Unprecedented commemorations have been organized in Turkey this year to mark the 150th anniversary of the great tragedy that befell Circassians under Tsarist Russia and drove 1.5 to 2.2 million people to Ottoman lands.

The commemorations had started as small events on Kefken Beach, 168 km k(104 miles) from Istanbul, where mourning descendants threw black carnations in the Black Sea near a cave that sheltered some of the first exiles who managed to reach the Turkish shore. But much to Russia’s irritation, the commemorations have now spread to big cities and urban squares in Turkey, where the Circassian community numbers more than three million.

On May 19, the Russian ambassador in Ankara, Andrey Karlov, received representatives of the Circassian diaspora and offered them an olive branch. Sources told Al-Monitor the envoy said that Russia saw Circassians as its own diaspora and their problems as its own. He offered dialogue to resolve disagreements, proposed organizing joint conferences and asserted Russia was ready to face up to its past, the sources added.

The ambassador and the delegation, led by the head of the Federation of Caucasian Associations (KAFFED), came together in the midst of a stormy period.