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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Syrian Circassians swarm to Caucasian republic |
| 2015-09-11 |
| Officials said some 2,000 Syrians have arrived in the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and are seeking asylum. A spokesman for the Caucasian territory's leader, Yury Kokov, said that most of the refugees who arrived in the republic are "Syrian Circassians whose ancestors used to live in the Caucasus." Kokov said in a statement that "we have to take into account that militants from international terrorist organizations" could "infiltrate the country disguised as refugees". He added that the republic needs "a set of special" measures to stop such people from coming to Kabardino-Balkaria. The comments came on the same day that Maksim Shevchenko, a member of the Russian president's Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, said that Russia could accept some 5,000-10,000 Circassian refugees. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Circassians ,Abkhaz, Ubykhs, and Abaza were forced from their homelands in the Caucasus by Russian forces after the Russo-Circassian War, with many of them settling in what is now Syria. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Jordan also has a military unit made up of Circassians. |
| Posted by: frozen al 2015-09-11 10:59 |