Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 5 – The contrast
between the support Russian officials are giving to refugees from Ukraine and
the complete absence of such support for Circassians fleeing from Syria is
leading to the intensification of anti-Russian nationalism among the
Circassians in the North Caucasus, according to Irina Babich.
Babich, a senior scholar at the Moscow
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, says Circassians in the region are
reacting that way because they view this latest set of as the latest example of
“Russian imperial history,” including the expulsion of the Circassians to the
Ottoman Empire in 1864 (kavkazgeoclub.ru/content/adygskiy-vopros-segodnya).
And consequently, she suggests, ordinary
Circassians are thus increasingly receptive to arguments that their ancestors
were victims of genocide, a view Circassian leaders in the diaspora have long
advanced and are now gaining increasing success abroad, most recently in Turkey
and Estonia.
Babich’s comments on this point are
especially important because they came in the course of an interview she gave
to Yana Amelina of the Caucaus Geopolitical Club intended to promote the ideas
that the Circassians are very much divided and that the genocide issue, which
gained international attention in the run-up to the Sochi Olympiad, is fading.
While conceding that “from an ethnic
point of view,” the Circassians have much in common, politically they remain
divided among the republics Stalin created. And this continues at a political
level “despite the enormous desire of some political leaders to unite the
Circassians” and promote demands for “the recognition of the Circassian
genocide.”
Indeed, she says, “the idea of
Circassian unity appeared only in the last decade I connection with the attempt
at ‘political’ discussion of the problem of the genocide of the Circassians.”
But the leaderships of the three republics, Babich continues, “were unable to
unite” the citizens of their republics because of the differences among them.
Many have assumed that Russia will not
face any serious challenges from the Circassians now that the Sochi Games on
which activists placed such hopes have passed and there are no other obvious
occasions for raising the genocide issue in the future, the Moscow ethnographer
suggests.
But “nevertheless,” she says, “the
consequences of Russian activity in the North Caucasus up to now have an impact
on the formation of the cotemporary attitude of the Circassians to Russia.”
That is something Moscow needs to think about and figure out ways to lessen
anti-Russian attitudes among that nation.
It would truly be ironic if
Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and in support of its aggression there end by triggering a growth in the sense of national identity and purpose among the
Circassians and attract additional support to their campaign to gain
international recognition of the fact that Russian actions against the Circassians
151 years ago constituted an act of genocide.
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