Residents of Nalchik hold mourning march on Adygs' Memory Day
The city of Nalchik has hosted a ceremony of laying flowers at the monument "Tree of Life" and a mourning march along city streets on the Adygs' Memory Day. The events were attended by a delegation of Turkish Adygs (Circassians).
The commemorative events dedicated to victims of the Caucasian War, which are held in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) annually on May 21, began at the monument "Tree of Life" (a monument to Adygs – victims of the military-political events in the Caucasus in 1763-1864 – note of the "Caucasian Knot"), where a rally took place. This year, they were attended by 129 specially invited Adygs from Turkey.
After the opening speech pronounced by Mukhadin Kumakhov, the KBR's Minister of Culture, spiritual figures of the republic delivered a prayer. After that, the officials of the government of the KBR laid baskets of flowers to the "Tree of Life".
Residents and guests of the city also took part in the mourning march along Lenin Avenue in Nalchik, which was headed by 70 horse riders.
Boris Pashtov, the Chairman of the Republic's Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the main idea of the event was "a search by a small ethnic group, namely, by Adygs, of their place in the world." According to his story, the fact that in 2014 the Adygs' Memory Day appeared is a positive thing.
The Caucasian War that lasted from 1763 to 1864 put the Adyg nations to the brink of extinction. After the war and the mass deportation of Adygs to the Ottoman Empire, a little more than 50,000 of them remained in the homeland.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.