Status verified as of 21 September 2026. Political positions change; this explainer describes the documented position on that date.
Current position
Circassians remain divided among three Russian republics (Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia) and a substantial diaspora abroad. The movement's core demands, genocide recognition, diaspora repatriation and republic unification, remain unmet at the Russian federal level, though a small number of states, most recently Ukraine in 2025, have recognized the 1860s events as genocide.[1]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: Many scholars and some governments and regional legislatures have characterized the 1860s events as genocide, including Georgia's parliament (2011) and Ukraine's parliament (2025), and, at a regional level within Russia, the Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR (1992) and the republics of Kabardino-Balkaria (1994) and Adygea (1996); the Russian federal government's official position rejects the term "genocide," describing the events instead as a mass migration ("muhajirism"). This bundle presents both positions without adjudicating which characterization is correct.
- Circassian genocide (Wikipedia) link, Recognition status section. Source record
Printed from https://independenceatlas.com/movements/circassian/status · last substantive update 24 September 2026.