Friday, April 19, 2019

Circassian National Movement Saved and Empowered by the Internet, Kabard Says

Paul Goble

Staunton, April 17 – Moscow might have been able more or less indefinitely to continue its divide-and-rule strategy against the Circassian nation had it not been the Internet, a technology that allowed the members of a community Moscow had artificially divided up into various “nationalities” to come together as one, Andzor Kabard says.

The Kabard activist who lives in New York exile says that even with the upsurge of national feeling at the end of Soviet times, Moscow was keeping the Circassians divided. But it had not counted on the power of the Internet which the Circassians used to raise both their issue at the Sochi Olympics and their national consciousness (opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-calling-yourself-circassian-always-political). Read more →

In Russia, calling yourself Circassian is always political

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بيان بشأن الأحداث المؤسفة بين إنغوشيتا والشيشان

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Statement on the Unfortunate Events between Ingushetia and Chechnya

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Sunday, April 7, 2019

Russia Now at Risk of Losing Crimea, Kaliningrad, Far East and Even Middle Volga, Former Head of KGB Analysis Says

Paul Goble

Staunton, Nikolay Leonov, a KGB lieutenant general who headed that organization’s analysis department from 1973 to 1991, says that he very much fears that Russia is at risk of losing not only Crimea, Kaliningrad and the Far East but even the Middle Volga as a result of ignorance, incautious actions and rapid demographic change.

In the course of a long interview in which he discusses the KGB’s role in the last two decades of Soviet power, the qualities of various Soviet leaders, and the failure of the country’s political leadership to take seriously the warnings his agency issued, Leonov also talks about the situation now (eadaily.com/ru/news/2019/03/29/nikolay-leonov-ya-opasayus-za-sudbu-kryma-kaliningrada-i-primorya). Read more →

Черкесский общественный лидер выступил в поддержку ингушских активистов, задержанных после митингов 

Апрель 09, 2019

Митинг в Магасе, 26 марта 2019 года

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Saturday, April 6, 2019

Circassian Election Successes in Turkey Echo in North Caucasus Homeland

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 6 – Ethnic Circassians won election to numerous city councils in Turkey, with at least one becoming mayor, a set of victories that Circassians in the North Caucasus homeland very much hope will allow Circassians there to lobby effectively on behalf of their co-nationals in both places.

            Circassians in the North Caucasus have always looked to the Circassian community in Turkey not only because it is larger, at least four times as big as the various Circassian nations have been divided into by Moscow in the North Caucasus, but also because it is freer to operate and express its views than those living in Russia. Read more →