Dimensions of Russian Duma’s Reply on Circassians’ Return
to Motherland
By: Adel Bashqawi.
29, January, 2013.
The intensification of battles between the parties of the
war that is going on in Syria since two years ago is clearly seen and had
affected all walks of life and all segments of the Syrian people, the
Circassians living in Syria who were expelled from their original homeland in
the North Caucasus in the second half of the nineteenth century, have been
exposed to the implications of the intensification of the battles and its
extension to the areas of their residence as well as to all parts of Syria, and
the exposure to the risk of killing, displacement and exhaustion of citizens’
capabilities in the midst of the lack of
possibility to reach results that would lead to end up the armed conflict
between the parties in the foreseeable future. In order to solve any problem,
it must be specified what its nature, to analyze its tensioned status, and then
seek solutions and alternatives that provide an expanse of hope.
With the growing desire of Syrian Circassians and the urgent
requirement for their return to their ancestors (http://rt.com/news/syrian-refugees-russia-kevorkova-751/)
homeland in these difficult circumstances, as a result of their human
suffering, the urgent need to move to a safe haven to shield them from the evil
of civil war hell going on nowadays in Syria, and its negative effects on
decent living at present and future, and taking into account all the
expectations that a dark future awaits them and their children, serious attempts
of the Circassians living in Syria have emerged, to move from the existing
battlefield.
Several hundreds of them have managed to be displaced and have
reached the cities of Nalchik and Maykop, however, everybody was surprised by
the decision of the Russian authorities to stop granting visas for families to travel
back to homeland, and the situation seemed to be in crisis, with provoking
excitement and suspicion, especially since the official Russian decision that came
at a critical time, which did not give those stranded amid raging armed
conflict any more time or a reasonable space to move due to the limited
options.
The freedom of Circassians to return to their homeland until
the end of the twentieth century was impeded by the Soviet State’s stringent
laws, and the presence of the Iron Curtain in the real tyrant sense of the term,
as this curtain continued which was founded and sustained by the Soviet Union
since the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1990, by
the collapse of the Soviet Union. As soon as the conditions began to shift as a
result of the enforcement of laws relating to human rights and the rights of
indigenous peoples, the improvement that occurred on the individual, personal and
cultural freedoms and the Right of Return, some segments of the Circassian Diaspora
had started to return to homeland. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union
and the emergence of the Russian Federation as an independent state, consisted
of more than one hundred different nationalities, the former Russian President
Boris Yeltsin had said on the anniversary of the end of the Russian-Circassian
(Caucasian) war in May of 1996 (http://justicefornorthcaucasus.info/?p=1251660991),
that "Russia is aware of those mistakes that were made during that period",
and on the impact of that rational statement, the return of Kosovo Circassians
to homeland and their residence in the Republic of Adygea in 1998 arose after
the Kosovo war in the Balkans. In January, 2012, the author, "Naima
Neflyasheva" published an article in "Caucasian Knot" on the "repatriation
experience to homeland in the nineties of the last century” (http://www.windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2012/01/window-on-eurasia-syrias-circassians.html).
Since the outbreak of fighting in Syria approximately two
years ago, the issue of Circassians of Syria had surfaced, in addition to other
Caucasian communities, which led to the aggravation of this issue steadily as a
result of the events.
In 17, January, 2012, an Abkhazian official delegation had
suddenly visited Syria and discussed what has been described as: "Checking the
status of the Abkhaz and Circassian population there” (http://aheku.org/index.php).
In 16, March, 2012, the Russian parliamentary delegation
visited Syria, upon its tasks is to discuss (http://kabardino-balkaria.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/203163/)
the plight of Circassians in Syria and the possibility to return them to their
homeland in the North Caucasus. The delegation included members of the
Federation Council, which is the Senate of the Russian parliament, regional
officials and activists from Adygea, Karashivo - Cherkessia and Kabardino -
Balkaria, which they numbered 11 people. According to "Caucasian Knot” (http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/21744/),
some participants said that the delegation would strive to enhance
opportunities for migration of the Circassians living in Syria; following that
visit, one of the participants in the delegation, Askar Sukht said: Circassians
of Syria should consult the Russian Consulates in the locations they reside at
(Syria, Jordan or Lebanon) to submit "applications to be able to obtain refugees
status three months after submitting the application, initially for three years
entry to the Russian territories to attain the citizenship of the Russian
Federation within a special mechanism to speed up the process”.
With the approach of the Winter Olympic Games of 2014 in
Sochi, the "Caucasian Knot” Website (http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/blogs/1927/posts/10025)
has published that Circassian activists spotted a children game so as to
indicate the "GOOD" Cossacks fighting the "BAD" Mountaineers
- in other words, people from the North Caucasus.
In 9, January, the Russian Duma replied to the Head of the
Adigha Khasa, the Circassian Association in the Republic of Adygea, Adam Shoaib
Boghos (http://kavpolit.com/otvet-aleksandra-zhuravskogo-na-obrashhenie-po-voprosu-vozvrashheniya-sirijskix-cherkesov-v-rossijskuyu-federaciyu/)
in regard to helping Circassians of Syria to return to their historical homeland,
and the response said: "Committee for Nationalities in the Russian Duma would
inform you that your request to help the Circassians of Syria to return to the
Russian Federation has been transferred to the Ministry of Regional Development
of the Russian Federation, and sending you this reduplication of the Ministry’s
response”! The response declared: "Circassians of Syria are the descendants of
immigrants of Adigha origins, from the Northern and Western Caucasus, who did
not accept the Russian citizenship, and chose voluntary migration from the
region after the end of military operations of the Caucasian War (1817-1864).
Thus, the ancestors of the existing Circassians of Syria had
resided in the territories that has not yet been within the Russian Federation
until their migration in the year 1864 to the Ottoman Empire, which they cannot
be considered as immigrants from the Russian State, in accordance with
paragraph 3 of Article 1 of the Federal Law”, in addition to details regarding
the considerations formulated by what was called the Russian Federal Law, as
well as "the implementation of the governmental program for supporting the
citizens residing abroad for their return to homeland, which is established in
its new format with the Presidential Law No. 1289 of 14, September, 2012”, the
"Director of Nationalities Relations Department, A. F. Joravsky” concluded the
reply as the following: "Based on the above mentioned, we believe that the
issue of reunion of Circassians of Syria and the citizens living abroad needs a
comprehensive study in cooperation with the Russian Foreign Ministry and the
Immigration Service Department in the Russian Federation”!
Regarding this controversial response, it must be noted
that:
- The Committee
for Nationalities’ Affairs, of the Federal Council of the Russian Federation /
Sixth Session in the State Duma is transferring the response of another party
(formal response) as if it acknowledges information and the positions of a high
degree of importance, where it reaches to the extent of contradiction with the
historical facts and realities on one hand and with the Constitution and
Russian laws in force on the other one, and what came in the response, does not
only allude to ignore the rights of the Circassian people (Circassian nation)
as one of the indigenous or authentic nations in the North Caucasus, but even
ignores its human rights, the UN principles and legislations of Human Rights, and
the International Law.
- There is insistence by the Russian side on labeling the Russian
/ Circassian (Caucasian) War as the Caucasus War, which leads to ignore the
real designation, and to divert attentions and interests towards reading
between the lines in order to try to distort reality and to change facts.
- The Russian / Circassian War which lasted for a period of
one hundred and one years (101) between 1763-1864, is reported in this scope:
"The military operations of the Caucasian War (1817-1864)”, which is
inconsistent with the correctness of the description and the accuracy of the
history, that raises confusion in meaning and desire.
- There is a contradiction in the documented and verbal
Russian policies and assurances, which did not see the light in serious and
balanced form, starting from remarks by former Russian President, Boris Yeltsin,
in the year 1996, what followed of Russian authorities dealing with the Nalchik-based
International Circassian Association ICA, and concluding with the dead end
which the humanitarian plight had reached, that the Circassians of Syria face as
a result of the ongoing violence in Syria, and the unwillingness of the Russian
authorities to cooperate in these tragic and repeated circumstances!
-The unprecedented ratification by the "Ministry of Regional
Development of the Russian Federation”, supported by the "Committee for
Nationalities’ Affairs in the Russian Duma”," shows beyond any reasonable
doubt that the Circassians of Adigha origins who are 90% of half of those who survived
after systematical genocide, ethnic cleansing and deportation in tragic
circumstances away from Motherland, forced to take refuge to a safe haven shielding
them from evil organized crimes, which was described as the existing Circassians of Syria who had
stayed in the territories, were not within the Russian Federation until their
migration in the year 1864 to the Ottoman Empire, they cannot be considered as
immigrants from the Russian State, in accordance with paragraph 3 of article 1
of the Federal Law, and this an unprecedented Russian recognition, proves and
declares that Russia had occupied their homeland in the year 1864, and thus,
how it can be that citizens of occupied areas would hold the citizenship of the
state that had occupied their homeland!
-At that, the Russian State Duma has recognized the
non-joining of the Circassian nation voluntarily to the Russian Empire 450
years ago, in contrast to Russian official claims, which the Russian government
celebrated accordingly in September, 2007, the anniversary of that event with
the participation of Circassian parties considered part of the Russian official
administration in the North Caucasus and some other Diaspora Circassians associated
with the Nalchik-based International Circassian Association, meaning also, that
the Russian State Duma has thankfully acknowledged that the Circassian homeland
was not at any time among the properties of the Russian Empire, but the Tsarist
Russian Empire had occupied in the nineteenth century after a brutal and
devastating war.
Source: The Circassian Genocide Survivors on Page Book
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CircassiansGenocideSurvivors/
