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New old Home - Adygea by Max Sher
In September 2007, Russia’s three Circassian-speaking regions – Adyghea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Cherkessia have officially celebrated what was called the “450th anniversary of Circassians’ voluntary accession to Russia”. Following an old Soviet tradition, it was an ideologically correct but historically insignificant episode that was picked as a pretext to organise official celebrations. 450 years ago, Circassians and Russians have concluded a temporary military alliance which, according to an opinion shared by many historians, did not set forth any “accession” of one country into another. In fact, Circassians' "accession" only took place in mid-19th century as a result of a century-long and bloody Russian-Caucasian war. 95% of Circassians (they call themselves Adyghe) - from a few hundred thousand to 1.5 million, according to different sources - have been exterminated or deported from their native land by the year 1864. Most exiles have found new home in the Ottoman Empire whose government purposely settled them on its borders – from the Balkans where it wanted to dilute the Christian population with Muslims, to the Middle East. 9 years ago, descendants of those deported – around 200 Circassians from the then Yougoslavia’s Kosovo province fled yet another war to the land of their ancestors with the active support of the Russian government. That was perhaps the only instance when the Russian state played a positive role in returning compatriots from abroad. An entire village dubbed Mafekhabl – or Happy Village in Circassian – was set up not far from Adyghea’s capital Maikop. But this successful resettlement of Circassians from Kosovo which could become the first step on the way to acknowledging the historical truth about the Caucasian war and open the way back home to other exiles remained a handsome political gesture without consequences. In today’s Russia, it is not customary to recognize the tragedies of the past while the road back home for the Circassian diaspora is reliably blocked by the Russian red tape. Accidentally or not, Mafekhabl village where most repatriates from Kosovo have been living since 2000 is still unable to obtain a populated locality status, which means that its residents have no property or other rights. Still, Kosovo Circassians – all of them devoted Muslims - are grateful to God for being able to return to their native land, to live among their fellow Circassians, speak their language, work, grow children and hope for the preservation of their ancient ethnicity.
