The Last Man Standing

They are still afraid of us. They have never forgotten the big power of a small nation. During the big war, the short period of unity between Circassian nations, had so much successful that it caused seven million Charis soldiers maybe more to be killed in the battlegrounds.

It was not difficult to conquer the divided nations lands. And they conquered most of the lands without much effort. But when they first met the Ubykhs, they probably never thought them as a big headache for them. The Ubykhs were brave, but wiser also to maintain a unity and brother-ship between tribes. They were probably the smallest one, but the power they got was one of the biggest Circassian lands ever had. Without the Ubykhs the big war probably would have been less bloody and shorter.

There was a strong relationship between Ottomans and European countries (especially with England) because of long period slavery, and being one of the oldest pirates of the Black Sea. They were such strong relationship between them that they even hoped some military aids till the end of war. I don't want to mention much about the reasons, but they didn't get. But, in the end they were in the lands of their brothers, in the Ottomans lands. Even in that country they made lots of partly successful attempts to get what they had once. But, unfortunately they couldn't.

Time has tried to make us forgotten those days. But, we have never forgotten. We will be in our lands with the flag of independent and united Circassians. We still have dreams at nights about victory. As far as we have these soul and dreams in our hearts and minds, they will always have FEAR in their hearts. Although we are approximately a few ten thousand on this earth, they are still carefully observe every studies on the Ubykhs, and trying to get information about us. They are afraid of us to make remember the others the source of power during the big war.

Because of which, they have some (so called) Circassians to write something ugly and not true (predecided and carefully studied so called) facts about us. They are trying to make us to be seen as selfish and coward people who betrayed his neighbors for Ottomans and Europeans. In regular periods they had such kind of things to be written or said. I just want to ask a small question. - “Yes, you may be right (of course every true Circassians (not only Ubykhs but all of the Circassian nations without any exception as a nation) says not), but what were Russian Empire's soldiers doing in the lands of Circassians?” Yes, we were the reason of honor, bravery, self-dedicated patriots, but not the reason of the dead bodies in the battle grounds killed mercilessly. Who killed thousands of children, women and olds in the villages of Circassian lands? Not the Ubykhs, but Russian Empire's soldiers.

The frequency of (predecided) written materials amount -by itself- proves how powerful we are getting. So I am more hopefull than before. Not, our children but we will get what once our grandfathers had. Till the last man standing and even he falls, our souls will be on the lands looking for the victory. We are coming and nobody can stop us. You can try to stop our bodies but you can not stop our souls!

Sincerely yours.
Kenugi J. UBYKH

A Paradise on the Earth

There are a lot of paradises on the earth. I don't mean or call them as real paradises. The word “paradise” is used here to describe the most beautiful land on someone's mind. On an Indian people's mind paradise is the holly waters and seaside of the river Ganj. But, most of the people like me couldn't understand the difficult travels of poors to those lands just to have a bath in the muddy water of the river. It is really a strange thing for me (but not for them). Our paradise is Circassia. Maybe some others can't understand this, some others can't understand the idea of coming back to homeland after 145 years, as they couldn't understand us. Like in a religion, to have a hope to go there you must do whatever must be done as a duty. The first step is to have a paradise-like lifestyle.

Circassia and being a Circassian must be recovered again one more time in our heart and mind. There are still Circassians on this world, one day (I don't know exactly when) mother and their lost orphan children will come together again. While waiting for the proper time to come back home, as the time is not definite, we must try to recover our Circassian culture in Diaspora. We must try to maintain permanent affairs with the people in homeland. We must hold international activities every year. Especially the young generation must be encouraged to join these activities. The regular short term trips to homeland has already been done successfully. The numbers of attendants and the frequency of these trips must be increased. But, on the other hand to recover the culture in Diaspora must be also another vital target which must be always considered. Local meetings among Circassian people to know each other well must be hold regularly. I mean we must come together even without needing any reason, just for drinking a cup of coffee, having a picnic, visiting each other... We must sing Circassian songs together in Diaspora. We must tell a joke in Circassian language. We must cook delicious Circassian meals. We must listen the stories of Circassian old stories told by the olds. Circassian language reading and writing courses must be hold. And we need professional (not volunteer) teachers to do them. Yes, they have been already done, but we need more. We must try to look and see the life with the view of Circassians. It is really strange that although we, Ubykh people, forgot our language and couldn't find a chance to live together in the same areas, we are more eager than other Circassian folks to do it. Maybe as we lost more than others, we needs more. In my opinion lots of our brothers and sisters think that when we come homeland, all kinds of problems of Circassians will be solved immediately. I am not agree with them. The problems must be solved here. Because, the problem is not related with Circassia but with the Circassians. The answer is in our history, language and traditions. In Diaspora countries different Circassian folks live together in peace. So, this is a good quality to be transfered to homeland.

To immigrate to homeland firstly in our minds is a necesssity and the first step. Circassia is just land not a holly area which makes you real Circassians by just entering. If it was, some of the Russians and Cossack people had lived there since our exile would be more Circassian than us. If we lost our culture, although we were in the homeland, there would be no difference between us and the other nations living there. So, we must begin to live as a Circassian here and go on our lives in the homeland. If the 4.000.000 Circassian people in Diaspora come back to homeland in their minds, nobody can dare to stop them to have whatever they once had.

And also we must really want it. We always have lots of problems to say on this subject. What is "to want" something? Look at these two statements and say please, which is ours?
A) We have just drunk three bottles of water. We are not thirsty. And someone asks us to drink more. We say OK to be polite. I want it. If it is not, what will happen? Probably nothing.B) And suppose that we are in a desert. It is too hot and we haven't drunk anything for 3 days. Some water is the only thing to continue our life in a short term. Someone comes and offers us to drink water by showing some water in a (dirty) glass. We say OK to live more. I WANT IT. If it is not, what will happen? Probably we do everything to get that water. We can even kill the owner. And probably we would ignore the dirtiness of the glass. So do we really want to do it? Or is it just saying OK to be polite. So there will be always excuses. We must get rid of these excuses in our minds.

To live in paradise, try to be a person who lives in paradise. Begin living in paradise in your minds. Have a paradise-like life style, recover your culture, come together, and really want it. Although you are not there physically, you are there. And don't be lazy, and don't commit a sin, there isn't anywhere in paradise for lazy and sinful ones. When did you last see your yourself on Circassian mountains on a horse in your dreams?

Sincerely,
Kenugi J. UBYKH