Circassians edit
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Circassians edit
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Circassians is a term derived from the Turkic Cherkess (Çerkes) and is not the self-designation of any people. It has sometimes been applied indiscriminately to all the peoples of the North Caucasus, including the Mamluks. Most specifically, the term can apply only to the Adyghe people. Today a significant number of "Circassians" live in diaspora.
More commonly it has referred to all the peoples of the northwest Caucasus:
The term's vagueness stems largely from the fact that the northern Caucasus was a remote and relatively unknown area for Westerners and Turks, who often did not distinguish carefully among similar groups living there.
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From 1763 to 1864, the Circassians fought against the Russians in the Russian-Circassian War only succumbing to a scorched earth campaign initiated in 1862 under General Yevdokimov.12 Afterwards, large numbers of Circassians were exiled and deported to the Ottoman Empire; others were resettled in Russia far from their home territories.34
Circassians began arriving in the Levant in the 1860s and 1870s through resettlement by the Ottoman Empire.citation needed Even today, various communities of Caucasian origin living in the Middle East, notably Jordan and Syria and small communities in Israel, are known as Circassians, and a suburb of Damascus settled by these people is called Al-charkassiyya. Modern Amman was reborn after Circassians settled there in 1878 or 1887 along with other important Pre-Jordanian towns, and the first wave of Circassian settled Amman was from the Shapsug-Shapsigh tribe,5 and as a result the first four Mayors of Amman were Circassians from 1905-1920,5 before the establishment of Transjordan by the Hashemite Emir Abdullah, and the Circassians were a big supporter for the Emir, hand by hand with the Jordanian Beduin Tribes. During the French Mandate period in Syria, in the 1930s, some Circassians in the mostly Circassian town of Al-Quneitra tried to convince the French authorities to create a Circassian national home for them in the Golan Heights, but failed in their attempt. The objective was to group the large numbers of Circassians already living in Turkey and in various Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt.
In Israel, there are also a few thousand Circassians, living mostly in Kfar Kama (2,000) and Rehaniya (1,000).6 These two villages were a part of a greater group of Circassian villages around the Golan Heights. The Circassians in Israel enjoy, like Druzes, a status aparte. Circassian men are also mandated for military services.
In Syria, the Circassians lived in the Golan Heights. After the 1967 Arab-İsraeli war, they withdrew further into Syria, specifically to Damascus. Finding their settlement unsatisfactory, they petitioned the U.S.A. in the mid 1970's for asylum. The U.S. allowed many of them to immigrate to America, where they settled in New Jersey and New York City.
The Circassians who remained in Syria are well off. Many of them works in government, civil service or the military. Most Circassians learn Arabic in school, speak Adygey ( their native language ) among themselves and study English.Students in junior high school study written Circassian in cyrillic script. However there are no newspapers and few Circassian books printed in Syria.
The Circassians of Syria were actively involved in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. This unit, was under the leadership of Cevad Anzor. Subsequently, 200 Circassians were killed in action. They saved the occupied lands but the Arabs failure of resistance caused the Israeli re-occupation, and the special Circassians unit was disbanded.
Cultural events play an important role in maintaining the ethnic identity of the Circassians. During holidays and weddings, they perform folk dances and songs in their traditional dress. Circassian population in Syria in 1990 28500 ,1995 33800, 2000 40000.
Around 1600, several emigrants from the Caucasus region, of somewhat privileged descent, settled in the then Principality of Moldavia, and became under the name "Cerchez" (pronounced [Cherkez] in Romanian) one of its 72 boyar families. In time they were assimilated into the general population. However one of the last descendants of this family, Mihail Christodulo Cerchez, was a Romanian national hero in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 (Osman Paşa, the Turkish commander of the Pleven garrison, who was an Adyge himself, surrendered his sword to him at the end of the siege). One of the main halls of the Cotroceni palace in Bucharest is named "Sala Cerchez" ("Cerchez Hall") in memory of General Cerchez.
A small minority of Circassians had lived in Kosovo Polje since the late 1880s, which was given mention by Noel Malcolm in his seminal work about that province, but they were repatriated to the Republic of Adygea in southern Russia in the late 1990s.7