The international conference "The Caucasian War of the XIX century: Realpolitik and memory wars" held in Ankara has circulated the closing statement of the conference participants. "Academics, experts, media and non-governmental organizations of Russia, Turkey and South Caucasus countries welcome the establishment of a new scientific and expert platform for studying the history of the Caucasus region in the XIX century," the statement reads.
The statement underlined that in the history of the peoples of the Caucasus the XIX century has become one of the "long centuries" of the transition from tradition to modernity, and from an independent existence to integration into the Russian Empire. It began in the XVIII century and ended in the XX century," the document reads. The Caucasian War is one of the stages in the historical interaction between Russia and the peoples of the Caucasus, which had begun much earlier and continues to this day. Caucasus became a challenge for the Russian Empire, not only politically but also culturally. It was in the XIX century that it established itself as a Caucasian state, spreading the bonds of citizenship and new cultural practices to an alien environment which was gradually becoming familiar."
The final statement of the conference notes that the very same events of the Caucasian War inevitably acquired different meanings at different times, the same way as key events may differ in different interpretations of the past.
