In Chechnya, Memory and Mourning Day replaced by mourning day for Akhmat Kadyrov, local residents assert

In Chechnya, the Day of memory and mourning for victims of deportation was transferred from February 23 to May 10 because of the mourning for former President Akhmat Kadyrov. This opinion has been expressed by residents of Chechnya interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2011, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov issued a resolution to announce the date of May 10 the date of official mourning for victims of the deportation. On the same date, May 10, Akhmat Kadyrov, the first president of Chechnya, who was killed in the terror act at the Grozny "Dynamo" Stadium on May 9, 2004, was buried. Earlier, Chechnya marked the Memory and Mourning Day on February 23, on the day of the beginning of deportation of Chechen and Ingush people to Kazakhstan and Central Asia in 1944.

"Whatever the authorities contrive, for each of the Chechens, the date of February 23, 1944, has been and will always be the mournful date. The date of February 23 was treated as the mourning day even after in 1994, when Djokhar Dudaev declared that our republic would no longer live in mourning and that the date of February 23 would be the day of revival of the Chechen nation. The current authorities have gone even further and wilfully transferred the date to May 10. This date is also the mourning day, but for the Kadyrov family, since Akhmat Kadyrov, who was killed on May 9 during the parade in Grozny, was buried on May 10. If any new leader begins to bind dates to his personal tragedies, then we will soon forget everything and everyone," the "Caucasian Knot" was told by Nasruddi, a resident of Chechnya.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.