Photo: kremlin.ru
The head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic Kazbek Kokov has stated that in the census that is going on these days in the Russian Federation he will register himself as a Kabardian. The journalist who interviewed him on this subject asked him several times and in all of Kokov's answers he did not say the term Circassian or even the term Adyghe.
Such answers of Kokov show how poor he is in knowing the history of the Circassian people and also show how poor he is in politics. In general, if we look objectively, it seems that since he came to power he did not perform any action related to the culture and language of the Circassian people in or outside the republic.
If we compare him to his father Valery Kokov he seems to be very far away because Kokov the father made sure to emphasize that he is an integral part of the Circassian people.
Neither Kazbek Kokov nor anyone else can stop the process of uniting the Circassian people. This could be seen in the reactions of the Circassians in Kabardino-Balkaria to Kokov's statement on his Instagram page which we saw that the majority did not agree with him and that they would register themselves as Circassians in the census.
It should be noted that before the expulsion of the Circassians from their homeland in 1864, all Circassians in their homeland called themselves Adyghes in their national language, but when they used other languages, they called themselves Circassians, because all neighboring nations and non-neighbors called them Circassians and thus, for the Circassian people, two names were formed Adyghe and Circassian, which are inseparable. Most of the nations of the world have two names, and this is natural, and there is no problem with that. For example, if you take the Germans, in their language they call themselves Deutsch, the Chechens call themselves Vainakhs, and so on.
The problem that the Circassians have in this regard is that in Soviet times, the authorities divided the Circassians into four national groups with four administrative regions: Adygea, Circassia, Kabarda, Shapsogia. So, after a century of separation, many Circassians began to think that there were four different nations. There is no such problem in the diaspora, because the overwhelming majority consider the Circassians (Adyghes) are one nation.
At the First World Circassian Congress, it was unanimously decided that the national name of the Circassians would be designated by two terms - Adyghe and Circassian. When using the Circassian language, they will use the term Adyghe, and when using other languages, they will use the term Circassian.
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