The Circassian Genocide

5. A Homeless Nation

98 The Other Shore The death and disease that beset the Circassians on the Black Sea coast followed them to Anatolia. Impoverished and ill, the deportees quickly learned their ordeal was far from over. In December 1863, after only a handful had arrived, Russian consul in Trabzon A. N. Moshnin reported that the refugees were dying so fast that “at the nearest cemetery . . . dead Circassians were buried so quickly and carelessly that the last rain uncovered the graves and hungry dogs ate off the hands and feet of the dead.”1 As tragic as this scene was, things would only get worse as the deportees began to arrive in large numbers. Although it was the Russians who drove the Circassians from their homeland, the Ottomans were responsible for the disaster on their shores. Their offer to take in the Circassians was not strictly humanitarian: they had several reasons for wanting them to immigrate. Anatolia had been suffering from a population shortage for most of the nineteenth century, and large areas of potentially arable land went undeveloped. It was hoped that the Circassians could colonize these areas and increase agricultural output. Also, because the Ottomans were losing territory from all directions , their tax base was steadily declining. The new population would be a source of additional revenues that could be used to enact the reforms the Ottomans had recently developed and hoped would save the empire. Memories of Circassian Mamluk rule in the Middle East from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century were still alive as well. They had given 5 A Homeless Nation We are abandoning our Motherland, but she will never abandon our hearts. —Circassian song A HOMELESS NATION 99 the Circassians a reputation “for military efficiency, if not often ruthless ability,” and the Porte hoped to exploit them to control its own rebellious populations.2 Circassians were also experienced at fighting the Russians and knew the Caucasus well. They and other immigrants from Dagestan and Chechnya would make excellent additions to the armed forces in case of a future war against Russia. The Porte also hoped that, as refugees, the Circassians would be grateful and become loyal subjects, serving as models for less cooperative peoples in the empire.3 Finally, some Circassians could be settled in Rumelia and Bulgaria as a counterweight to the Christian populations there who were clamoring for independence. Unfortunately, the empire had serious problems that made a successful integration of large numbers of refugees unlikely. Three wars with Russia in the nineteenth century had depleted the army, leaving the Porte incapable of defending much of its empire in the best of times. Establishing and maintaining peaceful relations between the Circassians and the peoples among whom they were settled turned out to be a task that required large numbers of well-trained troops, and the Ottomans didn’t have them. Additionally, after the Crimean War the Russians started a massive colonization effort in the Crimean peninsula. Through intimidation and economic pressure they forced the majority of the Crimean Tatars to emigrate from their homeland, and between 1856 and 1860 perhaps as many as one hundred thousand immigrated to the Ottoman Empire. This placed a tremendous strain on the communities where they were settled, primarily the Balkans where large numbers of Circassians were also sent.4 In settling the Tatars, the Ottomans already proved themselves incapable of dealing with large-scale immigration: food, shelter, and medical support were all insufficient, and thousands of Tatars and natives died. Naturally, the people of the Balkans were fearful when a second wave of refugees began to arrive.5 This animosity made success even less likely there. The cultural challenges facing the Circassians were enormous. While the Crimean Tatars spoke a language very similar to that of the Turkish Ottoman population, the Circassian language was completely unrelated to Turkish. This made it much more difficult to incorporate them into society wherever they were settled. The Circassians were traditionally pastoralists who never had a central government and instead used the martial code of adyge habze to regulate their lives.6 The survivors who 100 THE CIRCASSIAN GENOCIDE made it to the Ottoman Empire were the hardiest and most determined of their people, and had survived as long as they had through the use of violence. The trauma of being forced from their homes and witnessing the gruesome deaths of their loved ones on the journey had to have taken...