A Petition from Circassian leaders to Her Majesty Queen Victoria was a document sent by Circassian leaders to Queen Victoria on 7 April 1864 complaining about Russian genocidal actions that made up the Circassian genocide. The document requests British military aid, or in the worst case, humanitarian aid, to the Circassian people.Enclosed in Despatch No.3 From Sir Henry Bulwer to Earl Russell, Constantinople, 12 April 1864 (FO 881/1259) Only the English version of the text exists today. Presumably, however, it was written in Ottoman Turkish, and then translated to English by Henry Bulwer, the British ambassador in Istanbul.
Background
During the reign of Catherine II the Russian army started entering Circassian soil and Russia started building forts in an attempt to quickly annex Circassia. Thus began the first hostilities between the Circassians and the Russian Empire. From 1802 to 1806 general Pavel Tsitsianov led campaigns in Circassia and targeted Circassian villages. He referred to the Circassians as "untrustworthy swine" to "show how insignificant they are compared to Russia".Potto, Valisii. Kavkazskaya voina. 1:171 In 1808, a Russian commission decided that in order to end Circassian resistance against the Russian Empire, the Circassians would need to be eliminated from their homeland. Since then, systematic mass murder of Circassians was a common strategy.Hatk, Isam. "Russian-Circassian War 1763- 21 May 1864." Al Waha – Oasis. 51. (1992): 10-15.Capobianco, Michael (2012). "Blood on the Shore: The Circassian Genocide"
In 1857, Dmitry Milyutin published the idea of mass expulsions of Circassian natives.King, Charles. The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. Page 94. "In a policy memorandum in of 1857, Dmitri Milyutin, chief-of-staff to Bariatinskii, summarized the new thinking on dealing with the northwestern highlanders. The idea, Milyutin argued, was not to clear the highlands and coastal areas of Circassians so that these regions could be settled by productive farmers...[but] Rather, eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements. Tsar Alexander II formally approved the resettlement plan...Milyutin, who would eventually become minister of war, was to see his plans realized in the early 1860s". Milyutin argued that the goal was not to simply move them so that their land could be settled by productive farmers, but rather that "eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements".L.V.Burykina. Pereselenskoye dvizhenie na severo-zapagni Kavakaz. Reference in King.. "In his memoirs Milutin, who proposed deporting Circassians from the mountains as early as 1857, recalls: "the plan of action decided upon for 1860 was to cleanse [ochistit'] the mountain zone of its indigenous population". Tsar Alexander II endorsed the plans. Although the order given by Tsar Alexander II was to deport the remaining Circassians rather than to completely mass murder them, the Russian commanders were open to the idea of massacring large portions of the Circassian population. Richmond has noted that "reports abound" of massacres in the final stages of the Caucasus campaign.Richmond, Walter (2013). The Circassian Genocide. Page 76
In 1860, the Circassian Parliament was founded.Ruslan, Yemij (August 2011). Soçi Meclisi ve Çar II. Aleksandr ile Buluşma. In 1864, the Circassian leaders signed the document to be issued to Queen Victoria.
Text The document requests intervention from the British government against the Russians, or humanitarian assistance in the event that this is not achieved. It is addressed to the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Bulwer.
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