Pankissi Valley
| Pankissi Valley | ||
|---|---|---|
 Mosque in Duissi |
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| location | Georgia | |
| Waters | Alazani | |
| Mountains | Greater Caucasus | |
| Geographical location | 42 ° 7 ′ 0 ″ N , 45 ° 16 ′ 0 ″ E | |
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The Pankissi Valley ( Georgian პანკისის ხეობა Pankisis Cheoba ; Chechen ПӀаьнгиз (ан чӀож) Phängiz (an ç̇oƶ) ; Russian Панкисское ущелье Pankisskoje Uschtschelje ) is a gorge about three kilometers long in the Great Caucasus . It is located in north-eastern Georgia and administratively belongs to the municipality of Akhmeta . The Pankissi Valley is home to the Muslim Kisten , a subgroup of the Chechens .
geography
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The Alazani River flows through the valley . In the north and east are the mountain ranges of the Greater Caucasus, the peaks of which rise up to 5000 m . The bottom of the valley is covered with rubble . It is washed up by the river in spring with the meltwater.
history
The valley has been home to the Kisten , a Muslim ethnic group now seen as a subgroup of the Chechens , for several centuries . They live mainly in the villages of Birkiani , Dschokolo , Omalo and Duissi and often practice traditional sheep breeding. The animals are driven into high valleys in summer and brought back down to the valley in autumn. There are also some traditional Ossetian settlements in the valley , as well as a small number of Georgians. An estimate from 1989 showed that 43% of the population of the Pankissi Valley at that time were Kisten (Chechens), 29% Georgians and 28% Ossetians.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, these numbers are likely to have changed massively. During the First and Second Chechen War , several thousand Chechen refugees came over the mountain passes into the valley since 1994, while (due to the South Ossetia conflict) a large part of the Ossetians fled Georgia. Today the majority of the inhabitants of the valley are of Cist or Chechen origin.
During the Chechen wars, the valley was repeatedly used as a retreat for Chechen and foreign fighters. They were soon joined by arms and drug dealers who took advantage of the confusing situation in the border area. There were always kidnappings of foreigners who were detained for months and were only released against payment of a ransom. However, the security situation in the region has since improved noticeably.
To this day, however, the area has been affected by Islamic extremism . With Abu Omar al-Shishani one of the leaders of the native Islamic State (IS) from the Pankisi Gorge. Time and again, young men from the valley travel abroad to join Islamist groups.
politics
According to Russia , Chechen Islamist terrorists are using the valley as a base for attacks in Russia. On the Russian side, the Georgian-Russian border to the Pankissi Valley was therefore mined. Russia has repeatedly threatened preventive strikes in the valley and is said to have penetrated Georgian airspace there.
Since 1999, around 40 OSCE observers have been monitoring the border mountain passes to the Pankissi Valley with helicopters and foot patrols. You are at the base Omalo in the Georgian region of Tusheti stationed. The Georgian government initially cordoned off the valley extensively, then subjected it to multiple military raids.
literature
- Shorena Kurtsikidze, Vakhtang Chikovani: Georgia's Pankisi Gorge: An Ethnographic Survey. (Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies. Working Paper Series) University of California, Berkeley 2002, pp. 1-43
- Johannes Rau: Russia - Georgia - Chechnya: The conflict over the Pankisi valley (1997-2003) . Köster, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89574-550-2
- George Sanikidze: Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Caucasian Region: “Global” and “Local” Islam in the Pankisi Gorge. (PDF; 315 kB) In: Tomohiko Uyama (Ed.): Empire, Islam, and Politics in Central Eurasia. Slaviv Research Center 2007, pp. 263-280
Web links
- Pankissi Valley: The end of the world suddenly becomes world famous. Georgia News, February 2002