UA Historical Encounters Series Event VIII:
“Ties That Bind” – Reflections on Crimean Tatar-Ukrainian Relations
and a Crucial Circassian Connection
Date: September 27, 2025
Venue: William Paterson University/Wayne NJ
Ink, Blood, and Silence: Circassia’s Struggle Against Annihilation
Echoes of Exile: The Circassian Nation and Russia’s Genocidal Legacy
Adel Bashqawi
September 27, 2025
A lone Circassian rider silhouetted against a storm-darkened Black Sea, the shoreline dissolving into mist. It carries the weight of exile, dignity, and defiance. It evokes exile, erasure, and resilience. / AI-generated via Microsoft Copilot.
Preface
I am honored to participate in this blessed gathering, held in light of Russia’s aggression on the eastern frontier of Europe. This event — UA Historical Encounters Series Event VIII: “Ties That Bind” — reflects on Crimean Tatar–Ukrainian relations and a crucial Circassian connection, hosted at William Paterson University, NJ.
May this gathering open the door to broader cooperation and coordination between Circassians, Crimean Tatars, and Ukrainians — three nations bound by memory, resistance, and the pursuit of justice.
The Circassian Genocide is widely regarded as the most devastating genocide of the nineteenth century. Beyond the series of extermination campaigns, it was marked by Russia’s brutal efforts to conceal its crimes and atrocities in Circassia and elsewhere.
Introduction
Russia’s reputation on the world stage is stained not only by its current aggression against Ukraine and other nations, but by its persistent refusal to confront the crimes of its past. From the scorched valleys of Circassia — where the ruthless Russian Empire waged wars of genocide, destruction, and forced displacement — a campaign lasting 101 years unfolded. It remains the longest war Russia has ever waged, culminating in Circassia’s total occupation, subjugation, and forced annexation into the Russian colonial state.
By the nineteenth century, Circassia had already bled: its mountains silenced, its people scattered, its memory buried beneath imperial conquest. This anchors the speech in a historical evolution of negligence and injustice, inviting reflection on forgotten origins and moral atrocities. The Russo-Circassian War claimed countless lives, long before the term genocide was coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. [1]
Annihilation of a Nation with Deep Roots
After enduring Mongol rule since 1237, and following the fragmentation of the Golden Horde, Russia — particularly Muscovy and its principalities — slowly emerged as a brutal imperial power. Having suffered under conquest, it turned outward, occupying and annexing neighboring peoples with an iron fist. Some were subjugated directly; others were forced into tribute.
From the onset of its colonial wars, the Grand Principality of Muscovy was fully engaged in genocide and other forms of extermination to establish and perpetuate an empire built on violence. Through successive regimes, Russia committed genocide against dozens of peoples and nations — each with its own scars, each with its own silenced history.
Russia’s centuries-long involvement in genocidal crimes demands a clear and simplified analysis — not only to understand the facts, but to prevent impunity. While Russia continues to disregard international laws and norms, it remains deeply immersed in racism and hatred, in direct conflict with moral, ethical, and legal obligations.
The Circassian nation stands as the first victim of Russia’s genocidal colonial policy.
The Trials of Circassia
The scale of extermination wars committed by Russian regimes is staggering. The Circassian Genocide, carried out during the Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864), resulted in the extermination of half the Circassian population — approximately 2 million people — by May 21, 1864. Of those who survived, 90% were deported to the Ottoman Empire. Today, their descendants live in more than 30 countries. The remaining 10% were forcibly displaced by occupying military authorities, away from the Black Sea and beyond the Kuban River.
Russia wanted Circassia without the Circassians.
The indigenous Circassian nation demands the restoration of its legitimate rights. As Walt Richmond emphasized, “It is of importance for the Russians and the international community to recognize the genocide, the right of return, and the restoration of legitimate rights — especially those related to the right of self-determination based on international legitimacy.”
He further described the tragic years of the Russian-Circassian War, detailing the criminal practices of Russian military units and commanders — all part of a deliberate intent to destroy every element of a nation that suffered under imperial greed and invasion. [2]
Language and Culture
How can one imagine that, after decades of exile, more than 7 million Circassians — scattered across dozens of countries — continue to preserve their cultural heritage and national identity? Despite living in culturally heterogeneous societies since the nineteenth century, the Circassians have remained steadfast in their commitment to preserving their language, traditions, and dignity.
Preserving the Circassian language and culture is essential to safeguarding human and national rights. As mentioned in the following paragraph:
“A main goal is to avert extinction of the Circassian language and culture. If the language retreats, recedes, or is lost (God forbid), it will endanger the existence, survival, and future of the afflicted Circassian nation. Attention must be focused on preserving the most vital elements of the nation’s survival as a dignified people with a distinct civilizational legacy.” [3]
Russian Colonists: A Legacy of Brutality and Denial
- Circassia became a forgotten victim of a so-called evil empire. Before Ukraine, before Chechnya — there was Circassia.
- Russian crimes and colonial violence left a deep Circassian wound, heralding the largest genocide of the nineteenth century, committed by Russia’s military forces.
- Hostility toward occupied and annexed peoples was not incidental — it was systemic. War crimes and genocide were tools of imperial consolidation.
- Russophobia: a widespread aversion to Russia and its political system, especially the customs of the former Soviet Union, rooted in lived experiences of violence and repression.
- Russia has perpetuated historical negligence, injustice, ruthlessness, and deportation — sustaining a trauma that echoes between homeland and diaspora.
- Circassia stands among the earliest sites of Russian imperial brutality, where atrocities against the Circassian nation were committed with impunity.
- The continuum of Russian aggression persists to this day — from imperial conquest to modern warfare, the pattern remains unchanged.
Conclusion
The issue of genocide — and Russia’s long-standing involvement in it — demands urgent attention. From the Tsardom and Empire, through the Soviet Union, to the current Russian Federation, Russia has committed genocide against dozens of peoples and nations. These crimes, spanning centuries, require clear analysis to expose the facts and prevent impunity.
Genocides committed before the adoption of the U.N. Genocide Convention in 1951 present a tension between legal boundaries and moral clarity. As one analysis states:
“Though the Genocide Convention entered into force in 1951, its silence on prior atrocities does not erase their truth. Legal non-retroactivity may shield perpetrators from formal prosecution, but it cannot shield history from memory, nor justice from invocation. The suffering of those who perished before the ink dried on Resolution 260 (III) A is not lessened by the absence of codified law — it is magnified by the moral void it exposed. We speak not only to indict, but to remember. And in remembering, we resist the erasure that law alone cannot remedy.” [4] [5]
This is not merely a call for recognition — it is a call for remembrance, for justice, and for the restoration of dignity to those whose voices were silenced. The Circassian nation, like many others, continues to resist erasure through memory, advocacy, and the pursuit of truth.
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References:
[2] [Circassia: Born to be Free, Bashqawi A., p. 146]
[3] [The Circassian Miracle, p. 443]
[4] https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217155927.pdf
[5] https://groong.org/ICTJ-analysis.pdf
