Circassians in soul searching in 150th year of Turkey exile

Circassians in Turkey are increasingly looking to gain rights from the state amid a process of questioning their identity and their place between Ankara and Moscow, according to a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University.

"They look at Kurds and say: ‘They fought and got their rights. If we stay silent we have no chance,'" said Mithat Çelikpala in a recent interview.

What happened 150 years ago?

Circassians were exiled from their homelands by Russian forces. It was a reflection of Russian expansion toward the Caucasus; all those North Caucasians were seen as a threat because of their position. Before, Circassian lands were under the control of Ottomans but technically they were independent. As the Ottomans were not strong enough they accepted Russian control of those regions. They also accepted the arrival of Circassians in order to balance other minorities first in the Balkans and in Anatolia.

It seems that with the establishment of the Soviet Union, all those exiled realized that it would be very hard to go back. Can you give a short summary of what happened in the last 150 years?

The political leaders of the Circassians were asked to be silent with the establishment of the Turkish Republic because the new republic needed to establish good relations with the Soviets. So up until the 1990s, all those Caucasian communities were rather silent and their associations dealt with cultural events. The main diaspora groups started to be assimilated in the early Republican years; most accepted it voluntarily because this was the last resort. They realized that they couldn't go back, [but this is] a Muslim country and a safe heaven.

So Circassians started to become part of the state, the establishment....