Thursday, February 28, 2019

Moscow-Imposed Divisions of Circassians Threaten Survival of Each Part, Khakuasheva Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 27 – Moscow’s division of the Circassian nation into subgroups not only represents a typical divide-and-rule imperial strategy but also puts the language and identity of the subgroups at risk, Marina Khakuasheva says, a fact that other non-Russian nations that the center is seeking to subdivide must recognize as a threat to themselves as well.

            All non-Russians must thus view efforts to divide them in this way as a threat to their continued existence, the Kabardin scholar says, something Moscow has inadvertently signalled by its continuing efforts to block any recognition of subgroups within the ethnic Russian nation (zapravakbr.com/index.php/analitik/1190-khakuasheva-madina-k-probleme-cherkesskikh-etnonimov-2019-god-ob-yavlen-oon-mezhdunarodnym-godom-yazykov-korennykh-narodov). Read more →

الأربعاء، 20 فبراير/شباط 2019

باحثون من الشركس يتولون مهمة الحفاظ على الحرف Щ

بول غوبل (Paul Goble)

ترجمة: عادل بشقوي

24 فبراير/شباط 2019

تحديث: القصة الأصلية ليست حقيقية. أنا ممتن لقارئ يقظ لفت انتباهي الى ذلك. وأنا أعتذر لأنه تم تضليلي أو اني قمت بتضليلكم. في الواقع، لا تخطط موسكو لإسقاط هذه الأحرف. لكن رد الفعل الذي نُسِبَ إلى الشركس يروي شيئًا مهمًا حول حساسية مسألة اللغة بكل تعقيداتها. Read more →

Old Lucy Puffing Ashes

By: Adel Bashqawi

20th of February 2019

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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Circassian Scholars Take Up the Cudgels to Save the Letter Щ

Paul Goble

UPDATE: The original story is not true. I am grateful to an alert reader who called this to my attention. And I regret being misled or misleading others. Moscow in fact isn’t planning to cut these letters out. But the reaction ascribed to the Circassians tells something important about the sensitivity of the language issue in all its complexity. 

            Staunton, February 19 – Olga Vasilyeva, the Russian minister of science and education, five days ago announced that as part of a new orthographic reform, seven letters now part of the Russian alphabet will be dropped as of 2020, a change that not only Russian traditionalists but Circassian linguists oppose. Read more →

Адыгейские лингвисты попросили Минпросвещения не убирать букву «Щ» из русского алфавита

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Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Moscow’s Plans to Divide Up Tatars Now as It Did the Circassians Earlier Must be Opposed, Garifulllin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 18 – In the 1920s, Stalin divided up the Circassians into four major “nations” as part of his effort to block any efforts of that deported nation to restore a single republic, attract back millions of its co-ethnics from abroad, and create a powerful bulwark against Russian control of the Caucasus.

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Friday, February 8, 2019

Circassians Long Divided by Moscow Urged to Reassert National Unity via 2020 Census

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 7 – In order to further weaken the Circassian nation whose ancestors the Russian Empire killed and expelled in an act of genocide in1864, the Soviet system insisted that they were not only people but several and demanded that the Circassians identify not as Circassians but as Adygeys, Kabardins and Cherkess among others. Read more →