Inside Pankisi: Life In Georgia's Troubled Muslim Enclave
Photojournalist Ekaterina Anchevskaya spent 10 days in the Pankisi Gorge, where local efforts to develop tourism are being hampered by a history of unrest.
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A mosque in the village of Duisi, in Pankisi Gorge – a majority-Muslim enclave inside mostly Christian Georgia.
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Abu Achishvili, a mountain guide in Duisi, wearing a hat with a Chechen flag on it. Most of the gorge's inhabitants are Kists – Muslims with ethnic links to Russia’s nearby Chechen republic -- or Chechens who fled there during the wars of the 1990s.
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Pankisi Gorge runs for just 30 kilometers but has had an outsized influence on Georgia's recent history.
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Georgian soldiers training near the Pankisi Gorge in 2002. The gorge was notorious at the time for harboring often foreign-born Islamic militants. Georgian security forces reportedly captured “more than a dozen Arab militants” in Pankisi in 2002.
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Boys of the gorge during martial-arts training. In recent years, at least dozens of young locals left to join Islamic militants fighting in the Middle East. More than two dozen Pankisi men have been killed in Syria, including one of Islamic State’s (IS) most notorious commanders.
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Many locals today see tourism as the only way to develop the gorge. Bela Mutoshvili, 55, a teacher and guesthouse owner in the village of Jokolo, says, "Developing tourism is the only way for the village to survive now. There are no other jobs here."
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Pankisi women prepare kinkhali, a traditional Georgian dumpling dish. Photographer Anchevskaya told RFE/RL there are an increasing number of Saudi and other Arab tourists now staying in the gorge. “They come because it’s cheap, and also because of the Muslim culture -- they feel comfortable.”
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But recent events have again pushed Pankisi into the headlines.
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In April, violent clashes broke out (pictured) between police and locals angry at the planned construction of a dam in the gorge. After locals rained rocks down on riot police, the authorities responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
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Dozens of people, mostly police, were injured in the clashes. Anchevskaya, who witnessed the violence that day, says for many of the Pankisi protesters the planned dam rekindled painful memories. “They already lost their homes in Chechnya,” the photographer told RFE/RL. “They are refugees and they are afraid they will lose their homes again.”
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A boy jogs his horse toward Duisi. Anchevskaya says that despite its troubled history she feels a deep affinity for the gorge, and she urges other people to experience it for themselves.
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Leila Achishvili (center), a guesthouse owner in Jokolo whose two sons were killed fighting in Syria, at dinner with tourists.
Photographer Anchevskaya told RFE/RL: “In Pankisi, they say if you are a guest of someone in the village, you are the guest of the whole village. These people have been through a lot and still face prejudice and conflicts, but they respect their guests, traditions, and nature they live in, and they want to share it with others.”