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The Circassian diaspora in Turkey organized commemoration ceremonies in Kefken, Kocaeli, and in Ankara, yesterday, May 21, which is the symbolic date for the Circassian exile and genocide.
The first place where a ceremony was held was Kefken this year again where the Abkhazian Associations Federation (ABHAZFED) organized a ceremony.
Qur'an was read out in the graveyard in the Karaağaç neighborhood in Kefken, which is a symbolic coast in Kefken. Then the Circassians left a wreath and carnations to the sea on the Babalı shore.
A "Nart fire" was lit on the shore and a "gravestone watch" was kept around it until the sunset. People then marched with torches at night.
The group also visited the "Caucasian Exile Monument" which was built with the support of the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality.
“We are here and we will return one day”
The Caucasian Associations Federation (KAFFED) chose to commemorate the exile and the genocide in Ankara this year.
The Circassians meeting in front of the Beşevler metro station in Ankara walked to the Anıtpark silently.
They carried slogans that read, "We do not want revenge, we want justice," "The name of this is genocide," "Russia, we will return," and "May 21, 1864". The participants also carried a Circassian flag and they condemned the exile.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Deniz Demir and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Ankara MP Murat Alpaslan were also present at the commemoration.
"We are here, and we will return"
KAFFED Chairperson Ümit Dinçer gave a speech and he said that May 21 was not only a day of mourning and commemoration. The genocide and the exile were continuing even today, he stated.
"As a society, we avoided saying that we were subjected to genocide. For a period, May 21 was a commemoration and mourning day for us. But we believe that it is now time to make May 21's something more than a day of mourning. We have to be able to look over May 21 and imagine a future; this should be our standpoint.
"May 21 is not only a mourning and commemoration day. It is a day of determination for a struggle, for uniting, for resurrection, for demanding our rights and for saying, 'We have not been slaughtered, we are here and one day, we will return.'"
"Tsitsekun"
The Jewish genocide is named ‘Holocaust’, the Armenian genocide ‘Meds Yeghern’, the Syrian genocide ‘Seyfo’, and the Dersim genocide "Tertele."
In 2014, the Circassians named the Circassian genocide and exile using the word "Tsitsekun" in the Ubykh language now extinct. The word means "mass murder, slaughter."
The word is listed in the Ubykh dictionary published in 1963, prepared by Hans Vogt, a linguist from Norway, and attributed to Tevfik Esenç, known as the "last Ubykh" who carried out studies with Hans Vogt, and also Georges Dumezil and Şeraşidze and prepared a dictionary for the language that no one is left speaking. (HA/PE)
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