Putin's Challenge

This is an article in a series about conflicts between "centre vs. periphery" that is between dominant powers and minorities and how these historical conflicts are looked at in the post 9/11 ideas about anti terrorism. This article discusses a group of people I have never heard of the Circassian people. They are a tribe that lived along the black sea coast and once numbered 250,000. The Russians attacked them in the 19th century and the Circassians fought back so hard that the Russians decided to get rid of them through death or deportation. Out of 3 million Circassians 1.5 million were killed and 1.5 expelled. Now the Circassians that are left live away from their homeland in Turkey and in other Russian republics. The 2014 Winter Olympic games will be in Sochi a Russian resort City. It was the site of the last stand of the Circassians in 1864 and they are outraged that the Olympics will take place in the ground that holds the bodies of their massacred people. To me I can understand this by thinking how would I feel if the Olympics were held on a German or Polish concentration camp.One of the reasons the Circassians were attacked even in the Soviet Era was that they are Muslim. When the Soviet Union collapsed there was a short period where persecution got less but recently they got attacked again with their schools being prohibited from teaching the Circassian culture. The Circassian have reacted in part by forming an Islamic uprising in the Caucasus. The author of this article feels that the powers of Moscow should understand that this kind of rebellion comes from treating peoples on the periphery as terrorist and denying their historical identity. I agree with the author that there is going to be a rebellion in Russia unless the government respects its minority groups. One of the interesting things about this article is the idea that in the name of "anti-terrorism" minority groups particularly Muslims can all be lumped together and persecuted as fanatics it is clear to me that the Circassians have a long long history in the Black Sea region and have suffered from early Genocide and continued persecution that is not really related to other Islamic revolutions. The Circassians were recognized by the Ancient Greeks by having an important heritage. They even competed in the original Olympic Games. It is hard for me to understand how the Russians can ignore this history by holding the modern Olympics at the site of the Circassian defeat. I would have never have known about the Circassians without this article. Their story of persecution and death from the Russians is familiar because it is like the extermination of Native people in the Americas.