Circassian activists stand up for Saakashvili

When Mikhail Saakashvili was in power, Georgia officially recognized the Circassians' genocide, giving Circassian activists the opportunity to defend their rights within the international legal environment, Circassian activists have stated in their appeal to the Georgian President, Salome Zurabishvili. They have urged her to pardon Saakashvili.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 29, Saakashvili was brought to a court session in Tbilisi for the first time after his arrest. Hundreds of opposition supporters gathered outside the courthouse.

Circassian activists have called on Salome Zurabishvili "to show Christian mercy, as well as the empathy that the Georgian Constitution allows" towards Saakashvili, the third president of the country.

"It was Saakashvili who in 2011 recognized the genocide of the Circassian people. This gave us, Circassians, an incentive to remember our history," the authors of the appeal have stated.

The activists have asked to "weigh on the scales" the charges against Saakashvili and his positive achievements. They forced us, Circassians, to rethink the role and place of Georgia in our history; to look for ways of mutual cooperation, although 19 years before that our relationship was difficult to assess as positive," the appeal says.

However, the appeal in defence of Saakashvili was not supported by Circassian organizations, since in Russia these organizations are suppressed, while in the rest of the world they are mainly cultural centres, Ibragim Yaganov, a public figure, has noted.