Sochi's indigenous people

Sochi's indigenous people

Advertisement

Sochi is famous as the city that will soon host the lavish 2014 Winter Olympics - the costliest Games in history.

But for an ethnic group known as Circassians, it has a much deeper association. They are a people indigenous to the North Caucasus region and the rolling landscape around the Olympic city was their ancestors' homeland, before most were scattered by a 19th century tsarist military campaign that killed huge numbers.

. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

The village of Tkhagapsh, where these two farmers live, is one of the few remaining settlements in the Sochi region that consists mainly of Circassians.

Most members of the predominantly Muslim group are now part of a widely spread diaspora after their ancestors were expelled from their native region in 1864.

Circassian groups have called for the killings that took place at that time to be recognised as genocide. Some have campaigned against the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, set to take place in the very same broad valleys and mountain slopes they say hold the bones of their ancestors.

. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Madin Chachukh is a Circassian who lives in Tkhagapsh. Once a Soviet army correspondent, he now writes about Circassian folklore.

"As every small nation, the biggest threat we face today is the loss of our language and subsequently our culture,” said Chachukh.

“There are only very few of us left, too few. We wish the government gave us money to help us preserve our language. Its loss would be a tragedy,” he said.

. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Anzaur Alyal, another Circassian, poses for a portrait in the village of Tkhagapsh.

"Some say during the opening ceremony of the Olympics there will be Circassians in their traditional dresses walking in the first row. No one knows, it's all a big secret.”

“This would of course be a very good thing. At the same time, I would like people to understand that Circassians are more than just folklore dance and costumes. Our culture is very rich and ancient. There is much more to it," Alyal said.

1 / 19

Slideshow

A delegation from the Circassian diaspora gathers to view a memorial stone, which marks a former settlement destroyed during the Russian-Caucasian war.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

A delegation from the Circassian diaspora gathers to view a memorial stone, which marks a former settlement destroyed during the Russian-Caucasian war.

The delegation, whose members hailed from countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States, travelled to Sochi to visit their ancestors' homeland ahead of the Olympics.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

The delegation, whose members hailed from countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States, travelled to Sochi to visit their ancestors' homeland ahead of the Olympics.

A memorial plaque shows the names of members of the Teshu (Teshev) family who died during the Stalin era in the predominantly Circassian village of Tkhagapsh.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

A memorial plaque shows the names of members of the Teshu (Teshev) family who died during the Stalin era in the predominantly Circassian village of Tkhagapsh.

Members of the Circassian diaspora pose for a family photograph in Greater Sochi.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Members of the Circassian diaspora pose for a family photograph in Greater Sochi.

Local Circassian men watch a welcome ceremony for the diaspora Circassians at a tourist lodge.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Local Circassian men watch a welcome ceremony for the diaspora Circassians at a tourist lodge.

Circassian villager Madin Chachukh watches local children rehearse a folkloric dance.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Circassian villager Madin Chachukh watches local children rehearse a folkloric dance.

Boys in traditional dress peer out at the audience before a dance performance for members of the Circassian diaspora.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Boys in traditional dress peer out at the audience before a dance performance for members of the Circassian diaspora.

Diaspora Circassians watch the show.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Diaspora Circassians watch the show.

A member of the Circassian diaspora looks at artwork displayed at a museum in the Lazerevskoye district of Sochi.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

A member of the Circassian diaspora looks at artwork displayed at a museum in the Lazerevskoye district of Sochi.

Circassian men talk at a tourist lodge in Golovinka, outside Sochi, during a visit by the delegation of diaspora Circassians.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Circassian men talk at a tourist lodge in Golovinka, outside Sochi, during a visit by the delegation of diaspora Circassians.

Circassian villager Ashirkhan Chachukh, 82, and her great-grand daughter Saira, 4, sit in the living room of their house in Tkhagapsh.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Circassian villager Ashirkhan Chachukh, 82, and her great-grand daughter Saira, 4, sit in the living room of their house in Tkhagapsh.

Ais Tlyf, another Circassian villager, poses for a photograph in his kitchen.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Ais Tlyf, another Circassian villager, poses for a photograph in his kitchen.

The painted wall of a guest house is seen in the mostly Circassian village of Tkhagapsh.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

The painted wall of a guest house is seen in the mostly Circassian village of Tkhagapsh.

Former Soviet army correspondent and writer Madin Chachukh walks down the main road in the village.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Former Soviet army correspondent and writer Madin Chachukh walks down the main road in the village.

Fellow Circassian villager Muzarbek Teshu tends his beehives.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Fellow Circassian villager Muzarbek Teshu tends his beehives.

Teshu poses for a portrait.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Teshu poses for a portrait.

Madin Chachukh walks past a traditional four-legged storage house in the village of Tkhagapsh.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Madin Chachukh walks past a traditional four-legged storage house in the village of Tkhagapsh.

A Circassian villager chops wood.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

A Circassian villager chops wood.

A villager in Tkhagapsh walks down a road at dusk.
. SOCHI, Russia. Reuters/Thomas Peter

A villager in Tkhagapsh walks down a road at dusk.

"In the streets of Sochi… you are unlikely to hear the language of the indigenous people."
Thomas Peter

It is not easy to find Circassians in historical Circassia, a densely vegetated land of rolling hills and mountain slopes soaring to snowy heights along the northeastern coast of the Black Sea.

The region of Greater Sochi used to be the homeland of the Circassian people before their expulsion by the Russian army in the 19th century. Modern Sochi has an ethnic make-up of staggering diversity; besides Russians, there are people from numerous other Caucasus nations, as well as Armenians, Georgians, Cossacks, Jews and Ukrainians.

But the people who resisted Russia’s expansion into the land of their fathers for some forty years are largely gone. The last Circassian forces surrendered to the Russian army in 1864 on a glade in the mountains above Sochi, later named Krasnaya Polyana. In a matter of weeks it will be the site where athletes compete for Olympic gold in the skiing events.

The highlanders’ defeat heralded a campaign of forced eviction on a massive scale. “Perhaps as many as 300,000 Circassians died from hunger, violence, drowning and disease when Russia expelled them from their lands,” writes journalist and author Oliver Bullough in his book about the Caucasus, “Let Our Fame Be Great.” Circassian groups have called for the killings to be recognised as genocide.

The majority of the Circassian nation was sent on ships to the Ottoman Empire. Only a scattering was allowed to stay in Russia on the condition that they relocate to the lowlands north of the mountains. Most Circassians live today beyond Russia’s borders, mainly in the Middle East, with smaller communities dotted across Europe and North America.

When Russia was awarded the right to host the 2014 Winter Games, an outcry went through many in the Circassian diaspora. They demanded the Games be moved unless Moscow apologised for the death of their ancestors. Some Circassians even compared the Sochi Games to hosting a sporting competition on the grounds of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. The closest that Russia has come to apologising for the killings was in the 1990s, when former President Boris Yeltsin acknowledged that resistance to tsarist violence was justified.

In the streets of Sochi, an urban sprawl that snakes some 145 km (90 miles) along the coast, you are unlikely to hear the language of the indigenous people. Tkhagapsh, however, is one of the few settlements on this side of the mountains where Circassians are still in the majority. Nestling in the foothills some 85 km (83 miles) northwest of Sochi, the village is home to 180 inhabitants and boasts a small wooden mosque, a culture centre and a memorial commemorating village ancestors who died at the hands of Russians and Soviets.

Tkhagapsh native Madin Chachukh, a retired Soviet Army officer turned Circassian folklore writer keeps his mind on the challenges of the present instead of pondering the tragedies of the past. “Our biggest danger is that we forget our language,” he said over tea with cognac in the kitchen of the house where he grew up. “We wish the government gave us money to help us preserve our language and thereby our culture.”

His people will never forget the destruction of their nation, but one should accept the course of history, he said. “The Russians have done the same to us what American settlers have done to the Indians. That’s what empires do, they take all the resources and land they can. At the time it was considered normal.”

But Anzaur Alyal, 32, who is active in groups that strive to preserve Circassian culture, insists that Tkhagapsh remains, in a cultural sense, Circassian land.

“We tell tourists who come here: ‘Welcome to Adygea’ (the name Circassians use to describe their land). This upsets some patriotic Russian visitors. But we ask them to accept that they are standing on the soil of our fathers and forefathers, and they were not Russian. This is logical, isn’t it?”