In the Caucasus, the return of the “repatriates” of the Cherkesses

Text by: Étienne Bouche

Originally from the North Caucasus, the Cherkesses, formerly called Circassians, were forced into exile when in 1864 the Russian imperial army conquered the region. Defeated, they mainly left to settle in the Ottoman Empire. In the early 1990s, the implosion of the Soviet Union prompted Cherkesses to return to the land of their ancestors. A migratory flow which intensified from 2011, when war broke out in Syria. Neither refugees nor foreigners, they are called "repatriates". In the Caucasus, the Cherkesse community is mobilizing to organize their return to a land that is now part of the Russian Federation.

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From our regional correspondent, Étienne Bouche

On the outskirts of Panakhes, new houses with rough facades follow one another in succession, along an elevated gas pipe. Nart lives in the last one, at the end of the dirt road. In his garden, he feeds his hens, which are noisily massing around him. In another life, this man with the unchanging smile was a barber in a Damascus salon. In recent years, he has improvised as a farmer in this aoul (village) of the Adygea where “returnees” from Syria have settled. Nart's family is from Marj al-Sultan, a Chechen village in Ghouta. When war broke out in the country, she chose to go to the Caucasus. Or rather, to come back to it. “  Now we have to build our lives here. This is our homeland,  ”says Mazhar, the octogenarian patriarch. But 150 years later, these descendants of exiles are like immigrants on their own land. Without losing her cheerful mood, her daughter Barina struggles to find her place. “  The first years were very difficult, we lived without financial resources. And without fluency in Russian, it is very complicated to find a job or start a business.  In a region where work is scarce, she would like to use her knowledge of English.

At the moment when Syria ignites, the Russian federal power sends a parliamentary delegation to Damascus. "  Representatives of local parliaments and the voluntary sector have asked the authorities to take measures in favor of the Cherkess in Syria,  " reports Asker Sokht, head of the main Cherkess organization in Krasnodar. Russia then granted visas and residence permits to populations whose "  essentials had retained, in one way or another, links with the country  ". Already in Soviet times, Syria was a “friendly” country which sent students and future soldiers to the USSR. Barsbi, Barina's nephew, was born in Russia. "  My father went there regularly in the 1990s,  " says the man who regularly assumes the role of family interpreter. Arrived young, Russian-speaking, he now plans, like the majority of returnees of his generation, to make a living in Russia. "  Why would I go back to Syria? We have waited so long for this return to our land  . ”

In the Republic of Adygea, the repatriation of the Cherkesses from the diaspora benefits from the support of local power. Mafekhabl presents itself as the showcase of this policy. "  Here, there is everything you need: an infirmary, a mosque, a sports field ... The installation conditions are ideal,  " explains Askhad Goutchetl, director of the reception center for returnees. This regional structure was founded during the Kosovo war in 1998. "  We then organized the return of several Cherkess families from the former Yugoslavia,  " he says. Anxious to bring back their compatriots, the local businessmen finance the construction of this pretty and orderly aoul . Mafekhal is now home to families from not only Kosovo, but also from the main diaspora homes: Turkey, Syria, Jordan. “  The reception center allows us to provide new arrivals with administrative, legal and social assistance. We make sure that the Cherkesses from abroad want to live here,  ”explains Askhad Goutchetl, for whom this mission presents both demographic and cultural challenges.

► Read also: The return to the Caucasus of the Kosher people of Kosovo

According to activist Asker Sokht, around 6,000 Cherkesses from Syria have obtained a Russian residence permit since the start of the war. Half of them settled in the territory while the other left for Europe via Russia. About a third of those who remained on Russian soil have obtained passports. "  The lack of knowledge of Russian is the main obstacle,  " he said, while being optimistic: since last year, the national program to assist the voluntary return of compatriots abroad also applies to the Adygeaous. A provision which should make it possible to regularize all the returnees present in the republic. "  The development of the internet has made it possible to bring diasporas around the world together,  " rejoices Asker Bora, founder of an association helping return to Nalchik, in Kabardino-Balkaria - in the Caucasus, the Cherkesses live in different republics, as many artificial administrative divisions inherited from the USSR. When arrivals were numerous, the association had obtained the provision of old sanatoriums. The last one still occupied shelters forty returnees. "  We would need federal subsidies ...  ", Asker studies, emphasizing the solidarity of the community and the success of integration. "  As soon as possible, families take their independence  ." Samira still occupies a small room in the sanatorium. This former school principal left Damascus with mixed feelings: the bitterness of leaving everything behind and the emotion of finding the homeland of her ancestors. She keeps in touch with those who stayed behind and couldn't afford to leave.

►Also listen: The return of the Syrian Cherkesses to the Caucasus

Permitted by the fall of the USSR, the reaffirmation of national identities inspired the rhetoric of the Kremlin, which today honors the "multinational" character of Russia. But completed only 150 years ago, the conquest of the Caucasus remains a source of tension. When some renounce to stir the past, others express a dull resentment. “  Unlike the one suffered by the Armenians, no one has heard of the genocide of the Cherkesses. Fortunately, in recent years, the diaspora has been active,  ”says a returnee from Syria. "  This theme was very present before and during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, held at the scene of some of the last battles of the" Great Caucasian War  "," noted historian Yaroslav Lebedynsky. On this subject, the spokespersons of the Cherkess cause in Russia generally observe a certain prudence. According to Asker Bora, the benefactor of Nalchik, the country has not yet made its introspection. “  It is clear that the teaching of history is problematic.  "

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