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The Circassians
Central to the story of Games are the Circassians, a people of whom few readers may have heard. They will in the runup to the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. Sochi is where the Winter Olympics site is being developed, over the area where the graves of thousands of Circassians slaughtered nearly 150 years ago are located. The Circassians were an indigenous people from the Caucasus region near the Black Sea. Neighbors included the Chechens, the Ingushetia and the Ossetians. Russia conquered the Caucasus in the century from 1763 onwards Most Circassians were driven out of the homeland and dispersed throughout the world. Many critics say it was then that Russia invented modern genocide. The expulsion began in 1864 and was mostly over by 1870.The Russian army rounded them up, drove them to ports on the Black Sea and exported them across the water to the Ottoman Empire. An unknown number, died while waiting to be transported, or in ships that sank during the voyages. There has never been an official Russian recognition of the genocide. I first became interested in them many years ago when a soldier began chatting with me on the shores of the Dead Sea in what was then Jordan. He turned out to be a Circassian, a member of the Jordanian Royal Guard (as were all Circassians) and he put me up for days in their club in Amman,. A wonderful, cultured and very exceptional people. There are many Circassian sites available through Google or Bing. The kavkazcenter.com,; Circassiannation.org. and Circassianworld.com have ample information on their sites. Other Russian supporting sites give alternative views. Nosochi2014.com is on Facebook and Twitter |