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[UNPO: The Circassian Genocide]


December 1862

Dakhovskiy Division /Colonel Geyman – During the night of December 21st – 22nd, we moved toward the village of Djankat [family] whose dwellers promised to surrender, however never did so and resettled deeper [into the mountains of] the upper Pshekha. After burning the village with all the properties...


January 1863

Sebshskiy Division /Colonel Levashov – January 19th before the sunrise moved toward them...[the army] siezed the big village, situated on both banks of the river [where Circasssians took defense] and this forced us to stop in front of the village. In order to provide the success of the affair,[the village] was bombarded with our artillery... After bombarding of the middle part of the Wanowbat village... these columns rushed into the village and fought with mountaineers [driving them out]... The mountaineers left several corpses. After setting fire to the village, the division moved further toward Chibiy River.


Adagumskiy Division/Major-General Babich – January 21st, 3 columns were sent to exterminate the villages located along the rivers Konseshus, Merzat’h, Bigger and Smaller Il... All the villages along the army itinerary were totally exterminated...

On the 24th of January, the division left their positions and moved by small columns into the gorges of upper tributary of Afips, and after that went from the upper Ubin, destroying all the villages existing in between these two rivers, and reconvened in the evening near the mouth of Chus’haje...

Between January 20th and 27th, the area between Shebsh and Ul was cleansed of the aboriginal people.

The Circassian genocide has been recorded as the first genocide of the modern age and ripped our people from the coasts of the Circassia. On the 21st of May in 1864, it was declared that the invasion of the Caucasus was complete. It was celebrated a victory parade that was held by Tsarist Russia in Kbadaa( Krasnaya Polyana). This 21st of May, we will be remembering the 147th anniversary of the Circassian Genocide.

The soul of the Tsar’s Army, which was aiming to destroy an entire civilization, today tries to send the Circassian Genocide into a historical black hole, while they try to bury the right of Caucasians to lead a decent life, while they construct the most expensive Olympic project of all time.  Coming into existence within the most corrupted regime, today this soul usurps all the democratic rights of the people of the North Caucasus while it also destroys the natural environmental legacy of the region. Olympic facilities, the construction of Putin’s private palace in Sochi, and the industrial waste of Gazprom cause great harm to this environmental legacy.

Now is not the time to weep over the things we have lost or the country we were made to leave, but instead it is the time to fight against historical and recent injustices. Within two years there have been demonstrations before the Embassy of Russia held in many countries and cities where Circassian and Caucasian people live. This international Circassian opposition movement has shown its determination to the whole world. Gaining momentum more and more, the Circassian movement has become an important subject of local and international policy in all the countries where it is active. This positive transformation experienced both in the Diaspora and the homeland proves that the new generation, which has destroyed the taboos and deconstructed the old, sees civil politics as the only way out.

Now we call you on the 21st of May of 2011 to show one more time that no one and nothing can stand before the plight of the Circassians. They fight for their rights and speak out to the world from every country and square in front of the representatives of Russia. Be there and let them see that we hold onto our history which they tried to cover up, and we will defend our rights to the bitter end.

T o shout the truth, be in Taksim on the 21st of May!
Date: May 21, 2011 - Saturday
Time: 13:00
Meeting Point: Taksim Subway Station
Press Release: Istiklal St. before the Russian Consulate

Caucasus Forum

The Sochi Olympics of 2014 will be the 150th commemorative year of the Circassian Genocide. Choosing Sochi as the site of the Winter Olympics, in such an auspicious year for the Russians, represents the perpetual celebration of Imperial Russia’s oppression and systematic murder of the Circassian People. Building the Olympic Village over the mass graves of the victims symbolizes the virtual erasing of this atrocity!

   1.The Circassian Genocide, still unrecognized by Russia and hidden from the civilized World, was the intentional attempt to erase the indigenous people of Circassia. The Olympic Stadiums and village are being built upon the mass graves of the ruthlessly murdered Circassians during the Genocide.

   2.Krasnaya Palana (named “The Red Hill” by the Russian troops for the amount of Circassian blood spilled) will be the center of the 2014 Olympic Games and the place where, on May 21, 1864, Russian troops celebrated the end of the war with the Circassians which claimed the lives of 1.5 million men, women, and children - over 50% of the entire population of the time!

   3.Sochi, Circassia’s capital, is the point of exile of over one million Circassians.

   4.Nearly 90% of the remaining Circassian population lives outside their homeland, which is the largest Diaspora proportionally of any nation in the world. Circassians do not have right of return.

   5.Circassians worldwide oppose Sochi as the site of the 2014 Olympics.

   6.In Circassia, people are still deprived of basic human rights and freedoms, virtues that are far more important than grand stadiums, gold medals, and the celebration of the Olympics.

   7.Dmitri Kozak, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, stated, “no money will be spent in the Caucasus.” Russia would rather spend billions in building stadiums instead of fixing infrastructure and boosting the economy of the North Caucasus. The indigenous people will not benefit financially.

   8.Four years before the Olympics, protestors are being detained, vocal demonstrators have disappeared, and local inhabitants have been forcefully removed without consent and given meager compensation.
   9.The Sochi region faces an ecosystem habitat catastrophe. Sochi venues would be built in the protective belt of the Caucasus Nature Reserve, which is part of a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  10.Circassians in the North Caucasus do not hold the same rights as ethnic Russians.

  11.Russia has never acknowledged the indigenous Circassians of Sochi in any of their Public Relations surrounding the Olympics. Moscow is deluding the global community of Sochi’s true history.

  12.Circassians within the borders of Russia, as well as the Diaspora, cannot freely visit Sochi. Everyone is invited to the Olympics except for the indigenous people.

  13.Archeological sites dating back to 10,000 BCE are being destroyed for Olympic venues, without any regard for their historical value.

  14.It is immoral to hold an Olympics that promotes peace and international cooperation through sport in a hypocritical country like Russia. They have recognized the genocides committed against other peoples, but Russia continues to ignore the genocide they committed against Circassians.



Сочинская Олимпиада 2014 года предполагается в год круглой даты 150-ти летия со времени совершения Черкесского Геноцида. Выбор Сочи местом зимних Олимпийских Игр в такой многозначительный для русских год, символизирует собой преступное празднование русско-имперского систематического подавления и тотального уничтожения черкесского народа. Строительство Олимпийской деревни в местах массовых захоронений жертв символизирует наглядное отрицание тех зверств.



   1. Черкесский Геноцид не признан Россией до нашего времени, более того он скрывается от цивилизованного мира. Факт его осуществления являл собой сознательную попытку стереть с лица земли коренное население Черкессии. Олимпийские стадионы и деревня строятся поверх массовых захоронений безжалостно убитых черкесов во время геноцида.

   2. Красная Поляна (названная так по-русски из-за количества черкесской крови пролитой в этом месте), планируется в качестве центра Олимпийских Игр 2014 и одновременно местом, где 21 мая 1864 года русские войска отмечали конец войны с черкесами в которой погибло 1.5 миллиона человек, женщин, детей – более 50% всего народа.

   3. Сочи столица Черкессии и один из портов откуда было депортировано под угрозой смерти на чужбину около 1 миллиона из числа выживших в войне черкесов.

   4. Около 90% из сохранившегося до наших дней черкесского населения живет за пределами родины, составляя самую большую в пропорциональном отношении диаспору в мире. Черкесы лишены права возврата на Родину.

   5. Черкесы всего мира объединены в противостоянии идее проведения Олимпиады 2014 в Сочи.

   6. Народ Черкессии по прежнему лишен прав и свобод человека, благ, которые гораздо  более важнее нежели громадные стадионы, золотые медали, празднования Олимпиады.

   7. Премьер-министр России Дмитрий Козак заявил “Больше никаких денег на Кавказ тратиться не будет”. Лучше если Россия потратит миллиарды на строительство стадионов вместо обустройства инфраструктуры и развития экономики на Северном Кавказе. Коренные жители не имеют совершенно никаких финансовых выгод от этого события.

   8. За 4 года до планируемого начала Олимпийских Игр, активные протестанты задержаны, наиболее заметные демонстранты пропали, а местные жители насильственным образом перемещаются без всякого предварительного согласования с ними, будучи лишенными адекватного финансового возмещения.

   9. Территории вокруг Сочи будут подвергнуты тотальной катастрофе экосистемы всего региона. Объекты Сочинской Олимпиады предполагается построить на землях Северо-Кавказского биосферного  заповедника, являющегося охраняемым ЮНЕСКО объектом мирового наследия человечества.
  10. Черкесы лишены тех прав, которые предоставлены этническим русским.

  11. Россия ни разу не признала автохтонности черкесов на территориях Сочи, ни в одном из публичных выступлений ее официальных лиц в отношении Олимпийских Игр. Москва попросту обманывает  мировое сообщетсво относительно истории Сочи.

  12. Черкесы как в пределах России, так и в диаспоре не могут свободно посещать Сочи. Весь мир приглашен на Олимпиаду, кроме коренных жителей.

  13. Места археологических раскопок некоторых из объектов, датируемых 10.000-летней давностью беспощадно уничтожаются, несмотря на их историческую ценность, для сооружения олимпийских трасс.

  14. Безнравственно допускать проведение Олимпийских Игр, призванных пропагандировать мир и международное сотрудничество посредством спорта, в такой лицемерной стране как Россия, признавшей факты совершения геноцида в отношении других народов,  и отрицающей совершенный ею геноцид против черкесов.

21st Century is the last opportunity for Circassians, by Yalçın Karadaş

Yalçın Karadaş | Special to Circassian World - August 18, 2010

Recently, a Circassia is being built on unfounded concepts especially in the virtual environment. The trouble is that, when we ignore the ones whose concern is to mortify everybody and everything, and to produce traitors, the architects of this construction who are able to make smart remarks, sadly, have mostly remained in the 19th century in their minds although they live in the 21st century bodily. Moreover, the training they had has nothing to do with nation and state building.

As for the academics and intellectuals, they are hesitant even to whisper in this verbosity created by people talking through their hat.

Indeed, although it is clear that the concepts of state, nation, country, community, ethnicity, society, tribe, etc the meaning of which change over time don't fit into the context,  the number of people who are concerned about this in the debates is of a limited number.

An ancient nation is being tried to be put together with imported ideas as if possessing the same conditions as people created by history at a different time, on a different geography of the world. They want the same conditions to be available to them; they even assume to be so.

However, they don't seem to understand that the path they have taken to the solution of the main problem has been older than 200 years and the arguments has become as virtual as the virtual environments in which they have been uttered.

They have been conditioned to building a nation-state in 21st century with the definitions, methods and conditions of 19th century. Furthermore, what they are trying to build is an outmoded, mono-lingual, mono-religious and mono-ethnic structure which is the enemy of peoples like us.

In this terrible mistake and anachronism they are intolerant of opposition.

If we are doing things on behalf of the "Circassians" we should take steps after questioning ourselves to be upright, honest and decent like a Circassian. Thus we will be taken seriously. Otherwise, they will not take us seriously.

The world is evolving unbelievably in a hasty age of information. It is no longer the 1800s. Most of the Circassians are not in the Caucasus anymore. They are an "exiled nation" and the majority of them are in Diaspora. Their children are familiar with main and important languages and cultures of the world while they know only a little bit of their mother tongue.

Even the racist Kemalist state of Turkey cannot resist the changes. Civil and military bureaucracies have been learning their place slowly. Turkey is on change and the biggest Circassian community is waiting for this state, which is beset by lies and denials, to change, democratize and demilitarize.  Some of them are trying to contribute to the changes while asking themselves: "Are we being used again?" But, how the government would while their own people do not take them seriously? They don't give up.

Russia is also somewhere in the world. We will see how long it will resist changing. I am one of those who have no doubt it will eventually change. The reality of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are in front of us. We have to be ready, careful and organized within this change; no matter wherever we live.

So what is most needed for this readiness? The answer is obvious: International organization. What we need is to be organized and we, first of all, have to face ourselves to achieve this goal. We have to face, discuss and make our determinations clearly; we have to design our short, medium and long-term policy diligently.

If we want to live as a "Circassian" and if we are dreaming of "Circassia", appropriate actions and discourses should be developed. We cannot maintain that ancient culture with strategies contrary to culture. The very basis of our culture is "respect". Respect for the rights and freedoms of others. Respect for the differences of people who have been or will be living together with Circassians.

The formula for the liberation of the peoples of the Caucasus and all other peoples whose rights are usurped depends on "democracy"; the real democracy.

Just as respect which is the basis of our culture; exactly the same as it is.  For everyone and every identity in every part of the world.

Yalçın Karadaş (K'eref)
Spokesman of the "Circassian Initiative for Democracy"
Member of the Editorial Board of "Jineps" Newspaper
Istanbul, August 2010

Although skillful advertisers lead us to believe otherwise, in today's monetary-based economies, whenever new technology is introduced, the human consequences are of little concern to those introducing the technology - except, of course, as customers. In a monetary-based system, the major concerns of industry are profit, maintaining a competitive edge, and watching the bottom line, rather than the wellbeing of humanity. The social problems that arise from mass unemployment of people, who are rendered obsolete by the infusion of automation, are considered irrelevant, if they are considered at all. Any need that may be met is secondary to acquiring a profit for the business. If the profit is insufficient, the service will be withdrawn. What industry seeks to do is improve the competitive edge to increase the profit margin for their shareholders. It does not serve the interest of a monetary based society to engage in the production of goods and services to enhance the lives of people as a goal. With rising public concern regarding the greenhouse effect, acid rain, polluted air and water, etc. some companies are also beginning to realize that for sustained market presence it is in their best interest to heed social and environmental concerns. While such trends are commendable, they are insufficient as a method of solving the overall problems of waste, environmental degradation and unnecessary human suffering.

The monetary system has been a useful, but interim tool, it came into being as a means of placing a value on scarce objects and labor. The monetary system of course replaced the barter system, which involved direct trading of objects and labor. However, just as there was no universal-bartering standard in the past, there is no global monetary system today. Individuals and groups, now as in the past, however, still need to exchange objects and labor for today's goods and services. The unequal distribution of skills, resources and materials throughout the world necessitates global trade.

Until the last few decades, the monetary system functioned to a degree. The global population of three billion was not over consuming world resources and energy, global warming was not evident, and air and water pollution were only recognized by a relative few. The start of the 21st century however finds global population at an exponentially rising six billion, with resources and energy supplies dwindling, global warming a reality, and pollution evident worldwide. Planet earth is in crises and the majority of world population cannot meet their basic needs because people do not have the means to purchase increasingly expensive resources. Money is now the determinant of people's standard of living rather than the availability of resources.

In a monetary system purchasing power is not related to our capacity to produce goods and services. For example, in a recession there are CD's in store windows and automobiles in car lots, but many people do not have the purchasing power to buy them. The earth is still the same place; it is just the rules of the game that are obsolete and create strife, deprivation, and unnecessary human suffering.

In today's culture of profit, we do not produce goods based on human need. We do not build houses based on population needs. We do not grow food to feed people. Industry's major motivation is profit.

The monetary system is now an impediment to survival rather than a means of facilitating individual existence and growth. This imaginary tool has outlived its usefulness. The limitations on earth's population now caused by the monetary construct can be phased out. It is not money that people need but the access to goods and services. Since humanity requires resources to exist, the replacement system should provide those resources directly to people without the impediment of financial and political interest for their private gain at the expense of the lives and livelihood of the populous. The replacement system is therefor logically a resource-based economy. This global resource based economy would be gradually phased in while the monetary system is phased out.

All of the world's economic systems - socialism, communism, fascism, and even the vaunted free enterprise capitalist system - perpetuate social stratification, elitism, nationalism and racism, primarily based on economic disparity. As long as a social system uses money or barter, people and nations will seek to maintain positions of differential advantage. If they cannot do so by means of commerce they will resort to military intervention.

War represents the supreme failure of nations to resolve their differences. From a strictly pragmatic standpoint it is the most inefficient waste of lives and resources ever conceived by any creature on the planet. This crude and violent way of attempting to resolve international differences has taken on even more ominous overtones with the advent of elaborate computerized thermonuclear delivery systems, deadly diseases and gases, and the threat of sabotage of a nation's computer networks. Despite the desire of nations to achieve peace, they usually lack the knowledge of how to arrive at peaceful solutions.

War is not the only form of violence in the developed and underdeveloped countries that is superimposed upon the populace by inadequate social arrangements. There is also hunger, poverty, and scarcity. As long as there is the use of money, the creation of debt, and economic insecurity these conditions will perpetuate crime, lawlessness, and resentment. Paper proclamations and treaties do not alter conditions of scarcity and insecurity. And nationalism only tends to help propagate the separation of nations and the world's people.

Even the signing of a peace treaty cannot avoid another war if the underlying causes are not addressed. The unworkable aspects of international law tend to freeze things as they are. All of the nations that have conquered land all over the world by force and violence would still retain their positions of territorial and resource advantage. Whether we realize it or not, such agreements only serve as temporary suspensions to conflict.

Attempting to find solutions to the monumental problems within our present society will only serve as temporary patchwork, prolonging an obsolete system.

In this world of constant change it is no longer a question of whether we choose to make the necessary changes; it is now mandatory that we take on this challenge and adopt these new requirements or face the inevitable decay of our present social and economic institution.

This is the dilemma we must face head-on, and the solutions we arrive at must fit the circumstances of the "real-world." There appears to be no other way than to update our outlook and create a newer direction by relegating the old values to past civilizations. Unfortunately, this may not be accomplished prior to the point of no return in the global economy.

REFLECTIONS ON THE CAUCASUS
21  May 1864 - 2010


ANNSI KULLBERG
FINLAND

The occasion of the Circassian Memorial Day on 21 May brings to our minds some of the worst experiences of modern history. It is particularly important to remember the events known as the Circassian genocide in the latter half of the nineteenth century,  because they were fully comparable, both in numbers and in proportions, to the catastrophes that later faced the Armenians and the European Jews, even though only the latter two remain widely known to the  public. Several other nations, who similarly to the Circassians fell victim to the unscrupulous imperial policies, hold memorial days of their respective genocides or atrocities, such as the Chechens in February, the Armenians in April and the Assyrians in August.

Each one of these memorial days refers to similar disturbing developments due to the imperial policies that were endorsed since the late eighteenth century. The Jewish Holocaust is probably the best known example of the consequences that resulted from such policies. However, most of the other devastating events belonging to the same historical series of crimes took place on all the four sides of the Black Sea.

It could probably be said that the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula marked the beginning of a new kind of ethnic cleansing in Europe, with the expulsion and killing of Muslims and Jews in the fifteenth century. This was followed in the seventeenth century by the expulsion and killing of the Moriscos, former Muslims who had at least nominally converted to Christianity. Keeping the Iberian precedents in mind, the era of "modern" genocide in western Eurasia seem to have started on the other side of Europe, during Catherine II's reign, with the conquest of the Crimea by the Russian Empire in 1783. Long before that the Ottoman Empire, Russia's southern rival, had already turned the Crimean Khanate into their vassal, but the Crimean Tatars had not been subjected to forceful Turkification or ethnic cleansing as a result.

When the Russian tsarina's armies took over the Crimea, the Tatars still constituted 98 per cent of the population on the peninsula. Within days from the formal annexation of the Crimea to the Russian Empire – in late April 1783 – thousands of Crimean Tatar intellectuals, noblemen, officers and clerics were arrested, gathered to Karasubazar and executed. The banishment of the Crimean Tatar elite launched a period of systematic policy that aimed at complete destruction of the state structures of the Crimean Khanate as well as the Tatar society and culture. The act was similar in character and intention to the Katyn massacres of 22,000 members of the Polish elite by the Soviet Union in 1940.

The 1830s witnessed systematic and organized campaigns of confiscating and burning Crimean Tatar literature, books and manuscripts. More than 900 mosques and schools were abolished. As many as 75 per cent of the Crimean Tatars fled to the territories of the Ottoman Empire during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. The first half of the nineteenth century also saw the Russian conquest of the Caucasus.

At the time of the Crimean conquest, the prevalence of religious notions over national ones may have contributed to the fact that most Crimean Tatars opted for exile in Ottoman territories rather than large-scale resistance. However, this was not the case with the North Caucasians, who put up a fierce resistance against the invading Russians. Campaigns of terror and genocide as well as fierce resistance took place in Chechnya and Dagestan, where it continued until the capture of the most legendary leader of this resistance, Imam Shamil in 1859.

In 1860, the Russian Empire launched similar policies against Circassians to the west of the Chechens and Dagestanis. Prior to their persecution, the Circassian peoples inhabited and ruled the entire eastern coast of the Black Sea; from the Taman Peninsula to Abkhazia, in addition to the inland areas that extended east to the princedom of Kabarda.

The Circassians, who were fortified in their capital Sochi, appealed to Turkey and the Western powers for protection, but apart from symbolic gestures and references in literature, their appeals were ignored. Hundreds of thousands of Circassians had to flee from the conquered areas to the Ottoman Empire. Many settled in the area of current Turkey, forming a sizeable diaspora there, while others ended up far around the empire, in the Middle East, Iraq, Egypt and the Balkans.

In 1862, the campaign against Circassian populations included use of the notorious "fire and sword" tactics, something similar to what would later be known as "torched earth." Cavalry units and Cossacks were used to ravage the area, destroying villages, massacring, raping and looting, burning fields, granaries and gardens. Hundreds of thousands of Circassians perished as a result of famine, whilst others died on their desperate trails over the mountains into Turkey.

Russia finally crushed the Circassian resistance on May 1864, although it would still re-emerge many times over the following century, often in tandem with their eastern brethren the Chechens. Within four years, 1860—1864, an estimated one and half million Circassians were killed and around one million ended up in exile, mostly in the territories of the Ottoman Empire. (Exact numbers, as in the case of most atrocities in the region, remain disputed.)

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, similar purges that the Russian Empire had launched in the Crimea and the North Caucasus became increasingly common also in the south of this region in the eastern territories of the Ottoman Empire; increasingly nationalist Turkey launched pogroms and atrocities against the Christian populations of Anatolia, including Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. Many of the Anatolian Christians were perceived as tools of Russian policies against Turkey, but similar to what happened in the Russian Empire, innocent civilians were branded and targeted, which led to devastating results.

Turks as well as other Muslims of the Balkans and the Caucasus were targeted, too, with hundreds of thousands killed or expelled. When many embittered populations ended up in exile, there were cases where the refugees, in turn, targeted minorities perceived as linked with their enemy, causing chain reactions of revenge. Over the same period Europe also saw the emergence of pogroms against Jews. All this formed a continuous trend over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reaching its peak in the industrialization of genocide by the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

Several factions on many sides committed crimes against other populations over this period. Entire nationalities, in areas where Christians and Muslims had previously coexisted for centuries, suddenly became victim to imperial rivalries. It was certainly not necessary to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people murdered and expelled for the sake of the general political and military circumstances that have often been used to justify previous atrocities. The great powers that took part in these imperial rivalries bear the biggest responsibility.

Those particular leaders, who were directly responsible for giving the orders that led to genocides around the Black Sea, the Caucasus and Anatolia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are no longer alive and cannot be brought to justice, and neither can the individuals who executed their orders. The same is true for the persons responsible for Nazi and Stalinist crimes. The fact that these people are dead should make it even less excusable for current leaders to avoid remembering and acknowledging the crimes that took place in the past, for which they cannot be blamed. Memory is part of human dignity. Therefore, remembering past injustices should not be seen as revenge or conspiracy against the states whose precursors were responsible for so much destruction. History deserves to be known to all.

Yet it raises concern if the issue of acknowledging historical truth is subjected to polling by foreign parliaments, since politicians would vote with limited or biased knowledge, and their vote would in many cases be based on motives qu ite different from historical facts. Many would vote from the platform of religious bigotry or great power rivalry. Therefore, such politicization of historical atrocities could open wounds rather than heal them, and repeat the policies that once led to these crimes rather than serve to prevent them from being repeated.

The least that states and political leaders today should do in respect to recognizing past crimes is to refrain from similar policies. Unfortunately, pogroms, ethnic cleansings and genocidal tendencies are still present in the conflicts of the twenty-first century, resulting in millions of refugees and internally displaced people. What happened to so many populations in the past also does not excuse them, or the states and leaders speaking on their behalf, from waging similar crimes against civilian populations today. National hatred is a dangerous double-edged sword, and therefore when generations change, reconciliation should prevail over revenge. Anssi KULLBERG, Analyst and co-founder of the Research Group for Conflicts and Terrorism in Turku, FINLAND. The article represents the author's opinions and does not necessarily reflect those of his current or former employers.


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ANTERO LEITZINGER
FINLAND

The Circassian genocide is certainly one of the least remembered genocides in world history. Of course it can not be called completely forgotten, as we would, logically, not be able to recall such a genocide in the first place. It is a universal tragedy, that nations get destroyed or diminished and dispersed throughout history, for various reasons and often with gravest injustice. So, is there something special in the fate of the Circassians, and can it be compared with the better-known repeated massacres of Armenians in 19th and early 20th century, with the pogroms and Holocaust of Jews, or with the erasing of several nations by Stalin?

In all fairness, we should avoid the temptation of a genocide rivalry. Nor should we spend too much energy for body counts or formal recognitions by political entities. Premeditated mass murder or reckless deportations of populations based purely on their nationality, regardless of sex and age or military considerations, is a crime against humanity no matter how long ago it was committed and how many families it affected.

The Circassians were a link in a chain reaction or vicious cycle of genocides around the Black Sea, maybe already starting from the mythical Troian War, but certainly during a century launched by the Crimean War. Their fate was not unique, but to acknowledge this and the historical connections between nations and tragedies in a wider region, does not in any way belittle the sufferings of individual Circassians or make them collectively less important as a study object. Actually, the way Circassians always interacted with neighbouring nations linguistically, religiously, politically, and culturally, stresses the need to understand their role in a broader context, as victims of a long-term homicidal strategy of political expansion.

Time should heal but not erase memories. Descendants of the victims in the 1860s should continue to cherish the memories of their ancestors, but also learn from their experience and teach solidarity between nations in similar circumstances. Instead of just bitterness and exclusivity, Circassians have a history of survival and interaction that deserves some merit. Already before the Crimean War, they had appealed for international recognition of their right to self-determination, and for European intervention. So did the Poles and Hungarians around the same time. Today, many other nations - Chechens, Uyghurs, Tibetans, etc. - may face the risk of (sometimes slower but nevertheless equally tragic) annihilation, and Circassian studies should be of interest for all of them. That way, Circassians of the 1860s did not fight and die in vain, but their example might still save lives by raising important issues of ethics, touching the conscience of distant people, and paving the way for a better understanding and handling of the root causes of genocidal politics.

In a way, reflecting the words of President John F. Kennedy on the Berlin Wall almost half a century ago, we are all Circassians. Antero LEITZINGER. Political historian and researcher for the Finnish Immigration Service. He is the author of "Caucasus—An Unholy Alliance." He is a history researcher on topics from Russia to Islam. FINLAND.