Circassians in Syria
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (40,000–100,000 (pre-Civil War estimates)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Quneitra Governorate, Damascus, Aleppo area (particularly Khanasir), smaller communities in the areas of Homs and Hama | |
| Languages | |
| Mostly Arabic and Adyghe Smaller numbers also speak Abkhaz |
|
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Circassian people |
The Circassians in Syria (Circassian: Сирием ис адыгэхэр) refers to the Circassian diaspora, some of whom settled in Syria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the 19th century. They moved to Syria after a forced migration to the Ottoman Empire resulting from a Russian invasion in the early 1860s. Most pre-Civil War estimates put the Circassian population at around 100,000. They are predominantly Sunni Muslims. While they have become an increasingly assimilated part of Syrian society, they have maintained a distinct identity, having retained their Adyghe language (in addition to Arabic), their tribal heritage and some of their traditional customs. Syria's Circassian population has dwindled with the advent of the disastrous Civil War that has raged in Syria since 2011.
Many of Syria's ethnic Circassians have left the nation and have repatriated to titular Circassian parts of European Russia, in particular Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachay-Cherkessia, or are in the process of doing so.
Circassians began a forced migration from their homeland in the Northwest Caucasus region to the Ottoman Empire following the Russian–Circassian War in 1864. While they originally settled in parts of Anatolia and the Balkans, they began emigrating to the empire's Syrian provinces (the Levant) in large numbers (about 70,000) after the Ottoman defeat in the Balkan War of 1877–78. That group of Circassians was mostly resettled by the Ottoman authorities as part of an effort to counterbalance increasing dissent by the local population in Syria, far from the capital Istanbul, with more loyal subjects of the empire. Many Circassians subsequently concentrated their residence in the Golan Heights and Transjordan regions, both part of the Province of Damascus at the time. At around this time, in the late 1870s, the influx of Circassians traveling through Damascus led to the establishment of a number of villages north of Homs and along the borders of the Syrian Desert, as well as in the area surrounding Damascus city itself, namely Marj al-Sultan and al-Dumayr. Circassians eventually abandoned the latter town.
...
Wikipedia