Maikop hosts march of mourning on Day of Memory and Sorrow of the Circassian Genocide


In Maikop, the capitol of republic of Adygea, hundreds of people gathered in the city park to take part in a mourning procession dedicated to the 153rd anniversary of the end of the Caucasian War.
The procession was led by political leaders and heads of national, cultural and human rights organizations of Adygea. The event involved children's ensembles, an equestrian detachment of jigits, members of the Cossack community and the Tatar Diaspora, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.
From the Maikop city park, participants of the procession passed along the central street of the city to the monumental complex "Unity and Consent". They were carrying green ribbons, symbolizing the Circassian Memorial Day.
"The special interest of young people in the symbolic of the Memory Day - a green ribbon - is still encouraged by the fact that it is not easy to obtain and impossible to buy such a ribbon," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by a teacher of the history of Adygea at the Adyg State University (ASU). And the teacher continued: "The number of ribbons is always limited, and they are distributed among friends and relatives. They are not on sale. A lot of people start wearing the ribbons already several weeks prior to the event and attach them to mirrors of cars."
The Caucasian War, which lasted from 1763 to 1864, put the Adyg peoples on the brink of complete extinction. After the war and the mass deportation of the Adygs to the Ottoman Empire, just a little more than 50,000 people remained at their homeland. Circassian organizations insist that the Russian authorities should make a decision to recognize the Circassian genocide during the Caucasian War.

Author: Evgenia BagdasarovaSource: CK correspondent

Source: http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/39449/
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