Green ribbons are again under suspicion

Commemorative tapes with the words "Day of Memory and Sorrow" were again confiscated from Circassian activists under the pretext of checking "for extremism".

May 21, 2017 at night on the eve of the funeral processions on the occasion of the 153rd anniversary of the end of the Caucasian War (May 21, 1864) in the Krasnodar Territory law enforcement agencies confiscated 4,000 commemorative ribbons from Circassian activists and sent them for a linguistic examination for extremism. How An activist of the organization "Adygekhem" told the "Caucasian Knot" I am a Dunei" ("The Circassian World") Beslan Teuvazhev, tapes were printed in a printing house in Moscow, and they were supposed to be delivered to Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia.

This will be the third examination of mourning ribbons, the design of which has not changed in recent years: these are green ribbons, on with official start dates and the end of the Caucasian War and in Russian, English, Turkish, Abaza and two dialects of the Circassian language, the words are written: "Day of memory and sorrow."

Recall in May 2014, Beslan Teuvazhev, one of the organizers of the campaign for the manufacture commemorative tapes, was detained in Moscow on the way from the printing house, from where he took the tapes, released on the anniversary. Under the pretext of testing "for extremism" he was seized all the tapes he had in the amount of more than 70 thousand pieces. It took the law enforcement agencies almost a year to conduct an examination. The check in Adygea was followed by a check in Moscow, and already there the tapes were returned to Teuvazhev in March 2015. Both examinations did not reveal any signs of extremism in the inscriptions on the ribbons.

As a reminder, we consider the withdrawal of the entire issue products on suspicion of its extremist nature unlawful. For one or more copies is sufficient to carry out the verification. Mass withdrawal of products for an indefinite period looks like one of the ways disrupt this or that action objectionable to the authorities.

Sources

• Asya Kapaeva. Beslan Teuvazhev: police seized mourning ribbons of Circassians // Caucasian knot. May 21, 2017