A group of Georgian lawmakers announced on April 26 about the readiness to launch "broad discussions on cases of the massacres and deportations of Circassians" by the Tsarist Russia in the North Caucasus in second half of 19th century.
The announcement by the Georgian parliamentary group of friendship with the peoples of North Caucasus comes a month after Tbilisi hosted a conference, Hidden Nations, Enduring Crimes: The Circassians & the Peoples of the North Caucasus Between Past and Future. The conference was organized by Washington-basedJamestown Foundation and Tbilisi-based Ilia State University’s International School for Caucasus Studies with the participants including, among others, representatives of Circassian diaspora.
At the end of the conference, on March 21, participants made an appealto the Georgian Parliament requesting to recognize deportations and massacre of Circassians more than a century ago as a genocide.
"You know that the international ...