CHAIRMAN KENAN KAPLAN WROTE FOR ATODANGOS.COM

Chairman of the Council of United Circassia, Kenan Kaplan wrote an article for atodangos.com to share his observations for the Lithuania trip and to promote the Circasssian cause in Lithuania. You can find the whole text in English below.

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Freedom Fight of Circassia and Lithuania’s Inspiring History
by Kenan Kaplan, Chairman of the Council of United Circassia, 12.09.2024.

As the Council of United Circassia, we traveled to Lithuania in early September. The purpose of this trip was to apply for recognition of the Circassian Genocide by the Lithuanian Parliament and to meet with policymakers. We met with many policymakers during this trip. In these meetings, where we were met with great interest, we talked about the Circassian Genocide, our Council, which is an NGO engaged in political struggle, our past work, and the political problems of Circassians living in our homeland Circassia and those living in the diaspora. 

First, I think it would be useful to explain who the Circassians are. Circassians, who define themselves as “Adyghe” and are more commonly known by foreigners as “Circassians,” are an ancient and autochthonous people with their own language, unique culture, and traditions who have lived in the North Caucasus for thousands of years. Circassia, the historical homeland of the Circassian nation, which is divided within the borders of three different republics of the Russian Federation today: Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria; covers the entire Black Sea coastline from Crimea to Abkhazia, and the lands extending from the Kuban River in the north to Ossetia, Chechnya and Dagestan in the east. Before the Russian occupation, there were many Circassian settlements in the north of the Kuban River, on the southern banks of the Don River and in the eastern part of the Sea of Azov, which are now completely destroyed.

As a result of the divide-and-rule policy inherited from the Russian Tsardom to the Soviets, the Circassians living in the homeland today were forced to live under three different names (Adygea, Cherkessia, Kabarda).

The Russian-Circassian relations that resulted in the Circassian genocide began during the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1547-1584). With the occupation of Kazan in 1552 and Astrakhan in 1556, the Russian armies that moved south crossed the Caucasus borders. Although the occupations continued step by step from 1567 onwards, it can be said that the process of destruction began in 1700. The Russian Tsardom, which reached the Black Sea for the first time by seizing the Azak Castle in the hands of the Ottoman Empire with the Istanbul Treaty of 1700, started to move towards the Crimean Khanate and Circassian lands from that day onwards, and in the process, the regions that came under the control of the Tsardom and were Russified gradually expanded. The Russian Tsardom established a colonization line by establishing military villages called Stanitsa for the Don and Volga Cossacks, who had been a pain for years, and by distributing them from the lands they occupied. As the occupation of the Caucasus was nearing its end, serfdom, which had lasted for years in Russia, was abolished in 1861. With the abolition of serfdom, the fertile lands of Circassia, cleared of Circassians, began to be distributed to the Russian slaves, who were free but landless and numbered more than ten million.

This land distribution process began with the villages and towns on the Black Sea coastline that were ‘cleared’ of Circassians and extended eastward to the entire Caucasus. Like Crimea, which was occupied and russified in 1783, the entire Black Sea coastline of Circassia would be cleared of Circassians and russified at all costs. Russian colonization ended with the genocide and extermination of the indigenous peoples in Crimea and Circassia and the mass deportation of the remaining.

Before the deportation, Tsarist Russia had settled 14,223 families and approximately 85 thousand people in 111 newly established stanitsas in the region. During this period, a total of 440 thousand Russians and Cossacks were settled in the entire Caucasus, from the mouth of the Don River in the north to the Black Sea in the south, from the Kerch Strait in the west to Kuma on the Caspian coast in the east.

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During this settlement, long-lasting wars were fought with the Circassians in the region, the people were subjected to genocide, and those who survived were forced to take refuge with other tribes and hide in high mountains.

In order for the Circassians to evacuate the Caucasus quickly, military units used violence, women and children were massacred indiscriminately, the villages and fields of the Circassians were burned, and the people were left with no choice but to starve to death or go into exile. In the last major battle that took place on May 21, 1864, at Kbaada on the Sochi ridge, the Circassians were defeated.

The words of Russian historian Berje, who witnessed the miserable state of hundreds of thousands of Circassians who were deported to the Black Sea coast, revealed the reality of 1864: “I will never forget the terrible impression left on me by the 17 thousand mountaineers gathered in the Novorosisk Gulf. The condition of this people, who were almost completely left without food at this harsh time of year, and who were devastated by typhus and smallpox epidemics, was pitiful. What heart would not ache at the sight of a young Circassian woman lying in her torn clothes on a bare field under the sky, her corpse hardened, and the children, one of whom was dying and the other trying to suck milk from her mother’s breast? I have seen many similar scenes…”

Before 1864, while boats and rowboats were prohibited from going from the Ottoman coast to the Russian-occupied Black Sea coast, the Russian Consul in Trabzon immediately began to issue open passports to those who wanted to transport immigrants from the shores of Circassia. Russian colonialism mobilized all means to have a Western Caucasus cleared of Circassians and immediately began to transport all the surviving Circassians.

Russian officer Ivan Drozdov, while describing the devastating march of the Circassians trying to reach Sochi, said: ‘A Circassian convoy of men, women, children, and the elderly, walking like corpses exhausted from hunger and disease, were attacked by hungry dogs and eaten alive…’

It is estimated that 1.5 million Circassians were exiled from Circassia and 500 thousand people lost their lives on the exile route. Ninety percent of the Circassian population was exiled from their homeland, Circassia. Today, it is estimated that approximately 900 thousand Circassians live within the borders of the Russian Federation and 5-9 million Circassians live in the diaspora.

We learned that Lithuania had to cope with the same problems as the Circassians when it was under the Russian Empire between 1795-1918 and under Soviet Russian occupation from World War II to 1990, and that both peoples experienced exactly the same things. We even saw that a struggle called the Forest Brotherhood was exactly the same as our Hakuchs. After the last great war was lost in 1864, a significant number of the survivors took refuge in the forests and continued the struggle. Although records state that the Circassian-Russian wars ended in 1864, it is also known that the Hakuchs carried out significant attacks against the Russian army until 1905.

In addition, it was very inspiring and hopeful for us to learn that Lithuania raised a generation with a native Lithuanian language and national consciousness in just 22 years after gaining independence in 1918. As the Council of United Circassia, we have been fighting for the independence of our homeland Circassia, which has been under Russian occupation for over 160 years. We know very well what we want, what can be achieved, and we believe that Circassian independence is possible. With this belief, we met with politicians in Lithuania. We asked them to support the recognition of the Circassian Genocide and to bring the problems experienced by the Circassians to the agenda of all European countries. We presented the letters we prepared addressing to the President of Lithuania, Mr. Gitanas Nausėda, and the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament, Ms. Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen. All the people we visited were aware of the Russian threat and correctly understood the problems we were experiencing. We saw that they were open to cooperation and talked about possible works to be done together. We want to come back to Lithuania in the near future and develop our relations.

I would like to draw attention to two issues. First, Europe knows very well what Russia is. In the Bucharest Declaration published by OSCE last July, it clearly stated how the indigenous peoples in Russia are oppressed, that they are subjected to severe Russification practices, and that the decolonization (disintegration) of Russia is necessary for sustainable peace. The Vancouver Declaration in 2023 and the recent declarations prepared by the PACE also contain many similar statements. In 2020, with the amendment made to Article 68 of the Russian Constitution, it was accepted that ethnic Russians are different from other nations and discrimination was included in the constitution. Russia withdrew from the The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities last year. Furthermore, the head of the Russian administration is wanted by the ICC for the crime of genocide. Yes, the Western world is aware of the facts about the Russian Federation, which has completely lost its legitimacy, but this awareness is not enough for us Circassians. We, the Circassians, have problems that cannot be solved without the interest and support of the international community, and we wish for these problems to be brought to the agenda of Europe and discussed. Our language is getting closer to extinction every day, both in the diaspora and in our homeland Circassia. An artificial Russian patriotism is being instilled in children and young people starting from primary school. Russia is manipulating the Circassian diaspora institutions and turning them into a cultural representative working on behalf of Russia. Our homeland Circassia is under Russian oppression, our people are being kept poor, and by using this planned poverty, our young people are being forcibly sent to fight on the Ukrainian front. We are very well aware of that: Ukraine is not our enemy. Our real enemy is Russia. We have repeatedly called on the Circassian youth on this issue and asked them to refrain from fighting against Ukraine in the Russian army. Many Circassian youth left the country because they refrained from fighting. 

Secondly; there are many books, articles and visual publications on the Circassian Genocide. However, in order to establish justice and restore the usurped rights of the Circassian Nation, more needs to be done, the national parliaments need to officially recognize the Circassian Genocide and there needs to be effective solidarity with the Circassian Nation. The Circassian Genocide, like all other genocides, is a crime committed not only against the Circassian nation but also against humanity, and we believe that all of humanity must act in solidarity to establish justice.

The Circassian Genocide was recognized by the Georgian Parliament in 2011. As a result of our talks with Ukraine, 17 deputies from the Ukrainian Parliament applied to the Parliament for the recognition of the Circassian Genocide. The bill, which was accepted by the subcommittee, is waiting to be voted on in the plenary session (https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billInfo/Bills/Card/44400). In the upcoming process, we will continue our talks for Lithuania, other Baltic countries, and later all European countries, to recognize the Circassian Genocide.

Finally, I would like to state the following. We, the Circassians, have been fighting for independence for over 260 years. The great war we lost in 1864 was not the end for us. There have always been and will continue to be fighters who continue the struggle in different ways. Today, the Circassians have a diaspora with very different talents and international experience, demanding their political rights more loudly all over the world. We have the human resources to lead the establishment of Circassia and ensure its peaceful governance. However, we know that we cannot move forward in the international system without the support of independent states. Therefore, the political support provided to the Circassian nation is extremely important. I greet the Lithuanian nation with the belief that Circassia will one day become independent. Long live Lithuania!

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https://atodangos.com/cerkesu-laisves-kova-ir-ikvepianti-lietuvos-istorija/