A hearing on "recognizing the genocide of the Chechen and the Cherkess people in Russia" has been recently held in the Georgian parliament's committee on relations with the peoples of the North Caucasus. "VK" reported earlier on the conference "Continuing crime. Caucasus people in between past and future" hosted by Tbilisi. The representatives of Chechen and Cherkess diasporas residing in Russia and Georgia, along with Georgian and foreign specialists, reviewed the issue of recognizing the events of the 19th century in the north-west Caucasus, the exodus of Cherkess (Adygs) to Turkey and also the events of 1944 and 1994-2003 in Chechnya as "the genocide of Chechen and Cherkess people".
The conference organizers, including the well-known US think-tank the Georgetown Foundation and the Georgian State University stressed that the point was not in some specific historical event, but in a tendency peculiar for the Russian statehood represented in different forms - imperial, communist and the current one. After a two-day discussion the participants came to the conclusion that the Russian state has been carrying out a policy of the large-scale suppression of the peoples of the North Caucasus Citing this conclusion, the conference appealed to the Georgian parliament to review this issue at a state level and pass a bill on the recognition of Russia's policy towards the North Caucasus peoples as genocide. In connection with this, the Georgian Olympic committee announced it would boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics, to be held in Russia's Sochi. Several days after the conference, the committee chairman, Nugza Tsiklauri, told VK that a commission on relations with Caucasus peoples will study the conclusions of the conference but it is unlikely that any fast decisions will be made. But the facts speak differently. Saakashvili's close associate, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on defence and security, Givi Targamadze, reportedly told the Georgian ambassador to Egypt that "the decision on the recognition of genocide had in fact already been made".
Following a discussion within the ruling party, a decision was made to raise the issue at an international level first. A source in the ruling party told VK: "If we recognize the genocide of the Cherkess and Chechen people, Armenian will ask us why we don't recognize the genocide against them. I doubt they will be satisfied with the explanation that genocide against Armenians is a matter of the past, while genocide against the Chechen people is continuing". According to a VK source, "Georgia decided to raise the issue in the international arena, hold international conferences, communicate with diasporas in Europe and Asia, and in other words make the issue topical, notwithstanding Russia's efforts to hide the facts and bury the problem. It is really hard to gain a recognition of genocide, as no one wants to spoil relations with Moscow".
Meanwhile professors - Sukhumi University's Bezhan Horava, and Tbilisi University's Merab Chuhua - took part in the commission's session. Horava presented facts giving evidence of "Cherkess genocide in 20th century Russia". He used recently opened public documents of the imperial administration in the Caucasus to make his case, saying they called for ethnic cleansing right after Russia's military campaign in the region.
Professor Chuhua, who has been living in Chechnya for many years, made a report on "Genocide against Chechen people during the military campaign, starting from 1994". Chuhua has been collecting documents and eye-witness testimonies for 15 years. His research will be published in the "White book about Caucasus genocide" in several European languages. It is unlikely that a decision on an official recognition of genocide will be made in the near future.
Georgiii Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for VK.
