The international Chechen youth organization “Noxchiycho” has published a statement related to the dismantling of the deportation memorial in Grozny.

Here it is:

We, Chechen youth, who are forced to live outside of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria due to the ongoing Russian occupation, firmly oppose the vandalism and destruction carried out by Russian authorities of the National Memorial Monument dedicated to the tragic events of February 23, 1944 when Soviet leadership deported the entire Chechen and Ingush people as the final stage of genocide.

Under the guise of transferring the National Memorial Monument, a further systematic destruction of the monument was carried out. Not only was the composite component infringed, but the Russian invaders also deprived Chechen citizens of the ability to visit their National Memorial Monument on February 23, 2014, to pay homage and say prayers over the tombstones of their relatives who were destroyed by the Soviet government.

In fact, as successors of the Soviet regime, Russian authorities have repeated the deportation of our killed countrymen, but this one is even more blasphemous as it disturbs the peace of those who were already killed.

We express our deepest disagreements with and protest to the Russian government and its occupation structures in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria which carries out irreverent orders of the Russian war criminals.

We call on all citizens of the civilized world to express their protest against the abuse of a national monument of the Chechen people.

16.02.2014

Magomed Murtuzaliev
Head of the Chechen Youth Organization “Noxchiycho”

*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco