A Politicized Statement in an Academic Template
Adel Bashqawi
21 June, 2020
The politicized and directed academic media, which publish what is issued by authors and universities affiliated with official bodies, are considered the mouthpiece for the framers of Russian state policy. Academic oriented media, showed that actions speak louder than words. Also, facts speak for themselves, where attempts are launched to confuse the realities and deny the documented facts.
The Russian Historical Journal Old Years (Bylye Gody) {2016, Vol. 42, Is. 4} [1] has published a research paper that should be examined, which is authored by Veronika V. Tsibenko and Sergey N. Tsibenko, titled: “The War which was not: Russian, Turkish and Western Historiography on the North-Western Caucasus of the 19th Century.” [2] Regrettably, lofty humanitarian principles are either scorned or ignored.
The authors’ point of view is spoken, and portrayed by illustrating “the military actions in the North-Western Caucasus of the 19th century in Russian, Turkish and Western historiography.” The study on the 19th century events, indicates that “In spite of interaction between Russian, Turkish and Western historiographies, each of them was formed according to own logic of development.” Eventually, the study invents the so-described “‘auto-historiography’ which is characterised by ethnocentrism and victimisation due to the trends of counter-history.” The term is utilized to give a fourth historiographical narrative. As a result, due to the chosen skeptical approach, this gives another option to another point of view to form an impression of more disruption.
Using the research paper’s vocabulary, the savage annihilation war described as “characterised by ethnocentrism and victimisation due to the trends of counter-history,” are nothing but a contemporary face of prejudice and verbal manipulation.
In case the Circassian Genocide case is brought up to the International Criminal Court, and if the court decides on acquittal of those who occupied the Circassian homeland at any cost, after a grinding war that lasted for more than a century, it would be a different story. The issue is that the Russian state is constantly evading to take legal responsibility in accordance with international laws and norms. Therefore, it is escaping to the opposite direction in order to ignore confirmed facts, where the solution lies.
Ultimately, the regime kept pushing Circassians towards desperate measures in desperate time situations. Thus, the status of the consecutive Russian administrations can be characterized as: One-person and/or one-party regimes. However, the main Russian concern is to avoid facing the underlying truth of committing the crimes that are repugnant to the conscience of mankind. This included occupation, destruction, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced deportation to this day.
The situation can be presented appropriately by concluding a reasonable and true judgement. It is suitable here to borrow the expression mentioned in Veronika V. Tsibenko and Sergey N. Tsibenko’s paper, “auto-historiography,” used by the authors to describe the Circassian status, to be utilized for describing the circumstances created by the Russian Empire as a result of the colonial voracity and greed in the homelands of others. Whereas the expression of the Circassian viewpoint is obviously derived from non provocation framework of documented information, preserved even by the Russian and Ottoman archives in addition to the statements and memoirs of the Russian military command generals. Let alone the non-bias authors of books that dealt with Russia’s unilaterally declared war against Circassia.
Circassian Problematics after 2007
There is no doubt anymore, after uncovering confirmed information that the Circassian nation was subjected and still to one of the most heinous crimes of genocide in human history. Facts demonstrate that events should be studied and followed up systematically and accurately when it comes to prominent matters such as controversial legal discussions of the related colonial projects and policies. Those who promote for turning a blind eye on facts, ignore the intermittent behavior of the local authorities in the Circassian parts of the North Caucasus, aide to replay the role of the Soviet Union in oppression and tyranny.
The paper states “that the sharp growth of the relevance of the Circassian problematics after 2007 is conditioned not only by the objective internal processes of the Circassian national movement, but even more by foreign policy factors and the Circassian question perceprion [3] in the international arena has historically predetermined outcome.” [4]
In short, in 2007, the majority of the Circassians in communities in their homeland and in the diaspora declared their disapproval, indignation and condemnation for the fake celebration of the Russian state through fascist methods on a false occasion. Anger was overwhelming with bubbling up emotions. Absolutely this annexation didn’t take place willingly, which was described as “450 years of the Circassians’ voluntary association with Russia”. [5]
All this was hint to the world and to whom it may concern, in the midst of the Russian state’s desire at the time to prepare for the Winter Olympic Games in Circassian Sochi. They tried paradoxically to falsely portray the victims as partners that joined the Russian Empire voluntarily. Unprecedented fabrication and forgery, is meant to downplay the fact that the Russian state should have acted to minimize the effects of the horrible catastrophe that befell the Circassian nation, instead of playing unrealistic and inappropriate roles. As if no devastating invasion and war had taken place and lasted for more than a century against Circassia, under the terrorist and autocratic rule, in which the nation was subjected to extermination, occupation, ethnic cleansing and forced deportation.
In contradiction to what this study tried to rant, a famous writer who wrote a book about the Circassian tragedy, has said: “The Circassians were the world’s favorite freedom fighters, the darlings of Western diplomats who viewed Russia’s expansion as a threat to global stability. They battled for their homeland against almost impossible odds, holding out five years longer than even the Chechens had. And their defeat was catastrophic. Driven from their homes, they fled across the Black Sea to Turkey in dangerously overcrowded boats … And although their exodus was front-page news in the West, they soon slipped out of history.” [6]
In conclusion, Circassian Affairs Matter. Policies were meant to be conducted and aimed at making the Circassian people in all their whereabouts, illiterate, ignorant and uninformed of circassian chronicles, related to the invasion, occupation and all the disastrous consequences. No doubt, the main objective is to adopt evil policies to fabricate crises in order to violate laws and rules according to fake perspectives. Looks like the consecutive regimes have been wearing Tsarist Empire dress.
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Notes:
[1] (https://ejournal52.com/)
[2] (https://ejournal52.com/journals_n/1433510573.pdf)
[3] Seemingly, the authors meant: “perception.”
[4] (https://ejournal52.com/journals_n/1433510573.pdf)
[5] (“Circassia: Born to be Free” Book, published in September, 2017. By Adel Bashqawi)
[6] (https://www.newsweek.com/sochi-2014-winter-olympics-circassians-cry-genocide-64893) (file:///Users/adel/Downloads/The-Circassian-Question.pdf)
