Circassian genocide
The mass killing and forced displacement of Circassians by the Russian Empire during and after the Russo-Circassian War, culminating in 1864.
Russo-Circassian War: A prolonged conflict between the Russian Empire and Circassian communities in the northwest Caucasus, ending with Russian victory in 1864. The genocide unfolded through the war’s final campaigns and conquest of Circassian territory.
Circassians: An Indigenous people of the northwest Caucasus with distinct languages, cultural traditions, and historical communities. Their communities and homeland were the targets of conquest and mass displacement.
Circassian diaspora: Circassian communities living outside their ancestral homeland, especially in Turkey, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. The expulsions created a diaspora that remains much larger than the Circassian population in the Caucasus.
Genocide: Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The term supplies the legal and historical framework invoked in classifying the Circassian catastrophe.
Forced migration: The coerced movement of people from their homes by violence, threats, or state policy. Survivors were driven from the Caucasus, chiefly toward the Ottoman Empire.
Russian Empire: A Eurasian state ruled by the Romanov dynasty from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. Its military campaigns and policies caused the destruction and removal of Circassian communities.
Circassians in Turkey: People of Circassian ancestry in Turkey, descended largely from migrants expelled from the Caucasus in the nineteenth century. Ottoman resettlement made Turkey the largest center of Circassian diaspora life.
Ethnic cleansing: The deliberate removal of an ethnic or religious population from a territory through force or intimidation. Some accounts emphasize territorial expulsion, while genocide arguments also center on destruction of the group.
Black Sea deportations: The nineteenth-century expulsions of Circassians and other Caucasian peoples across the Black Sea to Ottoman territory. These transport operations carried many expelled Circassians into exile.
Caucasian War: A series of conflicts from 1817 to 1864 in which the Russian Empire conquered much of the North Caucasus. The Circassian struggle formed the western front of Russia’s broader Caucasian campaigns.