TIL about the #genocide of the #Circassians by Imperial #Russia in the 19th century. I knew about the Circassian diaspora and the long history of being a powerful people in the Middle-East, but I never knew it was a real genocide.

:wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_genocide

The number of deaths varied between 400.000 and 2.000.000. The survivors of the genocide where mostly expelled from their homelands in the Northwestern Caucasus, resulting in the Circassian #diaspora. Nowadays only ~14% are still living in their original homeland. The rest of the ~5,3 million people are mostly living in Turkey (2.5m), Syria (250k) and Jordan (100k).

:wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_diaspora

The majority of the Circassians are practising #Sunni #Islam (only converted after after 1717). Religious minorities are Christians and #Khabzeism, the original 'pagan' religion of the Circassians, still practiced by ~85k people. Besides and mixed with these religions Circassians all over the world follow the Xabze. The worldview and moral code of Circassian society.

The remaining population in the #Caucasus speak one of the #Circassian languages, belonging to the Northwestern Caucasian language family. The Circassian diaspora speak mostly the language of the country they live in.

:wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassians