12:34, 4 May 2021

Activists organize online flash mob for Revival Day of Karachai People

An equestrian march on the Revival Day of Karachai People. Screenshot of the post by dvorikarkhiz on Instagram www.instagram.com/p/COaq4XkqgKJ/

On the Revival Day of Karachai People, residents of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) are using the Instagram for posting stories about their relatives who had survived the 14-year-long exile. Family stories about those who returned to their homeland after deportation are posted under the hashtag #we'erback.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2020, on the Revival Day of Karachai People, residents of the KChR remembered the victims of deportation in the online mode – no rallies and marches were held because of coronavirus.

The deportation of Karachais began in the USSR on November 2, 1943; over 69,000 people were evicted. Most of them – over 43,000, including 22,000 children – died on the way and in resettlement places.

Rashid Temrezov, the head of the KChR, has noted in his social network post that May 3, 1957, is one of the most important dates in the republic's history; while the years of deportation "will forever remain in the people's heart " as the time of "hunger, fear and homesickness."

Karachais are praying that not a single nation undergo the ordeals that befell their compatriots, Kady Khalkechev, the head of the NGO "Congress of the Karachai People", wrote on the Facebook.

"Despite the hard trials ... Karachais have preserved their unique culture, their mother tongue and traditions," Kazbek Kokov, the head of Kabardino-Balkaria, has noted on his Instagram.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 3, 2021 at 08:29 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.