08:57, 26 February 2020

Social network users urge residents of Northern Caucasus to refuse from celebrating February 23

Participants of the official mourning rally in Grozny on February 23, 2020. Screenshot of the video on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/B86iC4Do2CN

In solidarity with all affected nations, residents of Northern Caucasus should refuse to celebrate the Russian state holiday on February 23, the date of the start of Vainakhs' deportation, the Instagram users believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this year, after a many-year ban on mourning events on February 23, a rally in memory of repression victims was held in Grozny, attended by Ramzan Kadyrov. Local residents have treated such Chechen authorities' policy as inconsistent and reported that the mourning rally was not announced; and only officials and law enforcers took part in it.

Social network users have considered the Chechen authorities' actions as having no effect on people's memory about this mournful day.

The sociologists, earlier interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", stated that Chechen authorities would not manage to erase the starting date of deportation from people's memory.

The holiday on this date deepens the "bloody scar of non-recognition of Caucasian nations' tragedy," said Irina Kosterina, the coordinator of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Every year on February 23, Chechen families commemorate those who perished – they pronounce prayers in mosques and hold religious rites in memory of those who died during deportation, Edilbek Khasmagomadov, a historian and a former director of the National Library of Chechnya, has stated.

"Many treat this day as the gravest in the nation's history. It’s not customary for us to hold rallies on this date," ha has added.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 25, 2019 at 11:28 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.