Arsen Kanokov: Repatriation of Syrian Circassians will be organized!

January 16, 2012 -- According to a report by Sk-news.ru, the head of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Arsen Kanokov, announced that the procedure for diaspora Circassians to return to their historical homeland will be simplified for Circassians of Syria due to the worsening of the political situation in that country.

“We have decided the republican parliament will appeal to the president of Russia to give people, who have their origins from the territory of contemporary Kabardino-Balkaria, the right to repatriate to the Return Federation”, he said in a meeting with journalists from the republican media. He noted that the Parliament of Adygeya has already submitted an appeal to the same effect.

“Many people are working against the repatriation of our blood brothers. They invented the cliché of ‘Greater Circassia’. However, while the population of Russia is 140 million, soon there will be no one to work and we will end up inviting migrants from Vietnam and China. You should not be afraid of the return to our country of our hardworking pro-Russian people who have retained their native language and customs of their fellow countrymen”, he added.

Out of the estimated population of six million in the Western and Northern Caucasus, about half including Kabardian, Cherkess, Adyghe, Shapsough, Ubykh and other related peoples, left their homeland as a result of the Caucasian War of the 18th and 19th Century.  Today, there are about 800.000 Circassians living in their homeland in the Caucasus while three to five million Circassians live in the diaspora.

Source: Sk-News