Ancient Pirates Of the Black Sea

I’m never certain what I’ll find when I go down the rabbit hole. A reader asked me to look into the topic of Decolonizing Russia that’s making the rounds in political circles. At first I thought this was about resuming the brief strip-mining of Russia in its post-USSR days, and I wasn’t completely wrong, but then I thought it was about some papers published by the RAND Corp. think-tank over the years, and I wasn’t completely wrong, then I thought it was the global realignment into ten economic zones… that WILL happen, by the way, it’s reasonably clear in Revelation… but I soon extracted the sordid truth.

There’s a missing page in the history of the Golden Age of Piracy.

World’s largest imperial power sponsors calls for Russia to ‘decolonize’ and the lack of self-awareness is palpable

h ttps://www.rt.com/russia/557903-us-calls-rus-decolonize/

By Daniel Kovalik, 28 June 2022

[Daniel Kovalik teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and is author of the recently-released No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using “Humanitarian” Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests.]

Knowing what he’s about to say, I am pleasantly surprised to find somebody in academia still capable & willing to dissent against the Regime. A nod of respect to Pittsburgh School of Law, for so long as they defend Mr. Kovalik from the media wolves.

On June 23, 2022, an organization funded by the US Congress, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe – also known as the Helsinki Commission – held a virtual conference calling for the “decolonizing of Russia.”

This begs the question of why they are not seeking the decolonization of the United States. After all, the country was literally founded by the successors of white colonists who had crossed an ocean to violently seize the territory from its indigenous people.

You should get out more, Mr. Kovalik. We white “colonists” are being exterminated from North America. Exterminated very indirectly, because we sleep with our guns like dragons on their hoard, but yeah. Come on, man, you live in Pittsburgh. Ya gotta know these ain’t our glory days.

The Congressional organization he mentions the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe shares the same mysterious puppet master as Biden.

Segue

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_for_Security_and_Co-operation_in_Europe

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world’s largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and free and fair elections.

What about free and fair banking?

It has its origins in the mid-1975 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland.

Hence the many references to Helsinki regarding its activity.

In 2004, at the invitation of the United States Government, the ODIHR deployed an assessment mission, made up of participants from six OSCE member states, which observed that year’s US presidential election and produced a report.

That was the presidential election between George W. Bush and

*drum roll*

John Kerry, who is still in the White House Cabinet from Clinton to this day. It was a close election despite Bush being incumbent.

It was President Slick Willie Clinton who invited in OSCE to monitor the election between Bush and Clinton’s SecState. A failed coup?

It was the first time that a US presidential election was the subject of OSCE monitoring, although the organization had previously monitored state-level American elections in Florida and California, in 2002 and 2003.

The 2003 California election was the first time California recalled a governor, a loser named Gray “Gay” Davis. (It was an insult at the time.) OSCE monitoring didn’t keep him in power. FWIW, our next governor was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He actually did well, calling out Sacramento legislators as “girly-men”, then his friends took him aside and told him he’d never work in Hollywood again if he continued stepping on toes. He was a rubber stamp ever since.

Anyway, OSCE tried and failed to “monitor” GAE elections.

End segue

While the conference speakers… used the current crisis in Ukraine as a jumping off point, they demanded that the Russian Federation “decolonizes” from regions and republics which have been governed by Moscow since the 16th century (e.g. Siberia and Tatarstan) and others going back to the early 1800’s (e.g. Chechnya).

This is, of course, tantamount to calling upon the US to relinquish nearly all of its territory from the Atlantic to Pacific, not to mention more recent holdings such as Hawaii.

Indeed, when a conference attendee asked what the US should do with Hawaii in light of this “decolonization” discussion, the panel speakers danced around this issue and quickly changed the topic, showing they are not so concerned about “decolonization” at all, but are truly interested in breaking up the Russian Federation for its own sake.

…And of course, it is the US, not Russia, which has, in just the past 29 years, traveled halfway around the world to invade, and invariably destroy, other nations such as Iraq (twice), the former Yugoslavia, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan…

Just so, Daniel, but there’s no point in confronting GAE people with their hypocrisy. They don’t care. They Do. Not. Care. They are children of lies, why not accuse them of breathing while you’re about it?

There’s a better way to make them squeal, heh heh. Sunlight!

DECOLONIZATION OF RUSSIA TO BE DISCUSSED AT UPCOMING HELSINKI COMMISSION BRIEFING

h ttps://www.csce.gov/international-impact/press-and-media/press-releases/decolonization-russia-be-discussed-upcoming

21 June 2022

Russia’s barbaric war on Ukraine—and before that on Syria, Libya, Georgia, and Chechnya—has exposed the Russian Federation’s viciously imperial character to the entire world. Its aggression also is catalyzing a long-overdue conversation about Russia’s interior empire, given Moscow’s dominion over many indigenous non-Russian nations, and the brutal extent to which the Kremlin has taken to suppress their national self-expression and self-determination.

Wow. I get Daniel yelling accusations in an op-ed, but this is an official notice for an international think tank. Why were they not concerned  about pro-Russian sentiments that some of their members and delegates from across the world might have?

And why is it more concerned with Russia’s past than its present..?

The following panelists are scheduled to participate:

Fatima Tlis, Circassian journalist
Botakoz Kassymbekova, Lecturer, University of Basel
Erica Marat, Associate Professor, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University
Hanna Hopko, Chair, Democracy in Action Conference; former Member of the Ukrainian Parliament
Casey Michel, Author, American Kleptocracy

Erica Marat is affiliated with both Harvard and the Jesuits’ Georgetown. Hanna Hopko is USAID and Bloomberg affiliated, and became an MP during the 2014 coup. Botakox is Wellcome Trust affiliated and peer with Marat. Casey is a propagandist for the Ukraine, and Fatima…

Fatima…

What’s Circassia? Never heard of it.

An important question, as we see in the coming transcript portion. Most of the video is these people airing long-held grievances… centuries-old grievances… for which people alive today have blood guilt?

Why does that sound familiar?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iGtFXs9gvo

[formatted by me]

[Fatima the Circassian speaks]

In the face of such senseless brutality, many wonder what Russia’s endgame is. The answer to that question is Circassia. Just like Ukraine, Circassia was a vibrant prosperous nation centuries before Muscovy existed. Circassians converted to Christianity before Russia existed. Circassian nobility was embedded in the cave and rose from its very early stages. Seeking to strengthen his grip on power, the Russians had Ivan the Terrible married the circus and Princess Maria.

So, where is Circassia today? It is not on the world map or even in the history book.

It’s not a particularly valuable spot. The good places for ports are to the west and those mountains would discourage overland trade routes. It’s probably wet enough for good farming but agriculture alone doesn’t put a place into history.

Circassia fought against Russia for more than a hundred years. It never surrendered, Russia won and occupied Circassia by killing and forcibly deporting an estimated 98% of the population.

Losing people who don’t eventually surrender, tend to get wiped out. Yes.

But the genocide of Circassians did not end with raj end with Russia declaring a victory more than a century ago. The kremlin divided Circassia into three administrative entities and Circassians into multiple ethnic minority groups giving each different names and even different languages.

The Circassians and Circassian kids in Russia don’t study their history or their language or culture at schools today.

How do these Circassians even exist today? 2% survival rate, with no homeland, centuries ago? Which is it, were they wiped out long ago or is there a diaspora of a nation wanting to return?

Russia denies the Circassians their indigenous status. Their political, economical, cultural, ecological and linguistic rights to the millions of Circassians living in a forced exile in more than 50 countries around the world.

Say what? “Dem’s our ancestral water rights!” FYI, world, American-style rights are restrictions on government power. They are not government-secured entitlements. I know, I know, that’s not what the last American told you. It’s just a long-forgotten truth.

Again, that account of Russia denying Circassians “their indigenous status” sounds familiar. We’re talking about Circassians, right, and not Jews? Because Jews are the people known for getting kicked out of their settlements and holding centuries-old blood libels and…

…and not explaining why Russia decided that a hundred-year war of extermination against Circassia was worth the cost & effort.

The Jew tells you what happened but never why.

Russia denies the right for repatriation, instead imposing visa limitations quarters specifically designed for the Circassians regardless of who occupies the kremlin at any given era. Leadeth Atsar, a Communist or a Chekist, the Circassians know firsthand that the core of the regime’s policy towards Circassians is constant and that is a colonial policy of systematic and selective destruction of the identity and that also goes for other, what Russia calls ethnic minorities.

Yeah, so what? When you lose a hundred-year war of annihilation, you don’t get special status from the new government. That is every country and nation in human history.

Only white men care about preserving the legacies of OTHER peoples. And for that, these Fatima types accuse us of cultural appropriation!

Vladimir Putin made it clear twice his role models are two Russian emperors known for the most aggressive brutal and blood bloody step building strategies and that his mission is to rebuild that empire at any cost.

Putin is not, in fact, a Russian emperor, aggressive or otherwise. That is not Russia’s current political system. I suspect this accusation’s purpose is to justify blaming Putin today for what happened a couple centuries ago. Which I’ll get to.

His appetites, as we see with Ukraine, are only growing. I just wanted to underline, I’m not a policy maker, I’m not a political analyst, I’m not going to suggest any, um, measures to be taken to improve the situation…

“Oh, why won’t somebody get rid of this Putler for me! I didn’t say to kill him.”

…to prevent Russia from you know being emboldened even further, and further than it is now. I’m presenting a case of my people.

I hope this helps to understand the root of brutality and Russian colonialism and why this needs to be changed. Thank you very much.

It does help, Fatima. Thank you very much. When I first read you Wikipedia biography, it made no sense to me.

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Tlisova

[Fatima] Tlisova claims she has been facing severe intimidation for reporting on attempts to counter increasing Islamic and Chechen insurgency in the violent North Caucasus region. She has been assaulted repeatedly since 2002, allegedly for filing reports not favourable to the Governments and Secret Services of the Republics of the North Caucasus, as well as the federal government of Vladimir Putin. Her travails included being beaten and having her ribs broken, being poisoned, kidnapped and having cigarettes extinguished on her skin, and her teenage son being harassed by the police [as a Chechen sympathizer].

There’s no background on those crimes. I am suspicious. Not whether they happened, necessarily, but when I checked, she was only “kidnapped” around a street corner for that beating. Technically correct but not really.

…She became the editor-in-chief of the Caucasus desk for the Regnum News Agency. Since 2005, she was also working with the Associated Press. She had travelled widely in the region, filing reports from Adygea to Dagestan.

Allied with Western media, nursing a prohibited ethnic grudge. I can’t imagine why she ended up on the FSB’s short list.

In January 2005, she faced considerable harassment for a series of articles about the murder of seven shareholders in the firm Kavkaztsement. A few months earlier, they had challenged the firm’s majority shareholder Ali Kaitov, nephew of the Republic president Mustafa Batdyev. Shortly after they went to see Kaitov at his dacha, gunshots were heard from the vicinity, and the seven disappeared. They included Rasul Bogatyrev, a deputy in the state legislature; the family of the murdered raised vigorous protests, and the case drew considerable attention in the international press. The relatives of the murdered people wrote to Vladimir Putin, saying that considering the dacha near which their sons disappeared belonged to the son-in-law of the republic’s president, they were compelled to express “categorical distrust in both the law-enforcement organs and the organs of state power of Karachaevo-Cherkessia” in investigating this case.

Is there a reason Putin would have responded? I honestly don’t know, and this is my danger when discussing foreign cultures. There’s a lot that I risk taking for granted as a ‘Murican. Traveled as I am, it’s all been internal USA.

 After a month of official inaction, four of the seven bodies were found at the bottom of a mine; they had been dismembered and burnt with tyres as fuel.

Subsequently, a large rally protesting the local government overcame teargas and reinforced police lines to take over the presidential palace.

That, Putin might have had to respond to. It sounds too organized to have happened spontaneously, but maybe.

Following Tlisova’s coverage revealing further details of the murders, the Kabardino-Balkarian Interior Ministry withdrew her accreditation. She was accused of illegally receiving a pension and criminal proceedings were initiated, but were later dropped.

Sans the ethnic angle, I wouldn’t have known what to make of that. But Fatima is all about “her people” so I checked the guy she accused.

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Batdyyev

Batdyyev was born to an ethnic Karachay family in Kazakhstan; his family repatriated in 1957. Mustafa Batdyyev finished a boarding school in Cherkessk and served in the Soviet Army from 1970 to 1972. In 1978 he was graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University and in 1981 he got his doctorate there. Batdyyev is married and has two children.

Okay, what is “ethnic Karachay”?

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karachays

The Karachays are a Turkic people descended from the Kipchaks, and are linguistically similar to the Kumyks from Daghestan. The Kipchaks (Cumans) came to the Caucasus in the 11th century CE.

In the nineteenth century Russia took over the area during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. On October 20, 1828 the Battle of Khasauka took place, in which the Russian troops were under the command of General Georgy Emanuel. The day after the battle, as Russian troops were approaching the aul of Kart-Dzhurt , the Karachay elders met with the Russian leaders and an agreement was reached for the inclusion of the Karachay into the Russian Empire.

After the annexation, the self-government of Karachay was left intact, including its officials and courts. Interactions with neighboring Muslim peoples continued to take place based on both folk customs and Sharia law. In Karachay, soldiers were taken from Karachai Amanat, pledged an oath of loyalty, and were assigned arms.

A smart move, making peace with an incoming army. Meanwhile, Fatima’s ancestors never surrendered.

In 1942 the Germans permitted the establishment of a Karachay National Committee to administer their “autonomous region”; the Karachays were also allowed to form their own police force and establish a brigade that was to fight with the Wehrmacht. This relationship with Nazi Germany resulted, when the Russians regained control of the region in November 1943, with the Karachays being charged with collaboration with Nazi Germany and deported. Originally restricted only to family members of rebel bandits during World War II, the deportation was later expanded to include the entire Karachay ethnic group.

The Holodomir of about a decade previous might have had something to do with the decision. Again, I don’t know. USSR wasn’t afraid to kill people but there’s usually a reason for a genocide.

The majority of the Karachay people are followers of Islam. Some Karachays began adopting Islam in the seventeenth century due to contact with the Nogais and Crimean Tatars. Most Karachays adopted Islam by the mid-eighteenth century via the influence of the Circassians.

But Fatima said the Circassians were Christians? Time for the big reveal.

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassia

Circassia was a country and a historical region in the North Caucasus along the northeast shore of the Black Sea. It was conquered and occupied by Russia during the Russian-Circassian War (1763–1864). 90% of the Circassian people were either exiled from the region or massacred in the Circassian genocide.

In a curious parallel with Fatima’s Wikipedia entry, the Circassian one goes straight to the sympathy play. All you need to know about both Fatima and Circassia is Russia Bad Russia Bad!

[Spoiler: Circassia was never, in fact, a country.]

The Circassians also dominated the north of the Kuban river in the early medieval and ancient times, but with the raids of the Mongol Empire, Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate, they were withdrawn south of the Kuban, from the Taman Peninsula to North Ossetia. During the Medieval Era, Circassian lords subjugated and vassalized the neighboring Karachay-Balkars and Ossetians. The term Circassia is also used as the collective name of Circassian states established on Circassian territory.

So, that journalism feud between Fatima and Batdyyev is actually an ethnic feud going back 400 years. But who’s counting? Everybody, because Middle East.

Circassia for centuries lived under the threat of external invasions, so the whole way of life of the Circassians was militarized. The governor of Astrakhan wrote to Peter I: “One thing I can praise about the Circassians is that they are all warriors.”

Circassia developed the so-called “Culture of War”. Honorable combat was a big part of this culture, during hostilities, it was considered strictly unacceptable to set fire to homes or crops, especially bread, even from enemies.

Hmm. A militaristic society… on the coastline of major sea-trade routes… in a mountainous region with few natural resources.

Legally and internationally, the Treaty of Belgrade of 1739 between Austria and Turkey provided for the recognition of the independence of Eastern Circassia (Kabarda). Both the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire recognized it, and the great powers at the time witnessed the treaty. The Congress of Vienna held in the period between 1814-1815 also stipulated the recognition of the independence of Circassia. In 1837, Circassian leaders sent letters to European countries requesting legal recognition. Following this, the United Kingdom recognized Circassia.

However, during the Russian-Circassian War, the Russian Empire did not recognize Circassia as an independent region, and treated it as Russian land under rebel occupation, despite having no control or ownership over the region. Russian generals referred to the Circassians not by their ethnic name, but as “mountaineers”, “bandits”, and “mountain scum”.

First Russia recognized Circassia, then it didn’t. Why?

Look at my boldfaced above. The Treaty Of Belgrade required Russia to recognize… Kabarda.

Oh, look at that. “Eastern Circassia”, indeed! Although both areas were at one time ruled by the same ruler, Russia never recognized coastal Circassia.

It is the tradition of the early church that Christianity made its first appearance in Circassia in the 1st century AD via the travels and preaching of the Apostle Andrew, but recorded history suggests that, as a result of Greek and Byzantine influence, Christianity first spread throughout Circassia between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD. The spread of the Catholic faith was only possible with the Latin Conquest of Constantinople by the crusaders and the establishment of the Latin state.

The Crusades were 11th century, and Circassia was rather out-of-the-way for that.

Some Circassian tribes chose Judaism in the past as a result of the settlement of approximately 20 thousand Jews in the 8th century Circassia, along with the relations established with the Turkic-Jewish Khazar Khaganate. Although Judaism in Circassia eventually assimilated into Christianity and Islam, Judaist influence on Circassian culture and language remained.

Fixed it.

Sigh. The Kazarian Jews, or Ashkenazi, colonized a Christian region. I’m sure those newcomers was miners and fishermen, not a ruling class of any kind, despite the reputations of the Khazars who installed them. /sarc

No wonder everything about all this talk of ‘Decolonizing Russia Today for Peter I’s Unfinished Plans Of 1714’ is chock-full of lies, half-truths and blood libels assessed against convenient leaders.

Turkish influence began Islamizing Circassia in the late 1700s, so there’s that. Hence my crossing out the “Christianity and” above. Christianity did not return to the region until Russia came along.

Meanwhile, to this American’s ears, a militant Christian nation hosting a Jewish colony is SOOOO familiar.

In 1714, Peter I established a plan to occupy the Caucasus. Although he was unable to implement this plan, he laid the political and ideological foundation for the occupation to take place. Catherine II started putting this plan into action. The Russian army was deployed on the banks of the Terek River.

That’s at least a 50-year gap. Catherine came to power in 1752.

In 1714, the Russian Navy (they had a good one at the time) was at war in Finland. Why would Peter have concerned himself with a Black Sea Sparta?

Especially since the historical significance of the Treaty of Belgrade is that it gave Russia naval access to the Sea of Azov/Black Sea for the first time… in 1739. And twenty-ish years later, Catherine II decided Circassia Delenda Est.

Why would a major naval power take notice of a militaristic coastal nation a few years after securing their new naval access?

…Were the Circassians pirates, by any chance?

…During the Russian-Circassian War, the Russian Empire did not recognize Circassia as an independent region, and treated it as Russian land under rebel occupation, despite having no control or ownership over the region.

And it became a Russian land when they DID assert control and claim ownership… yes? Bueller? Even by wikipedia standards, this entry has been edited for Narrative control.

Russian generals referred to the Circassians not by their ethnic name, but as “mountaineers”, “bandits”, and “mountain scum”.

Bandits? That’s not an insult, that’s a casus belli. Banditry along trade routes is just cause for military deployment… and there’s a word for “banditry at sea”.

The Circassian Parliament launched large-scale foreign policy activities. First of all, an official memorandum was drafted addressed to Tsar Alexander II. The text of the memorandum was presented to the tsar by the leaders of the Parliament during the latter’s visit to Circassia in September 1861.

1861? The conflict started in 1763… and ended in 1864. Those could only have been terms of surrender… but this was “first of all”? Somebody is trying to play the victim in a historical account.

The Parliament also accepted an appeal to the Ottoman and European governments. Special envoys were sent to Istanbul and London to seek diplomatic and military support. The activities of the Circassian government received the full support of public organizations, so the Circassian Committee of Istanbul and London supported Circassia. Thus, if not de jure, then de facto Circassia acquired the features of a subject of international law.

BULLSHIT! Even at a glance. “Friendly public organizations liked the idea of supporting Circassia, which made Circassia a legitimate, recognized nation under international law.”

THAT IS NOW HOW IT WORKS.

And then a hundred years of bitter land warfare ensued. No mention of naval warfare in this entry.

According to Walter Richmond, “Circassia was a small independent nation on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. For no reason other than ethnic hatred, over the course of hundreds of raids the Russians drove the Circassians from their homeland…”

Circassia was not a nation, the Russians deemed them bandits and THIS didn’t get mentioned at all:

CIRCASSIAN NAVY DURING RUSSIAN-CAUCASIAN WAR

h ttps://www.circassianworld.com/history/war-and-exile/1234-circassian-navy9

By A.Y. Chirg, 7 April 2009

During Russian-Caucasian War Tsar’s Russia did use not just ground forces but also Navy. Tsarism considered blockade of Adyghe (Circassian) sea coast as one of the main measures to conquest the Circassia, thus Russians wanted to stop any kind of connection Adyghe people with the rest world. The active role to fulfil it had assigned to Russian Navy. From the 1830 year along the eastern coast of Black Sea had patrolled especial Russian squadron named “Abkhazian expedition”. Battle cruisers did not allow to sail for commercial European and Turkish vessels towards Circassian coast.

The Russian Navy cutting off access between commercial shipping and the Circassian coast can be taken a couple different ways. One, they were trying to starve out the Circassians, or two, they were protecting trade lanes from Circassian piracy.

The fact that Circassia lacked natural resources, meant there was little reason for Russia to care about the people who lived there unless they were making pests of themselves.

Also, a context for this action is that Russia and the Ottoman Empire were fighting frequently. Circassia was predominately Muslim by the 1830s, so there is good probability (although I can’t document it at the moment) that the Circassians privateered for their Muslim peers at the opposite end of the Black Sea.

And on the other hand Tsar’s navy fought along the Black Sea coast of Northern Caucasus by landing numerous ground troops. They were occupying the most important places in strategic military meaning. In 1837-1839 years with the Navy’s assistance had been founded such military forts as: Saint Doukh on the Adler cape, Velyaminovskoye on the mouth of Tuapse River, Tenginskoye on the Shapsugh River, Novorossiysk in the Sudjoukh bight, Navaginskoye on the Sochi River, Golovinskoye on the Shakhe River, Lazarevskoye on the mouth of Psishuapa River.

Such a military buildup gives strength to the ideas that 1. Russia & Ottomans were going at it, and 2. Russia felt the need to protect its flanks from “bandits”.

Fighting with aggression of tsarism coastal Adyghes used their Navy, which consisted from small ships, named in European sources of 19 century as “galley”. Circassians mastered Black Sea navigation from ancient times and therefore they were very experienced navigators and sailors. There are a lot of information about Circassian navigation in ancient (Strabos, Tacitus, etc.) and medieval (Al-Masoudi, D. Interiano, etc.) sources.

By the 19 century sea navigation had very serious traditions. According to Swiss scientist F. Dubua de Monpere who observed Circassian galleys personally, that vessels could hold 60-70 persons each. But there also were which could hold up to 140 men. Adyghe vessels were sailing ones with the oars and sometimes were armed with light cannons. They could make very long coasting navigation.

Coastal navigation is not skilled navigation. The real test of sea navigation, is when you stop depending on coastal landmarks.

Russian trade representative in Western Circassia L.Y.Lulye wrote: “Coastal high-landers sailed very actively. For the transportation of provision from one gorge into another they used the same rowing-ships (galleys) as they did for the sea roads. I saw it by myself, how they were coming on the galleys using oars from very remote places of coast into Sudjouk bight (Novorossiysk) and even to fortress Anapa.”

They didn’t even have sail technology?

 

That’s not a ship. That’s a landing craft. No sails made long-distance travel inefficient, to say nothing about protection from weather. Shallow drafts made deep-sea travel unsafe, but again, the Black & Azov Seas are small enough that it probably wasn’t a handicap. That might even be a landing ramp at the stern.

It’s the seagoing equivalent of:

In the October of 1836 year Tsar’s vessel “Nartsiss” was attacked near to mouth of Sochi River by 7 Circassian galleys. After, the commander of Russian vessel captain Varnitskiy reported that Circassians fought in organized manner, their commander was showing by long pole to each galley its place during attack. After fierce fight Russians escaped.

In the eastern coast of Black Sea Adyghes used to pursue and seize hostile commercial ships. According to words of one Russian sea officer N.N. Sushev, who was an eyewitness of the Circassian assault. During the assault to the hostile trade ship Circassian firstly “knocked by riffle guns all the sailor from the upper deck, after they were boarding with the daggers and then after few moments all was finished…”

SMOKING GUN!!! Pirates they be!

We have to take into consideration that while war time all this also did England, Holland and others.

That was privateering. So, the Circassians were either doing piracy on behalf and with sanction of the Ottomans… or they were doing piracy.

And since we’re “taking into consideration”…

Segue

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Piracy

The Barbary pirates were pirates and privateers that operated from the North African (the “Barbary coast”) ports of Algiers, Morocco, Salé, Tripoli, and Tunis, preying on shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea from the time of the Crusades as well as on ships on their way to Asia around Africa until the early 19th century. The coastal villages and towns of Italy, Spain and Mediterranean islands were frequently attacked by them, and long stretches of the Italian and Spanish coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants; since the 17th century, Barbary pirates occasionally entered the Atlantic and struck as far north as Iceland.

Or as far east as the Black Sea? They would not have needed such advanced ships and navigation methods for that.

Barbary pirates flourished in the early 17th century as new sailing rigs by Simon de Danser enabled North African raiders, for the first time, to brave the Atlantic as well as Mediterranean waters.

So, the Circassian raiders had access to such tech but did not use it.

Whilst the Golden Age of European and American pirates is generally considered to have ended between 1710 and 1730, the prosperity of the Barbary pirates continued until the early 19th century.

Concurrent with Russia fighting a “war” against Circassian sailors that was perhaps better described as a series of raids against their infrastructure until they got pissed enough to do a clean sweep.

Unlike the European powers, the young United States refused to pay tribute to the Barbary states and responded with the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War against North Africa, when the Barbary pirates captured and enslaved American sailors.

Not relevant to this post, but USA was targeted by pirates because we won independence from England. When that happened, the English treaty with the Barbary pirates no longer protected our shipping. We did pay tribute but it didn’t stop the attacks. Whether that was Allah-sanctioned deceit or a simple communication error, we proceeded to kick Barbary ass. As our Marine Corps sings, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…”

End segue

Other form of using sea fleet by Adyghes in the struggle with tsarism were landings of Circassian troops from the galleys into important places and attacking suddenly points occupied by tsar’s troops. Thus, tsar’s Command were stupefied by bold and successful landing of Circassian troops close to Bombory in May 1834.

Textbook pirate behavior.

…Vorontsov was an eyewitness of unsuccessful Circassian boarding when brave Adyghes started board Russian ship. They chose position for the attack in front of the vessel’s nose, but sailors on the deck cut off the anchor chain and while it was falling down on the light galleys all they sank with the Circassian pirates.

There might be an entire chapter missing from the history of European piracy… the Black Sea chapter.

Coming back to the 21st Century, a surviving Circassian demands that Russia give back everything it “stole” from her people 200 years ago in defensive actions against her people’s banditry.

But wait… Circassia was Muslim at the time Russia cleaned the place out, and arguably aligned with the Ottoman Empire. If Russia DID give back Circassia, it would be to modern-day Turkey.

The Kazarian Jews are demanding that Russia return what the Ottoman Muslims took from them. That is no kind of “decolonization”. Just perfidy, half-truths and historical revisions from the ((usual suspects)). Unless Fatima is herself Muslim, in which case she’s the descendant of pirates wanting to punish the descendants of her victims.

It’s called the Old World because you kick a man’s dog and a thousand years later, it’s the reason that somebody kills somebody. Who wants to live like that? I’m all in favor of curating my people’s history but not to the level of eternal war against neighbors.