Author Archives: Shamel Blue

Mikheil Saakashvili Keynote

MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI KEYNOTE

On February 14, 2014, The Jamestown Foundation held a conference on Russia and the North Caucasus After the Sochi Olympics in the Root Room at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The conference featured keynote speaker Mikheil Saakashvili, the former President of the Republic of Georgia. Speakers at the conference focused their discussion on the impact of the Sochi Olympics on the future of Russia and on the North Caucasus as well as the radicalization of jihadists in the North

https://www.jamestown.org/multimedia/

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Circassia: Peacefully Boycotting the Sochi Olympics

CIRCASSIA: PEACEFULLY BOYCOTTING THE SOCHI OLYMPICS

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Circassians continuing to use peaceful methods in their ongoing struggle “for the unity, preservation and development of the Circassian people”

Below is an article published by the World War 4 Report Continue reading

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Sochi Olympic largesse barely touches nearby Circassian villages

SOCHI OLYMPIC LARGESSE BARELY TOUCHES NEARBY CIRCASSIAN VILLAGES

Take a drive north of Sochi into the hills and it won’t take long to escape the Olympic bubble. Gone is the new highway. The slick railway ends. The road turns to gravel, then mud, where cows roam free with passing cars. The spending spree didn’t spread its wealth as far as the neighbouring Circassian villages of Bolshoy Kishmai and Mali Kishmai. Some still hope it will, while others are resigned and say it will never happen. Continue reading

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SOCHI’S TRAGIC LEGACY

SOCHI’S TRAGIC LEGACY

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New York        Dr. Cesar Chelala

 

As the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi is broadcast, a little-known tragedy continues to be ignored: The terrible fate of hundreds of thousands of Circassians who inhabited that area. They were the victims of one of history’s greatest genocides. Continue reading

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THE HIDDEN PAST OF SOCHI

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a security guard on a beach in village Loo points out where main olympic venues are to an out-of-town volunteer.

a security guard on a beach in village Loo points out where main olympic venues are to an out-of-town volunteer.

With the end of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, there has not been so much global attention paid to the Black Sea city since the time of the American Civil War. In the eighteen-sixties, it was hard to read the news and not see a mention of the Caucasus Mountains, made famous by Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, and Lord Byron. These writers were among the many who extolled the beauty of the women from the region, particularly the Circassians, an indigenous group in the Caucasus. The plight of Circassian women sold into what was called white slavery—sexual slavery in Ottoman harems—led to intense interest from abolitionists across America and Europe. When Alexandre Dumas began his 1859 book, “Adventures in Caucasia,” with the declaration, “I have no doubt that my readers know of the region as well as I do,” he was probably right. Continue reading

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