On August 5 Turkey hosted the inaugural conference on an independent Circassia, with the event facilitated by the local government of Istanbul s Üsküdar district, which is controlled by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). This conference,
After a brief easing following the Sochi Olympics in 2014, which elevated attention on the Circassian issue to the global level, tensions between Moscow and the Circassians ebbed during the first part of the past decade only to rise again at its end (see EDM, October 5, 2021; May 19, 2022). But any chance that these tensions would ease again …