In Istanbul, 500 people pay tribute to victims of Vainakh deportation

In Istanbul, members of the Chechen Diaspora have arranged an evening to pay tribute to the memory of the people who fell victim to the deportation of Chechen and Ingush people to Central Asia. The audience was showed footage from the film "Ordered to Forget", banned for screening in Russia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 23, residents of Ingushetia paid tribute to the victims of deportation by prayers and alms. Besides, people left gates of their houses open as a sign of mourning. An official mourning rally was also held in the republic.

The evening arranged at the Emin Saraç Cultural Centre gathered Chechen and Ingush people, descendants of Vainakhs who moved to the Ottoman Empire during the Caucasian War.

Ali Viskhadjiev, the head of the organization "Kavkazder", called deportation of 1944 "the genocide of Chechen and Ingush people" and placed responsibility for the deportation on the Stalin's regime. Meanwhile, the activist sharply condemned the authorities' actions against the Chechen people also in the following years, up to the present day.