From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 12/14/2005 12:23 AM
CIRCASSIA
Date of admittance:
13 April 1994
Geographical Features:
Circassia designates the homeland of the Circassians (see also “population”), which is the Northwestern part of the Caucasus. Historically the Circassians lived along the shores of the black sea in the west up to the Kuban river in the North, the Ingur river (the southern border of Abkhazia) in the south and the Terek River in the east. Their number was reduced after the Russian conquest of the Northwest Caucasus in the 1860’s, when hundreds of thousands of Circassians were forced to flee to the Ottoman Empire. Several millions of Circassians are still living in different areas in the Middle East, mainly in Turkey, but also in Jordan, Syria and Israel. At present in the North Caucasus the Circassians are living mainly in three small republics in the northern Caucasus: Adyghea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia and some in the Krasnodar region without autonomy. The vast majority of Circassians live outside the Russian Federation: more than 2 million live in Turkey and about 100,000 in Jordan, Syria, Israel, the United States and Europe.
The areas of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria are 7,600 sq km2 14,200 km2 and 12,500 km2 respectively. The capitals are Maykop, Cherkessk and Nalchik respectively.
Population:
“Circassians” is a Western term derived from the Turkic Cherkess . In general this is applied to the peoples who designate themselves as Adyghes, Cherkess and Kabardins. Within these groups there are again different tribes. Adyghes, Cherkess and Kabardins are closely related culturally and linguistically. Therefore outside of the Caucasus they designate themselves as Cherkess . In the Northwestern Caucasus the Circassians live mainly in three autonomous republics of the Russian Federation: Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria. Except in the last one in the others they form a minority, see Table 1.
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Table 1. Republics — Population — Ethnic groups
Adygea — 447,000 — Russians: 68%, Adyghes: 22%
Karachaievo-Cherkessia — 439,700 — Karachai: 38%, Russians: 37%, Cherkess: 10%, Abaza: 7%, Nogai: 3%
Kabardino-Balkaria — 900,500 — Kabardins: 48%, Russians: 32%, Balkars: 9%
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There are an estimated 3.5 million descendants of emigrants from the North Caucasus living outside the Caucasus, mainly in Turkey (circa 2 million) and in the Middle East (Syria 80,000 and Jordan 90,000) but also in Europe (amongst others Holland and Germany) and the USA. .More than three million of them are Circassians whose forebears were forced to leave the Caucasus in the 19th century at the end of the Caucasian wars. At present the size of the Circassian diaspora far exceeds the number who still live in the North Caucasus.
Language and ethnicity:
The Circassians speak a North-Caucasian language, which can be divided into five different dialects. Two of them are the West Circassian or Adyghe, mainly spoken by the Circassians in Adygea, and the East Circassian or Kabardian, mainly spoken by the Circassians in Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria. The Karachay and Balkars speak a Turkic language. The official languages of Adygea are Russian and Adyghe, the official language of Karachay-Cherkessia is Russian, the official languages of Kabardino-Balkaria are Russian, Kabardian and Balkar.
Religion:
At present Circassians in general belong to Sunnite Islam of the Hanafid kind. From the 5th century onwards, from Byzantium and Georgia Christianity slowly spread in the Northern Caucasus, first in the coastal region, later also more inland (in the 6th century to the Adyghes, in the 10th-12th century to the Cherkess) . The influence of Christianity was limited, though. Most people kept their traditional pagan religion, although Christianity and traditional beliefs often got mixed. Islam started to spread slowly among the Circassians around the 15th century, largely due to the efforts of the Crimean and Nogai preachers. Some mountain tribes became Moslems by the beginning of the 19th century. However, as was the case with Christianity, the majority of the population preferred old pagan beliefs to the new religion. Islam became firmly established only in the second half of the 19th century, during and after the Caucasus war. Nevertheless, the pre-Islam beliefs continue to coexist with the Moslem traditions.
Political system:
Adygea, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria are all three autonomous republics in the Russian Federation, which means that they are nominally autonomous with supposed the right to secede. Each has its own constitution, president and parliament. Constitutionally the republics are represented by the federal government in international affairs.
At present the President of Adygea is Khazrat Medzhidovich Sovmen, who was elected in the beginning of 2002, succeeding Aslan Dzharimov. There is also a directly elected National Assembly (Khase), which comprises the Council of Representatives and the Council of the Republic. Both Councils are elected every five years and have 27 deputies each. The Prime Minister of Adygea is appointed by the President with the consent of the National Assembly. As of 2005, the Prime Minister of Adygea is Hazret Yunusovich Huade. The republic sends three representatives to the parliament of the Russian Federation; one to the Duma and the other two to the Federation Council. The republic’s Constitution was adopted on May 14, 1995.
As of 2004, the president of Karachay-Cherkessia is Mustafa Azret-Aliyevich Batdyyev.
As of 2004, the president of Kabardino-Balkaria is Valery Mukhamedovich Kokov.
Organisation:
The International Circassian Association became a member of UNPO in 1994, in order to stand up for the interests of the Circassian people living within and outside the homeland with non-violent means. The aim of the International Circassian Association is to unite Circassians spiritually, politically and to preserve the ethnic unity of Circassians. It wants the Russian Federation to acknowledge the genocide against the Circassians, to recognize the status of exiled people, and to undertake efforts to let them return to their homeland and maintain dual citizenship (in their present country of residence and in Russia). The Turkish government has made promises to change its minority policy. However, so far there have been no changes to it.
Economy:
In Adygea agriculture is the chief occupation. Wheat, corn, and rice are the leading food crops. Cattle raising is the predominant farm industry. Forests cover almost 40% of the territory of the republic and support a lumber industry. The Maykop region has oil and natural gas deposits. Oil refining, food processing, furniture making, woodworking, pulp and paper, heavy engineering, metal-working and building materials are leading industries.
The Karachay-Cherkess republic consists of lowland steppe in the north and the Caucasian foothills in the south. Livestock raising (cattle and sheep), mining (coals, zinc, lead, copper) and irrigated agriculture (grains, corn, sugar beets, fruits, vegetables and winegrowing) are the most important means of existence. There is also a large industrial sector (chemical industry, wood processing, building materials, foodstuffs, and machinery). Industry is mostly concentrated in the capital of the republic, Cherkessk. Chemical and food industries are the most developed.
The economy of Kabardino-Balkaria is based on mining and livestock raising (mainly in the Balkar south), and irrigated agriculture (mainly in the Kabardin north). The industry of the republic is concentrated in the capital and covers processing of agricultural products, ores and wood.
History:
Historically, until the Russian conquest, the Western Circassians lived in free tribal societies whereas the Eastern Circassians (mainly the modern day Kabardians) fashioned a highly stratified aristocratic society. The north-western region of the Caucasus remained fairly autonomous until the 12th and 13th centuries, when Georgian princes succeeded in reducing it to the condition of a province. In 1234 the Caucasus region was overrun by Mongol hordes, and the region soon passed under the rule of the Crimean Tatars. By the mid-16th century Russia, for the first time in its expansion southward, reached the north central Caucasus, but remained unable to conquer the northern Caucasus. From 1763 onwards the Russian Tzarist regime intensified its effort to conquer the North-Western Caucasus. As all the other North Caucasian peoples the Circassians fiercely fought the Russian Army but were defeated and decimated by it in 1864. They came under Russian rule and their social tribal structure was destroyed. As a result of the Russian conquest, the overwhelming majority of the Circassians, around 1.200.0000, were forced to flee to the Ottoman lands of whom around 800.000 survived the tragic exodus. Their descendants today comprise a sizeable Circassian Diaspora in Turkey and the Middle East.
The Karachay and Balkars, who speak a Turkic language and can also be seen as one people took also part in the struggle against the Russian invasion and accordingly suffered from the consequences of the final defeat in 1864.
The Circassians who had remained in the North Caucasus participated, with the other North Caucasian peoples, in the short-lived independent state of Mountaineers Republic of the North Caucasus formed in 1918,which became part of the new Soviet Union and was renamed the Soviet Mountain Republic in 1921. Within a few years the Mountain Republic disintegrated and the Circassians were divided into three categories as the Adyge, the Cherkess and the Kabardians, while the Karachay-Balkars were divided as well.
At various times during the Soviet period the Circassian inhabited lands were placed in the following administrative units:
1) Adygea Autonomous Oblast (AO) within Krasnadar Krai (separated from Cherkess AO, it later became the Republic of Adygea in the Russian Federation)
2) Cherkess Autonomous Oblast within Stavrapol Krai (first separated from then later in 1957 merged with the Karachay AO in Karachaevo-Cherkessia AO that later became the Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia in the Russian Federation)
3) Kabardin Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic (existed between 1944-1957 later included the Balkars after their return from exile to become once again Kabardino-Balkaria Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic within the RSSFR)
4) Shapsough National Ogrug (the Shapsough were a Circassian tribe and this national ogrug was abolished after the World War II.)
During the Second World War the Karachay-Balkars were accused by Stalin of collaboration with the invading German Nazi Armies and for this reason first the Karachays in November 1943 and Balkars in March 1944 were deported, along with the Chechens, Ingush, Volga Germans, Meskhetians, Kalymuks and the Crimean Tartars, to the steppes of Central Asia. Consequently the Karachay National Oblast and the Balkar part of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria was abolished. During the deportations they lost around one third to half of their numbers. Their lands were incorporated into the neighbouring regions. Within a short time the terms Karachay and the Balkar were deleted from Soviet official terminology as though these peoples had never existed. Even after they were eventually allowed in 1957 to return to their homeland, following Khrushchev’s condemnation of Stalin’s actions at the 20th Communist Party Congress in 1956, human suffering and grievances caused by the deportations has never healed. Rehabilitation of their lands, which was sometimes occupied by Circassians has, to this day, remained as a powerful element of the Karachay-Balkar nationalist discourse.
In the Soviet period the imperialistic policy with regard to the original inhabitants of the northern Caucasus became more subtle. The Circassian people, with their own distinctive culture and language, were separated over the three mentioned different territorial and administrative units. They were forced to abandon their native language, in favour of Russian, in a policy intended to lead to assimilation.
Today Circassian nationalist organisations often organise their manifesto around the continuity of the scatteredness of the Circassian population and the demographic disadvantages of the Circassians in the republics they live. Establishing a close relationship with their ethnic kin, the Abkhaz, and supporting them in their “independence” war against Georgia also dominated the nationalist agenda throughout 1992-1994. Mass repatriation of the Diaspora Circassians and the unification of Circassian lands in one single republic within the Russian Federation are the objectives that were being pursued vigorously until recently. Nonetheless, since the beginning of the second half of the last decade the goal of establishing “Greater Circassia” seems to have been replaced by the appreciation that national interests are best served if the Circassians aim at acquiring more autonomy wherever they live. Exception to this is that Adyge nationalist movement is the most powerful and popular in Karachaevo-Cherkessia from which it aims to secede to revive Cherkessian autonomy. As yet it failed to do so.
However, the nationalists were partially successful in achieving some of their goals. Adygea Autonomous Oblast was upgraded to republican status in July 1991 and renamed Republic of Adygea. Also both in Adygea and Kabardino-Balkaria, the republican laws passed that gave the Circassian Diaspora constitutional rights to resettle in these republics. The day May 21st has been designated in both republics as official mourning day for the Circassians who, in the last century, had to flee their homeland.
Since the early 1990s through the transition from Soviet Union to multinational Russian Federation, the Northwest Caucasus has seen an increasing polarisation of these two national groups in the North Caucasus. On more than one occasion a civil war along ethnic lines seemed to be looming in both Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria. After the presidential elections held in the early 1999 in Karachaevo-Cherkessia there have been many street protests, attended by thousands of people, organised by the rival ethnic groups in support of their own candidate.
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