Circassians are a people indigenous to the North Caucasus region, most of whom were scattered across the globe by a 19th century tsarist military campaign that caused the deaths of huge numbers. Many Circassians have called for the killings to be recognised as genocide, and have campaigned against the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, set to take place in the very same broad valleys and mountain slopes they say hold the bones of their ancestors.
Circassian men wearing traditional clothes pose for a photograph in a tea field during the visit of a delegation of diaspora Circassians in Golovinka, near Sochi. REUTERS/Thomas
Circassian villager and former Soviet army correspondent and writer Madin Chachukh stands on his front porch in the village of Tkhagapsh. REUTERS/Thomas Pete
Circassian villager Muzarbek Teshu poses for a photograph as he attends to his bee hives in the village of Tkhagapsh in the Lazerevskoye district of Sochi. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A woman in traditional dress welcomes a delegation of diaspora Circassians with a traditional bread and salt dish as they visit a school in Bolshoy Kichmay, Greater Sochi. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A delegation of diaspora Circassians pose for a family photograph at a waterfall in Bolshoy Kichmay, Greater Sochi. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Local Circassian men wearing traditional clothes watch a welcome ceremony for diaspora Circassians at a tourist lodge in Golovinka, outside Sochi REUTERS/Thomas Peter
