Circassians Press for Kyiv to Recognize Their 1864 Expulsion by Russian Empire as Genocide

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 1 – For Circassians, both the half million left in their North Caucasus homeland and the more than seven million in the diaspora, the Russian Empire’s expulsion of their ancestors at the end of the 101-year-long war there in 1864 remains a central part of their identity, one that they have long sought international recognition.

            That effort gained widespread attention at the time of the Sochi Olympiad, a Putin-orchestrated competition in 2014 that took place on the very site where the Russian state killed so many Circassians and expelled even more. Now, with somewhat less attention so far, the Circassians are pressing Kyiv to recognize those Russian actions as genocide.

            They have five compelling reasons to expect that Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada will go along with them:

·       First, Ukraine has been seeking allies with the non-Russian nations within the current Russian borders to undermine Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine, an effort that is now again taking off (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/kyiv-now-reaching-out-to-circassian.html, newcaucasus.com/nc-other/21734-avraam-shmulevich-priznanie-nezavisimosti-ichkerii-ukrainoj-vazhno-dlya-vseh-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/08/ukraine-set-to-adopt-comprehensive.html).

 

·       Second, the Circassians are the largest non-Russian diaspora and far and away the most active; and if they receive the support of Kyiv in their quest, they will become important spokesman in many countries around the world for Ukraine (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/08/last-steps-may-be-hardest-circassians.html).  

 

·       Third, in contrast to many other nations within the Russian Federation, the Circassians have worked closely with other nations and thus support for them not only gain Kyiv the support of the Circassians but of others as well (caucasusfree.com/events).

 

·       Fourth, Circassian leaders have organized public meetings in Washington, Brussels, Kyiv, and Geneva to press their case, meetings that have been conducted with dignity and in cooperation with others and that have won the support of many Ukrainian parliamentarians; and the Circassians have also met frequently with Verkhovna Rada deputies to make their case (caucasusfree.com/events ).

 

·       And fifth, much of the support Ukraine enjoys around the world is based on its commitment to principle, to the idea that it has the right to exist as a free and independent state. Supporting non-Russians inside Russia is thus a natural extension of that commitment and one that will win it more support not only among the non-Russians but more generally (besacenter.org/circassian-factor-in-the-context-of-the-russian-ukrainian-war/  and holodomormuseum.org.ua/en/anons/public-dialogue-circassian-genocide-the-greatest-crime-of-russian-imperialism-in-the-19th-century/).  

If Circassians do convince Ukraine to recognize Russian actions in 1864 as an act of genocide, that will have three other far-reaching consequences. First of all, other countries are likely to follow: being the first to take any new step is always the most difficult. Second, other nations within Russia will seek similar recognition for similar Russian crimes.

And third, and most important, the Circassians in the first instance and other non-Russians within the Russian Federation in their wake will be energized to fight for their rights, confident just like the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians at the end of Soviet times that they have support from abroad and that they have good prospects to succeed.

That will help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion, but it will also bring closer the day when the world’s last remaining empire will disintegrate and no longer be the breeding ground for even more aggression both against the peoples under its control and the international community as well.