The Circassian Genocide

6. Survival in Diaspora

111 In 1881 British captain Claude Conder arrived in Amman during a campaign against Druze tribesmen. The town had been uninhabited as recently as 1876, and Circassian migrants were just beginning to reclaim the ancient site of Philadelphia.1 Conder described the physical and psychological damage the settlers were suffering and painted a less than hopeful portrait: The Circassian colony at Amman is one of several planted by the Sultan in Peraea. These unhappy people, chased from their homes by the Russians, and again driven from their new settlements in European Turkey by the late war, are now scattered in the wilderness , where land has been assigned them to cultivate. They have, however, the listless and dispirited look of exiles who find it impossible to take root in the uninviting district to which they have been sent. Hated by the Arab and the Fellah, despoiled of money and possessions , and having seen many of their bravest fall or die of starvation , they seem to have no more courage left, and will probably die out by degrees, or become scattered among the indigenous population . Our appearance at Amman at once aroused their apprehensions . They believed us to be the pioneers of a Power which was about to seize the country, and anxiously inquired whether they would be allowed to remain where they were in case of an English or French occupation. It was in vain that I protested that our work 6 Survival in Diaspora Where Circassians settled on Turkey’s frontiers, the cemeteries grew faster than the trees. —Suleiman Pazif 112 THE CIRCASSIAN GENOCIDE had no connection with politics. The Emir begged hard to be made the confidant of a secret which, he insisted, we knew, and I was at length obliged, in order to get rid of him, to express the opinion, that whether French or English took Syria, there was no reason to suppose his settlement would be disturbed, or that he would (as he seemed chiefly to fear) be given up to the tender mercies of Russia. It is from such incidents, not less than from the faces of the dead looking skyward on the field of battle, that a man may judge of the sorrow which is brought upon the weak and poor by the restless ambition of conquering races.2 Despite the overwhelming challenges and the bleak prospects for success, the Circassians survived. Less than twenty years later, Miss A. Goodrich Freer passed through quite a different town: A sudden turning at the ford of a rapid stream revealed the town of Amman, lying in a narrow valley between low but precipitous hills. Most of us were utterly unprepared, after six hours of riding across a lonely tableland, to find an orderly town of10,000 inhabitants, of an aspect so superior to anything we had seen since leaving Jerusalem, or even, so far as the actual town is concerned, to Jerusalem itself, that an explanation seemed necessary, and the statement that the population was Circassian was, geographically, an added perplexity. The houses, built partly of mud brick and partly of ancient material like those of Madaba, were well placed, most had porticos and balconies , and some were enclosed with well-swept yards.3 As time passed, the Circassians who settled in Syria, Palestine, and particularly Transjordan established a good life and even prospered. At the same time, the process of assimilation took its toll and put up barriers between the migrants, their homeland, and each other. The voyage of the Austrian steamer Sphinx was a grim portent of the coming trials. In March 1878, after having been chased out of Rumelia, about three thousand Shapsugs once again found themselves at sea headed for unknown territory. Intending to land at Latakia, Syria, a storm washed forty people overboard and forced the ship to seek refuge in a Cypriot port. There several hundred more were killed when the ship caught fire.4 Those SURVIVAL IN DIASPORA 113 who succeeded in making it to Syria were held in the same primitive conditions as they were on the Black Sea coast, the Turkish shores, and the refugee camps in Greece and Istanbul. Utterly disillusioned, many asked if they could return to Rumelia and live under Christian rule. Some Turks were granted permission, but the European powers refused to allow the Circassians to return.5 Once assigned a new location, the refugees had to cross desert terrain the...