[CPProt.net] Museum-preserve in Chechnya under threat of complete destruction

[Ellie Bruggeman]

  Museum-preserve in Chechnya under threat of complete destruction

By Timur Aliyev

GROZNY, Chechnya - Relics of Chechnya’s medieval architecture may be 
completely destroyed, fears Ismail Munayev, head of the Chechen office 
of Rosokhrankultura, a federal agency supervising compliance with the 
law in the media and in the protection of cultural heritage.

He says that the government of the Chechen Republic has adopted a 
resolution according to which the territory of the Argun natural and 
historical-cultural preserve that contains Chechen medieval towers, 
tombs and religious buildings will be transferred to the jurisdiction of 
the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

The resolution of the Government of the Chechen Republic, taken on 
August 12, 2005, talks of transferring the aforesaid territory in the 
Itum-Kalinsky and Sharoisky districts to the category of land used for 
defence and security purposes where administrative and service buildings 
and structures are to be built.

"If the resolution comes into force it will be impossible to get into 
the territory. Even if the soldiers don’t destroy them, we will not be 
able to restore the towers that have already been destroyed, or to 
maintain those that have survived," Munayev says.

According to him, the resolution which transfers the territories to the 
military will be adopted in violation of an earlier resolution – the 
Decree of Russian President Boris Yeltsin of February 20 1995 “On the 
confirmation of the list of objects of historical and cultural heritage 
with federal (all-Russian) importance”. This document contains a list of 
12 museum-preserves and museum complexes situated on the territories of 
Russia, including the Argun museum-preserve, which are subject to 
protection as monuments of national importance.

“Because of the Chechen government’s subordinate status, resolutions 
taken by it cannot abolish federal laws. And that means that this 
resolution can be considered illegal,” says Munayev.

The Argun state historical-architectural and natural museum-preserve 
covers the territory of the Argun river basin, the foothills and the 
mountainous part of Southern Chechnya (with a total area of 240 thousand 
hectares). According to Rosokhrankultura’s data for the Chechen 
Republic, it contains 89 medieval architectural relics of federal 
importance.

Those towers which are located on its territory have already undergone 
destruction. According to the museum-preserve workers who have managed 
to get into the territory, in the last five years 25 tower complexes and 
burial sites have been destroyed.

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