Body of Eduard Gurtskaia, 19, murdered in Moscow, has been taken to Georgia. The young man`s family members, relatives and the Georgian Minister for Refugees and Accommodation met the airplane in the Tbilisi International Airport on Saturday.

The ministry will cover all the expenses for burial of the Eduard Gurtskaia, who was displaced from Georgia`s breakaway region of Abkhazia. His body was taken to his parents` home in town of Tskneti, close to Tbilisi.

Eduard Gurtskaia was killed by beating by Russian militiamen in Moscow on November 23. The body was examined, in consequence of which a suit was filed against the Russian law enforcers. One of the three detained militiamen, who killed Gurtskaia, has been sent to the pre-trial detention.

Today in Paris at 5pm local time Georgian diaspora will protest against Putin, Russia’s PM.
The protests called “I am against Putin! All against Putin” will be held by Georgian diaspora also in Germany, Belgium, Poland, USA, Netherlands, Israel, Greece, Baltic countries and some others.
Protests were instigated by the recent violence against a refugee from Abkhazia, who died after being beaten by Moscow cops.
Protests started in the Georgian social media as well, first was Cyxymu, reposted by 78ds and supported by some other LiveJournal bloggers.
Reply to this post if you have more info/links to people joining today’s protest.

The families of the four Georgian minor, kidnaped by the Pro-Russian regime of “South-Ossetia” and the Russian occupiers for alleged crossing of so-called borders of “South Ossetia”, complain they are blackmailed.  Reportedly, they receive phone calls from the Russian backed Ossetian terrorsits, who urge them to swap their children on the criminals arrested by Georgian law enforcers.
Thomas Hammarberg, the EU Commissioner for Human Rights plans to arrive in Tskhinvali tomorrow to meet with the minor hostages and join the negotiations.
Aleko Sabadze, Viktor Buchukuri, Levan Khmiadashvili and Giorgi Romelashvili were arrested on November 4 by Russian occupants and taken to Tskhinvali. The Pro-Kremlin regime  have charged the teenagers with illegal crossing of border and carrying explosives.

The world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb fuelled by an unfolding human rights crisis, said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Irene Khan today as she launched Amnesty International Report 2009: State of the World’s Human Rights.

“Underlying the economic crisis is an explosive human rights crisis,” said Irene Khan. “The economic downturn has aggravated abuses, distracted attention from them and created new problems. In the name of security, human rights were trampled on. Now, in the name of economic recovery, they are being relegated to the back seat.”

“The world needs a new global deal on human rights – not paper promises but commitment and concrete action from governments to defuse the human rights time bomb. World leaders must invest in human rights as purposefully as they are investing in the economy.”

“Billions of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity,” said Irene Khan. “This crisis is about shortages of food, jobs, clean water, land and housing, and also about deprivation and discrimination, growing inequality, xenophobia and racism, violence and repression across the world.”

Read more at: AI

“Underlying the economic crisis is an explosive human rights crisis,”

more about “Amnesty International“, posted with vodpod

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• Climate Change, Hunger, Drought: Conflict? North Kenya Pastoralists on edge [Guardian] 
• Yemen crisis: Largest destination for illegal weopons in Middle East [Yemen Post]
• Ongoing Strife in Philippines: Muslim Separatists update [New York Times]
• ICC/DRC: Second Trial of Congolese Warlords [Human Rights Watch]
• No living witnesses left for John Demjanjuk- last Nazi trial [Haaretz.com]
• Trade in Conflict Diamonds Escalates [Liberian Observer]
• Possible EU Satellite monitoring of Georgian situation [EurasiaNet]
• Armenian-Azeri leaders hold talks [Al Jazeera]
• A Tiger for a neighbour: Persecuted Tibetans flock to India [Times of India]
• Khmer Rouge trial comes to an end [New York Times]

Russian occupiers are forcing the local Georgian population to participate in constructing of military bases in Georgia`s breakaway region of Abkhazia.

On Sunday morning, the Russian aggressors took locals by Ural truck from Gali district to the territories, where the construction is underway. Furthermore, the occupants advise the locals living in the vicinity of the military bases to move to some other places to live, because as they assert, the territories should be declared a closed zone.

Along with this, the occupants have dug trenches and bunkers right in the towns of Sokhumi, Ochamchire and Tkvarcheli. They have installed anti-aircraft missiles there and name prevention of possible provocations as a reason for all their actions.

• UN debates sanctions on Eritrea for backing Somali Islamist rebels and threatening Djibouti [Times South Africa]
• EU sign $1bn development pact with Nigeria, aimed at tackling corruption and promoting peace [BBC online]
• Rep. Jim McDermott introduces bill aiming to curb that trade US trade in conflict minerals [Seattle Times]
• Officially sanctioned Northern Italian ethnic cleansing [Independent]
• Diplomatic Row between Thailand and Cambodia over Shinawatra [Bangkok Post]
• Armenia will be ready to make concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh problem: Ukrainian analyst [Today.Az]
• Corruption threatens global economic recovery, greatly challenges countries in conflict [Transparency International]
• Bosnia’s Chaos Continues [International Crisis Group]
• Berlin Wall: 223 dead. Wall that separates the USA from Mexico: 5.6 thousand dead [Pravda]
• USSR Still Respected Internationally for Its Bombs and Guns [Pravda]

At Prague Watchdog, Andrei Babitsky and German Sadulayev comment on President Medvedev’s new North Caucasus policy, announced in his recent address to the Federal Assembly, and his appointment of an “overseer” for the region, which is now for the first time being perceived by the Kremlin as a political entity. Also, a new Reuters report quotes ChRI leader Akhmed Zakayev as saying that Russia intends to significantly increase the numbers of its troops in the North Caucasus, as part of a planned surge.

Social media hasn’t come to understanding what Putin meant at former PM’s, Tbilisi-born Evgeny Primakov’s 80’s birthday celebration dinner, when he toasted that “the issue of reunification of Georgia is solvable” and that Primakov will take care of it.
The news that Gazeta.ru broke on Tuesday caused quite a big debate on Facebook and Forum, probably just like in the same birthday party.
Window on Eurasia tells details of the party described by Gazeta.ru’s Bozhena Rynska, who also mentions that this mysterious phrase turned out to be puzzling for the audience in the room, the room where many had Georgian roots, names, family as well as long-time very close relations with Russia. Some of them concluded that Putin had said that he would return everything to Georgia, others heard that he meant that all that Russia considers belongs to Russia will remain with them and as long as Georgia stays put and obedient Russian will be very cooperative and kind, and skeptics concluded that what Putin meant was the restoration in a new form of the Soviet Union.
Haven’t come across any blogposts in Georgian about it, however Cyxymi posted the whole article and caused heated debates among Livejournal users. Some of them had doubts about the credibility of the story, said it could be a hoax, but this suggestion couldn’t be neither supported, nor denied by any other sources.So the debates went on and it was interesting to observe the difference between discussion on Livejournal comments, where Russian-speaking Georgia-supporters (not necessarily Georgians maybe) were arguing against Putin-supporters (also not necessarily non-Georgians), which also was a case on Forum.ge, but the dominant feeling of users on Livejournal was that Putin’s words couldn’t mean anything positive for Georgia and he definitely didn’t mean reunification of Georgia, while many on Tbilisi forum interpreted it as an indication that Abkhazia and South Ossetia would return under the jurisdiction of Georgia.
Some more interesting points were made in Facebook comments, where one of the long-time freelance journalists, Zviad Koridze noted that the harm Russia wanted to do and has already done to Georgian people is that we don’t want to take responsibility for our lives, don’t care of elections, voting and many of us rather leave it up to Putin, Primakov and others to decide for us. “it doesn’t matter whether Nani Bregvadze will sing for Putin and Primakov or not. What’s more important, that Russia was trying to create an irresponsible society and it achieved this goal,” he says and others agree.
Could be a little bit of the same issue the fact, that the largest part of Georgian blogosphere didn’t touch this issue at all unfortunately and what we could’ve read on forum was either aggression towards Putin, towards Russia and Russia-supporters.
I finally saw the documentary by Andrei Nekrasov and Olga Konskaya, “Russian lessons” yesterday, while I was still perplexed with the thoughts of what’s Putin’s plan for “after-party”. I actually am surprised at the reaction of some Georgians and expectations that not only after seeing what war does to people, but especially hearing again and seeing the pictures from what Russia did to its kids, Russian citizens, in Beslan, how could anyone possibly misinterpret Putin’s cynicism and think that he decided upon reunification and now Primakov will bring back to us Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Irresponsibility has grown into stupidity indeed.

The Long War Journal is reporting that the suspected leader of an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Chechnya has been killed in a counterterrorism raid. If the news is true, it will be a certain turning point for the Chechen battle against terrorism and especially against the spread and influx of radical Islam. It would also add a new, interested, and unprecedented degree of complication to the Grozny-Moscow relationship.

Read the full article here, and then tell us, what do you make of this?

The Soviet Union wants you to visit the Caucasus

specifically Baku…

Baku’s one of the regional courts sentenced the bloggers Emin Milli to 2.5 years and Adnan Hajizade to 2 years of imprisonment on charge of hooliganism on November 11.
If for many different reasons you haven’t heard of the whole story that was extensively covered by Global Voices, or if you wish to support, you could do it on the support blog.
The court case coincided with World blogging Forum, which made a statement of support for #EminAdnan.
You could probably also support by spreading a word/tweets with #EminAdnan hashtag, re-posting, trascribing or translating in any known to you languages, appearances of Parvana Persiani, youth movement activist and campaigner for Azeri bloggers, who spoke at the WBF panel. She was on Kosmoshow day before the trial, was also interviewed by Global Voices’ Onnik Krikorian on the first and second day I believe.
Although the trial was not the hottest topic for absolute majority of the Georgian social media contributors, still having couple bloggers (Dodka and Cyxymi) representing Georgia at the WBF2009, helped to interest few others in here.
All day Dodka was tweeting from WBF about the case. Later Giga Paichadze aka Dv0rsky retweeted and posted about it also blaming Georgian media “that is fighting for freedom of expression and does not notice” such a big event next door, however some links in comments indicated that media has covered the trial and arrest of Azeri bloggers. One of the links came from Tazo, Freelandia author, who did one of the longest posts explaining background, current situation and also mentioning of some activist talking about protesting in front of Azerbaijan Embassy in Tbilisi. He published this story in Rezonance daily as well.

Russian occupiers have assaulted a public school in Gali district`s village of Nabakevi, Abkhazia, Georgia, and taken away computers and audio systems handed over to the school by Georgian ministry of education.

The occupiers have also taken away Georgian text books. Earlier, the Russian occupiers robbed five families in the villages of Sida and Nabakevi. They took away the looted things and products with an Ural vehicle, but before departing, they bound the members of the robbed families on chairs, whom the neighbours found later. Some of them have been hospitalized with injuries.

Russian occupiers kidnapped two Georgian anglers in the seaside settlement of Anaklia today. Chabuka Oghli and Gia Gabelaia were fishing near Pichori resort, when Russian sierrs assaulted them. The anglers tried to escape but the occupiers laid siege with boats and took the anglers to Ochamchire.

The Balkans are only a step away from normalisation, but it may be a step too far for Western policy-makers.

Normalisation for the Balkans would mean the region’s definite establishment as a set of functioning, democratic nation-states on the model of Western Europe; undivided by serious conflicts or live territorial disputes. The region’s national questions would be resolved, to the point that they would be as unlikely to spill over into large-scale bloodshed as the national questions of Belgium, Scotland or Catalonia. The Balkan states would all be integrated into the EU, and ideally NATO as well.

This is not an ambitious ideal, yet it is far from being realised. Regional progress is still being derailed by a series of conflicts of varying severity between the Balkan states. The Slovenian-Croatian border dispute for a while threatened to derail the entire region’s EU integration, though this appears to have been averted. Greek-Turkish rivalry over Cyprus, the Aegean Sea and other areas remains latent, something for which the anti-Turkish rhetoric on the part of candidates in the recent Greek parliamentary elections has served as a reminder. Both Turkey and Greece are problematic: the first is, under the leadership of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)  in the process of developing a new regional role for itself, one that appears to be taking it closer to authoritarian and radical states like Russia, Iran and Syria; the second is pursuing a damaging regional policy, involving hostility to the fragile states of Macedonia and Kosovo. With its campaign against Macedonia, in particular, Greece is threatening the stability of a neighbouring state where relations between the majority Macedonians and minority Albanians are already dangerously unstable.

Meanwhile, the policies of Serbia and Serb nationalism remain the single greatest source of Balkan instability. Serbia is still failing to arrest war criminals indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, thereby obstructing its own EU integration. But more dangerously, it is pursuing a d0g-in-the-manger policy vis-a-vis Kosovo, preventing the newly independent state from consolidating itself and integrating itself properly into the international community. The Serbia-Kosovo dispute poisons regional relations; Belgrade recently rebuked Skopje for the latter’s agreement with Pristina to resolve the Macedonia-Kosovo border dispute.

The most intractable regional problem of all, however, remains Bosnia-Hercegovina. The state is saddled with the unworkable constitutional order imposed upon it by the Dayton Accords of 1995, ensuring that the state cannot function and must remain in a state of permanent political crisis. Bosnia’s recent exclusion, along with Albania, from the EU’s grant of visa liberalisation to the western Balkans, that was applied to Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, has further entrenched divisions in the country and the wider region. Milorad Dodik, prime minister of Bosnia’s Serb entity, the Republika Srpska, is openly pursuing Bosnia’s full dismemberment; the aggressive and provocative nature of his policy was recently highlighted by the warm welcome he extended to the convicted war-criminal Biljana Plavsic, following her early release from prison in Sweden.

These home-grown Balkan problems are being exacerbated by the policies of outside powers. The revanchist, neo-Soviet regime in Russia is aggressively backing Serbia over Kosovo, preventing the dispute from being resolved. By doing so, Moscow is not merely undermining Kosovo, but is undermining also Serbia’s own complete transition into a post-nationalist liberal democratic state. Moscow aims to keep the Balkans divided to prevent their full integration into the Euro-Atlantic framework. Hence, Dodik was looking to Moscow when he unilaterally withdrew Bosnian Serb soldiers from participation in NATO exercises in Georgia.

The second major external source of Balkan instability is the weak and vacillating policy of the EU, dominated as the latter is by the Franco-German axis. Germany is pursuing a pro-Russian policy that is making the new East Central European members of NATO and the EU very uncomfortable, while France continues to seek a dissident role in the Western alliance vis-a-vis the Anglo-Saxon powers. Hence, the EU’s muted reaction to the Georgian war; the crushing of Washington’s Georgian ally was not allowed to get in the way of growing EU-Russian collaboration. The Georgian war was facilitated by the Franco-German blocking of the grant of NATO Membership Action Plans to Georgia, along with Ukraine, in the spring of 2008. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, pursuing his Gaullist policy of Mediterranean union, sees fit also to support Greece against Macedonia.

Such an attitude on the part of the EU also involves toleration of Serbian trouble-making vis-a-vis Kosovo and Bosnia. The Netherlands is essentially isolated in its continued insistence that Serbia’s progress on EU accession be linked to its arrest of war criminals. The EU, for its part, would like to see the Office of the High Representative (OHR) for Bosnia closed. Yet the OHR has been the principal integrating force in Bosnia since 1995. Take away the OHR, and Bosnia moves another step toward full partition.

The EU’s resolve over the Balkans is further weakened by the activities of dissident members. No unified EU policy exists over Kosovo on account of the refusal of five EU members to recognise the new state – all for nationalistic reasons. Romania and Slovakia perceive a ’separatist’ parallel between the Kosovo Albanians and their own maltreated Hungarian minorities. Likewise, Spain is obsessed with ’separatist’ parallels of its own vis-a-vis Catalonia and the Basque Country. Greece and Cyprus are traditional allies of Serbia; Cyprus also equates Kosovo with Turkish-occupied Cyprus. None of these states’ reasons for opposing Kosovo’s independence are very noble, yet the EU has no means of compelling them to keep ranks with the majority; the EU therefore pursues the policy of the lowest common denominator.

Although the EU has been as an instrument for bringing nations together, its recent policies in the Balkans are having the opposite effect. The veto that EU members enjoy in relation to membership bids by aspiring members places a weapon in the hands of trouble-makers lucky enough to already be in the club. The Slovenian-Croatian border dispute was exacerbated by Ljubljana’s use of its veto against Croatia. Although Ljubljana threatened to use its veto to keep Croatia out of NATO as well, Washington quickly put a stop to this mischief. Unfortunately, the EU states are much less ready than the US to put pressure on their partners to cease misbehaviour, and though Ljubljana did eventually lift its veto, this was not before it had won concessions over the border dispute at Zagreb’s expense.

Still more destructive has been the EU’s exacerbation of the Greek-Macedonian dispute. Despite the thoroughly pre-democratic and chauvinistic nature of Greece’s campaign against Macedonia, EU members have been wholly unwilling to put pressure on Athens to change it. So, rather than the whole club forcing a badly behaved member to behave better, the policy of the trouble-maker is imposed on the whole. The bad apple poisons the whole basket; the tail wags the dog.

The structural factors underlying the EU’s damaging policies vis-a-vis the Balkans are likely to become worse in the years to come. The accession of new members will give more states vetoes to use against aspiring members. After joining the EU, Croatia may use its veto against Serbia. If Macedonia does back down to Athens, Albania might be encouraged to use its veto to keep Macedonia out of NATO, to extract concessions regarding the Albanian minority in Macedonia. For while both Croatia and Albania have pursued responsible regional policies over the past ten years, the EU is sending out to them the wrong signals: that bad behaviour brings dividends.

Meanwhile, the EU’s growing energy dependency on Russia is likely further to dampen the EU’s resolve to resist the mischief of Moscow and Belgrade in the Balkans. Russian plans to build the ‘North Stream’ gas pipeline direct to Germany, bypassing the former-Communist states of East Central Europe, will allow it to exert leverage over its neighbours without simultaneously punishing its German ally.

As the EU moves increasingly to accommodate a dangerous and hostile power, so it is alienating an important power that has long assisted Balkan stability. Paris and Berlin have made it very clear they do not wish to allow Turkey to join the EU. This has had the predictable result that Turkey is losing is faith in the possibility of a European future, and is turning increasingly toward Russia, Iran, Syria and other radical and anti-Western states.  Turkey has made huge strides this decade in improving its human rights record, as required by its bid for EU membership. For the same reason, it has facilitated a resolution of the Cyprus dispute through its support for the 2004 Annan Plan. As the prize of EU membership moves further from its grasp, Ankara may backslide over both human rights and Cyprus as well. There are worrying signs that the pace of democratisation in Turkey is indeed slowing -such as the record fine recently imposed on Dogan Yayin Holding AS – Turkey’s largest media group and critical of the AKP government.

A hardening of Turkey’s stance on Cyprus could lead to the collapse of the Greek-Turkish rapprochement, further damaging the prospects for the Balkans’ normalisation. For all its human rights abuses, Turkey has been playing a constructive role in the region, as the ally of the weak and vulnerable states of Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. We do not know what the full consequences would be if Turkey fully abandons its European moorings and goes off in a new direction.  But at the very least, an authoritarian Turkey headed by an Islamic-populist regime on the border of the Balkans will not have a positive effect on the region.

Unfortunately, alongside Russia and the EU, there is a third external factor whose contribution to Balkan stability currently raises concerns: the Obama Administration in the US. The latter’s abandonment of the Bush Administration’s plans to base a missile-defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic, in order to appease Moscow in the hope of obtaining Russian support vis-a-vis Iran, is a worrying indication of US passivity vis-a-vis Europe and Russia. The capitulation amounts to a betrayal of the security of allies in order to appease a hostile power, with echoes of Cold-War-style sphere-of-influence politics. While it is too soon to press the panic button over Obama’s policy toward Eastern and South Eastern Europe, we should be very concerned if Obama goes any further down this path.

For all these internal and external problems facing the Balkans, the success stories and models for future success are close at hand. Romania and Bulgaria are far from model democracies, and have serious problems with corruption and organised crime. Yet neither has engaged in military aggression or seriously attempted territorial expansionism since joining the free world in 1989; both are members of the EU and NATO. Turkey and Greece, following their heavy military defeats in World War I and the Greco-Turkish War respectively, pursued an enlightened policy of rapprochement vis-a-vis one another, eschewing territorial expansionism. This rapprochement was only derailed by the outbreak of the Cyprus conflict from the 1950s, and later resumed: Greece today is a vocal champion of Turkey’s EU membership. Croatia, too, following its unsuccessful expansionist adventure in Bosnia in the first half of the 1990s has, since the death of Franjo Tudjman in 1999, abandoned expansionism to pursue a responsible regional policy and EU membership.

The key to turning aggressive, expansionist Balkan states into responsible members of the European family, therefore, is for the international community to shut off all avenues for their expansionism and keep them firmly confined within their own borders. With all due qualifications, this is the way it has been for Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Croatia. Where these states have been less than responsible – as, for example, in the case of Turkey vis-a-vis Cyprus or Greece vis-a-vis Macedonia – this has occurred when there have been insufficient limits placed on their ability to coerce neighbours.

The biggest source of instability in the Balkans remains the fact that, thanks to the weakness and vacillation of Western and above all EU policy, Serbia has not been firmly confined within its borders, despite its defeat in the wars of the 1990s. Instead, Belgrade continues to destabilise the neighbouring states of Kosovo and Bosnia. Its ability to do so means that Serbia – unlike Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Greece and to an extent Turkey – is unable to develop a post-expansionist state identity; one that does not revolve around territorial aspirations towards neighbouring states. This is bad above all for Serbia itself – the reason why it is still a long way from EU membership, despite being before the 1990s more prosperous, developed and liberal than either Romania or Bulgaria.

The problem is not, however, ultimately with Serbia itself. In parliamentary elections following Kosovo’s independence last year, the Serbian electorate handed victory to the pro-European rather than the hardline nationalist parties, revealing what little stomach it has for renewed confrontation over Kosovo. Belgrade has also played its trump card with its case against Kosovo’s independence before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and there is every reason to believe that the Court will not rule in its favour, even leaving aside the strength of Kosovo’s case. The ICJ’s judges come from different countries and their verdict will likely represent some form of compromise rather than award outright victory to one side or the other. Anything less than a full victory for Belgrade will effectively be a defeat, ambiguity leaving the door open for more states to recognise Kosovo’s independence while plausibly claiming to do so legally. In other words, both in terms of its range of available strategies and in terms of the popular support it enjoys, Serbian expansionism vis-a-vis Kosovo is a broken reed. With the Kosovo Albanians enjoying a comfortable majority in their country, their ultimate ability to consolidate their state is assured.

The principal problem for the region is the Bosnian question, and the policy of the Western alliance toward it. Unlike for all the other Balkan regional problems, for Bosnia, stability will not come through persuading or coercing the states involved to accept reality or to reach a compromise. For Bosnia, it is the very legal status quo and ‘compromise’, born at Dayton in 1995, that is generating instability for the state and the region. The Dayton order provides a framework that is gradually enabling the Bosnian Serb separatists, currently headed by Dodik, to establish the Bosnian Serb entity as a de facto independent state while preparing the ground for formal secession. The Bosniaks will, however, go to war to prevent this happening. It is a moot point what the outcome of such a military confrontation would be, but it is not something to which we should look forward.

Bosnia remains, therefore, the weak foundation-stone of Balkan stability. Only the transformation of Bosnia into a functioning state, through the transfer of most state powers from the entities to the central government, will guarantee against the outbreak of a new Bosnian war, and provide a final and definite check to Serbia’s expansionism, forcing that state wholly onto the post-expansionist path and removing the principal obstacle to the region’s progress.

Unfortunately, with Western and particular EU policy being what it is at present, such a decisive step seems unlikely. The problems facing the Balkans are neither huge nor insurmountable, yet Western passivity and vacillation seem set to allow these small problems to turn into larger ones. The Balkans look set for a rocky road ahead.

This article was published today on the website of the Henry Jackson Society. A longer version was given as a presentation to the Sussex European Institute on 3 November, entitled ‘How far are the Balkans from normalisation ?’

by     :    Doğu Ergil 

date   :  08 November 2009, Sunday

In the latter case, there were two dozen 18-wheel trucks carrying construction material to the other side. The drivers were keen to continue their work when the border is opened with neighboring Armenia. Almost everyone, ranging from apathetic people to ultra-nationalists, is waiting for the border to open and for trade and travel to start. This feeling was mutual for many Armenians, most Turks and Azeris alike. They want to break out of their restricted world marked and closed by political borders, though nature put up few barriers to separate them. The economic and human potential at this corner of the Caucasus is so visible that when political differences are finally reconciled and ideological molds are shattered, entrepreneurship, partnerships and mutual investments will change the face of this region to an unrecognizable level in 10 years. People seem like athletes who are warming up before the big race.

The nationalist propaganda on all three sides (Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan) will have little opportunity to be effective. People on the Turkish side (Iğdır and Kars) and Nakhchivan on the other side of the border are pretty sure that after so much contact between Turkish and Azeri authorities, Turks would not let go of their Azeri brethren. With that being said, the locals also think that the conflict that erupted in the Nagorno-Karabakh region due to the style of management by Azeri authorities is a domestic Azeri problem. It has to be solved by Karabakh Armenians and Baku.

Again everyone in the region knows two more fundamental secrets: 1. If these territories are held for ransom by Armenia to secure a settlement on the Karabakh issue, Azeris are close to completing the training of their armed forces to settle the issue by means other than diplomatic ones. There is no doubt that this war will not last more than three days before “big powers” intervene and force a settlement. 2. The Karabakh region will be equipped with the most advanced rights of autonomy by the Azeri government and what is still debated is not this issue but the width of the Laçin corridor that unites Karabakh with Armenia. So everyone is looking to a promising future, not the problems of today.

While Armenians are under the spell of a past that they grieve over for the loss of lives and a homeland during the last decade of the Ottoman Empire, more of them are getting out of this spell without forgetting the past. They are opening up the psychological door to relations that will make their lives better and satisfy their needs. Some of these needs may be met in Turkey and through association with Turks who have nothing to do with painful and regrettable events of the past. For one thing, an increasing number of individuals and groups of Armenians choose Turkey as their favorite summer vacation site. Antalya, Turkey’s popular Mediterranean resort town, whose environs offer skiing on the mountains and swimming on the beaches, is the number one choice of Armenian tourists. Travel agents have discovered that the unsavory past does not hinder growing rapprochement between visiting Armenians and local Turks. In fact they are learning from each other and share what they have learned from their elders and official sources. This contact and ensuing discourse have brought the two peoples closer to each other and may have helped the signing of the protocols to soon initiate diplomatic and commercial relations.

There are other alluring factors that bring Armenians to Antalya and elsewhere in Turkey: low prices and high-quality customer service. In 2008, around 8,000 Armenians visited Antalya, but this year it is estimated that this number doubled. Armavia, an airline bearing the Armenian national flag, began four direct flights to Antalya each week from Yerevan, which are almost always full. Considering that visiting Armenians express their satisfaction with a range of travel options in Turkey and relatively low prices for good quality hotels and services, they leave sour feelings behind for a good vacation.

today’s zaman

[This is the final part of the translation of the extracts of Polina Zherebtsova’s Chechen Diary, originally published in Bolshoi Gorod.]

2 November

I argue with Mum. I tidy up. I get ready.

Yesterday, in passing, I saw Aladdin in the distance. He nodded at me. He wasn’t alone; he was with an older man and a young fellow.

In the evenings, I narrate to the kids the fairy tales of Wilhelm Gauf. He died so young, and yet gave the world so much! Everyone listens to me attentively. The kids are called Zara, Waha, Alissa. Alissa is a niece of Tamara, from the fourth floor.

In spring, I’ll turn 15. Of course, if I’m still alive.

Mansour, who lived with us with his family as a refugee in 1995, during the first war, told everyone in the yard that I was his bride. He explained to me, “I did it on purpose. So that they wouldn’t insult you or pester you.” And then he said, “But will you wait for me?” I nodded quietly. Such an idiot!

In the absence of his father, Mansour is like the elder in the family. He resolved conflicts between all of us in the military hostel more than once during that hard winter of 1995. We often quarrelled because of the cramped, closed quarters. We had had to sleep in turns – we couldn’t all have slept at the same time in our one-room apartment.

In 1995, we temporarily housed several more refugees in our apartment. I remember we had a neighbour, Olga Stepanovna, in our own entrance. Later, through snow-covered paths over a mountain pass, from the city of Vladikavkaz, her son arrived. An anti-war miracle! Whenever the reds or the whites, thinking he was a spy, wanted to execute him, he would repeat, “Guys! My mum is old. She’s all alone. It’s war. I’m going to my mum.” They’d then let him go.

And I can barely communicate with my mother. We are constantly arguing, quarrelling. Her nerves are shattered because of the crossfire. We managed to sell all the papers, except for four that were missing.

The bombing continues nightly. In the daytime it pretty much stops.

7 November

Yesterday, my ‘elder brother’ came by. He offered to teach me Arabic. He showed me the interesting alphabet – like drawings. I agreed.

No school now. As for History, I’ve read the textbook already. Twice!

The elder brother is, of course, Aladdin. He gifted us two frocks. One, a light blue one, he gave to me. A similar one, but green in colour, he gave to my mother. In addition, he brought me a large white scarf, imported from Mecca! I dreamed about such a thing for so long! The wealthiest women among us cover their heads with scarves like this! It is white, with white embroidery.

Aladdin brought books. Different ones. Many of them. He said, “You love to read books, and time passes faster when one reads. Here are some thrillers.” He is so … unpredictable!

These are events of yesterday. Today, I took out a notebook where I practise writing – and there was money in it! It all spills suddenly over me. I barely managed not to faint! All of 160 roubles! But what for? We are thrilled with him as it is. And we’ll be grateful all our lives to him for saving us. But this is unnecessary!

Can it be that he doesn’t love me at all? Aladdin treats me like I’m little. He is friendly, but that’s it.

There was bombing yesterday. Mum and I ‘went walkabout’ for bread. We came under fire. Came home safely. We started to tidy up the house. The painful fragment in me quietened down, gave me a moment’s peace.

Today is November 7, the revolutionary holiday of the former USSR. Maybe that’s why everyone is happy!

Budur of the terrible tales of the town of Grozny.

8 November

Yesterday evening there was a terrible fire fight. Missiles and shells flew into the yard. Thumps from mortars and machine-guns. The walls shook constantly. Everyone’s window panes blew out. We had sealed our panes with paper crosses, and so they remained intact.

When we were gluing the crosses on, some of the neighbours laughed and said maliciously, “Crosses, just like the Russians have on their graves!” Mum didn’t react. She tried to advise them: “Didn’t you see the films about the war with the Germans? For safety, everybody glued on the crosses. You should do the same.” All that happened was that everybody started referring to the Russian military as the Germans.

Aladdin came in the evening and began to teach me to read. He was amazed at how quickly I learnt all the letters; I write them easily under dictation.

Aladdin was covered in clay. He explained that as he was walking, our ruined district began to get shot up. He ended up lying in a trench with a gray cat. The cat was struggling to get away. She scratched him. It turned out that that was my tomcat – Chips! Aladdin was hiding with him?

We heated up some water so that our guest could clean himself up in the kitchen. We washed his clothes. Mum said that they were wet and that she wouldn’t let him leave at night. He declined initially out of decency, but his face lit up, and he stayed! Mum and I had to jostle for space on grandma’s bed, and we arranged the sofa for our guest.

Elder brother confesses, “My friends do not understand me when I tell them that I am looking out for a Russian family. I tell them of my friendship with you. That you are normal. But they do not believe me.”

Princess Budur.

9 November

My elder brother Aladdin spent the night at ours! We talked long into the night. He fed me candy, which he fished out of his pockets.

Aladdin made himself comfortable in the apartment, and generally behaved like a real brother or cousin. I learned a lot about him, about this childhood, his mischief at school, his friends.

Then he got fed up; his attitude changed dramatically. He started to scold me for not eating properly. I wasn’t wearing the headscarf correctly. I was putting the letters together far too slowly when I read. I understood. And my Slavic blood boiled.

Mum intervened. She announced, half in jest and half-seriously that he was pompous. “When a guest starts to criticise the host, it’s time to throw him out!” Aladdin was offended. He didn’t have any breakfast, and left. But I know that he will come back! He doesn’t want to get used to us, but still he does. Mum feels sorry for him.

In the morning I again went over the rules of the Russian language. Mum gave me a dictation. Mum is asleep now. I am sitting quietly. I found several old newspapers and am reading them.

A woman leaves Rais’s house, next door. She offered to sell some cigarettes (“Astra”), the cheapest and thinnest. In all, 96 packets at 30 kopecks each.

10 November

It snowed.

No, I wrote wrongly. It was a snowstorm like in February! All the trees are white. Mum’s heart is not doing well. She took some medicinal drops and went to bed.

There’s no bread, but there’s yesterday’s leftover dumplings with grass from the garden.

A man from our building stopped by to say good-bye. We don’t know him. He has a singularly yellowish pallor. He is missing a hand. He has fine, painfully thin facial features. Everyone calls him the Black Glove. His attention had been drawn to us several days earlier. He had chanced to see how I was carried out of the car, wounded.

He introduced himself, said he came from Greece. Black Glove learnt from the gossip of our neighbours that we did yoga. That we unravelled dreams. He wanted an explanation for what he saw: “Dogs chasing me! Big ones and small ones. They want to tear me limb from limb. I try to run, but can’t. There are many dogs, an entire pack!” We understood his dream as follows: “Enemies abound. To remain means death. One must depart quickly. The hunt approaches!” This man informed us that he works in Greece. My favourite country!

Bidding us farewell at the door, the man whispered, “I will come back. Maybe in five or six years. My family is there…” On the table, we saw a few bars of chocolate.

I am filled with a giddy hope that all will be well! This is like the hope of kids awaiting New Year’s presents from Santa Claus. Or the hope after a ship sinks when, through the veil of rain and storm, people espy the shore. It is not far! Just a little effort and everyone will be saved!

Mum’s heart is bad. It is 2:35 now. Mum took her tablets, but they do not help. Her lips and hands and legs are cold. I keep telling her that she needs to sleep. I give her a hot-water-bottle in place of a heater. Before my eyes is an imaginary Aladdin. I am having an imaginary conversation with him.

I’m sitting on the sofa. Gunfire from afar. Near the factory ‘Grad.’ It’s the third time it is being strafed. The weapons used are like the Katyusha rockets of the Patriotic War in 1945. We didn’t go out for bread.

I hear the howl of aircraft. The sound is approaching us.

Icicles drip outside the window. Small stalactites. The sky is clear, blue.

At night I had a dream: in a dark basement I am fighting a battle with Death. She is black, in a long coat with a hood; in her hands is a mace. Beneath our feet is a swamp. And so many people are already in the swamp to their chests; they cannot escape and save themselves. I swing and hit Death with a cane on the head. It was a palpable blow, as though I had hit something real, alive. She recoiled, and I managed to escape from the cellar.

I described the dream to Mum. She laughed and said, “This clearly means that in this war you will certainly not perish!”

Princess Budur.

Tornike Kilanava, the representative of the Abkhaz legitimate government talks about current criminal situation in Gali district of Georgia`s breakaway region of Abkhazia.

A representative of the pro-Kremlin marionette regime, members of the so-called “Abkhazian parliament” has brutally beat a civilian in Gali. He shot four bullets to Geno Gerzmava and did not allow eyewitnesses to help the injured man. The man was taken to hospital later, his health condition is very hard. The Georgian citizen was punished because he took his child from Russian to Georgia school.

Along with this, the Russian occupiers and Abkhaz marionettes are delivering arms to the youth and forcing them to take part in the occupational military exercises. The Putinist occupiers, being under the influence of drugs often shoot from firearms to intimidate the local population. They have ousted the Basilaia family from Gali district for resisting them.

Representatives from the human rights group Memorial claim that Arbi Khachukayev, the head of a rights organization called Law, has been abducted in Moscow and renditioned to the Chechen capital. Khachukayev has been an outspoken critic of Chehcn President Ramzan Kadyrov, and it is believed that gunmen loyal to Kadyrov are responsible for his kidnapping. While Khachukayev has been permitted to phone his relatives, it is unclear where he is being held. This case is the latest in a strong of abductions where Kadyrov has allegedly had some involvement; rights defenders still accuse the Chechen President of direct responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of Natalia Estemirova this past July.