Jihadi crisis in Georgia

And tensions with Russia

jul 13, 2023

The American commander gives an order. His Georgian subordinates follow him descending through the green mountains. They spot a car. One of the Georgians takes out his gun and shoots the driver. Then they take out three Arabs from the car. All are accused of having terrorist links. This event is part of the episode of the War on Terror known as the Pankisi Gorge Crisis.

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The Pankisi Gorge Crisis is a moment of tensions between Russia and Georgia, due Moscow’s accusations of Georgia sheltering Chechen rebels and international jihadists. The Gorge had been used by the forementioned as staging ground for operations against Russian troops in Chechnya. This spillover into Georgia included different sorts of threats. These included terrorism, transnational crime, violence, and the threats of Russian reprisals against Georgian sovereignity and integrity. Russia had been bombing the Pankisi Gorge and threatening to invade.

Pankisi Gorge. Source: Wikimedia Commons

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It’s a good idea to talk a little about the Pankisi Gorge itself. It is a valley region in eastern Georgia and inhabited by Kists, an ethnic group close to Chechens. It is about 4-5 kilometers and 16 kilometers long, surrounded by mountains on the east, west, and north.

It had been a source of contention when the Second Chechen War began in 1999. The Gorge had a population of eight thousand people before that. 65% of its inhabitants were Kists, and 24% Georgians. The flow of Chechen refugees reached 1500 by October 1999. It was considered lawless since Soviet times. This was confirmed by kidnappings and the presence of Arab jihadists and Chechen rebels. Some kidnapping victims were a Georgian politician, Spanish and Lebanese businessmen, and residents, leading to reprisals.

Georgia had lost control of it with the arrival of Chechen refugees and the start of radicalization. Some residents were kidnapped too, which led to reprisals. Smugglers, white slave traders and drug traffickers were also there. Only permanent residents were allowed into the Gorge because of the situation. Georgian authorities acknowledged the need of controlling and directing the flow of refugees, mentioning the concerns of terrorists hiding among them. Fifty radicals considered a threat to Georgian stability were included for allegedly collaborating with Georgian jihadists in drug trade. Tblisi and Washington DC stated that almost one hundred jihadists were being sheltered there, including some tied to al-Qaeda. Radical Islamic preaching increased during the nineties and money to fund terror also flowed into Chechnya via Georgia. The flow of Chechen refugees reached 1500 by October 1999. Georgia helped fleeing Chechens to settle in the Gorge.

There were early reports that al-Qaeda members had mainly appeared in Georgia after 9/11, later revealing that between 50-100 al-Qaeda members helped Chechen rebels to establish at least two training camps in 1999. Those terror camps taught sophisticated communications, equipment and supplies, hostage taking, shooting down planes, chemical weapons and explosives. Many jihadists took shelter there after the defeat of the Taliban.

Vladimir Putin linked the situation in the Pankisi Gorge and the Chechen War to the Global War on Terror. He gave international importance to the charges and counter charges between neighbors and also questioned if Georgia could defend its sovereignity. Putin had joined the War on Terror by assisting US forces in Afghanistan and even allowing them to have bases in Central Asia. Former Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, suggested Bin Laden could be in the Pankisi Gorge. The US also tried to exploit the situation in the region for its own interests. In the vespers of the Iraq War, Colin Powell stated that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was active there Gorge plotting with ricin poison.

Alleged Zarqawi terror network presented by Colin Powell. Abu Atiya is his alleged liteunant in the Gorge

There were also international links to the Pankisi Gorge. British authorities found traces of ricin in a raid carried out in January 2003. The arrested men were accused of training in Afghanistan, Chechnya and the Gorge. North Africans were arrested in France and Spain for plotting with ricin. They were linked to the Gorge, only to be released later. Russia stated that the arrested men trained in al-Qaeda ricin laboratories in the Pankisi Gorge. Messages uncovered by Georgian authorities revealed that Arab jihadists plotted attacks against Western and Russian interests.

Russia and Georgia had been exchanging charges and countercharges, with Moscow accusing its neighbor of sheltering Chechens. Vladimir Putin stated Georgia was unwilling or unable to prevent crossborder raids. Russia claimed that Caucasian and foreign jihadists used the Gorge to cross into Chechnya. Russia drew attention to the Gorge as a haven used by Chechen terrorists to reconstitute their forces during winter. Its media claimed there were 450 fighters in the Gorge. The accusations against Georgia coincided with the deployment of Chechen fighters under the command of Ruslan Gelayev from the Pankisi to the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs accepted it had moved the Chechen fighters, but claimed it was to expell them from its territory. Russia and Abkhazia saw this as an alliance between Georgia and the insurgents. Chechen rebels had fought against Abkhazian rebels and shot down an UN Mission helicopter.

Putin demanded Georgia allowed Russian troops in its territory to chase Chechen rebels, Georgian cooperation in joint border policing and elimination or extradition of rebels. Tensions escalated in July 2002, when sixty Chechen guerrillas attacked Russian forces north of the border with Georgia. Russia threatened to militarily intervene in early August 2002. Georgia had already been accusing its neighbor of violating its territory. Russian military forces bombed the village of Zemo Omalo on August 9^th, wounding three persons. Moscow pressured Georgia through August and September 2002 by presenting the place as a staging area for terror attacks in Chechnya. Russia spoke of links between Chechen fighters and Islamic terrorists as al-Qaeda. Georgia responded to Russian pressure on August 25^th, 2002. It began military exercises and anounced the deployment of police and security forces to the Gorge. It set some checkpoints to seal off the Gorge, some guarded by tanks and armored vehicles.

Vladimir Putin wrote a letter to Georgian President Eduard Shervardnadzde on September 4^th, 2002, demanding the liquidation of terrorists, not allowing them to leave. Eight days later he would write more letters to President Bush and members of the Security Council, and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) members. He condemned Georgia’s police in the gorge as duplicitous in those letters. He accused his neighbor of “connivence” with terrorists, warning with self-defense under UN charter or anti terrorism solution 1373 to counter the “terrorist menace”.

The US took its involvment here too. It supported Russia in its fight against terror, but warned against violating Georgian sovereignity. It asked Georgia at the same time to take its measures to pacify the Gorge. Washington DC also condemned Russian strikes in Georgia, calling for cooperation between both. It is worth noting that the US was interested in the Gorge for a year. A Bin Laden operative in Afghanistan called someone in Georgia during the 9/11 attacks to announce the first phase of the attacks had been successful. In its Patterns for Global Terrorism for 2002, the US stated that Georgia:

“Contended with international mujahideen using Georgia as a conduit for financial and logistical support for the mujahideen and Chechen fighters”.

Moscow threatened to carry out incursions after clashes between Chechen rebels and Russian forces. The rebels had allegedly entered from the Gorge on September 25^th, 2002. Georgia inaugurated aerial patrols in the border area two days later. An armed group crossed from Russia into the Gorge on early December 2002, supposedly after the crackdown that forced them to leave. Tblisi anounced then a nation-wide anti-crime operation. Shervardnazde accused an armed group of planning wide-ranging terror attacks in Tblisi. He accepted that he made a mistake when failing to pay attention to the terror threat. Putin would later praise him for “decisive action in the struggle against terrorism”.

The first proposal to solve the tensions was made by the Deputy Director of the Russian Border Guards Service. He proposed Russian and Georgian border guards being deployed to the Gorge. Washington DC offered its good offices to mediate when US ambassador to Georgia, Kenneth Spencer Yalowintzonce, mentioned that both countries were ar the edge of war.

US Special Forces were deployed to the capital in winter 2001 to train their Georgian counterparts to operate in the Gorge. Russia welcomed this as a sign of US commitment in the war against international terrorism.

The US launched the Georgian Train and Equip Program in 2002, out of a request by Shervardnadzde during a meeting with George W. Bush in 2001. He was prone to accept because of the alleged links in the Gorge to the 9/11 attacks. President Bush emphasized the presence of some al-Qaeda members there. The program was to help Georgia to deny a safe heaven and transit to Chechen, Arab, Afghan and other jihadists and regain control over the Gorge. The US soldiers arrived to Georgia in March 2002. US military planners, CIA, DEA and FBI would participate in the operation. The program lasted from May 2002 to mid-December 2002. It included 2000 Georgian military, security, border officials and troops. The first phase was completed in August, aqcuainting 120 officers with US military doctrine and tactics. The second phase involved training four battallions and a company in marksmanship, communications, first aid, reconnotering, human rights, offensive and defensive operations, as well as mountain and helicopter tactics. 50 Special Forces troops arrived in Tblisi on May 2002 to train and equip an elite force in the Georgian army to fight in the Pankisi Gorge.

Georgia deployed armored tanks and vehicles on August 2002. Russian and Georgian officials reported that Chechen and international jihadists left the place either after the announcement of the GTEP or after the Georgian deployment. They went across the border into Chechnya and other places along Georgia’s border with other areas of Russia.Many of them would quietly leave the Gorge without being apprehended.

Tensions were eased on October 6^th, 2002. Putin and Shervadnadzde met in Moldova to agree border cooperation.They designated their security ministries as border emissaries and established an early warning communication system.

Georgia would arrest Arab fighters in the end. Among those arrested was top al-Qaeda member, Saif al-Islam al-Masri. Tblisi agreed to joint Georgian-Russian patrols to seal the common frontier. Terrorist attacks would still be carried out in Russia. Some were handed to the US, while others were deported to Arab countries, France, and even Japan.

The Marines began training the “Sachkere” Mountain Rifle Batallion in counterterrorism operations in January 2003. On January 16, 2003, Russia complained that terrorism had not been eliminated from the Gorge, and anounced more efforts to fortify the border. US ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, responded that much needed to be done to eliminate the threat in the area. Tblisi sent in March 2003 extra military and police forces into the Pankisi Gorge to prevent jihadists from re entering there during the spring thaw. Many separatsits would leave by 2003. Georgia regained control of the Gorge that year.

It has been claimed that Georgia exagerated the terrorism threat in order to get more aid from the US.

The legacy of the crisis still lasted ten years later. 200 Georgian citizens fought in Syria, and most of them were from the Pankisi Gorge. The best example was Tarkhan Batirashvili, also known as Abu Omar al-Shishani, top military commander of the Islamic state.

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