14:36, 2 November 2020

Karachais' rehabilitation process frozen indefinitely

The Memorial to the Victims of the Deportation opened up for public in the village of Uchkenen on May 2, 2014. Photo by Leonid Tarasyev https://lookmytrips.com/585e8900ff9367418508a421/pamiatnik-zhertvam-deportatsii-ff9367

Authorities fail to enforce the decree on helping the Karachais as a rehabilitated nation; for example, they have failed the gasification of some villages, Kady-Khodji Khalkechev, the head of the Congress of the Karachai People, has stated. The rehabilitation process has been mothballed; even Karachais themselves have no desire to talk about their problems, Ilyas Bogatyryov, President of the "Elbrusoid" Foundation, has added.

The deportation of Karachais was launched in the USSR in 1943; more than 69,000 people were evicted. In total, during the pre-war period and the wartime, 79,000 Karachai nationals were deported. Most of them – over 43,000 people, including 22,000 – died on the road and in resettlement places.

Khodji Khalkechev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the main problem associated with Karachais' rehabilitation is the failure to enforce the resolution of the Russian Government on providing Karachais with social support as a rehabilitated nation.

Another source of Karachais' grievance is the authorities' reluctance to hold the awarding ceremony of Heroes of the Soviet Union from among Karachais, which was cancelled due to deportation.

Ilyas Bogatyryov has noted that the attempts of material compensation, undertaken in the 1990s, were "scanty" compared to people's losses during the deportation, but then they exhausted very soon too.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 2, 2020 at 04:56 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Semyon Charny

Source: CK correspondent