War of Adygei

While some post-Soviet Russian officials earlier acknowledged that the area Russians call the Kuban was once populated by and ruled over by Circassians, today they, in lock step, refuse to even concede that fact as tensions with Kyiv have heated up over whether that region should belong to Russia or Ukraine.

But Moscow's effort to rewrite history in this case is having exactly the opposite effect the Kremlin intends. It has provoked Circassians both in the North Caucasus and abroad to focus on Moscow's methods and to mobilize to oppose them by speaking out and demanding that their history be recognized and their holidays celebrated. This past Sunday, for example, the Maikop city organization Adyge Khase–Circassian Council issued a declaration pointing out that neither Ukraine nor Russia should be talking about the Kuban as if it had always belonged to one or the other. In fact, the Council pointed out, it was Circassian before the Russians killed or expelled most of their ancestors.

"One should not try to divide the skin of a living 'bear,' " the Council continued. It declared that the Kuban and many other parts of Circassia were emptied of their population "as a result of the genocide of the indigenous population, a genocide already partially recognized, including by the Kabardino-Balkar Republic and the Adygei Republic, which are part of the Russian Federation, as well as by Georgia and the Unrecognized Peoples Organization." It called on Russian officials to end "the falsification of the history of the Kuban, to order the removal of monuments to tsarist generals of the Russian-Caucasus war," and "to not forget about the rights and interests of the Circassians."

Shmulyevich, an Israeli specialist on the Caucasus, points out that "the Zaporozhian Ukrainians and the Circassians have become victims of Moscow's policies." They are in fact "brothers connected by a common origin," and now Ukraine should "support both the return of Circassian lands to their lawful owners and also the construction of a democratic Circassia in which all residents will have equal rights," both Circassians and "the descendants of Ukrainians" who were expelled from there. The latter, he says, should be allowed to "freely return" to this restored state where they will be able to "develop Ukrainian Cossack culture".

But Moscow shows little sign that it might be willing to meet the Circassians even part way. Instead, Russian officials have been doing what they can to interfere with all efforts by Circassians to recall their history and restore their national unity, an effort that is particularly worrisome in the lead-up to that incident, when Circassians around the world—still in the North Caucasus homeland and the more than five million abroad—will mark their anniversary of the Russian expulsion of their nation to the Ottoman Empire.

What Moscow is likely to do later this week is suggested by what it did, when officials in Kabardino-Balkaria interfered with the celebration of the Day of the Circassian National Flag. According to one participant in that celebration, "the powers that be react to such measures with caution […] trying not to show this openly," because the Circassians are recovering their pride and unity and the Russian officials are afraid of triggering clashes that could make Moscow's position in the North Caucasus even worse.

In making plans for future demonstrations, Memorial Day for Victims of the Caucasus War, she said, Circassians will not give the authorities any opening for launching such a policy. Instead, they will work to ensure that a large number of young people take part, something that past events suggest will make officials more cautious in response.

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