EN/COUNTERING STIGMA OF TERRORISM: THE CASE OF PANKISI Report is Available Online!
Ethnic Kists, residing in the Pankisi Gorge, constitute part of the overall Muslim population of Georgia. Pankisi Gorge is located in Kakheti region, Eastern Georgia. According to the census 2014, currently up to 6000 Kists live in the villages of the Pankisi Gorge. Since early 2000’s Pankisi Gorge is firmly associated with crime, terrorism and religious radicalism. Mariam idea was to investigate this issue, understand the roots of this perception and learn how the young Kists counter the stigma of terrorism,
Mariam Amashukeli: “Based on my study findings religious radicalization as such is not present in case of Muslim population (ethnic Kists/Chechens) residing in Pankisi Gorge. It should be emphasized that the harsh/reactive State policy towards the Gorge as well as lack of proficiency in case of majority of the national Media outlets, strongly contributed to shaping inaccurate public opinion about the Gorge which in turn led to labeling the Kist community as (potential) terrorist. Since a stigma of terrorism appeared to be the most important issue in case of the Pankisi population {…}, I decided to write the comprehensive research report unfolding the main challenges in regard to the Pankisi community”.
Mariam’s research project aimed at identifying the young Kists’ responses countering the stigma of terrorism and related issues such as the outflow of Pankisians to Syria, the spread of Salafism in the Gorge and the role of the State in maintaining peace and security in this region. Within her research Mariam collected the narratives of young Salafi as well as non-Salafi respondents and pubslished the report EN/COUNTERING STIGMA OF TERRORISM: THE CASE OF PANKISI.
Download Research Report EN/COUNTERING STIGMA OF TERRORISM: THE CASE OF PANKISI