After 149 years of ignoring the genocide against the Circassian people, Russia is preparing to host the winter Olympic Games in Sochi a year from now over the same place which witnessed the slaughtering of our people, while Russia adds a new crime to its long list of sins. We the Circassians need to commemorate the 149 years of the Circassian genocide and to condemn the Sochi Olympic Games. Therefore, we urge all Circassians and our peace loving friends around the world to gather and protest in front of Russian representation offices all over the world.

Despite our objections, Russia is hosting the Olympic Games in the city of Sochi. This event will be used to market the Russian culture and identity and the high characteristics of the Russian people. The Olympic Games will be used to disguise the history of the genocide and to break Sochi’s connection with Circassia. Only the power of the public conscious of the world, and Circassians themselves, will stop this recklessness.

Russia suppresses the people’s resistance to the Olympics in Circassia by various methods which include threatening, violence and torture. It triggers its abettors by propagating false news to scandalize its opponents, and bears the responsibility for secret prisons, extrajudicial executions and kidnappings.

The policy of Tsarist Russia after the genocide was enacted to abolish the rights of Circassians to return to the lands they once inhabited. Today, Putin’s Russia is still adopting the same policy by imposing quotas and preventing the return of the Circassian Diaspora, which has prevented women and young children in the war torn country of Syria from crossing the border to their historic homeland.

Russia has been implementing colonial policy to monopolize the North Caucasus since its invasion, and has ensanguined the land through violence and the suppression of independence. Russia reacts to problems by implementing force, provocation, and sows discord among the people, and marginalizes civil and democratic struggles. The power which will liberate North Caucasus and Circassia from the colonial policy is the Circassians and the solidarity of the North Caucasus nations and the public consciousness of the world.

With this consciousness, we as Circassian organizations, which gather under the umbrella of the fifth MAY 21 act, invite not only Circassians of the world and the people of North Caucasus to rise, but also our friends, organizations and those who struggle for the honor of humanity to stand by us.

REUNITE AND FACE THE GENOCIDE

MAY 21 participant organizations

Circassian Cultural Institute, Circassian Nationalist Movement, Caucasus Forum, Caucasus Foundation, Hamburg Circassian Association, IKKD Youth, International Circassian Council, Jineps (Newspaper), Justice for North Caucasus Group, ULUKAF