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| Circassian girl. Jean-Leon Gerome. Source |
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| Inspecting New Arrivals. Giulio Rosati. Souce: Wikipedia. |
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| The Caucasus, circled. Source |
The Boston
Bombing, the Syrian Civil War, the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the
Circassian Genocide.
The Circassian Genocide?
Most people have never heard of the Circassian genocide. Most people have never heard of Circassians.
Circassians are one of many mostly Muslim ethnic groups that live, or have lived, in the Caucasus, a mountainous strip of land between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, between Turkey, the former Ottoman Empire, and Russia.
In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was the "sick man of Europe." Its power was receding, and its borders became porous. Russia moved in to fill the void. Russia wanted warm-water ports in the Black Sea. Russia made war on the Caucasus, in very brutal ways. Russia did this under the czars, under the Communist, Stalin, who deported entire populations, and in the post-Soviet era, for example, during the Second Chechen War.
A previous blog post, here, includes Russian quotes on their conduct of the Caucasus wars of the nineteenth century. These quotes are remarkable for their complete brutality. It is good for us to remember that a Christian nation, Russia, carried out a ruthless genocide against a Muslim people, the Circassians, in the relatively recent past.
Circassians are internationally noted for their beauty. There is a sad side to this fame. Circassians had the habit of selling their daughters into sex slavery, and their sons into military service. During the Russian war on the Circassian people, during desperate economic times, the price of a Circassian slave girl dropped dramatically. A Circassian slave girl who had been priced at a hundred pounds was suddenly available for five pounds.
How is all this related to current events?
Muslim terrorists in the Caucasus have threatened the Russian 2014 Sochi Olympics with terrorism. Sochi is a site of the Circassian genocide. You can read more about that threat here.
The Boston Bombers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were Chechens, one of the Caucasus peoples.
Tangentially, one reason Russia is supporting Syria in its current civil war: Russia uses the Syrian port of Tartus.
The Russians holding the Olympics at Sochi is disgusting. Nothing, though, excuses terrorism. Caucasus terrorists would benefit from watching Wafa Sultan's devastating attack on terrorism. Sultan points out that Jews were the victims of a German genocide, and yet they responded, not by blowing up innocent civilians, but by building up their own community. Wafa Sultan's denunciation of terrorism can be found here.
Circassians should do the same. They should introduce their tragic history into genocide curricula and advance scholarship of their history.
The Circassian Genocide?
Most people have never heard of the Circassian genocide. Most people have never heard of Circassians.
Circassians are one of many mostly Muslim ethnic groups that live, or have lived, in the Caucasus, a mountainous strip of land between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, between Turkey, the former Ottoman Empire, and Russia.
In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was the "sick man of Europe." Its power was receding, and its borders became porous. Russia moved in to fill the void. Russia wanted warm-water ports in the Black Sea. Russia made war on the Caucasus, in very brutal ways. Russia did this under the czars, under the Communist, Stalin, who deported entire populations, and in the post-Soviet era, for example, during the Second Chechen War.
A previous blog post, here, includes Russian quotes on their conduct of the Caucasus wars of the nineteenth century. These quotes are remarkable for their complete brutality. It is good for us to remember that a Christian nation, Russia, carried out a ruthless genocide against a Muslim people, the Circassians, in the relatively recent past.
Circassians are internationally noted for their beauty. There is a sad side to this fame. Circassians had the habit of selling their daughters into sex slavery, and their sons into military service. During the Russian war on the Circassian people, during desperate economic times, the price of a Circassian slave girl dropped dramatically. A Circassian slave girl who had been priced at a hundred pounds was suddenly available for five pounds.
How is all this related to current events?
Muslim terrorists in the Caucasus have threatened the Russian 2014 Sochi Olympics with terrorism. Sochi is a site of the Circassian genocide. You can read more about that threat here.
The Boston Bombers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were Chechens, one of the Caucasus peoples.
Tangentially, one reason Russia is supporting Syria in its current civil war: Russia uses the Syrian port of Tartus.
The Russians holding the Olympics at Sochi is disgusting. Nothing, though, excuses terrorism. Caucasus terrorists would benefit from watching Wafa Sultan's devastating attack on terrorism. Sultan points out that Jews were the victims of a German genocide, and yet they responded, not by blowing up innocent civilians, but by building up their own community. Wafa Sultan's denunciation of terrorism can be found here.
Circassians should do the same. They should introduce their tragic history into genocide curricula and advance scholarship of their history.
Three lines of the "Horrible Traffic in Circassian Women" article stand out:
ReplyDelete1. "...charged with the disposal of the numerous parcels of Circassian girls..." The word "parcels" boggles the mind. Humans as commodity.
2. "I have it on the authority of a respectable slave-broker..." Respectable—that kills me.
3. "...there is hardly a family in Stanboul where infanticide is not practiced..." Can't even begin to comment on that one.
The scary thing about this is that all three statements most likely are true today, at least in some parts of the world.