Circassian Genocide: Historical Legitimacy Question [Çerkes Soykırımı: Tarihsel Meşruiyet Sorunu]

Son yıllarda, Rusya'daki bazı çağdaş siyasi etkiler nedeniyle, Çerkes aktivistler ve bazı yabancı devletler, 19. yüzyılda Çerkes sürgününün (zorla yerinden edilmelerin) ve Rus kolonizasyonunun çağdaş siyaset felsefesindeki kavramlarla açıklandığında Rusya İmparatorluğu tarafından etnik temizlik ve soykırım yapıldığı şeklinde ifade edilebileceğini öne sürdüler. Çerkes soykırımı kampanyası, tarihsel kayıtlara göre bu kolonizasyon sırasında binlerce insanın katledildiğini iddia etmektedir. Böylelikle, Çerkes Soykırımı uluslararası bir mesele haline gelmeye başlamıştır. Bu makale Çerkes Soykırımı'nın meşruiyet sorununu, 1948 Soykırımın Önlenmesi ve Soykırım Suçlarının Cezalandırılması Sözleşmesindeki etik ve soykırım tanımına göre sorgulamaktadır. Başka bir yerde ahlaki epistemoloji bakışını tanımlıyoruz, ancak mevcut bağlamda bu konuyu detaylandırmayacağız.Bu çalışmada inceleyeceğimiz bir diğer önemli faktör ise, Çerkeslerin bu tarihi olayı bir soykırım olarak tanımaya yönelik bugünkü faaliyetleridir. Bugün soykırımın uluslararası tanınması etrafında Çerkes kimliğinde önemli bir tür birleşme ve senfonik hareketin geliştiğini görüyoruz. Bu yazının amacı etnik temizlik ve soykırımı göstermek veya kanıtlamak değil, çağdaş Avrasya siyasetindeki bilgilerimize göre, pek çok tarihsel bilgiye dayanarak, bunun bir soykırım olup olmadığını tartışmaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Çerkes Soykırımı, Çerkes Sürgün, Soçi Kış Olimpiyatları, Çerkesya Tarihi

Circassian Genocide: Historical Legitimacy Question [Çerkes Soykırımı: Tarihsel Meşruiyet Sorunu]

In recent years, due to some contemporary political influences in Russia, Circassian activists, and some foreign states have proposed that the Circassian exile (forced deportations) and Russian colonization in the 19th century, might be considered as an expression of the contemporary notion in philosophical politics of ethnic cleansing and the genocide by the Russian Empire. This campaign claims that according to the historical records during these colonization thousands upon thousands of humans were massacred. Hence, the formation of the Circassian Genocide as an international issue is begun to be internationalized, this paper tries to clarify the legitimacy question of the Circassian Genocide based on the ethical dimension and the meaning of genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. We describe this view about moral epistemology elsewhere, but we will not elaborate on it in the present context. Another important factor that we will survey in this study, is the recent activities of Circassians to recognize this historical event as a genocide. Nowadays we see a considerable sort of unification and symphonic movement has been developed in Circassian identity around the international recognition of the genocide. Due to a lot of historical information, the aim of this paper is not to demonstrate or to prove the ethnic cleansing and genocide, but is to discuss that it was a genocide or not, according to our knowledge in Eurasian contemporary politics.

Keywords:

Circassian Genocide, Circassian Exile, Winter Olympics of Sochi, History of Circassia,

PDF

___

Barry, E. Georgia Says Russia Committed Genocide in 19th Century. The New York Times. (2011).
Baytugan, B. The North Caucasus Studies on the Soviet Union. Vo.XI. (1971).
Bellamy, A. J. and J Tim Dunne. R2P in Theory and Practice. The Oxford handbook of the responsibility to protect, 2016.
Bubenok, O. “The Adyghe Factor in The Ethnopolitical Development of The Northern Caucasus”. Central Asia and The Caucasus: Volume 16, Issue 2 (2015).
Bullough, O. “Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics: The Circassians Cry Genocide”. Newsweek, May 21, 2012.
Catic, M. “Circassians and the Politics of Genocide Recognition”. Journal Europe-Asia Studies: Volume 67, Issue 10 (2015):1685-1708.
Chalk, F. “Redefining Genocide”, in Andreopoulos, George J. (ed.), Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
Chisholm, H. “Circassia. Encyclopedia Britannica”. Vol. 6 (11th Ed.). Cambridge University Press, 1911.
Fassin, D. and R. Rechtman. The Empire of Trauma: An Inquiry into the Condition of Victimhood. Princeton and Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Filip, I. “Morality and Ethical Theories”. Ethics & Medicine 32.2, (2016): 83-87.
Glenny, M. The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-2011. Penguin Publishing Group, 2012.
Hansen, L. F. The Circassian Revival: A Quest for Recognition, Mediated Transnational Mobilisation and Memorialization among a Geographically Dispersed People from the Caucasus. PhD Thesis., University of Copenhagen, 2014.
Hawley, K. “Trust, Distrust, and Epistemic Injustic”. The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, edited by Ian James Kidd, José Medina, Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr. London: Routledge, 2017.
Henze, P. B. Circassian Resistance to Russia. London: HURST & CO. 1992.
Kappeler, A. The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History. London: Longman, 2001.
Kasumov, A. K. Genotsid Adygov: Iz Istorii Bor'by Adygov za Nezavisimost' v XIX Veke. Nalchik: LOGOS, 1992.
Kaya, A. “The Circassian Diaspora In and Outside Turkey Construction of Transnational Space in the Post-Communist Era”. Problems of Post-Communism, vol. 61, no. 4. (2014).
Khlynina, T.P. “History, Politics and National Construction in the Northern Caucasus”. (in Ukrainian). Historical and Political Science Studies: No. 4 (54), (2013).
King, C. The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Kumikov, T. Vyselenie Adygov v Turtsiiu—Posledstvie Kavkazskoi Voiny. Nalchik: T. Kh. 1994.
Levene, M. Genocide in the Age of the Nation State. London; New York: I.B. 2005.
Markovits, A. and Rensmann, L. Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.
Müller, M. State dirigisme in megaprojects: governing the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Environment and Planning A 43, 2011.
Narochnitskii, A. L. (ed.) Istoriia Narodov Severnogo Kavkaza (Konets XVIII v.-1917 g.). Moscow: Nauka.
Natho, K. I. Circassian History. Xlibris Corporation, 2009.
Orentlicher, D. F. Crimes of War: A–Z Guide: Genocide. The Crimes of War Education Project, 2001.
Persson, E. Olympism and Empire: The Olympic Myth in the Contestation of the Caucasus. In The Sochi Predicament: Contexts, Characteristics and Challenges of the Olympic Winter Games 2014, edited by B. Petersson and K. Vamling. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2013.
Petersson B., & Vamling, K. The Sochi Predicament. Contexts, Challenges and Characteristics of the Olympic Winter Games in 2014. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
Petersson, B. and Vamling, K. “Fifteen minutes of fame long gone: Circassian activism before and after the Sochi Olympics”. Sport in Society: 20/4, (2017).
Polovinkina, T. V. Cherkesiia—Bol’ Moia. Istoricheskii Ocherk. (drevneishee vremia—nachalo XX v.). Maykop: RIPO. 1999.
Richmond, W. The Circassian Genocide. Rutgers University Press, 2013.
Sakwa, R. “Russia: from Stalemate to Crisis”. The Brown Journal of World Affairs 19:1, (2012).
Sen, A. The Idea of Justice. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.
Shenfield, S. D. The Circassians: a forgotten genocide. In Levene, Mark and Penny Roberts, eds., The massacre in history. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books. Series: War and Genocide, 1999.
Shevtsova, L. “Russia under Putin: Titanic looking for its iceberg”. Communist and Post-Communist Studies: 45, (2012).
Shmulevich, A. Cherkesskiyvopros [Circassian Question]. 2015.
Wood, T. Chechnya: the Case for Independence. Verso, 2007.
Zhemukhov, S. “The Birth of Modern Circassian Nationalism”. Nationalities Papers, 40 (4): Taylor & Francis Online, (2012).