From:  Eagle_wng | Sent: 10/15/2007 4:21 AM |
New York City’s Demonstrations Leaflets Statement The following leaflet statement was distributed on date 4-October-2007, during the Circassians’ New York City’s demonstrations in front of the Russian Consulate Mission, and in front of the United Nations Building, to explain the reason of their demonstrations and to show the atrocities that Circassians suffered as a direct result of the Russian Tsarist invaders, invading and conquering Circassia…  Once upon a time historical Circassia was a great nation of the Caucasus. Prior to the tsarist imperia conquest, Circassia covered an area bigger than 55,000 square kilometers east of the Sea of Azov and south of the River of Kuban – an area almost twice as big as Armenia today. The indigenous people of Circassia were in excess of two million inhabitants, more numerous than the Swedes at the middle of the 18th century. Circassians have a very long history of their ancient land; it was a nation of high cultural and social structure. The Circassians enjoyed strong trading ties already with ancient Greeks, especially with the Athenians. Circassians even participated in the Olympic Games during classical times! The Russian invaded Circassia and a war broke out for over a century, from 1763 to 1864. After the defeat of Imam Shamil in 1859, the Russians were able to concentrate their military forces upon Circassia. This led to a huge massacre and forced deportation of the people. The magnitude of brutality and evilness was unforeseen in human history. The great majority, that was more than 90 percent of the people of Circassian descent, were forced to live in exile. But those who managed to escape were lucky – at least one million Circassians were killed, and the number of victims of this Genocide was probably even more than 1.5 million. Let’s cite the Russian historian Berzhe who was an eye-witness of the deportation in the harbor of Novorossiysk: “The late, inclement and cold time of year, the almost complete absence of means of subsistence and the epidemic of typhus and smallpox raging among them made their situation desperate. And indeed, whose heart would not be touched on seeing , for example, the already stiff corpse of a young Circassian woman lying in rags on the damp ground under the open sky with two infants, one struggling in his death-throes while the other sought to assuage his hunger at his dead mother’s breast? And I saw not a few such scenes.” The Olympic Father, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, would turn over in his grave if he knew about the attempts of present Russian leadership to arrange Olympic Games upon the graveyards of a people who sent their best sons already to the ancient Olympic Games. The Olympic ideals are based upon high principles, i.e. “to contribute to building a peaceful and better world … in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair pay”. Let’s also remind of the “sacred truce” from the first known ancient Games when it was read and stated: “May the world be delivered from crime and killing and freed from the clash of arms.” This is the ugly background of the Russian campaign for Olympic Games in Sochi 2014. |
