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Chechnya: Ancient Towers Under Threat
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High in the mountains of Chechnya, Russian troops are destroying unique architectural monuments.
At a fork in the road leading to the mountain villages Tsentoroi, Belgatoi, Tazen-Kala and Kurchalou in eastern Chechnya, a ten-metre-tall tower stands on a hilltop.
This churt, or tombstone, was erected by Tsentoroi residents in memory of their fellow villagers who were killed in the village of Dadi-Yurt in September 1819. Passers-by used to stop and pray here.
Nowadays,
the tombstone is almost destroyed. Russian shells have truncated the top
and the inscriptions in Chechen and Arabic are gone.
Since war resumed in Chechnya
in 1999, Russian troops have been continuously bombarding the republic's
architectural heritage, using ancient stones to build fortifications, or
turning the republic's famous towers into command posts or warehouses.
The
scale of the damage is hard to estimate, as this reporter, who has spent
many years studying Chechnya's towers - tall, ancient, castle-like structures
positioned strategically across the region - cannot gain access to many of
them in border areas. Russian officers, while acknowledging the problem,
say it is beyond their powers to protect the monuments, while little fuss
is made about it in Moscow.
There are 150 tower settlements in the mountains of Chechnya, as well as 15 temples, some 150 above-ground crypts and two necropolises, which may be amongst the largest in the world.
Little
studied by scholars, these monuments, some of them thousands of years old,
potentially have much to tell us about the mysteries of the ancient cultures
of the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Many
of the inscriptions and magic symbols on the tombstones and towers are more
ancient than the structures they are inscribed on. In building these monuments,
Chechens often used existing stones from bigger, more ancient edifices, some
of them dating as far back as the 10th - 5th centuries BC.
«For the
Chechens, the stone towers are much more than architectural memorials left
by their ancient ancestors», said Chechen ethnographer Said-Magomed Khasiev.
«They symbolise their unity, the majesty of their state structures stretching
back five thousand years into history».
These treasures are now under
threat. In the southern mountains, a unique 12th - 14th century tower complex
at Pakoch - archaeologists found evidence dating back to 3000 BC - now houses
the federal military commander's office for the Itum-Kale area.
Pakoch
is one of a number of historical monuments - turrets, watchtowers, crypts
and sanctuaries - in the Argun gorge, running from the highest mountains
down the middle of Chechnya, which is also famous for its flora and fauna.
Over
the last three years, Russian bombers have wreaked havoc in the gorge. In
just one month last December, federal forces burned down over 10,000 hectares
of forests here, destroying valuable beech, oak, hornbeam and ash trees.
Artillery
shells have badly damaged the 15th century tower at Dere, a priceless 12th
century tower near Ushkaloi, and a recently restored 16th century turret
near the town of Shatoi.
A 16th century tower in Sharoi has fared even worse, being totally levelled
by bombing and another one at Satto is badly damaged.
The fate of
many other architectural landmarks is unknown because they are located in
restricted border areas and specialists and scholars are forbidden from visiting
them.
Said Saratov,
director of the Argun historical and natural reserve, said he had repeatedly
petitioned the Russian assembly, the defence ministry and Chechen parliamentary
deputy Aslanbek Aslakhanov on the issue, but nothing had changed. «Russian
officials just tell me to forget it until fighting around the reserve is
over», Saratov told IWPR.
Saratov's
appeal to deputy military commander for the Itum-Kale area was equally unsuccessful.
The Russian officer said he understood his concern about ancient landmarks,
but said there was nothing he could do. According to Saratov,
the officer was sympathetic but told him «you can't shadow every soldier
with an officer to protect the environment» and that he «cannot guarantee
the safety of the employees of the reserve and local villagers, let alone
landmarks».
In one instance, Russian soldiers were detained for vandalising
a monument: a group of them had fired their guns at the tower at Ushkaloi
when drunk and were arrested on the spot. But the case did not go to court
for «lack of criminal evidence».
Famous Chechen author Abuzar Aidamirov
fears that the vandalism is being condoned from above. «They are trying to
eradicate Chechens' historical memory, destroy their spiritual and material
links with their glorious past, and thus make it easier to subjugate them»,
he said.
Chechnya's
towers have long fallen victim to invaders. In the 13th century, Genghis
Khan's chroniclers wrote about the «folk who live in stone towers», and recounted
the destruction of their dwellings.
In the early 19th century, there
were still more than a hundred in the Argun valley, which was known as «the
Gorge of Towers». They were positioned so that a fire in the window of one
could clearly be seen in the next, giving warning of the approach of the
enemy.
In the Caucasian wars of the 19th century, Russian soldiers
pulled down many of them. Another wave of destruction came after Stalin deported
the Chechens to Central Asia in 1944 and large numbers were burned and blown up.
At
least ten towers, five sepulchres and a number of tombs, some dating back
to first century were destroyed in the first Chechen campaign of 1994-6.
But
the current campaign, concentrating troops in heavy numbers right up to the
Georgian border, has brought destruction on a new scale. And there is no
sign that the vandalism is ending.
Lecha Ilyasov, a historian and editor of the news bulletin Latta, has studied the towers of Chechnya for many years. More photos of Chechen towers by Igor Palmin can be found at http://www.mtu-net.ru/photo/eng/page1.htm
By Lecha Ilyasov in the Argun Gorge, Chechnya IWPR.
IWPR
www.iwpr.net
2003-03-09 01:34:29
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