Podcast | North Caucasians fighting in Ukraine and remembering the Circassian Genocide

25 May 2023

Elizaveta Chukahrova, an independent journalist from the North Caucasus, phones in to talk about the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the North Caucasus and how Russian authorities attempt to hide the number of dead.

Coffins from Ukraine in the North Caucasus

OC Media editor Yousef Bardouka talks about the commemoration of the Circassian Genocide in Nalchik and the state of Circassian activism in the diaspora.

Activists commemorate Circassian Genocide in Nalchik despite event ban

Become a supporter at oc-media.org/support_us, or on Patreon.

Circassian Genocide

Russian police raid home of parents of exiled Circassian activist

Luiza Mchedlishvili

••2 min read

Russian police have interrogated and confiscated the phones of the parents of a Circassian independence activist in Karachay–Cherkessia after raiding their home. On 19 July, Kase Kik who is currently based in the US, stated that the police in Karachay–Cherkessia conducted a search of his parents’ residence, confiscating their phones in a move he called ‘illegal and unauthorised’. Kik said the search was carried out by the FSB and the local Interior Ministry’s Centre for Combating Extremis

Akhmad Ozdo, a member of the Ingush Independence Committee, declaring Ingushetia’s independence from Russia. Screengrab via Youtube.

Chechen and Ingush Deportations

Podcast | Fighting Russia’s colonial legacy in the North Caucasus

OC Media

••2 min read

Since its conquest by Russia in the 19th century, the North Caucasus has been the scene of genocides, forced deportations, wars for independence, and insurgency. The dozens of nations indigenous to the region continue to be repressed socially and culturally by the Russian Federation. However, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has once again raised the imperial nature of the Russian state and has shone a light on how this imperialism extends to the North Caucasus, as seve

Circassian Genocide

Activists commemorate Circassian Genocide in Nalchik despite event ban

Luiza Mchedlishvili

••2 min read

Hundreds of activists marched and gathered in Kabardino-Balkaria to commemorate the 159th anniversary of the Circassian Genocide and the end of the Caucasian War, despite local authorities refusing them permission to do so. The march was organised by the Coordination Council of Adyghe Public Associations in Kabardino-Balkaria. In an interview with RFE/RL, the Coordination Council’s chair, Aslan Beshto, claimed that his group was denied permission to hold the march on the basis that they had

The Circassian Day of Mourning rally in Istanbul. Photo: Alexander Thatcher/OC Media.

Circassian Diaspora

Turkey’s largest North Caucasian organisation to take anti-Kremlin turn?

Alexander Thatcher

••4 min read

Turkey’s largest North Caucasian organisation, KAFFED, might be poised for a possible anti-Kremlin shift in light of a change in leadership that promises to shake up the organisation’s role in contemporary Turkey. Hundreds of North Caucasian flags dotted the streets of Istanbul on 21 May, just as they have on every Circassian Day of Mourning for the past two decades. In a sea of thousands of demonstrators commemorating the Circassian Genocide, you could see the green and gold of the Circassi