Statement from Zakayev on the Dismantling of the Deportation Memorial in Grozny
Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Government in exile, Akhmed Zakayev has published a statement related to the dismantling of the Deportation Memorial in Grozny.
Here it is:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful!
STATEMENT
18.02.2014
For several centuries, the Russian colonial empire ruthlessly destroyed the freedom of the Chechen people in response to their desire for independence, with massive repressions, acts of genocide and cynical mockery of our culture and traditions. The Russian-Soviet empire deprived us of our motherland with a complete physical extermination; the Chechen people were doomed to extinction and assimilation; they are trying to erase all of us and our national identity as well as force us into atheism and Russification. But praise to Allah, the Chechen people have not only survived these trials, but we also came out of them stronger with more spirit and confidence in a final victory on the road to national independence.
Unfortunately, among the Chechen people, there have been traitors who are ready to serve the old enemy for the opportunity to rob their own people, to humiliate them in front of the triumphant invaders. Out of desire to please their masters in the Kremlin, they dare to encroach on one of the most revered shrines of our people: “the National Memorial Complex†which was established in Grozny in memory of the victims of the Stalinist repression on the 50th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen-Ingush people into Central Asia.
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen people, traitors and lackeys are trying to present another gift to the Russian executioner-in-chief Putin by destroying a national cultural monument.
Under the guise of “relocation†of the “National Memorial Complex†to “a new placeâ€, these national traitors want to destroy it; thereby trying to bury the mass atrocities of Russian executioners and to be absolved of their responsibility for centuries of genocide against the Chechen people. Precisely in this spirit the leader of the occupation administration in Chechnya says that “the Chechen was to blame for the deportation on February 23, 1944â€. This cynical denigration is just a submissive echo of the evil attack on the Chechen people by the Russian chauvinists and Stalinists. No wonder the so-called “Minister of Internal Affairs in Chechnya” adorns the bust of Stalin, executioner of the Waynakh people.
On behalf of the Chechen people, the Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria appeals to the international community and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to join the defense of the National Memorial Complex in Dzhokhar (Grozny).
Akhmed Zakayev
Chairman of the Cabinet of Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Government in Exile
*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco
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The international community does not care. It is damaging that Zakayev even asks that, because it is abdicating responsibility from us and instead putting it on someone else.
It is our peoples sole responsibility to defend our culture, but no one is willing to step up to the plate.
The population has been whipped into submission… just like the Russians. Only caring that we are able to put bread on the table. A far cry from what our anthem suggests we are.
Instead of asking some 3rd party to save us, he should have called for a protest or gathering at the monument. We will only be freed by a unified howl from the people.
No war. We have been fighting for 300 years, and it has been proven again and again that we can not win against them.
Instead we must live by our motto “Death or Freedom”.
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