Paul Goble
Staunton, January 23 – The Circassians in the Russian Federation and the far larger Circassian community abroad are appalled by the declaration of a Moscow official that Moscow has not yet decided whether the Circassians abroad are "compatriots” and thus entitled to return to their homeland in the north Caucasus.
At the end of November 2012, Adam Bogus, the head of the Circassian Adyge Khase, sent a letter to Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin asking that Moscow provide assistance for Circassians living in Syria to return home. That appeal was then sent to the Russian Regional Development Ministry for consideration (kavpolit.com/cherkesy-ne-sootechestvenniki/).
On December 21, Aleksandr Zhuravsky, the head of that ministry’s international department responded (kavpolit.com/otvet-aleksandra-zhuravskogo-na-obrashhenie-po-voprosu-vozvrashheniya-sirijskix-cherkesov-v-rossijskuyu-federaciyu/), and the contents of that letter, which has been widely disseminated in the weeks since, have sparked anger.
Zhuravsky wrote that "the Syrian Circassians are ...
