Paul Goble
Staunton, November 5 – The Syrian crisis, which gave Vladimir Putin a much-celebrated diplomatic victory, now threatens Russia’s territorial integrity not because Russian citizens are among the combatants in Syria but because Moscow’s mishandling of the Circassian issue in the Middle East is radicalizing the Circassian republics of the North Caucasus.
Circassian activists have long been concerned about the fate of their co-ethnics in Syria and especially about the failure of the Russian government to extend the rights of return and resettlement to the Circassians that are specified in Moscow’s compatriots program (windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2008/11/window-on-eurasia-circassians-call-for.html).
The Russian government has dragged its feet in this regard at least in part because it does not want to see an influx of Circassians into the North Caucasus, something that could dramatically change the ethnic balance in that region – there are more than ...
