Amina – Chechen Republic Online, popularly known as Amina.com, was a

social network service A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests ...

and

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

that included information on the

Chechen language Chechen ( , ; , , ) is a Northeast Caucasian languages, Northeast Caucasian language spoken by approximately 1.8 million people, mostly in the Chechnya, Chechen Republic and by Chechens, members of the Chechen diaspora throughout Russia and the ...

and culture and

photos A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. The process and prac ...

of the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second Chechen War Names The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...

s. It was founded on March 13, 1997, by Albert Digaev, a Chechen refugee living in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, as a means of communication for the disparate global Chechen

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

community. It was the first website focused on Chechnya and was named after a popular Chechen girl's name. It provided information, links and images about and from Chechnya, the

history of Chechnya The history of Chechnya may refer to the history of the Chechens, of their land Chechnya, or of the land of Ichkeria. Chechen society has traditionally been organized around many autonomous local clans, called taips. The traditional Chechen say ...

, people, culture and the conflict as well as Internet forums,

chat room The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

photo sharing A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

s, and

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

. The website was once closely monitored by the pro-Russian Chechen government. The site was also denounced as an “ideological diversion against Chechen society”.

Features

The site, which allowed users to write in Chechen,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, was free to users and generates revenue from

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

including

web banner A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking t ...

s. Features of the website included Chechen Forum, Articles related to Chechnya, Chechen Photo Gallery, Chechen Chat, and Chechen Mail.

Chechen Forum

As of May 17, 2007, the Chechen Forum hosted more than 3,500 members and more than 300,000 post

Although all forum visitors may browse among the various Thread (computer science), threads, only visitors who have created a free

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...

account may be able to make forum posts, receive email notifications of replies to posts, and send and receive private message

In late April 2007, Albert Digaev added

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

registration to the Chechen Forum, to allow English speakers access and an English language thread to allow English speakers to communicate with Chechens.

Articles related to Chechnya

The articles section included essays on the Chechen conflict, resources on the Chechen language, and appeals to end the war in Chechnya. Some of the articles' authors include famed

journalist

Andrei Babitsky Andrei Maratovich Babitsky (; 26 September 1964 – 1 April 2022) was a Russian journalist and war reporter, who worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from 1989 to 2014, covering the 1991 August Coup, Civil War in Tajikistan and ...

, Chechen Ambassador to the

Lyoma Usmanov, and U.S.

Under Secretary for Political Affairs The under secretary of state for political affairs is currently the fourth-ranking position in the United States Department of State, after the secretary, the deputy secretary, and the deputy secretary of state for management and resources. T ...

R. Nicholas Burns Robert Nicholas Burns (born January 28, 1956) is an American diplomat and international relations scholar. He served as the United States ambassador to China from 2022 to 2025. Burns has had a 25-year career in the State Department and has serv ...

. The list of articles has not been updated since February 2005.

Chechen Photo Gallery

The Chechen Photo Gallery enabled users with a free subscription account to upload photos of themselves and their friends, as well as rate or comment on others' photos. Although individuals are primarily Chechens,

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

and Caucasians are well represented in the gallery as well. Sections of the gallery include Individuals, Girls, Boys, Chechen Television, Our Neighbors, People of the Arts, Children, Historical Photos, My Chechnya, and New Photos.

Chechen Chat

Chechen Chat was a free

IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...

service powered by the

ASP.NET ASP.NET is a server-side web-application framework designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. It was developed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, applications and services. The name stands for Ac ...

web application framework A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build and ...

. Users can

private message In computer networking, a private message, personal message, or direct message (abbreviated as PM or DM) refers to a private communication, often text-based, sent or received by a user of a private communication channel on any given platform. Unli ...

directly with other Amina.com users. This feature was reinstated in 2007 after going offline for several months.

Chechen Mail

Chechen Mail was a

Gmail Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...

-powered service which enables users to gain access to a private email account with an amina.com

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

. When

Google Apps Google Workspace (formerly G Suite, formerly Google Apps) is a collection of cloud computing, Productivity software, productivity and Collaborative software, collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It con ...

enabled Gmail users to check their email accounts using the

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...

handheld device A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. ...

, Chechen Mail users by extension gained access to this new feature. Email signup required permission from the Amina – Chechen Republic Online

network administrator A network administrator is a person designated in an organization whose responsibility includes maintaining computer infrastructures with emphasis on local area networks (LANs) up to wide area networks (WANs). Responsibilities may vary between or ...

References

External links

Amina - Chechen Republic Online
*[http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=409&issue_id=3500&article_id=2370374 "Amina.com Under Attack - Rift Opens Between Chechen Leadership and its Diaspora" article by The Jamestown Foundation] {{DEFAULTSORT:Amina - Chechen Republic Online Chechen diaspora in the United States Chechen culture Defunct American websites Defunct social networking services Internet properties established in 1997