PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS CALL ON GOVT TO RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE OF THE CHERKESS PEOPLE

Interfax, Russia
Nov 20 2006

KRASNODAR. Nov 20 (Interfax) – Representatives of six public
organizations in Adygeya, Karachayevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria
have signed an address to the Russian federal government, urging it
to recognize genocide of the Cherkess people in the 18th and 19th
centuries.

"We ask the government to recognize moves by Tsarist Russia from
the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of Word War I
as genocide. The Cherkess people suffered great deprivations and
hardships, Zaur Dzeukozhev, deputy head of the Adyg republican public
movement the Cherkess Congress told Interfax on Monday.

"We are ready to discuss this question, hence our address to the
president. Also, we have appealed to the European Parliament because
it recognized the genocide of the Armenians," Dzeukozhev said.

Historians have "sufficient materials in their archives, including
eye-witness reports and documents, to prove the genocide," he said.