Pankisi Gorge: Youth project to benefit challenging region
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Youth living in Pankisi Gorge, a challenging region in Georgia, will be able to develop their photography skills with help from one of the country’s leading photographers.
Under the President Administration’s initiative, a photo studio will soon open its doors at the Duisi school, which is one of the villages in the Gorge. The studio will be led by prize-winning Georgian photographer Natela Grigalashvili and pupils from nearby villages will also be invited to attend her classes.
The Pankisi Gorge is a valley mainly inhabited by the Kist sub-ethnos in northeastern Georgia that borders the Chechnyan republic of the Russian Federation.
High unemployment and a lack of opportunities were believed to be the reasons why many people left the Gorge - the area that once sheltered rebels from the Russians during the Chechen wars.
The Pankisi Gorge remained to be one of the most challenging areas of Georgia. In 2003 it was a place of major military engagement where a special operation involving police and US-trained special forces were required to repress the threats of Al-Qaeda.
The Gorge is also home to Tarkhan Batirashvili - also known as Abu Omar al-Shishani, a military leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
It has been reported that a growing number of young men from the Pankisi Valley have recently left the region to join ISIS.
The Georgian Government pledged to create better living conditions in the Gorge so that locals will not leave the area.
Today, the President adviser in ethnical minority issues Sophio Shamanidi, who earlier visited the Pankisi Gorge with photographer Grigalashvili, said the photography course would last for six months and would then finish with a photo exhibition.
Earlier, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili visited the Gorge. On his visit he told the locals the Government was working on a special program for the Pankisi Gorge residents which aimed to create better living conditions there.
The President Adviser in ethnical minority issues has visited the Pankisi Gorge, a valley mainly inhabited by the Kist sub-ethnos in northeastern Georgia that bordered the Chechnyan republic of the Russian Federation today.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili today met with members of the Council of Elders of the Pankisi Gorge, a valley in northeastern Georgia that bordered the Chechnyan republic of the Russian Federation, today.
Georgian citizens will be sent to prison if they join or train with illegal military groups abroad, officials say.
Four Georgian citizens have been arrested for joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and supporting terrorism.
For the first time in its history Duisi village in Georgia’s heavily Muslim-populated eastern Pankisi Gorge area has a female Governor.
A Georgian citizen has been arrested for having alleged links with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and supporting terrorism. Georgian police detained Davit Borchashvili, 29, a resident of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, when he arrived in Tbilisi International Airport from Turkey last night.
Georgia’s Defence Minister Tinatin Khidasheli has offered youth living in Pankisi Gorge, a challenging region in Georgia, to join the Georgian army on a contract-based military service and make a successful military career. The Pankisi Gorge is a valley mainly inhabited by the Kist sub-ethnos in northeastern Georgia that borders the Chechnyan republic of the Russian Federation.
The United States (US) Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly says Georgia and his country stand together in the global fight against terrorism.. Kelly stressed he "absolutely trusted” the words of Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikahsvili that no terrorism threats came from the Pankisi Gorge.
The situation in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge is "absolutely calm” and nothing is happening there to be concerned about, Georgian security officials say.
A two-week recruitment drive in Pankisi Gorge has ended successfully for the Ministry of Defence, with more than two dozen young men registering to serve in Georgia’s Armed Forces (GAF).
Caption: British Ambassador Alexandra Hall Hall said more opportunities should be offered to people living in Pankisi Gorge. Photo by British Embassy to Georgia.
Traditional Islamic mosques in Georgia’s eastern, mainly Muslim-populated Pankisi Gorge, will no longer register youth marriages, announced a top, local representative today.
Children at Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge schools now have the opportunity to learn Chechen language if they want to.
A new project involving a Georgian immigrant community in Germany and a foundation for development of Georgia's eastern Kakheti province is offering women of the remote Pankisi Valley communities economic opportunity through creative work.