Author of monument to abandoned villages urges Dagestanis to go back to mountains

The names of more than one hundred disappeared mountain villages are immortalized in a stone monument erected in the village of Nizhnee Gakvari, Tsumadin District, on July 18. The initiators of erecting the monument believe that these villages should be restored.

According to Magomed Abdulkhabirov, a publicist and public figure, who initiated the erection of the monument, he had cherished the idea for five years. "I looked for a place for the monument and I thought about the material. As a result, villagers helped me to pick up the rocks, and the 'Suano-Kvant' Company helped to commemorate the names of 119 abandoned villages on black marble in four languages: Chamalin, Avar, Russian and English," he told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Times ago, the villages, now immortalized in marble, were located around Nizhnee (Lower) and Verkhnee (Upper) Gakwari, where one or more families of the same clan had lived, Mr Abdulkhabirov has explained, adding that the aim of the monument is to draw attention to the problem of desolated mountain villages. "The state must help people in returning to their native places in the mountains, and create conditions for them: roads, power lines and mini-shops. Once, these villages had a full-fledged life; and it should be brought back there," he has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 20, 2018 at 00:02 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.