Winter of Discontent

Circassians are protesting the holding of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games 150 years after being expelled from their land.


An excited Russia gears up to host the 2014 Winter Olympics but outside the country, its chosen site is stirring powerful memories and strong emotions.

For most Russians, the town of Sochi represents one of the country's finest ski resorts in an area of outstanding natural beauty. But for exiled Circassians, the same land harbours a devastating secret.

It was the place their ancestors endured terrible atrocities in the late 1800's in a series of military campaigns by tsarist forces. Campaigners believe one million Circassians were driven out and 1.5 million killed in what they want the world to recognise as a genocide that lasted 100 years, or by other calculations 200 years.

What is known and documented is that within a generation, only 10 percent of the Circassian population remained on the land.

Sochi was the last territory conquered by the Russian Empire through force of arms. After massacring a population already weakened by starvation and war, the land was occupied.