Paul Goble’s 42 Windows on Eurasia for Sept. 5 – 10, 2021
War In Caucasus

Մոռացված քաղաքակրթություն / Forgotten civilization

Forgotten genocide

Nothing has been forgotten, no one has forgotten.
Moscow Working to Block Other Countries from Following Georgia and Declaring Expulsion of Circassians a Genocide, Activists Say
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Moscow Working to Block Other Countries from Following Georgia and Declaring Expulsion of Circassians a Genocide, Activists Say
Paul Goble
Staunton, May 20 – Ten years ago today, one day before Circassians around the world mark the anniversary of their expulsion from tsarist Russia in 1864, the Georgian parliament voted unanimously to recognize that event and the repressions in Russia against the Circassians since then as an act of genocide.
At that time, many Circassians hoped that other countries, and especially those like Turkey and Jordan where there are large Circassian diasporas or others like Poland and Ukraine which have long shown an interest in ethnic groups within Russia, would follow Tbilisi. But a decade on, that has not happened, largely because Moscow has worked hard to block it.
Murat Temirov, a Circassian activist, said that the Georgian action had not only an important psychological impact on members of his nation but practical consequences as well because Tbilisi opened a Circassian Center and erected a monument to the losses the Circassians suffered (kavkazr.com/a/31264556.html). Read more
Circassian Genocide Anniversary Must Be Not Only a Day of Remembrance but Also a Day of National Rebirth, Activists Say
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Circassian Genocide Anniversary Must Be Not Only a Day of Remembrance but Also a Day of National Rebirth, Activists Say
Paul Goble
Staunton, May 21 – This year, as they have done for decades, Circassians in their North Caucasus homeland and in the much larger diaspora abroad mark today as the bitter anniversary of the genocidal expulsion of their ancestors from the Caucasus by tsarist forces after the Circassians had resisted the Russian imperial advance for 101 years.
But this year, even though some of the demonstrations were smaller than they have been in the past both because of the pandemic and because of Russian government efforts to limit them both directly and through its ongoing campaign against the Circassian nation, activists were united in their conviction that May 21 must also become a Day of National Rebirth (circassiancenter.org/permalink/126142.html). Read more

Çerkes Soykırımının Tanınmasının Onuncu Yıldönümü /The Tenth Anniversary of Circassian Genocide Recognition
