The photo exhibition -“Beslan. Remember to Live”,- has opened in the art exhibition hall of the South Ossetian State University.
The event began with the background information about the Beslan terrorist attack. It was noted that in one of the most cruel and bloody tragedies, 334 people had been killed, including 186 children.
“This tragedy shocked every resident of Beslan and shocked the whole world. Some lost a son, some a daughter, and some lost their entire family. This pain will not dull over time,” they said at the exhibition and honored the memory of all victims of the tragedy with a minute of silence.
The exhibition was visited by the Government Chairman Konstantin Dzhussoev and other officials.
Rector of the South Ossetian State University Vadim Tedeev has noted that it is an honor for the University to open this photo exhibition so that young people can see, know and remember this terrible date.
Prime Minister Konstantin Dzhussoev called the Beslan tragedy the unhealed wound of the Ossetian people.
“It’s very hard for me to talk about this, because I personally was there during the Beslan tragedy, I lost loved ones there... It is impossible to describe all the cruelty of the terrorists,” Dzhussoev said.
As noted by the head of the Committee of the Association of Victims of Terrorist Acts “Mothers of Beslan” Susanna Dudieva, the exhibition was organized to preserve the memory of the fallen children, as well as to call adults to responsibility.
“This exhibition is also about the responsibility of adults. Because the terrorist attack was being prepared in advance, they were warned about it. Everyone knew everything, but they didn’t take any measures and allowed this terrible tragedy to happen,” Dudieva said.
Representative of the “Mothers of Beslan” Aneta Gadieva has noted that the idea to create this photo exhibition came to them back in 2016. She has emphasized that the exhibition presents photographs of the famous photographer Sergei Uzakov, who was in Beslan at the time of the terrorist attack.
“Many people don’t understand that we, having lost children, go and tell about it, but this is how we try to preserve their memory. We have been planning to go to Tskhinval for a long time, because no one responded the way you responded to our pain. Thanks to South Ossetia for being the first to introduce the tradition of mourning with us,” Gadieva said.
Rita Sidakova, another of Beslan's mothers, thanked the South Ossetian people for their support, having emphasized that the photographs of the exhibition show the kind of cruelty people can face in the 21st century.
“We received so much support and human warmth from all of you. Thank you very much, because without support we would not have been able to cope with our grief,” Sidakova has noted.
Former hostages were also present at the exhibition, including Atsamaz Misikov, as well as Astemir Kundukhov, who was only two years old at the time of the terrorist attack, and all his relatives were killed at the school.
Atsamaz Misikov, now a student of the South Ossetian State University, has emphasized that we need to talk about this tragedy in order to remember.
“We, the hostages, need and it is important to talk about this so that it is not forgotten. And we, the survivors, also need to live for the sake of those who remained at school... I would like to talk about the heroes who saved us, among them there were children. The older children at school were calming us, the younger ones, down. “At this school, during the terrorist attack, enormous heroism was demonstrated,” Misikov said.
The exhibition features about 40 photographs.
