The worst genocide in modern history

I also voted for the Armenian genocide. Not many Armenians were left to tell the world what happened. Now the Armenian genocide is getting recognised by the world. The Jewish genocide is more recent and is always in the media, therefore it's it's usually the 1st one people think of.

We should not forget there were also the Assyrian and Greek Pontic genocides as well.

We should not forget there were also the Assyrian and Greek Pontic genocides as well.

oh yeah,now comes the aborigin,maya,homo florensiensis(dunno the name),african,roman,viking genocides as well

Ethnic cleansing that was started in the Northern Caucasus by the Russians of the Tsar period following their defeat between the years of 1859 and 1864 with a big dislocation has turned out to be a case to be defined as genocide in the realm of international law.

The Tsar's Russia in the 19th century, the USSR in the 20th century, and now the Russian Federation have made it the fate of the north Caucasians to be exiled.

As a result of the settlement policy of the Russians in the North Caucasus, over one million Caucasians have been displaced in 1864.
Thousands have died on their cruise to the Ottoman lands, several ships full of exiled people have sank, thousand have got diseases; and many have become slaves and concubines. The land and other properties they left behind were given to the new settlers brought to their land, who were Russians and Cossacks brought their by the Russian authorities.

There are records that about 30% of the people deported from the ports on the Black Sea such as Taman, Tuapse, Anapa, Tsemez, Sochi, Adler, Sohum, Poti and Batum and destined to reach the Ottoman port cities of Trabzon, Ordu, Samsun, Sinop, Kefken, Varna, K�stence, Istanbul and the Aegean ports died on their way to these destinations.

For example, the Russia Consulate in Trabzon, one of the destination ports records in May 1864 that, 30, 000 people died of starvation or illnesses, people who got ill on board were dropped into the sea right away... and that one man in Trabzon where 3493, 124 people landed, was told to have taken 30 or 40 concubines. There are records that mass graves were found around these Ottoman shore cities.(1)

At those times the Russian Consulate in Trabzon, writes to the Russian general Katrachev who was in charge of the deportation to state that "70,000 thousand people have arrived in Batum to be sent to Turkey, around 7 die per day. On reaching Trabzon, 19,000 out of 24,700 died. There are 63,900 people there and about 180-250 of them die per day. Out of the 110,000 in Samsun about 200 die every day. I heard that out of those 4650 who were sent to Trabzon, Varna and Istanbul about 40-60 die per day." (2)

To avoid accusations of exile the Russian authorities try to present the case as migration. However, the decree sent to the Western Caucasians in August 1864 by the Tsar's representative in the area Granduke Mitchel why these people have had to face death, it reads: Those who do not leave in a month will be sent and located in several different parts of Russia as war captives." (3)

The dislocated Caucasian people were later settled in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Greece, Macedonia and Kosovo in brief in about 40 different regions in the world.

Russian, European and Ottoman records mention that between 1,2 million to 2 million people exiled during 1859 and 1879 years. About 500,000 people died during their cruise and after arriving to the Ottoman harbours.(4)

Those exiled were never let to go back to their homeland. Very few of their grand children who went to their home after the collapse of the USSR have had no authorities to turn to or any official will to claim their grandparent's heritage

1) "Papers Respecting the Settlement of Circassian Emigrants in Turkey", London Printed by Harrison and Sons.

2) Ibid

3) Berkok, General Ismail, Caucasus in History (1958), Istanbul Press, p. 526

4) Kemal Karpat, "The Status of the Muslim under European Rule: the Eviction and Settlement of the Cerkes", Journal of the Institute Minority Affairs, Vol.1, No:2.