21 Mayıs 1864

The Circassians did not leave the Caucasus for religion, they did not emigrate because they loved the Ottoman Empire. They resisted for about a century in order not to leave their homeland, they fought village by village. However, with the burned settlements and siege policies, the people were forced out. The departure was not a choice, but an obligation to survive. Therefore, May 21 is not the name of voluntary migration; it is the name of the deportation of a resisting people from their homeland.

When I think of May 21, I feel a sadness that is difficult to describe. I feel a sense of belonging even to the mountains I have not seen and the villages I do not know. It is as if we are carrying the continuation of a unfinished story. The pain that our elders talk about by being silent turns into a silent responsibility for us. Not forgetting, remembering and keeping our identity alive… Perhaps the strongest bond left from exile is this common feeling.

May 21, 1864, is not just a date; it is the anniversary of an unceasing pain engraved in the memory of an ancient people. This tragedy, in which the Circassians were torn from their homeland and exiled to the unknown, is one of the darkest and silent pages of human history.