The Day of Renaissance of the Karachay people was celebrated in Karachay-Cherkessia

On the day of the 55th anniversary of return of the Karachay people to their historic homeland after forcible deportation, ceremonies of celebration were held in the towns and districts of the republic.

On May, 3, 1957, mass return of the Karachay people to thier historic homeland started after 14 years of residing in the areas of deportation. This day, 55 years ago, the first echelon with Karachay repatriates who on November, 2, 1943, were deported to Kazakhstan and Central Asia arrived at the railway station of the aul of Erken-Shakhar.

Memorable actions started in Karachaevsk where a ceremony of laying flowers to the memorial complex of the victims of deportation passed off. Then a meeting of the community of the republic was held in Cherkessk.

“I was a ten-years-old boy and I well remember the day of our return. The train stopped in Urakovskaya station, the adults ran out. Our Nogai brothers welcomed us hearty, played national harmonic and treated us to Nogai tea with hot locums. We danced and enjoyed ourselves. It was an incomparable and indescribable joy. We felt that we were waited for in our homeland. There were our brothers; the Naogai, the Abazins, the Russians and the Circassians”, Salykh Khapchaev, Deputy of the People’s Assembly (Parliament) of KCR, narrated.

“I was eighteen when we were deported and up to the very end we had a glimmer of hope and belief that justice would prevail and we would return back home. We had been dreaming of return for 14 years. Then all of us, students of Kazakhstan institutes of higher education, the Karachay, the Chechen, the Balkar, the Ingush, were gathered and informed of the Decreeof the Supreme Soviet of the USSR according to which we could return to our homeland”, Boris Tokhchukov, producer of the Karachay theatre, said.

“May, 3, is an outstanding date in the history of the Karachay people which in many respects determined our historical fate and the future of all the peoples of the republic. 55 years ago on this day in all the people’s cheerful atmosphere the fraternal peoples of Karachay-Cherkessia were meeting the first echelon in which the Karachay people unbroken by sore trial,maintaining their spirit and courage started returning to their historic homeland”, Head of KCR Rashid Temrezov said.