Independence is the Basis for Circassian National Survival

Circassia has a confirmed history of more than six thousand years, consistently and positively contributing to the advancement of humanity. The Circassian civilization and culture originated in the northwestern Caucasus and has existed for a long time. In the “3rd millennium BC”[1] Circassia was the cradle of Kuban Culture. The Circassian coast on the Black Sea extended from the Taman Peninsula in the Northwest to Adler in the Southeast, which included cities like Tuapse, Sujuk-Kale and Sochi. The Russian military occupation and annexation after May 1864, aimed at the removal of the map and title of Circassia from the map of the region. The Russian Empire wanted  to take possession of Circassia without the Circassians. They exterminated or displaced the entire population, either to beyond the Kuban River (10% of the population) or to the Ottoman Empire (90% of them).

No doubt that there is an academic and public propaganda and disinformation campaign, deliberately intended to mislead and spread false allegations that would benefit only those who intend to freeze in this situation. These can’t be but demonic acts. The Circassians have always been the subject of malicious propaganda instigated by the same parties who invaded and exterminated them after occupying their homeland. The main intention of the Circassians was and still is to have an access to the active international parties that must know the prospects, dimensions and repercussions of the Circassian Question.

Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne)

The Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne), is one of the main reasons that encouraged the Russian Empire to be able to bully its competitors and thus acquire large areas of the Black Sea shores, together with the Caucasus region, specifically the Circassian coasts and ports. Ironically, whoever does not own, has ceded to those who do not deserve the Black Sea islands, the coast of the Caucasus, which includes Circassia. This was according to a peace treaty signed in 1829 in Adrianople (now Edirne) between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

At the time, the Circassians were engaged in a defensive war during the Russian-Circassian War, which had begun in 1763. However, the Circassians were never part of the Ottoman Empire. They were spontaneously not obliged to any commitment in a treaty to which they are not a party. Thus, they were not consulted about it, knowing that its provisions were unjust. This didn’t alter the underlying fact that they are the rightful indigenous owners of Circassia, hence they kept resisting the newly established Russian outposts along the Circassian Coast and the inner parts of the Circassian homeland.

Books and memoirs have addressed and elaborated on the Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne), informing whom it may concern that it was one of the most horrible breaches in the Caucasus and the Black Sea region. It contributed to the violation and infringement by conspiring against the legitimate rights of the Circassian nation, in addition to other peoples and nations of the Caucasus. That was a barefaced and flawed agreement between two colonial empires in the absence of relevant stakeholders. It was an ugly move committed by the Ottoman Turks and thus the Russian Empire against Circassia and its free people.

Both “the Ottomans and Tsarist Russians bear moral and legal responsibility for the heinous act they committed against peoples and nations whose rights were violated. {Soon after signing the Adrianople treaty, in order not to involve external forces in fighting for the independence of Circassia, the Circassian coasts were blockaded by the Russian Black Sea fleet}. It was intended to allow the Russian Empire to control the strategic sites of the Black Sea.”[2]

The Importance of National Unity

National unity is the outcome of the combined efforts of the people of the same nation, and it is one of the main pillars on which the nation depends. It will be a solid platform for its survival and progress. This is a result of the cohesion of the people’s categories, even if they were dispersed in many geographical areas. Believing in the homeland and determination to restore its usurped rights through a unified platform that is common to all, has always been the basis for belonging and preserving national identity, language and culture. This raises hope for preserving the national constants and thus for excellence in preserving the system of values and customs that are the joint link between all Circassian communities, whether in the homeland or in the diaspora.

The Circassian independence will provide unprecedented support, thus also save the language and culture, due to the fact that the “UNESCO has identified Circassian as one of the languages in the North Caucasus at risk of “completely disappearing in the next few decades” given the already low number of people who speak it in that region, the division of the community, and the absence of the use of Circassian in schools and other public spaces.”[3]

Situation in both Diaspora and Motherland doesn’t promise to preserve national identity, freedom, culture, language, heritage, customs, traditions and values for the long term. With such facts, they will be exposed to the danger of loss and decay. Nevertheless, only the path of independence will be the savior in the long run. Therefore, attention should be focused on this national task.

“Genocide is considered the main issue out of many others of the Circassian Question.” Therefore, emphasizing on this issue is considered substantial to solving others, based on the “Elements of the Crime of Genocide” agreed upon by the “Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court in New York on June 30, 2000,” and the “Explanatory note: The elements of the crime of genocide follows the corresponding provisions of Articles 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998 and Article II of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide of 1948.”[4]

As defined and described in “Article II” of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:

The “genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

In addition to the above, Article III illustrates:

“The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.”[5]

Knowing that the crime of genocide does not fall under the statute of limitations. This is not switching to a different subject; but to confirm and adjust priorities on the applying of related laws and norms.

The importance of national unity lies in establishing a national multi-language Data Bank, which can be extended to establish family and nation DNA. Accordingly, to demand and gain the Circassian freedom and independence, Circassians must demand the following:

• The recognition of the committed genocide,

• To publicly apologize to the Circassian people,

• To pay appropriate compensation,

• To end the occupation,

• The right of return to the homeland in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,[6]

• The right to self-determination has no statute of limitations, according to the international laws and norms.

The following Human Rights Instruments are binding for all parties to comply with. The “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”[7] and the “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,”[8]

The Declaration of independence of Circassia

“After centuries of military alliance, Russia broke the agreement and attacked Circassia. The Circassians fought against Russian conquest for over a century, from 1763 to 1864 —longer than any other people of the Caucasus. Their final defeat in the 1860s led to massacre and forced deportation, mainly across the Black Sea to Turkey.”[9]

In this regard, its appropriate to say that justice is still denied. A prominent academic has said in describing the situation: “Circassia, is a nation denied by Genocide.” The consequences of the Russian-Circassian War were disastrous in all senses. The entire Circassian soil was subdued by a brute military force. Half of the population (2 million) was exterminated. 90% of the second half was deported to the Ottoman Empire, while the other 10% was displaced beyond River Kuban. “The origin of all Circassians is Circassia. Accordingly, the tsarist Russian Empire had intended to destroy the whole country together with eliminating its people.”[10]

The Circassians didn’t trespass the property of others. Even the Circassian independence did not come out of nowhere, but from the fact that Circassia existed in its geographical location in the North-West Caucasus for thousands of years with different names. Its people had an ancient civilization that matched other ancient civilizations. Its people witnessed its civilization with human and cultural dimensions. Rather, it emerged from a homogeneous, defensible and organized society that turned out to be an important factor in the communication of the Circassian nation with ancient nations such as the ancient Greeks, Genoese, Venezians, the Byzantines, and other nations of the Caucasus.

In 1835, during the Russian-Circassian War, the leaders of the Adyghe (Circassian) tribes united، prepared and approved a {Declaration of Independence}, which was then sent to the Royal Courts of Europe and Asia. This act had at the time important implications in international diplomacy. The “Declaration,” was published during the same year in various foreign publications. The text was interpreted by one of the English language publications.

Some excerpts are mentioned herewith from the Declaration of the Circassian Independence:

• “Russia has attempted, whenever it had overpowered any portion of our territory, and in some, it has succeeded, to reduce us to the condition of serfs, to enroll us in its armies, to make us spend our sweat and blood to enrich itself and make us fight its battles, and to enslave others, even our own countrymen and co-religionaries.

• Hatred has, therefore, grown up between us, and bloodshed is unceasing, otherwise we might long ago have submitted to a Muscovite chief.”

• It would be a long and sad story to relate the acts of its cruelty, where its faith is violated.

• Its promises broken; how it has encircled our country on every side;

• they cut us off from the necessaries of life;

• how it has intercepted our commerce;

• how it has caused us to fall under the knife of the hired assassins, who assaulted the last remnants of our ancient houses, and left us without the chiefs we used to obey;

• how it has exterminated whole tribes and villages;

• how it has bought the treacherous agents of the Porte;

• how it has reduced us to poverty, and driven us unto hatred and exasperation against all the world, by the horrors it committed.

• While by its falsehoods, it degraded us in the eyes of the Christian nations of Europe.

• It is by arms, not by words, that a country can be conquered.

• If Russia conquers us, it will not be by arms, but by cutting off our communications, and making use of Turkey and Persia as if they were already its supporters;

• by rendering the sea impassable, as if it were her own; by blockading our coast; by destroying not only our vessels, but those of other states which approach us; by depriving us from obtaining salt, gunpowder, and necessaries of war, which to us are necessaries of life by depriving us of hope.

• But we are independent, we are at war — we are victors.

• The representative of the Emperor, who numbers us in Europe as his slaves, who marks this country as his on the map, has lately opened communications with the Circassians not to offer pardon for rebellion, but to bargain for the retreat of 20,000 men enveloped by our people, and to make arrangements for exchange of prisoners.”[11]

Circassians have never given up hope. They are optimistic about a promising future, and determined to follow the path towards their core goals. They are ultimately in line with human standards based on international laws and norms. This coincides with part of Mandela’s favorite poem, Invictus, by William Ernest Henley:

“It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.”[12]

Conclusion

Situation in both Diaspora and Motherland doesn’t promise to preserve national identity, freedom, culture, language, heritage, customs, traditions and values for the long term. With such facts, they will be exposed to the danger of loss and decay. Nevertheless, only the path of independence will be the savior in the long run. In any case, attention should be focused on this task. The colonial policy imposed by the Russian Empire with iron and fire can only be considered as a scorched earth policy that cannot be easily recovered from, not to mention the extermination of half the population and the forced displacement of the vast majority of the rest, who are still present in dozens of countries. It is no secret that it will not be Circassian capabilities alone that will help in the restoration of freedom, independence and statehood of Circassia. Rather, this must be through cooperation and coordination with other peoples and nations of the North Caucasus, as well as international and regional efforts in accordance with international laws and norms.