Circassians Should Create a Worldwide Parliament to Improve Cooperation among Themselves and with Other Groups, Circassian Activist Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 23 -- Marianne Sheru, a representative of the US-based Cherkess Center, called on Circassians around the world to create a World Circassian Parliament in order to improve cooperation among themselves, raise their profile internationally, and improve cooperation with other nations and governments.  
    The activist proposed that at a meeting of the International Council of Independent Circassia (ICIC) in Istnabul (facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid033ZSi2EBvroCUDayLvxRh11NuyraeD4ZqN9C5zetNBr4Wkk3FA7epuZvsKjXMNV2Zl&id=100081589465202).
    She suggested that such a parliament should come into existence following the creation first of a coordination council of Circassian organizations and activists and then the convention of a new world congress of Circassians so that members of that nation will not only remember their past but take the necessary steps to build their future.
    Three aspects of Sheru’s proposals are worth noting. First, what she suggests is an obvious way to help overcome the attacks on the Circassians that Moscow has launched so as to keep them divided and thus less influential both in the homeland and diaspora and among other nations.
    Second, it represents a new effort by Circassians to reach out to others in the course of their effort to seek independence for their nation, a reaching out that indicates the Circassians more than many other groups views cooperation with others as a guarantee of success in that effort.
    And third – and this is especially important – it brings the often-divided Circassians into line with Russian deputies and a series of non-Russian émigré organizations in forming umbrella groups like a congress in the first instance and governments in exile in the second that may represent the next phase of the drive for independence by such groups.