Introduction

Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik German Institute for International and Security Affairs Co m ments

The Circassian Question WP Russian Colonial History in the and a Case of “Long-distance Nationalism”

Uwe Halbach S

On 21 May 2014 all over the world marked the 150th anniversary of the expulsion of their ancestors from their North Caucasian homeland. The links between this unresolved legacy of Russian colonial history and President Putin’s prestigious Winter Olympics in Sochi have reinvigorated Circassian activism. While different objectives and methods coexist within the movement, the demand for acknowledge- ment of the wrongs inflicted on their forebears is shared by both the remaining Cir- cassian population in the North Caucasus and (about 700,000) and the world- wide (several million). What challenges does this present for Russia?

Sochi 2014 confronted the world with karia (1992) and (1996) used the the hitherto largely neglected “Circassian term “genocide” in resolutions on historic question”. Although the Olympic city and violence against the Circassians. What they its North Caucasian neighbourhood had were referring to was the deliberate expul- been the Circassians’ historical homeland sion of what was then the largest North until 1864, the host nation neglected to Caucasian nationality, following its 1864 include them in the planning of the Games. defeat in the Russian-Circassian War. This contrasts, for example, with the Cana- dian approach to its indigenous population for the previous Games in Vancouver. When Emergence of a National Movement President Vladimir Putin presented Sochi’s The choice of Sochi reignited a Circassian bid in 2007, his speech to the IOC men- movement that had emerged in the early tioned numerous nations and cultures that 1990s but subsequently lost momentum. had shaped the Caucasian coast The most significant development in the since classical antiquity, but not the Cir- early post-Soviet period occurred between cassians. The first time he spoke of the August 1992 and September 1993, when original inhabitants of the area was shortly the conflict between and Abkhazia before the Games opened, to complain erupted into open warfare. This brought that forces hostile to Russia were exploiting forth a solidarity movement, the Confedera- the “Circassian card”. By contrast, the par- tion of the Peoples of the Caucasus, which mobi- liaments of the republics of Kabardino-Bal- lised large parts of the North Caucasus,

Dr. Uwe Halbach is a Senior Associate in SWP’s Eastern and Eurasia Division. SWP Comments 37 This paper is a product of the EC funded FP7 project “Intra- and Inter-Societal Sources of Instability in the Caucasus and August 2014 EU Opportunities to Respond”. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

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especially the residual Circassian popula- sions in the and the Middle East. tion, to fight against Georgian forces in Although figures for groups of Caucasian Abkhazia, and played no small role in their origin in modern are based on defeat. Hundreds of Circassian volunteers estimates, it is known that there are more joined the fighting. The remaining Cir- people of North Caucasian, especially Cir- cassian population in the North Caucasus cassian and Abkhazian, origin in today’s lives largely in the republics of Adygea Turkey than in their original home regions. (capital: Maykop), Karachay-Cherkessia Although several hundred Circassian (Cherkessk) and Kabardino-Balkaria (Nal- villages can still be found in central and chik). Kabardino-Balkaria has the highest western , as a whole homogenous proportion of Circassians () in diaspora settlements of single Caucasian its population, with 55 percent. During the nationalities in generally dissolved in the post-Soviet phase Circassians in all three course of urbanisation. In the post-Soviet republics competed with representatives period the large Caucasian diaspora came of other nationalities for local political to play a role in ’s relations with and economic resources, for example with Russia and the South Caucasus. When the Turkic Karachays and Balkars and with Abkhazia conflict flared up, organisations ethnic Russians. The 1999 presidential in Turkey called for support and solidarity elections in Karachay-Cherkessia repre- for the struggle of their Abkhaz “brothers” sented an ethno-political watershed, fol- and the volunteer forces from the North lowed by weeks of demonstrations against Caucasus. Later Chechnya became a point the disputed victory of the Karachay can- of reference for Caucasian solidarity groups. didate. Yet another spur for a Circassian The Chechen wars fell in a period of warm- national movement came in 2005, when ing relations between Russia and Turkey the Kremlin announced plans to revoke that saw the two Black Sea powers – which Adygea’s autonomy and merge it into Kras- fought more than a dozen wars in the nodar Krai. The central demands of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – activists are for Circassians in the North growing closer in the fields of business, Caucasus diaspora to be permitted to energy and tourism. This placed narrow return, and for the historical Circassian limits on Ankara’s solidarity with diaspora settlement areas to be amalgamated into groups agitating against Russia. The same a single autonomous territorial unit. also applies to relations with Georgia, which also blossomed in the spheres of commerce and tourism. The Diaspora Circassian diaspora groups are also of The mobilisation that began in 2007 some relevance in Middle Eastern states reached well beyond the North Caucasus, and societies. Up to 100,000 North Cau- into the worldwide diaspora in which 90 casians are estimated to live in , percent of Circassians live today. The largest largely Circassians, but also Chechens and community is in Turkey, as the successor to others. Here the Circassian minority is the to which most of the especially strongly rooted in government, Circassian deportees were sent. In Turkish, business and the military and close to the “Çerkes” is often used to describe all groups royal family. The Circassian community in with Caucasian roots in modern Turkey, , which also numbers about 100,000, amounting to a figure of several million. is currently endangered by the civil war. As far as Circassians in the stricter sense Circassians in occupy a special his- are concerned, the Ottoman authorities re- torical position. They arrived there not settled the deportees of 1864 among Arme- through deportation from Russia in the nians and other minorities in western and nineteenth century, but as , a central Anatolia and in Ottoman posses- military caste that played a leading role

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in Egypt from the fourteenth century. The policy. After annexing the Crimea, the Circassian community in comprises Kremlin offered all citizens of the former only about 3,500 members, but stands out Soviet Union Russian citizenship as long for its homogenous settlements and preser- as they were able to speak Russian. The vation of the native tongue. The younger language restriction naturally excludes generation of the Western diaspora (for diaspora Circassians. At the same time, example in the United States and Germany), Russian-speakers from eastern on the other hand, generally no longer are currently being resettled in the North speaks Circassian. Islam has not to date Caucasus, despite concerns about the secu- been central to national identity, though rity situation there. young Circassians in the North Caucasus, like their peers in other Muslim nationali- ties there, have come under the influence International Networking of radical Islamist networks. In Kabardino- The first International Circassian Congress was Balkaria, for example, the group Yarmouk held in Nalchik in May 1991. It set up the has emerged as a jihadist formation. It is International Circassian Association (ICA), whose the memory of the 1864 deportations that elected members represent Circassian com- is central to Circassian identity. munities in the three north-west Caucasian republics and the diaspora. They comprise numerous organisations from Turkey, Return to the Homeland? Russia and other countries, including Cir- In the early 1990s Russian Caucasian cassian councils (Adyghe khase) from the three republics with residual Circassian popula- North Caucasian republics, from Krasnodar tions established ties to the diaspora and Krai, from Moscow and from Abkhazia, supported returnee programmes. But aside charities from Turkey, the Middle East, from a few thousand returnees the contact California and New Jersey, and a Tscher- remained largely restricted to tourism by kessische Kulturverein (Circassian Cultural diaspora Circassians in the historic home- Association) from Germany. land. Nor was a broader returnee move- The ICA sees its main task as coordinat- ment to be expected, given that Circassian ing cultural relations between Circassian immigrants in many places have been communities across the world. It has, how- relatively well integrated for several gen- ever, not pursued that goal with great erations. The current exception is Syria, vigour. Its offices are staffed largely with where the escalating civil war represents members of the bureaucratic elites of the an acute threat to ethnic and confessional three Caucasian republics, who were con- minorities. Circassian organisations world- cerned to avoid confrontation with Moscow wide are now calling upon Russia, which and practically failed to respond to Russian in 1999 gave refuge to Circassian families repression against activists who raised the from the war zone in Kosovo, to accept “Circassian question” in connection with Syrian Circassian “returnees”. While several Sochi 2014. Such activists increasingly hundred have already arrived in Maykop organise in small autonomous groups out- and Nalchik, Moscow is generally wary of side the ICA, which also missed the tran- returnee movements of non-Russian nation- sition to the internet age and for a long alities in the North Caucasus. The Russian time did not even have its own website. leadership has no interest in immigration increasing the Caucasian population in the region, after most of the ethnic Russians Shifting Relations with Abkhazia left during the course of the past twenty and Georgia years. The Ukraine crisis has heightened In 1992 Circassians joined other North contradictions in Russian immigration Caucasian nationalities to fight with the

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Abkhaz, their ethnic kin in the South in their ethnic roots among young people Caucasus, against Georgia. But allegiances of Circassian origin does represent a chal- shifted after the Russo-Georgian Five-Day lenge for Russia. Moscow finds itself con- War of 2008. Under President Mikheil fronted with an unresolved chapter of its Saakashvili, Georgia pursued an anti- colonial history – during a phase where Russian North Caucasus policy, one of President Putin is cultivating a patriotism whose central elements was to stir up the that leaves little space for self-critical his- Circassian question in connection with torical reflection. Sochi 2014. In May 2011 the Georgian par- liament passed a resolution recognising the “genocide of the against the Circassian people”. Tbilisi was thus able to drive a wedge between and Circassians, who had both once suffered

© Stiftung Wissenschaft und so-called ethnic cleansing under Russian Politik, 2014 colonialism. Its great dependency on Russia All rights reserved in its conflict with Georgia meant that Ab- These Comments reflect khazia was, to the frustration of its former solely the author’s views. ally, unable to join these recognition moves. SWP The new Georgian government in 2012 Stiftung Wissenschaft und adopted a more pragmatic line towards Politik German Institute for Russia and thus also North Caucasus and International and refrained from boycotting the Olympic Security Affairs Games in Sochi. But its underlying stance Ludwigkirchplatz 3­4 on the Circassian question remained un- 10719 Berlin changed. In the aftermath of the 2014 Telephone +49 30 880 07-0 Fax +49 30 880 07-100 Crimea crisis, some political forces in www.swp-berlin.org Ukraine are now calling for Russian colo- [email protected] nial policy towards the Circassians to be ISSN 1861-1761 officially condemned as “genocide”. Translation by Meredith Dale

(English version of SWP-Aktuell 50/2014) Outlook Today there are few veterans from the time of the Abkhazia war left among the ranks of Circassian activists. A new generation aged between 18 and 28 communicates via the internet and is networked with Circassian communities across the world. They pro- vide an example of the phenomenon for which the American political scientist Benedict Anderson coined the term “long- distance nationalism”, which has already been identified in the Armenian and other diaspora communities. Although the Cir- cassian case has not produced a coherent, militant or overtly returnee-driven national movement liable to burden the problem- laden North Caucasus with yet more poten- tially violent conflict, the revival of interest

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