By Vestnik Kavkaza
Lately it has become quite obvious that the history of the Adyghs is being politicized, particularly the tragic pages of the final stage of the Caucasian war in the western part of the North Caucasus and the emigration of the Circassians to the Ottoman Empire. This period of their history became an object of political speculation and myth-making when Sochi received its Winter Olympic status for 2014 in 2007. Now, when we know that the opening of the Olympic Games will be held February 7, 2014, in less than two months, and it is already clear that the Games will take place, one can predict that the political component and informational activity around the history of the Adyghs will subside. Powerful media companies and historical speculation on this issue also had a positive effect: they identified the extreme relevance of the analysis of historical, cultural, political and other processes occurring in the Adyghean community in 19th – 20th centuries, on the analysis of which the scientific community should focus its efforts.
Senior researcher of the North Caucasus Research Center of SFU Vladimir Kolosov told VK about the purpose of these processes.
"The Circassians, because of the known events of the mid-19th century, are a divided people, most of whom live in the western part of the North Caucasus and some countries of the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, Jordan , Israel). The Circassians living on the territory of Russia and the Middle East evolved in isolation for a long time under the influence of different cultural paradigms. Analysing the development of the Circassians in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, it is advisable to apply the term of metamorphosis, but the analysis of the processes that occur among the Adyghs in Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries requires a period of transformation,” Kolosov says.
According to him, "For the Circassians who lived successively in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, the conditions were created so that they could develop their language, culture and self-realization in all other areas. In 1922 Adyghea , Kabardino-Balkaria and the Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Region were created, which then received the status of republics. Such favorable conditions for the development of the Adyghs has not existed and does not exist anywhere else in the world; they allowed the Adyghs to steadily develop and implement their personal development program.
At the same time, if in the Ottoman Empire the Adyghean diaspora received more or less favorable conditions, the establishment of a new state - the Republic of Turkey – changed their position. All of their organizations and schools were closed, their organizers and teachers were prosecuted, fourteen villages inhabited by Circassians were subjected to forced relocations, and Adyghean students were kicked out of military schools. According to a 1934 law, the Circassians had to abandon generic names and adopt Turkish names. Of course, over time, things have changed, and now the efforts of community leaders are focused on the revival of culture, languages and ethnic identity. However, the consequences of these actions have been very destructive. The Circassians in Turkey were subjected to strong assimilative pressures for a century. Despite the fact that this is where the largest diaspora is concentrated and amounts to two or three, and according to some data - to five to eight million people, no more than 15-20 % of them speak their native language. In Syria and Jordan, actually, only the older generation speaks this language. In Europe and the United States, where there are no compact Adyghean settlements, the study of the language was purely a family affair. Meanwhile, language is one of the most important factors in the existence and development of a people. If there is no language, there is no people."
According to the historian , "the living conditions of the Adyghs in Russia and Turkey, Syria or Jordan can be endlessly compared, and comparing them very often is not in favour of the above-mentioned foreign countries. For these reasons, as well as because of the escalation of the conflict in Syria, more and more Adyghs are willing to return to their historic homeland. So far they are not that numerous, but I'm sure their number will grow. People from abroad do not know the Russian language, and often even the native one. Born, bred and shaped in a different cultural paradigm, they can get into a difficult situation, and they certainly need adaptation, including a cultural one.”
"The scientific community should focus on the study and analysis of the history of the Circassians living in the North Caucasus and the Middle East. It is necessary to determine how far-reaching the transformation processes among the Adyghs of the Middle East are and to develop measures to adapt them to life in the Russian Federation, to help them quickly and painlessly adapt to the realities of life, to learn their language, to join their culture, to engage in the process of self-sustained development,” Kolosov believes.
