Georgia Plans 'Circassian Genocide Memorial'

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 29 Jul.'11 / 18:16


Georgia, which has become the first country to recognize 19th century
massacre and deportations of Circassians by the Tsarist Russia as
genocide, plans to open a memorial next year to commemorate the
victims.

Anaklia, a Black Sea coast village close to breakaway Abkhazia, has
been selected as a site for the planned memorial, Papuna Davitaia,
Georgia's state minister for diaspora issues, said on July 29.

He said that the memorial's design would be selected through a
competition planned to be announced by the state commission in charge
of this issue in September.

The Georgian government wants to open the memorial in May, 2012 when
the Circassian diaspora will commemorate 148th anniversary of the
genocide, Davitaia said.

The Georgian Parliament passed on May 20 a resolution saying that mass
killings of the Circassians by the Tsarist Russia in second half of
19th century, accompanied by "deliberate famine and epidemics", should
be recognized as "genocide".

In a separate, July 1 resolution the Parliament instructed the
government to undertake measure for opening a memorial and also
Circassian cultural center.

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