of thousands of chechens r, tens perished. in the 1990s, chechens fought and won a bloody war for independence from russia. it was during this violence that the younger tsarnaev brother, dzhokhar, was born and given the name of a chechen leader. it s a sure sign of chechen patriotism in the family that in 1993, they called that little son, dzhokhar, after the pro-independence president. chechen extremists would kill 186 children and more than a hundred in moscow. luis vasqued was friends with tamerlan in high school. that s where he s from. he didn t really elaborate.
there s a whole family of chechens you grew up with with families being displaced and killed and so on. thomas has studied and written about the region. for 340es people, that s a tragedy. but for a small minority, it s something in their dna that drives them. and like many displaced chechens, tamerlan may have struggled to fit in. the relatives still live hire. tamerlan traveled here to his trip last year. translator: he came to see me. we talked. i said come here, guy. are you studying, i asked? i m studying, he said. there was nothing criminal about him. he says this region has seen
next to his family s ancestral homeland, chechnya, today, also a part of russia. translator: he could radiate light and warmth. his extended family in dagestan welcomed him warmly. he smiled a lot. and i asked him, is this your customary american smile? he was morbid american. much of what tamerlan tsarnaev did here remains a mystery. we know that he stayed for some weeks here at his parents home keeping mostly to family and friends, helping his father out in his businesses around town and often sleeping in. the tsarnaev family is part of the chechen community here, like many other chechens, displaced from their homeland. after the second world war, tens of thousands of chechens perished. in the 1990s, chechens fought