council of elders
Pankisi Elder: the Georgian government needs to choose a side
Zaur Gumashvili, chairman of the board of Pankisi’s Council of Elders, discussed with OC Media the fading role of Elders in the valley, the rise of the Salafi movement, the subsequent cultural decline, and an action plan how to stop it. Since the 1990s, Pankisi Valley, in the northeast of Georgia, has attracted international attention as a wild and dangerous place, due to it’s association with Chechen fighters, drug trafficking, and violence. Although nowadays Pankisi is a peaceful rural
