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European Voice
Nov 11 2010
Forgotten genocides of the Caucasus
By Gary Peach
11.11.2010 / 04:15 CET
A history and travelogue that features great suffering and some
remarkable people.
There is a passage in Oliver Bullough's book that so brilliantly
encapsulates the 19th century tragedy of the Circassians that it is
unlikely ever to be surpassed.
The author is in Akçakale, a mountain village on Turkey's Black Sea
coast where a century-and-a-half ago tens of thousands of Circassians
perished from starvation and disease after being exiled by tsarist
Russia from their homeland in the northern Caucasus. Scouring the base
of a seaside cliff, Bullough finds human bones in a rock fissure.
Stunned, he asks locals about Circassian graves in the area, about
what they learned from their ancestors about the Circassians' plight.
He said the villagers either had no idea what he was talking about or
looked at him as if he were a lunatic.
This episode neatly summarises the story of the Circassian genocide:
bones all around, and ignorance too. In Sochi, now a Russian Black Sea
resort and formerly a Circassian bastion, Bullough searches a local
history museum for information on the region's original inhabitants
or, more to the point, how in 1864 a quarter of a million Circassians
were shanghaied onto small cargo boats and dispatched to Ottoman
shores. Many never reached those shores (many of the younger women who
did were sold off into slavery). But he finds only a single picture
showing a column of refugees. `There was no suggestion that anyone
actually died,' writes Bullough.
No one book can hope to capture the mind-twisting mosaic of the
northern Caucasus - Avars, Karachais, Ubykh, Dargins, Adygeans are
just part of the mosaic - but Bullough's historical travelogue
expertly illuminates some of the pieces. It is a region that, as it
has done for centuries, confounds ethnographers and, more importantly,
conquerors.
As the author shows, Russia's leaders continue to repeat the mistakes
of arrogant tsarist and Soviet generals, as a result of which two
horrific wars have been fought in the past two decades (three, if we
count the Georgian conflict). The soil of the Caucasus is soaked in
blood, and news reports from the region evoke a perpetual inferno:
terrorist attacks, gang killings, insurgents, assassination, suicide
bombers.
Bullough is indefatigable in his research. In the quest for survivors
and first-hand testimony of atrocities, he travels to Kosovo and
Israel to visit small Circassian communities, and to Jordan and
Kazakhstan to interview Chechens. He climbs mountains to examine the
ruins of Balkar villages that were annihilated by Soviet forces during
the Second World War and, in one of the book's most harrowing
tableaux, he counts the bodies in the Beslan morgue after the 2004
school massacre.
Generous and hospitable
With this kind of material, one can regard `Let our fame be great' as
an exercise in endurance: readers' tolerance of injustice will be
tested. Thankfully, the depressing subject matter is softened by the
remarkable people Bullough interviews. Despite their sufferings, many
remain generous and hospitable. One cannot help feeling a rush of hope
at the scene of a large Circassian crowd, numbering in the hundreds,
singing wistful songs at a memorial service in Turkey for the
approximate half-million ancestors killed as a result of the 19th
century war and deportations.
Will the world ever recognise the Circassian genocide? Any progress
depends on the Circassians' approximately five-million strong
diaspora, who have apparently taken a lesson from the Armenians and
begun lobbying politicians in European capitals. The goal is to win
support by 2014, the year Russia hosts the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Given the ongoing cataclysm of the northern Caucasus, there is some
chance the Circassians will find attentive listeners.
But hopes clash with reality. If anything, Bullough's book is a
sobering testimony to the inextirpable culture of lies that plagues
not only Russia's `official version' of history, but nearly everything
that has to do with the Caucasus. For the West, acknowledging the
tragedy of the Circassians will inevitably lead to a direct
confrontation with the insidious culture of lies whose roots begin in
the Kremlin. It is unlikely either Brussels or Washington will have
the stomach for that.
Gary Peach is a journalist based in Riga.
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/forgotten-genocides-of-the-caucasus-/69394.aspx
From: A. Papazian
Nov 11 2010
Forgotten genocides of the Caucasus
By Gary Peach
11.11.2010 / 04:15 CET
A history and travelogue that features great suffering and some
remarkable people.
There is a passage in Oliver Bullough's book that so brilliantly
encapsulates the 19th century tragedy of the Circassians that it is
unlikely ever to be surpassed.
The author is in Akçakale, a mountain village on Turkey's Black Sea
coast where a century-and-a-half ago tens of thousands of Circassians
perished from starvation and disease after being exiled by tsarist
Russia from their homeland in the northern Caucasus. Scouring the base
of a seaside cliff, Bullough finds human bones in a rock fissure.
Stunned, he asks locals about Circassian graves in the area, about
what they learned from their ancestors about the Circassians' plight.
He said the villagers either had no idea what he was talking about or
looked at him as if he were a lunatic.
This episode neatly summarises the story of the Circassian genocide:
bones all around, and ignorance too. In Sochi, now a Russian Black Sea
resort and formerly a Circassian bastion, Bullough searches a local
history museum for information on the region's original inhabitants
or, more to the point, how in 1864 a quarter of a million Circassians
were shanghaied onto small cargo boats and dispatched to Ottoman
shores. Many never reached those shores (many of the younger women who
did were sold off into slavery). But he finds only a single picture
showing a column of refugees. `There was no suggestion that anyone
actually died,' writes Bullough.
No one book can hope to capture the mind-twisting mosaic of the
northern Caucasus - Avars, Karachais, Ubykh, Dargins, Adygeans are
just part of the mosaic - but Bullough's historical travelogue
expertly illuminates some of the pieces. It is a region that, as it
has done for centuries, confounds ethnographers and, more importantly,
conquerors.
As the author shows, Russia's leaders continue to repeat the mistakes
of arrogant tsarist and Soviet generals, as a result of which two
horrific wars have been fought in the past two decades (three, if we
count the Georgian conflict). The soil of the Caucasus is soaked in
blood, and news reports from the region evoke a perpetual inferno:
terrorist attacks, gang killings, insurgents, assassination, suicide
bombers.
Bullough is indefatigable in his research. In the quest for survivors
and first-hand testimony of atrocities, he travels to Kosovo and
Israel to visit small Circassian communities, and to Jordan and
Kazakhstan to interview Chechens. He climbs mountains to examine the
ruins of Balkar villages that were annihilated by Soviet forces during
the Second World War and, in one of the book's most harrowing
tableaux, he counts the bodies in the Beslan morgue after the 2004
school massacre.
Generous and hospitable
With this kind of material, one can regard `Let our fame be great' as
an exercise in endurance: readers' tolerance of injustice will be
tested. Thankfully, the depressing subject matter is softened by the
remarkable people Bullough interviews. Despite their sufferings, many
remain generous and hospitable. One cannot help feeling a rush of hope
at the scene of a large Circassian crowd, numbering in the hundreds,
singing wistful songs at a memorial service in Turkey for the
approximate half-million ancestors killed as a result of the 19th
century war and deportations.
Will the world ever recognise the Circassian genocide? Any progress
depends on the Circassians' approximately five-million strong
diaspora, who have apparently taken a lesson from the Armenians and
begun lobbying politicians in European capitals. The goal is to win
support by 2014, the year Russia hosts the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Given the ongoing cataclysm of the northern Caucasus, there is some
chance the Circassians will find attentive listeners.
But hopes clash with reality. If anything, Bullough's book is a
sobering testimony to the inextirpable culture of lies that plagues
not only Russia's `official version' of history, but nearly everything
that has to do with the Caucasus. For the West, acknowledging the
tragedy of the Circassians will inevitably lead to a direct
confrontation with the insidious culture of lies whose roots begin in
the Kremlin. It is unlikely either Brussels or Washington will have
the stomach for that.
Gary Peach is a journalist based in Riga.
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/forgotten-genocides-of-the-caucasus-/69394.aspx
From: A. Papazian