Pavel Martynov, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
After the new leader of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, had stated that Georgian athletes would participate in the Sochi Olympics, Moscow began to hope that Tbilisi would stop promotion of “the Circassian issue.” Probably now the number of skeptics who said that Russia couldn’t avoid boycotting of the winter Olympic Games in 2014 will reduce.
The main argument of supporters of the Games boycotting was accusation of Moscow of “genocide” of Circassian people. In recent years the American Circassian Diaspora initiated several protests during which it stated that 150 years ago “genocide” of Adygs took place in the territory of Grand Sochi. In May 2011 the Georgian parliament adopted the resolution which recognized mass murder of Circassians (Adygs) and their exile from the historic motherland during the Russian-Caucasus war to be an act of genocide, according to the UN and The Hague conventions. Thus, the Circassian theme gained a conflict potential.
Even though the process of establishing the general Circassian identity continues (Kabardinians, Adygs, Shapsugs, and Circassians are tried to be united into one mechanism ideologically), the anti-Russian direction pales into insignificance.
Last weekend Nalchik welcomed the ninth congress of the International Circassian Association. Delegates from Moscow, Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, the Krasnodar Territory, North Ossetia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, the US, Israel, and Europe discussed problems of Circassians. The head of Kabardino-Balkaria Arsen Kanokov stated that the association tries to settle priority tasks on preservation of spiritual values, language, traditions of the peoples with tolerance and tact. “We are coming to settlement of basic tasks of national and cultural reviving of the Circassian peoples,” Kanokov thinks.
The participants of the congress of ICA addressed to the top Russian authorities for taking the Circassian Diaspora in Syria under protection and providing their right for volunteer resettlement to Russia.
The authors of the address believe that such a decision will contribute to the growth of international authority of the country, improvement of peace, security and stability in the North Caucasus. The document says that during the conflict in Syria many Circassians were injured, lost their homes and property.
