CT44 – Chechnya “In Their Own Words!” | Abdullah the Tour Guide & Couchsurfing Expert

The people of Chechnya are probably some of the least well-understood in the Caucasus to outsiders. In the spirit of our ongoing series “In Their Own Words,” today we give the mic to our Chechen friend and tour guide to share about his place and people from his own perspective. Aside from being an experienced tourist host through Couchsurfing.com (see a link to his page below) with over 100 satisfied reviews, Abdullah is, like many Caucasus people, informed about history and articulate about the treasures of his own culture, such as the Chechen code of honor, nokhchal. As always, we are sure you our listeners will be refreshed and encouraged by this honest and fascinating inside look at Chechens!



Links for Episode 44



Couchsurfing.com – Abdulla’s pageMeet: ZaBeast / Zabit Magomedsharipov



Timestamps



01:43 – Sports segment – The next big thing in MMA: Zabit Magomedsharipov a.k.a. “ZaBeast”02:17 – 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon05:38 – No “f” sound in Chechen language07:56 – Welcome Abdullah! The Vainakh People10:50 – A brief history of Chechnya and Ingushetia15:16 – The elephant in the room: Stereotypes about Chechnya20:14 – Most important Chechen values21:40 – Nokhchal / Нохчал = “Chechenness”22:28 – When tourists come who are different27:20 – How Chechens and Ingush are similar and different29:00 – Famous historical Chechen leaders35:01 – Tiny Biebolt?36:54 – Foreigners’ top 3 impressions of Chechnya