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Sochi Games causing a stir with Circassians
Irish Times
March 27 2010
FINAL STRAW: FORGET THE Armenians and their generations-old genocidal
gripe with the Turks. The Circassians are coming.
Reuters reported this week that a Muslim diaspora is demanding the
2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi should be cancelled or transferred
elsewhere unless the Russians apologise for a 19th century massacre of
their ancestors by Tsarist forces.
The Circassians, Muslim indigents of the northwest Caucasus whose
seven million descendants are now scattered elsewhere, say 2014 marks
the 150th anniversary of 300,000 violent deaths in the Sochi region.
The killings, deportations and terror scattered the Circassians to
Turkey, the Middle East and the US, in which parts variously some
seven million of Circassian descent now live.
Although the 1864 events were recorded by Russian imperial historians
at the time, no nation has yet recognised the Tsarist activity as
genocide.
Activists last weekend used documents from the state archives in
Tbilisi to present Georgian lawmakers with a formal request that they
recognise the 1864 killings as genocide - a move that would further
strain Georgia's dire relationship with Russia.
No Sochi 2014, a Circassian lobby group, told a conference in the US
last weekend that the Games site is effectively being constructed on a
mass grave. According to Reuters, Circassian activists have argued
that the Sochi games are as insensitive as hosting a sports event on
the grounds of Auschwitz.
The latter sentiment, one suspects, will be deplored by all
passport-cloning people.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/spor t/2010/0327/1224267171975.html
Irish Times
March 27 2010
FINAL STRAW: FORGET THE Armenians and their generations-old genocidal
gripe with the Turks. The Circassians are coming.
Reuters reported this week that a Muslim diaspora is demanding the
2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi should be cancelled or transferred
elsewhere unless the Russians apologise for a 19th century massacre of
their ancestors by Tsarist forces.
The Circassians, Muslim indigents of the northwest Caucasus whose
seven million descendants are now scattered elsewhere, say 2014 marks
the 150th anniversary of 300,000 violent deaths in the Sochi region.
The killings, deportations and terror scattered the Circassians to
Turkey, the Middle East and the US, in which parts variously some
seven million of Circassian descent now live.
Although the 1864 events were recorded by Russian imperial historians
at the time, no nation has yet recognised the Tsarist activity as
genocide.
Activists last weekend used documents from the state archives in
Tbilisi to present Georgian lawmakers with a formal request that they
recognise the 1864 killings as genocide - a move that would further
strain Georgia's dire relationship with Russia.
No Sochi 2014, a Circassian lobby group, told a conference in the US
last weekend that the Games site is effectively being constructed on a
mass grave. According to Reuters, Circassian activists have argued
that the Sochi games are as insensitive as hosting a sports event on
the grounds of Auschwitz.
The latter sentiment, one suspects, will be deplored by all
passport-cloning people.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/spor t/2010/0327/1224267171975.html