The Circassian genocide was the systematic murder and deportation of at least 80% of the Circassian population living in the Northern Caucasus region of the Russian Empire. The forced assimilation of the Circassians began in the early 1800s however after the end of the Russo-Circassian war in May 1864 mass killings and forced deportations took place.
The Russo-Circassian war officially ended in 1864 however disorganized Circassian resistance continued in the mountains well into the 1870s. Between 1864 and 1880 up to 1,500,000 Circassians (85-97% of the total population) were either killed or expelled to the Ottoman Empire. The Russians did not even consider Circassia to be an independent country before the war, they considered Circassia Russian land which was under rebel occupation, despite the fact that the region was not and had never been under Russian control. Russian generals did not refer to the Circassians by their ethnic name, instead, they called the Circassians "mountaineers", “bandits", and "mountain scum".
Since the event took place Russian sources mostly ignored or belittled the conflict, and Russian state media and officials have gone as far as to claim that the conflict "never happened” and they have also claimed that Circassia "voluntarily joined Russia in the 16th century".
Ottoman sources show nearly 1 million migrants entering their land from the Caucasus by 1879, with almost half of them dying on the shores as a result of diseases. If Ottoman archives are correct, it would make it the biggest exile of the 19th century, and indeed, in support of the Ottoman archives, the Russian census of 1897 records only 150,000 Circassians, one-tenth of the original number, still remaining in the now conquered region. 90% of people with Circassian descent now live in other countries, primarily in Turkey, Jordan and other countries of the Middle East, with only 500,000–700,000 remaining in what is now Russia.
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