Residents of KChR celebrate Revival Day of Karachay Nation

Cities and districts of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) hold celebrations to mark the 56th anniversary of return of Karachays to their historic homeland. Today is declared to be a day-off in the republic.

Today, a solemn meeting was held at the Cherkessk Drama Theatre. Initially, Ismail-Khaji Berdiev, Chairman of the Coordinating Centre of Muslims of North Caucasus, Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of the KChR, served a "dua" ceremony in memory of innocent victims who died in a foreign land.

Addressing the meeting, Rashid Temrezov, the leader of Karachay-Cherkessia, has emphasized that "the difficult years of life in exile did not break the courage and resilience of the Karachay people."

"About 70,000 persons were loaded into cargo wagons and sent to the steppes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. They had to struggle not only for their lives and the lives of their children, but also for their right to be treated as the representatives of their nation and to be the bearers of their culture. Nevertheless, the Karachay people have managed to preserve the national dignity, the rich spiritual heritage of their ancestors, and, most importantly, have defended their right to live on the land of their fathers," said Viktor Borodkin, the head of the department for the Cossacks' Affairs under the leader of the KChR, Ataman of the Batalpashinskaya Department of the Kuban Cossack Army.

Let us remind you that the Karachay people were the first repressed people of North Caucasus. Later, Chechen, Ingush, Balkar, and Kalmyk peoples were deported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that, according to the historians' data, the deportation destroyed about one third of the Karachay people. According to the version of Professor Murat Karaketov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, the Stalinist repressions killed 60 percent of Karachay children, and if the Karachay people were not deported in 1943, at present, the number of Karachay natives in Russia would reach 400,000-450,000 persons twice as much as their number at present is (230,000-240,000 persons).