The Architecture of Genocide: Russia’s Strategic Imprint / Systematic Erasure: Russia’s Role in a Genocidal Blueprint / Part 2

The Architecture of Genocide: Russia’s Strategic Imprint

Systematic Erasure: Russia’s Role in a Genocidal Blueprint / Part 2

Adel Bashqawi

October 02, 2025

This is the second of four parts in an article titled:

The Architecture of Genocide: Russia’s Strategic Imprint

Systematic Erasure: Russia’s Role in a Genocidal Blueprint

Part II: The Recognition of the Circassian Genocide

• Circassian Autonomous Republics — On February 7, 1992, the Parliament of the Kabardino-Balkaria Autonomous Republic adopted a special resolution recognizing the genocide committed against the Circassians by Russian aggressors during the Russian-Circassian War. On April 29, 1996, the State Council “Khase” of the Republic of Adygea adopted a resolution appealing to the State Duma of the Russian Federation for official recognition of the Circassian Genocide, committed by Tsarist Russia in the 19th century. [1]

• Georgia (May 20, 2011) — Georgia officially recognized the genocide of ethnic Circassians committed by the Russian Empire. [2] On May 21, 2012, the Circassian Genocide Memorial Monument was inaugurated in Anaklia, Georgia. Engraved in five languages, the inscription reads: “To the freedom-loving Circassian people, the multiethnic Georgian people honor the memory of victims of the genocide committed by the Russian Empire against the Circassian (Adyghe) people in the 18th and 19th centuries.” [3]

• East Turkistan Government in Exile (May 17, 2023) — The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) recognized the Circassian Genocide and lamented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Circassians at the hands of Russian imperialism. [4]

• Ukraine (January 9, 2025) — Ukraine officially recognized the genocide of the Circassian people by Tsarist Russia. [5] The Ukrainian government called on nations around the world to follow suit. [6] This recognition has energized the Circassian national movement, affirming solidarity between oppressed nations and amplifying calls for justice. [7]

The Crimean Tatars

The Russian state, during its imperial era, was not immune to the atrocities committed in Crimea. As one account states: “All the tragedies of the Crimean Tatar people began from the moment the Russian Empire seized Crimea and liquidated its statehood in 1783. Since then, all Russian regimes—Tsarist, Soviet, and the current Putin regime—have pursued the same goal: the complete expulsion of the Crimean Tatars from their ancestral land.” [8]

On May 18, 1944, Stalin ordered the forced deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar population—over 190,000 people—from Crimea to Central Asia. Families were given less than 30 minutes to pack. [9] The estimated death toll ranged from 30,000 to 100,000 due to starvation, disease, and exposure during the deportation and early years of exile. This was ethnic cleansing and genocide, justified by false accusations of Nazi collaboration.

Modern Repression: Echoes of the Past

Following the EuroMaidan Revolution, Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula—part of Ukraine—in February 2014 and formally annexed it in March. Yet, as one voice reminds us: “Crimea is not just a peninsula; it is the cradle of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.” [10]

Since the annexation, Crimean Tatars have again faced systemic persecution:

Mass arrests and torture: Over 250 people have been detained on politically motivated charges. Two-thirds—approximately 66%—are Crimean Tatars, who comprise only 13% of the population. [11]
Forced conscription and land dispossession: Tatars have been disproportionately targeted during military drafts and displaced by incoming Russian settlers. [12]
Cultural erasure: The Kremlin has pursued aggressive Russification, suppressing Crimean Tatar language, religion, and institutions. [13] [14]
Genocidal continuity: Refat Chubarov, head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, stated: “Putin is continuing Stalin’s genocidal policies, aiming to finish what Stalin failed to accomplish.” [15]

Recognition by democratic states of crimes such as ethnic cleansing, genocide, and mass forced displacement helps restore legitimate rights and advance justice and equality in accordance with the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and international humanitarian law. Over the last decade, seven countries have recognized the May 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet government as an act of genocide: Ukraine (2015), Lithuania and Latvia (2019), Canada (2022), and Poland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic (2024). [16]

In the silence of erased names and vanished homelands, the Crimean Tatars endure—not as shadows of history, but as the pulse of a memory that refuses to die.

References:

[1] https://justicefornorthcaucasus.info/?p=1251673262

[2] https://justicefornorthcaucasus.info/?p=1251684686

[3] https://justicefornorthcaucasus.info/?p=1251683155

[4] https://justicefornorthcaucasus.info/?p=1251684491

[5] https://www.ukrainianworldcongress.org/ukraine-recognizes-the-genocide-of-circassian-people-by-tsarist-russia/

[6] https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/04/ukrainian-government-calls-on-nations.html

[7] https://www.eurasiareview.com/16012025-circassian-national-movement-energized-by-kyivs-recognition-of-russian-genocide-analysis/

[8] https://charter97.org/en/news/2025/8/18/652514/

[9] https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/soviet-deportation-and-russia-s-ongoing-crackdown-1747561935.html

[10] https://charter97.org/en/news/2025/8/18/652514/

[11] https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2087477/vladimir-putin-crimean-tatars-repression-refat-chubarov