The Circassians were never a unified people. They were a bunch of barbarian tribes who were notoriously brutal towards Georgians, Russians and other nearby Caucasian peoples. Their main economy was slavery. In fact even during “peaceful” times they were raiding settlements and selling people into slavery. The Circassian tribes would also raid each other sell their own people to foreign empires for money.
The Ottomans considered Circassian and Georgian slaves to be premium quality and the honorless Circassian leaders were more than happy to sell their own tribal members for quick money.
“Give us back our homeland”: Circassians protest outside Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate
Members of the Circassian diaspora called for the right to return to their historic homeland to be guaranteed for them and their descendants.
Activists are calling for a state repatriation programme that would grant them residency and citizenship rights, as well as assistance with relocation, employment and language learning.
Their demand is rooted in one of the darkest chapters in Caucasian history.
After the century-long Russo-Circassian War, which ended in 1864, the Russian Empire expelled a vast proportion of the Circassian population to the Ottoman Empire.
According to one historical estimate, around one million people — up to 90% of the Circassian people — were forced to leave their homeland.
Many died of hunger and disease or during the crossing of the Black Sea. Historians increasingly regard these events as genocide.
More than 160 years later, a significant proportion of Circassians still live outside the Caucasus, particularly in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Germany and other countries.