The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Chechen Republic: official site.| | |All aboutChechnya| news| history| Actual News from Chechnya | || traditions| music | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------| | News update | # # Issue 167 | | | 17.02.04 | |Overwhelming majority of | | |refugees returned to Chechnya |Chechnya: news | arguments | facts | | | | |An approximate 17,000 Chechen |[3462] 17 February 2004 Cultural life of the district of | |refugees intend to settle for |Achkhoi-Martan | |good in the neighbouring |The department of culture of the Achkhoi-Martan district is | |Ingushetia-another of Russia's |quite aware of the fact that culture must be restored to | |North Caucasian autonomies, |complete the republics reconstruction. People in the district | |expects Stanislav Ilyasov, |involve in cultural activity with enthusiasm. Last year | |federal Minister for Chechen |several cultural festivals almost at the republican level were| |Affairs. An overwhelming |held in the district. Among those was celebration to mark the | |majority of refugees have |93rd anniversary of Magomed Mamakaev, a poet and writer from | |returned to Chechnya. 47,000 are|Achkhoi-Martan. Chechen government officials attended the | |staying in Ingush shantytowns. |ceremony. In December the district marked the 85th anniversary| |30 or 40 per cent of these are |of Professor Yunus Deshiriev, scholar and philologist. Among | |determined to settle in the host|those who attend the ceremony sponsored by the Chechen Academy| |republic, while close on 30,000 |of Sciences were his former students and prominent scholars of| |will go back to Chechnya, he |the republic. The district also marked the 40th anniversary of| |said to the media. Refugee |poet Umar Yarychevs creative activity. The district works with| |return is a purely voluntary |youth too. The children have an opportunity to attend an arts | |matter. Authorities do not mean |school, which was opened last year. Children can study from | |to drive all back home, and |the first class. At present about 100 children attend classes | |coercion is the last thing they |in carving in wood and painting. School has already staged | |intend. "Who wants to stay in |three exhibitions. The best paintings were selected for the | |Ingushetia will stay, and we are|republican exhibition. The department of culture has joined a | |willing to help them make new |programme designed to help refugees from the district to | |homes. Who wants to come back |return home. To this end special committee involving veteran | |will come back," remarked the |workers of culture has been set up. The representatives of the| |minister. The United Nations is |administrations of rural cultural houses have been attracted | |considering prospects to shift |to this work. The head of the department of culture Ramzan | |its office from Ingushetia to |Sivankaev has big plans for the future. He believes that the | |Grozny, Chechen capital, added |republic can be reconstructed only by restoring culture. | |Stanislav Ilyasov. Republican |[http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=diaryeng] | |authorities are willing to |(more News from Chechnya...) | |provide office premises for the | | |UN in Grozny, reassured |17 February 2004 New Head of Chechen Government to be | |President Ahmad Kadyrov of |appointed one of these days | |Chechnya, in his turn. |The Chechen Government will get a new Head one of these days, | |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ |said republic's President Akhmad Kadyrov. "The nomination is | |index.php?lng=§ion=Moseng] |being agreed now," added he. "This is going to be a qualified | |more...) |person, familiar with the republic and the people." RIA | | |Novosti reports. | |New council to coordinate |[http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=diaryeng] | |international aid to Chechnya |(more News from Chechnya...) | | | | |A council will be established, |16 February 2004 Russian Foreign Ministry controls | |within a month, to coordinate |investigation of Yandarbiyev's death | |international aid to Chechnya, |The Russian Foreign Ministry controls the investigation of | |Stanislav Ilyasov, federal |Chechen envoy Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev's death, which is carried | |Minister for Chechen Affairs, |out by Qatar's authorities, the ministry's press and | |announced to the media after |information department told RIA Novosti on Monday. "We are | |conference with Mark |interested in the results of this investigation," said the | |Mallock-Brown, UN development |source, adding that the Russian foreign ministry sent no | |programme supervisor. To |official inquiry on the investigation to Qatar's authorities. | |represent the International Red |On Friday Qatar's Embassy to Russia officially informed the | |Cross, the United Nations, |Russian foreign ministry on the explosion of Yandarbiyev's car| |Russia's Cabinet and other |in Doha. An explosive device blasted in the Chechen envoy's | |federal agencies, and the |car, Doha police reported. Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was badly | |Chechen government, the Council |wounded and died in hospital. His son Daud was hospitalized. | |will have several ad hoc teams |Today he is in stable condition. According to eye-witnesses, | |on the food programme, |Daud got out of the burning car himself. Qatar's Interior | |humanitarian aid, promotion of |Ministry is investigating the accident. Yandarbiyev lived in | |small and medium-scale business,|Qatar as "a refugee without the right of political activities"| |and other practical issues, said|from 1999. Moscow often raised the question of Yandarbiyev's | |Mr. Ilyasov. To coordinate |extradition to Russia. "The Russian foreign ministry submitted| |Chechen relief efforts by |all the necessary investigation and judicial documents to | |international organisations and |Qatar," the press and information department said. Zelimkhan | |by federal and republican |Yandarbiyev was a top-level official in Chechnya under | |authorities will be the |President Dzhokhar Dudayev. In April 1993 Dudayev appointed | |principal duty of the new |him acting Vice President of Chechnya. Yandarbiyev was | |council. The helpers must join |involved in ideological activities. After Dudayev's death in | |hands so as to target aid to |1996 he was acting Chechen President for nine months. On | |those who need it, stressed the |October 9, 2001 Interpol announced him internationally wanted | |minister. Meanwhile, |together with other masterminds of the armed invasion into | |international humanitarian |Dagestan in fall 1999, Aslan Maskhadov, Akhmed Zakayev, | |organisations are working in |Khozhakhmed Nukhayev and Kazbek Makhashev. During the | |Chechnya on their own, and the |investigation of the hostage taking in Dubrovka theater center| |federal top does not even know |in October 2002, the special services fixed telephone | |the amount of donations the |conversations between terrorists and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. In| |republic is receiving. To bring |June 2003 Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was put on the list of the UN | |donations to the needy, the |Security Council's committee on anti-Taliban sanctions. | |efforts must be coordinated with| | |republican leaders, he | ------------------------------------------------------------ | |emphatically added. Coordination| | |is also necessary to guarantee | Russia - Chechnya | |international officers' safety, | | |said Mr. Ilyasov. Chechen | The pre-islamic customs, manifest in farming festivals | |law-enforcement agencies are | | |willing to guarantee such safety|New year's eve | |if international organisations | | |join hands with the Chechen top.|[223] | |"We are making only one |The traditional way to celebrate New Year's eve goes way back.| |proviso-international officers |The kindling of a new flame was a matter of utmost importance.| |must inform us about their |A new flame was to be burning in the fireplace when New Year's| |itineraries. Then, we shall |meal was cooked. A long log was put in the fire. Its length | |offer them safety," pointed out |determined how long the family would be celebrating. As soon | |Ahmad Kadyrov, republican |as the log allowed the door to close, a New Year's party, with| |president. RIA Novosti reports. |many good things to eat and drink, with dancing and jesting, | |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ |could begin. Sooner or later, all logs got shorter, so that | |index.php?lng=§ion=Moseng] |every family would sooner or later start celebrating . New | |more...) |Year's logs were prepared in advance: a standing tree, most | | |often an oak, was put to dry. It was a great sin to use fruit | | Chechen history |trees for this purpose. The ancestors of today's Chechens | | |believed that the forces of evil stepped up action on New | |Chechnya | Questions and answers|Year's eve. They would, for protection, scatter things made of| | |steel in the cattle-sheds and their living quarters. A | |To Reader |plentiful meal offered guarantees for the family's wellbeing | |All about Chechnya, chechens. |in the year to come. All creatures, including mice, were to | |ChechenRepublic | news| history||have their bellies full on New Year's eve. Wheat breads were | |traditions| music |baked. The head, ritual bread was shaped as a circle, with | | |lines radiating from its center. Breads with all kinds of | |This pamphlet is about Chechnya |filling in them were baked in addition to the magic one. The | |, a Russian territory which has |eldest member of the family got a square-shaped one while the | |witnessed the most tragic events|guests were treated to round breads. Coins, grains of wheat or| |over the past decade. The book |a spool of yarn might be hidden, for fortune-telling purposes,| |is the latest update on the |inside fancy breads. Other fortune-telling methods were | |Chechen Republic . And this is |applied on New Year's eve. A man was, for example, chosen to | |very important, since a lack of |spend the night in the sanctuary. He would lie face down and | |fresh and accurate information |keep his ear pressed to the dirt floor and would, in the | |about events in Chechnya |morning, try to interpret what he had heard. The same kind of | |generates many distorted |fortune-telling is known in Russia. A Russian village-dweller | |conceptions and rumours - both |would go to a crossroads, mark a circle and press his ear to | |within and outside Russia . For |the ground. If he heard a loaded sleigh swish heavily by, next| |example, that Chechen society is|year's harvest would be good. If the sleigh seemed to be | |allegedly inherently alien to |empty, the harvest would be poor. Chechens knew a very special| |Russia , that pro-Russian |method of fortune-telling. They would hold to light a ram's | |elements in the republic are |shoulder blade. Spots on the shoulder blade predicted whether | |marginalised; and lastly, that |next year's harvest would be good, what kind of weather they | |Russian power structures are |were to expect and even family developments. A similar method | |fighting the Chechen people, |of fortune-telling is known in China. Young girls took | |rather than armed bandit groups.|advantage of New Year's eve in an effort to find out something| |The reality, however, is that |about their future husbands. A Chechen girl would bake three | |only with the return of the |very salty little breads. She would put two of them under her | |legitimate authorities are |pillow and eat the third. The person who gave her, in a dream,| |villages and towns being |a drink of water, was to become her husband. Young people or | |restored, children going to |teenagers would put on their sheepskin coats the wrong side | |school for the first time in |up, and either wear felt hoods decorated with horns or paint | |many years, and pensioners |their faces black with chimney soot. Such dress parades, as | |receiving long-forgotten |well as the custom of singing carols and begging for penny | |pensions, i.e. a social rebirth |gifts, are, incidentally, known, till this day, in many | |is underway. Lying ahead are a |countries of Europe and America. But horse races on the third | |referendum on a new Chechen |day of a new year are held in Chechnya only. The three winners| |constitution, and parliamentary |should be given a horse, a saddle, a bridle, a whip or a piece| |and presidential elections. |of clothing. Nowadays, New Year's eve has nothing to do with | |These votes will be held, |farming. Neither does it with Islam. People simply get | |despite continued attempts by |together on New Year's eve to say good-bye to the outgoing | |bandit groups and their leaders |year and to welcome in a new and, hopefully, much better year.| |to scupper the process of |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?section=traditionseng& | |normalisation in the republic, |lng=eng] in detail ...) | |the latest terrorist act being | | |the bombing of the republican | Chechen tarditions | |government building. The war | | |being waged by Chechen |The book "Vainakh Ethics" by Edi Isaev | |separatists against federal |Edi Isaev on Customs and Traditions of Chechens The book" | |forces and more often than not |Vainakh Ethics " by Edi Isaevthe chechen character | |against their own co-citizens is| | |by no means a "national |The book "Vainakh Ethics" by Edi Isaev is an utmost important | |liberation struggle of the |work at a time when the life in Chechnya is returning to | |Chechen people", but an episode |normal. Edi Isaev is a historian, Professor at the Chechen | |in the overall offensive by |State University, writer and publicist directs his book to | |international terrorism on the |youth. In introduction he emphasizes: "The norm of Vainakh | |fundamental principles of modern|ethics is the code of wise truths of people that reflects | |civilisation. The facts show |their ideals." The book is educational. It contains the ideas | |that being a part of the Russian|on ethics by thinkers of various people and various times from| |Federation in no way threatens |Epicurus and Confucius A.S. Makarenko and L.N.Toltoi. The | |the Chechen Republic 's cultural|second chapter is devoted to ethic norms of Chechens. The | |identity, the free use of its |third chapter considers in detail traditional family ethic | |own language, and preaching |code. The final chapter is devoted to Islamic ethic norms. | |Islam. On the contrary, it was |Materials from the book Vainakh Ethics by Edi Isaev is devoted| |during de facto "independence" |to customs and traditions of Chechens. | |from Russia that the Chechen |[http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion= | |people suffered a humanitarian |bookvaineng&row=0] (more about chechen traditions...) | |tragedy on an unprecedented | | |scale. Hostage-taking, the slave| Chechen cuisine | |trade and plundering came to | | |form the economic basis of the |All about Chechnya, chechens. ChechenRepublic | news| history|| |new regime, while chaos and war |traditions| music | |became the form of its political|"The Chechens, like the rest of the highlanders, avoid | |existence. We want to emphasise |extremes in their eating and drinking habits. What they | |once more: Chechnya is part of |usually eat is chureks or corn bread with mutton lard spread | |Russia , geographically, |on it, and wheat stew with lard in it; water is their basic | |politically and |refreshment." "...Unleavend wheat or barley bread baked on | |civilisation-wise. So a |charcoal, milk and cheese constitute their daily menu; meat is| |hypothetical triumph of radical |eaten, very rarely, by the richest of the Chechens." That was | |Islamism on its territory would |written about the Chechen eating habits in the 19th century. | |be anti-historical. Such a |And it was not until the late 19th century that many | |development would signify the |vegetables grown in Europe - tomatoes, cabbage, radish - had | |establishment in the midst of |found their way to the kitchen gardens of mountainous | |Europe of a Taliban-like regime,|Chechnya. Chechen farming units have, since times immemorial, | |with all ensuing consequences |been self-sufficient, with only spices and sweetmeats being | |for the international community.|bought at the market. And, although they have become familiar | |The corporate author - |with the cuisines of many other ethnic communities, the | |journalists of the Russian |Chechen women cherish the very special culinary traditions of | |Information Agency Novosti - |their own. | |have attempted to be as brief as|([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?section=kitcheneng&lng=| |possible on providing answers to|eng] in detail ...) | |the most-often aked questions | | |(above all posed by a foreign | - | |audience) about the Chechen | | |issue. Hence the book's title: "|## | |Chechnya : Questions and | | |Answers". It draws heavily on | Copyright [http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng] | |information provided by various | CHECHNYA FREE.RU | |Russian ministries and | | |departments that in one or | | |another way are involved in | | |normalising life in the | | |republic. | | |Russian Information Agency | | |Novosti | | |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ | | |index.php?section=answerseng&lng| | |=eng] in detail ...) | | | | | | Chechen economics | | | | | |Russian Academy of Engineering | | |helps to rebuild Chechnyas | | |economy | | | | | |[4785] Russian Academy of | | |Engineering was founded in 1992 | | |and four years later it set up | | |its branch in Chechnya. But the | | |building of the academy was | | |destroyed during fighting. It | | |was rebuilt in 2002. Under an | | |agreement with the Chechen | | |government the Academy helps to | | |rebuild the republics economy | | |and promote its science and | | |higher education. The | | |vice-president of the | | |International and Russian | | |Academy of Engineering Vladimir | | |Khamirikiya says that in 2002 | | |the Chechen branch developed a | | |conception for setting up | | |free-economic zones in the | | |republic and created an | | |automatic system for controlling| | |the processes of social and | | |professional adaptation of | | |population when the republics | | |infrastructure is being | | |restored. Last year it created a| | |system to inform people about | | |investment projects for | | |medium-sized and small | | |enterprises and how to assess | | |them. An international | | |ecological project designed to | | |clean polluted soil and water | | |reservoirs is now being | | |realized. The Chechen branch has| | |worked out recommendations for | | |formulating a concept for the | | |economic management of the | | |republic as an entity of the | | |Russian Federation . The Academy| | |finances all projects, which are| | |being realized. It is ready to | | |suggest several other investment| | |projects and advanced technology| | |that will help reconstruction | | |and create new jobs. The Chechen| | |government and President Akmad | | |Kadyrov does his best to help | | |the republican branch of the | | |Academy. The international | | |Academy of Engineering has | | |lately awarded him the gold | | |medal, which was established | | |together with UNESCO, United | | |Nations Education and Cultural | | |Organization, to mark the | | |Academys 10th anniversary. | | |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ | | |index.php?lng=§ion= | | |economeng] more...) | | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------| | [http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ | | |index.php?section=projectrus&lng|[mail][mailto:info@chechnyafree.ru] [mailto] | | =eng] [about] | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=news.media.chechnyafree&email= http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com