Pankisi ( ka, პანკისი) or the Pankisi Gorge (, ''Pankisis Kheoba'') is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

region in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, in the upper reaches of River

Alazani The Alazani ( ka, ალაზანი, az, Qanıx) is a river that flows through the Caucasus. It is the main tributary of the Kura in eastern Georgia, and flows for . Part of its path forms the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan, before i ...

just south of

’s historic region of

Tusheti Tusheti ( ka, თუშეთი) is a historic region in northeast Georgia. Geography Located on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, Tusheti is bordered by the Russian republics of Chechnya and Dagestan to the north and eas ...

between Mt Borbalo and the ruined 17th-century fortress of Bakhtrioni. Administratively, it is included in the

Akhmeta municipality Akhmeta ( ka, ახმეტის მუნიციპალიტეტი, ''Axmeṫis municiṗaliṫeṫi'') is the administrative – territorial unit in Eastern Georgia, in the region of Kakheti. The administrative center of Akhmeta munic ...

of the

Kakheti Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

region. An ethnic group called

Kists The Kists ( ka, ქისტები ''kist'ebi'', ce, Kistoj, Kisti, Nokhcho, Nakhcho) are a Chechen subethnos in Georgia. They primarily live in the Pankisi Gorge, in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, where there are approximately 9,0 ...

of Chechen roots form the majority (75%) in the area.

Area conditions

Pankisi Gorge, Flag of Ichkeria and Georgia

It had allegedly often been used as a base for transit, training and shipments of arms and financing by Chechen rebels and

Islamic militants ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term t ...

, including foreign fighters, many of whom followed

Ruslan Gelayev Ruslan (Hamzat) Gelayev (russian: Руслан (Хамзат) Гелаев; was a prominent commander in the Chechen people, Chechen separatist movement against Russia, in which he played a significant, yet controversial, military and political ...

. Most of these accusations were around 2002, but others allege that it is more peaceful now, although there are still many Chechen refugees living there. The former senior

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

leader Tarkan Batirashvili, otherwise known as "Omar the Chechen", grew up in the area where some of his family still lives. In 2014, Batirashvilii reportedly threatened to return to the area to lead a Muslim attack on Russian Chechnya, however such a threat never came into fruition as he was killed during a battle in the town of Al-Shirqat in Iraq of 2016.

Cultural references

The situation in the Pankisi Gorge received an extensive fictional treatment factoring into several of the popular John Ringo anti-terrorism military science fiction books in the ''Paladin of Shadows'' series.

Notes

References

*Shorena Kurtsikidze & Vakhtang Chikovani, Ethnography and Folklore of the Georgia-Chechnya Border: Images, Customs, Myths & Folk Tales of the Peripheries, Munich: Lincom Europa, 2008.

External links

*Shorena Kurtsikidze and Vakhtang Chikovani, ''Georgia's Pankisi Gorge: An Ethnographic Survey,'' Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies,University of California, Berkeley, Spring 2002.(http://escholarship.org/uc/item/64d7v9hj) *Rebecca Ruth Gould, �
Secularism and Belief in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge
" Journal of Islamic Studies 22.3(2011): 339–373. *

Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program The Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program (GSSOP) was a security assistance program designed to create an increased capability in the Georgia (country), Georgian Military of Georgia, military to Role of Georgia in the Iraq War, suppo ...

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Valleys of Georgia (country) Geography of Kakheti {{Georgia-geo-stub