Karlo the Cowboy; and the story of a Chechen boy

http://evolutsia.net/?p=175


When we got stuck in High Tusheti, Omalo, because Karlo’s car stopped working, I thought I would be writing a semi-funny article on the collapsed roads, the freezing clouds on top of the mountain and Karlo’s quotes, such as ‘You don’t like weapons????’; however, that evening after a couple of chacha’s, Karlo told his story. Whereas we thought he was a Georgian from lower Tusheti, he turned out to be half Chechen, living in Grozny with his mom in 1993 at the age of 15 to pursue a career as professional judoka. Karlo, a big man, with the posture of a grizzly bear, told us how he and his mom locked themselves up in their basement, hiding for the bombings on Grozny, with no food for ten days; how he fled Grozny by foot, over the Caucasus mountains to Georgia where his father lived; and how he witnessed a young girl, walking in front of him, being hit by a bomb, how the cries of her mother still hunt him in the night.

The last couple of weeks the Northern Caucasus has again been in the spotlight of media attention due to an intensified spree of murders, suicide bombings and chaos. Although Grozny has been relatively quiet recent years, after Putin’s ‘restoration of constitutional order’ in 1999, currently the Northern Caucasus remains a bandit uncontrolled area, where the law of the mountainous people prevails any other law framework. Kremlin stating they are dealing with Muslim terrorist, however, when asking a regular villager in the Caucasus dealing with the mountainous people, they will all tell you the Chechens, Ingushetians and Dagestani are mountain people, and their mountain laws have been applied for centuries in the mountains.

Just before we got stuck in High Tusheti, I was in Almaty, 17 kilometers from the Dagestani border. We could see the top of the mountain pass, with a castle securing the border.


I wanted to go there, and watch over Dagestan and Chechnya. The villagers we were with arranged everything for us, and told us how beautiful it was up there, however, the evening before we would go, our guide got nervous. He said he would walk up with us, but we would have to walk the last 2 kilometers to the border ourselves, he didn’t want to be kidnapped by chechen rebels or being put in jail by Russian border guards. Apparently, the natural mountain border had been pushed since last year down in to georgian territory, and the mountain laws of the chechen and dagestani rebels applied on that region. Before last august war the people of Almaty would have frequent contact with the Dagestani and Chechens trading goods, but the attitude changed since the Russian guards secure the border more intensely and pushed it southern, after August 2008.

After our guide got nervous, we decided not to go, as it would be a to big risk, and being kidnapped as a foreigner wouldn’t be good for diplomatic relations (and as my french friend said: why would Sarkozy care about some stupid french tourist). Therefore we decided to go to High Tusheti, and our friend in Achmeta introduced us to Karlo. Pointing at his Kolkhozniki, Karlo said clear and simple: ‘No car, Tank!’. That evening, stuck in Omalo (we were not nervous, Soviet cars tend to break easily, but are fixed just as simple), drinking chacha, eating meat dumplings, khinkali, listening to Karlo’s stories in the mountains and his Chechen history, the night falling. Karlo is no longer welcome in his hometown Grozny, he played a small role in the first independent Chechen movie, and has been denied excess to it by the Russians.

When in the beginning of the 90’s the Soviet Union collapsed, multiple regions seceded and became independent States. One of those regions which also called for independence was Chechnya. Immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new elected president of Chechnya – Dudaev – declared the ‘pursuit of freedom from the colonial oppressor’. The Kremlin did not accept Dudaev’s declaration and sent in troops, their attempt failed. President Yeltsin first encouraged the developments towards independence in the Chechen-Ingush republic, he later passed the State of Emergency Degree in Chechnya to delegitimize the ruling authorities. Furthermore, he tried to replace the president Dudaev. In the passing years since then several wars have occurred taken place on Chechen territory. And a few years later after gaining the de facto independence and creating a lawless bandit state, Putin decided in 1999 to invade the territory again and to restore the constitutional order once and for all.

Russia states that Chechnya has become a free haven for terrorism. However, the so-called ‘terrorist-attacks’ by Chechen fighters should be seen as a result of the war, and not, as Russia argues, as its cause. A primary fact is that in terms of the human toll cost of the war, over half of the Chechen population has dealt with death, injury, or displacement. Not only did these cruelties wipe out the foundations of Chechen society, also is the Chechen economy and infrastructure been destroyed, typified exemplified by Grozny, which is has been leveled to its very foundations by years of conflict. As a result, a generation of Chechens is are growing up either in destroyed villages under the constant threat of zachistki, or in refugee camps without any reasonable hope for a normal life in the future. Therefore it can be expected that there will be a higher percentage proportion of citizens among this generation of Chechens, which will be attracted to the radical Islamic beliefs of the Chechen militants and pursuing their own mountainous rules. As long as the war continues, this spiral of violence will go on, which will eventually lead to an increasingly radicalized Chechen population. Therefore, a strong argument can be made that the so called ‘terrorist-attacks’ by Chechen freedom fighters are not the cause of the ongoing war just merely the a result of it.

According to Karlo, Chechens have their own rules, and they have three main principals in life: courage, love and war. He knocks on his head and says: ‘they are stupid people, they have no education, they only fight’. The tragedy of a lost population can be found in this. For decades the chechens have been denied any form of society, and hence, a bandit region will continue to develop where the laws of the mountainous people prevails any other.

evolutsia.net

Yes people, finally we are online! Our newly created Blogozine on Caucasus politics, main focuss on Georgia has seen the light www.evolutsia.net. Together with my two friends Michael Cecire and Remy Gwaramadze we've been working hard last month to make this happen, and seeing the result makes me proud and happy. From now on every day we'll be posting interesting articles we find, our own anaylzes, interviews, podcasts etc.
So please follow us on twitter: wwww.twitter.com/evolutsia and ofcourse stay tuned on our blogozine www.evolutsia.net !!!

tensions in SO one year after war

The last couple of months there have been several analysts switching over from 'there will def. be war in august again' to 'it is absolutely clear there wont be any conflict this summer'. I myself, also, made that switch, multiple times. However, arriving in Georgia in the end of July just took all my worries away. Life seemed great, only parties, sunny weather with an occasional rain, and most of all: happy people; and when I attended a summer seminar of the highly respected Alexander Rondeli on Russia-Georgia relations, stating it was absolutely without a doubt no conflict would erupt this summer, I wasn't worried myself at all. Unfortunately, Russia posted a comment on it's gov website saying tensions in the SO area had arisen due to shelling from Georgian side, and therefore they put their troops in battle-position; even though these allegations could not be found proven by the EU-monitors, who are ironically praised by Russia in another statement. Anyway, I got a bit scared after reading that statement, and decided to call yesterday my friend Soso, who always knows everything, everywhere, always. I was glad to hear he thought nothing would happen, but underlined we never can be sure. Lets just keep a close eye on Russia's moves, and hope it will all blow over.

simsalabim and the story of the blue-eyed blond girl

For twenty six (twenty six!) hours I was in a train, a partly air conditioned trip. From Ankara till Erzurum the train stops only three times and the landscape stays the same: yellow hills, no houses, no people. For twenty six hours. However, it seemed that a small village had arisen in the train, people were sharing food, drinking raki, kids were playing in the hallway and a train compartment further you could enjoy the kitchen of a genuine restaurant. The first part of my trip I had the pleasure of the company of a turkish mother and her 4 year old boy who had broken his leg: Mohamed. And being on the train for 6 hours can be boring when you are 4 years old, but with broken leg even more, so he enjoyed the foreigner effect and was trying to get my attention non-stop :). But young boys get tired too and after we shared some food together (they gave my bread, I gave them grapes) he fell asleep, and so did I. When I woke up another girl and a young boy had joined, apparently it was the mothers niece and the niece's child. In the evening they all got off the train and I had the couchette for myself, until 10 o'clock when I got worried they did not get on the train to travel, but to move: the couchette was stuffed with huge plastic bags and after a while a young lady and her grandfather joined. The fact that a man joined a women couchette turned out to be somewhat of a problem when the conductor came to check the tickets. But when I make clear in my unbelievable good Turkish (I only know merhaba and found out that yolk problem means something as no problem) the trip continued. After the grandfathers evening prayers we decided to have some sleep and the next early morning the grandfather and young lady left the train, with all their stuff. For 8 more hours I was on the train and I decided to have some breakfast at the restaurant. To be a foreigner going to East-Turkey is already an interesting fact for most turkish travelers, but a blond girl might be even more. There were no people at the restaurant, just the waiter and the cook, who desperately tried to talk to me, but they didn't know english or german, and as I said before, my turkish consists of two words. When the guard came to join us for a turkish coffee and also the conductor thought it was a good idea to have a rest at the restaurant I had the time to enjoy my breakfast :). Though one comment has to be made here: why carrying a AK-56 as a guard in a train, how can that be a usefull weapon IN a train?
I got off the train in Erzurum where I hoped to get a minibus straight to Hopa, near the Georgian border, but when i got at the bus station they told me it would go at 6 o'clock in the evening, meaning I would have to spend 5 hours in Erzurum; with too much luggage and a twenty six hours traveling, Erzurum just is a place where you don't want to spend 5 hours. I got my map, showed the ticket salesmen I wanted to go to hopa, even if that meant transferring buses and he sold me a too expensive ticket to yusufeli. In a stuffed mini-bus we left for the Georgian valleys, as this region is called since Georgia ruled over it in the 10th century. Twirling roads, splendid views, waterfalls, giant rocky mountains and 3 hours later we arrived in Yusufeli where I transfered to Arstvin. A bit broken and definately tired I wanted to get as soon as possible to Georgia, which really didn't make any sense, since I had no plan whatsoever to be doing when crossing the border at Sarpi, especially not since I would arrive late in the evening so I would have to find a hotel in Batumi at twelve o'clock in the night. But I had decided it, and I am a stubborn girl, so I had to get to the border. However, arriving in Arstvin they told me no bus would go there anymore. It was the first time of my trip I was so frustrated that I almost started to cry (I still am a girl) and when they saw my moisty eyes and my desperately look they told me they could bring me for a louzy 50 euro's, which again was way too much, but I accepted it. Being stubborn...
They dropped me off at the border and I still had no plan. The trucks were waiting impatiently to cross the border, but a blue-eyed blond girl always gets first in line, and that's how it happened i noticed a mini-bus that said: Tiflis (Tbilisi). I just asked the first man I thought belonging to the mini-bus if it would really go to tbilisi. And when he said yes and that I could join I was incredibly relieved and happy, not realizing what kind of trip it would be. After one and a half hour everybody from the minibus had crossed the border and we left, finally, i thought. And even before the mini-bus drove away, they turned on their sound-system. And what a sound-system it was. I guess from that point on it was clear it would be one loud night, and so it was. Not to mention the amount of stops we made to drop things of, or to take stuff in. And ofcourse, as proper Georgians, when you travel you need to stop somewhere to eat. As I was hungry myself, I kind of liked the idea of eating, sitting at the table with the drivers eating my very first khatchapuri (unfortunately they didn't have the Adjaruli Khatchapuri, but the Imeruli was fine for the moment too).
Arriving early in the morning at Ian's, my British friend living in Georgia, I could only sleep, traveling non-stop for 45 hours sure makes a blue-eyed blond girl a bit tired.

Merhaba! and much more!

so I regularly tried to update my facebookstatus so everyone could be jealous of my marvelous trip, but I sort of failed in posting a blog now and then... But I finally found some spare time in Ankara where I arrived this morning and where from I'll leave in about an hour, unfortunately, because I came to realize walking through Ankara's streets the city is a city of my heart. Why everybody always says: don't go to Ankara it's boring, I have no idea at all! It's a fibrant alive city with a beautiful old town with a citadel and a modern hip student area in the southern part of the city. For me, in comparıson to Istanbul, I'd definately prefer Ankara over Istanbul, but that perhaps has something to do with the season, as Istanbul was flooded with tourist. Though I think in general it's just too big for me.
As stated in my prevıous blog I arrived in Zagreb, having my very first couchsurf experiıence at Ana' place, a Croatian girl. We laughed all evening, drank some beer, and laughed some more! Next morning she dropped me of at the trainstatıon and I headed for Zagreb, where a friend of mine, Uros, would pick me up. Appareantly the Zagreb-Belgrade traıltrack ıs a very popular one amongst backpackers, since half of the train was non-local (and I thought at that poınt that was a tourıst traın already... later from Sofia to Istanbul I realızed differently). Arriving in Belgrade something went a bit wrong: my friend thought I would come the day after, but luckıly it's the Balkans: so it's never a problem! Belgrade was absolutely super! First evening had traditional food with Uros and his girlfriend and afterwards we enjoyed some beers at the courtyard of the phılosophıcal department of the university together with some common friends: Petar and Dries :).
Next day I had all day to myself and a mountainbike! So you can guess: drove all over belgrade on a Bıke: super! Met with Uros gırlfriend Desa at Lake Ada around two where we had a swim and both headed back, she on skates and I on the bike, towards home with several stops along the river for some beers :).
Around 8 my traın was leaving for Sofia and I can assure you one thing: absolutely no tourıst train :). Shared my compartment with 3 gıpsy-men (according to my bulşgarıan frıend) and saw some bulgarians or serbs muggle cıgarettes in the rooftop of the train :).
In Sofia I stayed with Ivo and his wife Bobi, who have an adorable 6 month old baby named Bobo and a lovable dog Rea. Walked all over Sofia that day with Bobo, Rea and Bobi and in the evening enjoyed a wonderful home-cooked dinner and some delıcıous local drink (I forgot the name....).Next morning we got an early call because Bobo was hungry and that was Rea's signal to get on the couch where I was sleepıng :). But it was all fine :). Saw some interesting views from the mountains on Sofia that day and had some Bulgarian dish at a small restaurant when Bobo decıded it was clearly too hot and crıed and cried and cried. I surely felt bad for Ivo and Bobı, a young baby sure takes a lot of energy. Though ın general Bobo is BY FAR the most adorable, funny, happy, exploring baby I have ever seen :)))
In the evenıng I took the train to Istanbul, and you can say a lot, but I have never been in a train without any locals. I am serıous: only tourısts! The way to Istanbul was fine, just the bordercross takes too long and we had a 2 hour delay.
So yesterday I spend all day in Istanbul. I dıdn't plan anything, so when I strawled ınto town and seeded for a breakfast ofcourse a 45 year old Turkısh man who lıved ın the Netherlands and Germany thought I was rather interesting. He decided to show me the nice places all day and I just went a long with it: even got a free shower at his hostel, lol. But I got a message from a friend of mıne from couchsurfing if I stıll wanted to meet, so after a 43 degrees celcıus hot European-Istanbul I took the ferry with all my luggage to the Easternpart where I met with Erhan for tea, eating kebab, waiting for my train and arguing with train-conductors about my too much luggage ;)

Today I am traveling further towards the east. It will be a 24hour traintrip so that surely isn,t nothing. And absolutely the longest trip I have ever done by train!
Erzurum ıs where I wıll get of the train and it şs considered as rather conservative but very beautiful. Have to cover my arms and legs, for my own convenıence, since from there I wıll take a mınıbus even further the countrysıde on, and therefore a bıt more conservative. I wıll hopefully arrıve at the border with Georgıa around 7 o'clock: that is: if there will be a minşbus when I arrıve in Erzurum, otherwise I'll first go to trabzon, stay there for a night and go the next morning.

Hope to post on my trip, but am not sure how often I wıll be near internet, perhaps fisrt time will be in Batumi!

Big-trip update nr 2

Today I arrived in Zagreb, and tomorrow I’ll travel too Belgrade, but already I had some trip. The following I wrote when I thought it would be a nice quiet evening with two wonderful hungarian people, unfortunately afterwards a Dutch (why for g*&^ds sake a Dutch person, of all places!) entered our couch and clearly had too much to drink. Though adding I still love travelling by train :)
As I take my seat and make an attempt to put my way too heavy backpack on the above storage an older man approaches me and speaks a tongue i cannot place; it is obvious he offering his help, I feel guilty since he is approximately 60 years old, however, he insists. And that is how I came to meet István and Istvánné Kedvesi; the hungarian couple I share a couch with from Strasbourg till Vienna; as a later understand, they will go further by train to their city on the border of Hungary and Austria. They both do not speak a word of English (though some german), and in the beginning, especially Istvánné is rather unpleased with the company of some nitwit student with a noisy phone, until she understands it’s her phone that has been ringing instead of mine, and the ice is broken. With a little bit of German they are both quite capable of explaining all their life to me, starting with the fact Istvánné buys all her cosmetics in Austria, since it is so incredible cheap compared to their village, and resulting in an hour long ode to Rome, the city she loves with all her heart. Then István shows me the pictures of the trips they have taken. They tell me about their families, how Istváns sister born and raised in France is very distant in her feelings towards them, and how they believe families should be tight and friendly towards each other. Although I am already as tired as can be (and I am only starting my journey) I enjoy listening to their stories very much and practice my horrible german with them. It is unbelievable what people can tell with just a few words, and how close you can get that they start to talk about their private lives. Soon i understand they have been married since they were 18, new each other before that, childhood friends, and were separated during a period of 6 years, but found each other again. The romance of the story, Istvánné and István both
And that is why I love traveling by train and I absolutely enjoy traveling on my own: the people you meet, the friendliness, the stories. Looking forward to the following period :).

big-trip update 1

So here I am, last day as a PA to a member of the european parliament in Strasbourg, already on my way and more in holiday than working mood, which is fine ofcourse :). The trip yesterday to brussels, where I stayed at my collegue´splace, and this morning to strasbourg weren´t all that exciting since I have done it multiple times last year, though walking around with TOO MUCH and TOO HEAVY luggage is (why am I a girl...), at least it made me feel like a real tourist and I created that impression to with my fellow travelors who all wanted to know where I was going and all guessed it had to be Russia since I am reading Jonathan Dimbley´s `Russia, A journey to the heart of a land and its people´ (which I already highly recommend as travel-lecture). - note to self: keep your sentences shorte....-
Well, anyway, I am heading off for Zagreb tonight, taking the 20.37 train to Munchen, transfering there at around 6/7 am and going through slovenia. According tpo my Thomas Cook railmap it has to be a very beautiful track, looking forward to it. I`ll arrive around 13.30 so i`ll have time to explore the city before I meet my couchsurf host in the evening after her work.
The next morning 9 o´clock the train to Belgrade will leave, though I heard (and according to the railmap) the way isn`t that beautiful, so I`ll have a read, or work on my essay I still have to finish (shame on me, I know).
I´ll try to post every now and then, but am unsure how frequent it will be!
Btw, I am considering going from sofia to istanbul via thessaloniki for one day, since I also never have been to Greece, if you think I should or shouldn`t, let me know ;).