10:45, 3 October 2017

Georgian authorities confirm death of a Pankisi native in Syria

War in Syria. Photo: watchsmart https://www.flickr.com

The death of Muslim Kushtanashvili, an 18-year-old Georgian citizen, who left to fight in the Middle East in 2015, was reported on October 2.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Muslim Kushtanashvili and Ramzan Bagakashvili, residents of the Dumasturi village in the Pankisi Gorge, left for Syria in the spring of 2015. On December 14, 2016, it became known that Ramzan Bagakashvili was killed in an air raid.

Imam Ayuf Borchashvili was accused of sending Muslim Kushtanashvili and Ramzan Bagakashvili to the Middle East. In March 2016, Ayuf Borchashvili together with three other residents of Georgia was sentenced on the charge of organizing a recruitment of Pankisi Gorge residents into the ranks of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS) banned in Russia.

18-year-old Muslim Kushtanashvili was killed in Syria, the "Georgia-Online" reports with reference to the Pankisi community radio "Way".

According to Mate Kavtarashvili, the deputy head of the administration for the Akhmeta District, since 2012, at least 26 people from Georgia were killed in Syria and Iraq, the "Sputnik Georgia" reports.

Residents of the Pankisi Gorge do not agree with the fact that the Pankisi Gorge retains the reputation of a "terrorist region." They believe the problem of the departure of young people to Syria is solved.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.