CIRCASSIA ADIGA

Russia Blocks Circassians Return to Their Homeland

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 20 Issue: 145

By: Izzet Enunlu

September 20, 2023 

In recent months, tensions have been mounting between Moscow and the Circassian diaspora (see EDM, May 19, 23). The Circassian national movement has gained traction in promoting the Circassian language and encouraging a return to its historical homeland in the North Caucasus. Yet, the Kremlin has increasingly sought to block such efforts. Following the February 2023 earthquakes in Turkey, Russian officials denied the Circassians displaced during the disaster a simplified procedure for returning to their homeland and obtaining citizenship (Kavkaz.Realii, May 1). In 1864, the Circassians were forcibly exiled by the Russian Empire, and their lands resettled by other ethnic groups. The Russian Federation has never recognized the exiled population as compatriots and denies their right to return to the North Caucasus. Read more →

Paul Goble’s 50 Windows on Eurasia / August 12, 2023

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Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Last Steps May Be the Hardest: Circassians on Brink of Achieving Independence

Paul Goble

Window on Eurasia

Remarks prepared for the International Conference on Independent Circassia

Istanbul, August 5, 2023 Read more →

Circassia the Day After: Future Circassia

By: Adel Bashqawi

August 2, 2023

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Narcissism and its Impact on the Public Scene

Adel Bashqawi

July 10, 2023

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A Monster Created by the Regime was on the Verge of Overthrowing It

Adel Bashqawi

June 25, 2023

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War in Ukraine Has Changed Circassian Movement, and Moscow Is Worried

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 20 Issue: 101

By: Paul Goble

June 22, 2023

After a brief easing following the Sochi Olympics in 2014, which elevated attention on the Circassian issue to the global level, tensions between Moscow and the Circassians ebbed during the first part of the past decade only to rise again at its end (see EDM, October 5, 2021; May 19, 2022). But any chance that these tensions would ease again were dashed at the end of that decade, with Kyiv, as its fraught relationship with Moscow escalated, expressing increasingly active support for the Circassians and other non-Russian groups (Window on Eurasia, December 9, 2018; April 17, May 30, 2019). And these tensions have exploded again as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expanded invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv’s increasing support for non-Russians within the Russian Federation as allies against Moscow’s mobilization. Read more →