On May 21, a rally was held in the capital of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic in memory of the victims of the Caucasian War and those who died for the independence of the Circassian people. At least two thousand people took part in the action.
As the Memorial human rights center reports, from the very beginning of the march, police officers tried to move the column from the roadway to the sidewalk, but people continued moving. Then law enforcement officers accompanied the march along the entire route and did not use any force.
As Memorial learned, several dozen participants in the rally received calls from employees of the Center for Combating Extremism with an offer to come to the department to receive a warning about the “inadmissibility of actions that create conditions for committing an offense.” The issue was about their possible participation in the mourning event.
According to human rights activists, at least eight demonstrators were detained and subjected to administrative arrest. They are accused of participating in an unauthorized event and blocking roads.
On the eve of the tragic date, Zalim Kashirokov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kabardino-Balkarian government responsible for ideology, made a statement about the one-sided coverage of the history of the Caucasian War and the emergence of a "pleiad of false historians".
According to Kashirokov, before May 21, attempts are being made from abroad to push people to participate in unauthorized events.
"Unfortunately, history has become a political tool for achieving the goals pursued by our opponents. We have seen how, over the past two months, information has been openly leaked from abroad to local Telegram channels in order to urge people to take to the streets and participate in mass events," Kashirokov says.
The Caucasian War (1817–1864) is a general name for the military actions of the Russian Imperial Army associated with the annexation of the North Caucasus to the Russian Empire and its military confrontation with the mountain peoples. After the war, the Adyghe (Circassians) were forced to leave their homeland en masse.
