(Illustration: Dato Parulava/ OC Media)
A pitched battle between protesters and riot police in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley has undone years of work to build trust with a community that has been historically marginalised. The government needs to prioritise a more participatory approach to regional development over business interests.
Riot police in Birkiani in Pankisi Valley (Sulkhan Bordzikashvili /Facebook)
Riot police have deployed rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters in northeast Georgia’s Pankisi Valley after local residents tried to prevent the resumption of work on a hydropower plant in the valley.
10th congress of Chechens of Daghestan on 25 November in Khasavyurt. (Saida Vagabova/OC Media)
A resettlement programme in the Russian Republic of Daghestan to restore the historically ethnic-Chechen Aukh District has continued to cause controversy. [Read more…]
Aslanbek Dadayev (/Facebook)
A journalist from RFE/RL’s Chechen-language service, Radio Marsho, was denied entry to Georgia on Thursday. Aslanbek Dadayev wrote on his Facebook page that Georgian border guards had decided his ‘stay in the country would be dangerous’.
Leninaul (ленинаул.рф)
Akka-Chechens — Chechens from Aukh — do not wish for other ethnic groups to be relocated as part of efforts to restore the historically Chechen Aukh Distict. Many have expressed doubt that the district will ever be restored, despite a pledge by Daghestan’s government to do so.
Novolaksky District (maga_nahaev05 /Panoramio)
Daghestan is to resettle almost 2,700 people, in a move to restore a historical Chechen district in the republic. The resettlement of residents from Novolaksky District and the restoration of the Aukh District are scheduled to be completed by 2025.
Leninaul (ленинаул.рф)
Twelve people were injured, including three policemen, and nine were detained and taken to the police station as a result of a mass brawl in the village of Leninaul in the Kazbekovsky District of Daghestan on 25 June. The mundane dispute nearly turned into an ethnic conflict between Daghestanis and Chechens. About 500 Ingush and Chechens from Grozny left for Daghestan. While provocateurs in social networks were fanning the flames, high-ranking officials from both republics attempted to resolve the conflict.
Leninaul (ленинаул.рф)
The head of Daghestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, has pledged that the government will support the restoration of the historic Aukh District, but in a truncated form. Abdulatipov made the announcement during a visit to Daghestan’s Kazbekovsky and Novolaksky districts — territories of the former Aukh District which were repopulated with ethnic Avars and Laks after the deportation of Chechens in 1944.
A number of residents of Chechnya have complained of being forced to attend Russia Day celebrations on 12 June. Mass events are being held in the Chechen capital Grozny, mostly in the city centre on the square in front of the Heart of Chechnya (aka Akhmad Kadyrov) Mosque. [Read more…]
