Our Dear Motherland

Our culture is belong to motherland and only there it can survive. So we need there. Culture is based on customs and customs are based on habits. And habits are formed by mostly natural environment. That's why Africans wear thin clothes, and their language has lots of names of animals and plants. You don't have to be quick while going somewhere. Because, it is too hot. You have to do your jobs in the dawn if you don't want to work under the boiling tempature of the sun. So waking up early is a habit there. And this also causes lots of habits done during the early hours of the day.

Once we were there, there was mostly cold especially the highlands. So we wore thick clothes to protect ourselves from cold weather. We had to carry weapons to protect themselves against the wild animals and human enemies to be able to survive. We had to be respected for our olds because they were the only vast source of experience which is vital as a way of gathering information for youngs. We had to have a fast horse to follow our enemies or run away from somewhere. Our dances and the rhythms are mostly fast, because it was cold. The land was difficult to cultivate and we ate fruits and we gave a great importance to fruit trees. Because, it was the most plentiful source of food. During winter nights and days, there weren't much work to do, that's why our meetings were done then. We were waiting long winter nights to tell old stories or to make conversations, which were the only suitable time for the highlanders. Our ancestors survived for generations on the difficult circumstances of the high lands for thousands years. Those valleys and mountains and the creatures gave us some habits like a gift from the creator. These habits built our customs. And they made us. That's why all the Circassians folks are familiar to each other and we are the daughters and sons of the same father and mother.

New technologies has changed the needs and dependencies. We can go to market and buy whatever we want without waiting the proper season for the fruits or anything else. We have warm, comfortable cars now. So our clothes are thinner than before. But we are heavier than before because a car can carry us. It doesn't matter how heavy we are. We are workers and factories run during the winters, too. So there are less conversations than before. We all have to wake up early. So this was the end of the famous joyful long meetings of Circassians.

First a habit and then others changed, which changed our customs and those change us. We were forced to immigrate so we lost some of our habits. And with the technological developments and a new style of living in the modern world we are losing the rest. We are not real Circassians anymore, we can only be called as a modern Circassian people, whose clothes, customs, stories, language ... etc are completely different from our ancestors.

Coming back to our lands probably won't make us as we were once. But, at least we may lose slower and we can mourn for the things taken mercileslly from us.

Sincerely yours,
Kenugi J. UBYKH

A Not-Mentioned Cultural Genocide

Our ancestors, especially Chechen people have been in war for more than 400 years. War times are probably the worst times of nations. During these times, there are only two strong feelings; to survive and destroy. Other feelings are always - normally and absolutely – postponed for peace times. While struggling your enemy (in every part of your country without finding a place to have a rest for a while) people are not expected to create an emotional poem, or warriors don't have pencils and papers on them to write a thoughtful article ... etc. A war element is always dominant to other elements in culture. I have read some articles on Circassian Genocide, but nobody mentioned yet about “Circassian Cultural Genocide”.

Before and during the Great Circassian War, most of the Circassian people couldn't write or read. Circassian languages were spoken (not written) languages, because of which they were evaluated to speak, not to write. Stories and knowledge of people were transmitted to the youngs from the elders by the help of oral words. There weren't any real libraries. But, the elders (because of their age finding a natural chance of collecting more information) were thought as an individual library. This caused the elders constituted the strongest elders council in history. They were so powerful that nobody even the leaders always had to obey them. They could never be criticized because of their decisions. For a leader the main step to be passed was to persuade the elders. So, during the Great Circassian War not only people but also a non-written rich culture died. With every death a transmitted stories also ended. During that war, it was recorded that 2.000.000 people were died. It means that 2.000.000 or more stories died. They were the stories of not only Circassian people, but also they were stories of the whole world, because those stories went back to the creation of Earth, as Nart Sages. This was the sudden ending of a culture.

But also there is another important point which is not mentioned before; having a war time life style. As I have said before war times are not ideal times for a literature or culture to progress in a positive way. It is true that war poems, stories, ... expressing the anger to enemy, the sorrow of losing a friend, or praise the courage of a hero ... are often produced but they are all related or on war. As our ancestors were nearly always in war, they first taught their children how to protect themselves and destroy the enemy forces in a perfect way. Nearly all Circassian children had a perfect feeling of destroy, fight and had a war knowledge than any other non-Circassian adult soldier, because of which a Russian Czar said every Circassian soldier is equal to 7 Russian soldier. A Circassian people was born and died as a soldier. (Even today, martial arts and wrestling are favorite sports among Circassian youths.) Why? Because, this was the only way for Circassian people to survive and protect their lands. Nearly every culture has something about war in it. But, Circassian culture mainly based on War. Even today we can see the famous dagger dancings, and also stories and plays on War. Circassian culture can be thought as a culture of an army. But, this army is not a part of a nation but the only element of a nation. War times are described as crisis times and temporary, so Circassians had a 400 years crisis so we can not call it as temporary anymore.

Circassian people are excellent soldiers. They are brave but you can not explain their success only with to be brave, they are also very clever people. Literature and artistic materials creation can be only achieved by wiser minds. If war is not a life style for them. They could create wonderful masterpieces. Today in Diaspora we can see lots of famous outers, artists, ... etc just in a half and one century. They are excellent and very famous masters on their fields. Last month one of them exhibited a collection of his paintings. They were wondrous. And I thought on the things we could have created in 400 years. Every Circassian people I know write , read, paint, act or do something. They always want to be the first. During wars they want to be the first in the battle grounds, and in peace times they try to be first in what field they are in, which is the main quality of being a Circassian.

The ones, who exiled us from our homeland were guilty because of sorrows of us. But, they were also guilty of destroying a rich, world heritage culture. They are guilty of preventing Circassian people from contributing to World Culture. They were not only murderers of lives, but also they are murderers of stories, poems, literatures, paintings ...etc. Today every part of Circassia is not only a cemetery for 2.000.000 people but also a cemetery of at least 2.000.000 poems, stories, articles, books, paintings, sculptures, songs and dances. The murderers burned one of the richest and oldest library of the World with the librarians.

Sincerely yours
Kenugi J. UBYKH