Georgian rights group, said that Pankisi residents had already noticed a pro-Russian political orientation from the government, and that the flag incident only reinforced this feeling.

Since Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the suspension of Georgia’s EU accession bid ‘until 2028’ in late November, protests have taken place in major cities and even smaller towns across Georgia.

Yet despite the long-running grievances with the authorities, the latest wave of anti-government protests in the country do not appear to have reached Pankisi.

‘The government has much more leverage’

According to Sulkhan Bordzikashvili, a Tbilisi-based activist and journalist who was born in the Pankisi Valley, despite no protests taking place there, local residents have attended demonstrations in Tbilisi.

‘The mood towards the government is unequivocally negative, but at the same time, many perceive that lawlessness reigns in the country and many simply choose not to state their involvement so openly, because the government, especially the State Security Service, has much more leverage and opportunities over the Pankisi Valley’, Bordzikashvili tells OC Media.

He connected the lack of public demonstrations or public declarations to the securitisation of the region, stating that governance in Pankisi was carried out more by the State Security Services (SSG) than by regular government structures.

‘People from Tbilisi or even Rustavi will leave and return home much more freely than people from Pankisi, because even though we have equal rights on paper, everyone understands that we are more limited’, Bordzikashvili says.

He says that despite students and young people from the valley taking part in the protests, some of whom were subjected to physical violence, they cannot speak about such things openly.

One case that Bordzikashvili publicised on social media was the detention of 21-year-old Bilal Duishvili, who was injured by police during the dispersal of protesters in early December.

Duishvili was detained and had his phone and wallet taken away. Afterwards, he says he was arrested and beaten in a police car, needing an ambulance — medical staff later recorded that he suffered a broken nose, concussion, and multiple bruises. Duishvili spent five days in the hospital due to the injuries sustained.

‘They don’t allow me to do anything in Georgia’

Like Bordzikashvili, others also suggest that the tight grip maintained by Georgian security forces over Pankisi is stifling their voices.

Malkhaz Machalikashvili’s son, Temirlan Machalikashvili, was shot dead during a supposed counterterror operation in his home village of Duisi in 2019. Temirlan, who was 19, was gunned down by officers from the SSG as he lay in bed.

In 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled the SSG had violated his right to life. However, the official investigation into his death, which was marred by irregularities and conflicts of interest, stalled and the government has refused to intercede.

Since the killing, Machalikashvili says, the SSG has tightened its grip on the region further still, making it difficult for local residents to speak out against the government.

‘It’s a handful of people [living in Pankisi Valley], yet here, more than in any other region, the state security service has been planted’, Machalikashvili tells OC Media. ‘Before the incident with Temirlan, the situation was different, but then my speeches and this fight of mine changed the situation a lot.’

‘They have questioned over 200 people regarding my case alone. They were brought to Tbilisi and were questioned up to four times. This is a big problem for local residents, and that’s why they are holding back’, he says.

Even so, according to Machalikashvili, people are generally negatively disposed towards the government.

He says that many families in Pankisi receive remittances from relatives who left to earn money in Europe, which has increased their support for Georgia’s European course.

‘As long as they [Pankisi residents] can remember and according to their analysis, there has never been such an unfortunate, inexplicable, and generally bad government as the Georgian Dream government’, Machalikashvili says. ‘Every second person claims this, but they do not speak so openly’.

He adds that he himself has participated in almost all the protests against the government over the last several years, despite difficulties — he says he faces constant threats.

‘It’s not easy. I don’t have anyone to finance me, I don’t have any business, I don’t work anywhere. They don’t allow me to leave Georgia, they don’t allow me to do anything in Georgia. But for seven years, I’ve been trying to be involved in the protests, like the people who are by my side’, Machalikashvili says.

For Machalikashvili, the stakes of these protests are high. Several years after he began his protests calling for justice for his son, he says a high-ranking official in the SSG warned him directly that if they were not careful — there would be no Kists left in the Pankisi Valley.

Similarly, he says the current Georgian Dream government has issued threats more than once towards Pankisi residents, claiming that they are just ‘guests’ and that they can be deported whenever the government wills it.

‘These are the words of MP Irakli Kadagishvili. But almost two centuries of coexistence bind us with Georgians’, Machalikashvili says.

‘As for the artificial topic created in the valley over the years, that the valley is a haven for terrorists, I personally put an end to that, it’s over’, Machalikashvili adds, emphasising that government leaders should stop speaking to them ‘through the language of security and law enforcement agencies’.

‘No one will evict us from here, we are building stronger bridges together with our compatriots. We are not guests, we are full citizens of this country. We are everywhere, in times of trouble and joy, in war and in celebrations of victory’, he emphasises.