TürkçeAbdulmedjid Chermoy was the sole representative of the Republic of the North Caucasus before the Western powers in Paris, where he headed the delegation that went to participate in peace talks in the spring of 1919, when the Bolshevik occupation advanced with all its intensity during the final days of 1920.
In the last week of 1920, on December 27, 1920, coincided the day Ethem Bey the Circassian raised the flag of rebellion against the Ankara Government in Turkey, Abdülmedjid Chermoy sent a telegraph message from Paris to Paul Hymans, President of the League of Nations (Today’s United Nations) in Geneva, once again demanding the independence of the North Caucasus Republic and its acceptance as a member of the League of Nations:
Président du Congrés de la Ligue des Nations - Genéve
Unable, due to my health, to attend the Congress of the League of Nations in Geneva, which is currently addressing the question of the admission of the Caucasus republics, I take the liberty of writing directly to Your Excellency on behalf of my country, which sent me here as head of the official delegation to the Peace Conference, requesting that you consider, during these ongoing discussions, the question of the admission of the North Caucasus Republic into the League of Nations.
At the Peace Conference, I addressed the Supreme Council and the Entente governments on numerous occasions, outlining the rights of my people, who aspire to an independent life, and I come here to reiterate these arguments before your esteemed person.
The rights of the peoples of the North Caucasus seem worthy of special consideration, for, in defense of these rights, these peoples have fought and sacrificed their blood, as the history of Russia has taught us. The war, which ended in 1864, although called the "Caucasian War," was, from 1801—the year Georgia was annexed by Russia—fought solely by the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus, and the last hero of this struggle was the universally renowned Mountaineer Imam Shamil.
It is in this same spirit that our people are currently fighting against Bolshevik Russia. The latter, as in the past but more openly, seeks to impose itself as the absolute master of our existence, and its aggressive actions outrage our national, traditional, and religious sentiments, the principles of which are completely different from those of the Russians, regardless of their political affiliation.
The future of the entire Caucasus is entirely linked to the independence of its peoples, freely united by economic and political agreements. My colleagues, who represent the Transcaucasian republics in Geneva, will tell you—I am certain—that the historical and economic fate of Transcaucasia is inextricably linked to that of the North Caucasus, and that fundamental decisions concerning them cannot be made without our input. If the destiny of our peoples is to be heard, is it not precisely at the Geneva Assembly, where the defenders of the traditional and sacred rights of nationalities are gathered, that our representatives should be admitted? My hope for the success of this request is bolstered by the fact that your assembly is presided over by the representative of Belgium. Just as that noble country suffered the consequences of the world war and fell victim to the brutal force of others' appetites and ambitions, the Republic of the North Caucasus is a victim of the rise of Bolshevism in the world. In both cases — either Belgium or the North Caucasus — they were sacrificed without regard for their national rights and without any concern for the morality of the solution.
The only response to Chermoy's telegram was a confirmation of receipt of the telegram sent on January 5, 1921. Unable to receive a concrete response from the League of Nations after eight months, Chermoy was forced to reapply to the Secretary-General with a memorandum on September 8, 1921.
The various peoples of Circassians, Dagestani, Chechens, Ossetians, Kabardians, Circassians, etc. are among the oldest nations in Europe, and most of them have the same common origin. They have managed to preserve their political independence, culture, language, and religion throughout their thousand-year history.
The North Caucasus was, in fact, reunited with Russia only about half a century ago. The epic struggle against one of the world's greatest empires lasted from 1789 to 1864. This heroic resistance of the Circassian peoples, especially from 1854 to 1859, under the high command of the famous Imam Shamil, aroused the admiration of the entire world and attracted the sympathy of their age-old enemies, the Russians themselves.
Defeated by forces superior in numbers, organization, and weaponry, the Circassian peoples were forced to submit to the foreign yoke, but all the reprisals and excesses of the Russian regime could not stifle either national sentiment or the hope of seeing their political independence regained. Taking these facts into account, it will be readily understood that with the collapse of the former Russian Empire in 1917-1918, the peoples of the North Caucasus, with their innate taste for freedom, their independent democratic spirit, and their very high national sentiment, were compelled to constitute themselves as an independent state.
Under the spontaneous pressure determined by the unanimous enthusiasm of our peoples, the National Council proclaimed, on May 11, 1918, the independence and complete sovereignty of our countries. A provisional government was appointed at its head, an act that was approved shortly thereafter by a duly elected Parliament. The city of Temir-Khan-Shura was chosen as the provisional capital of the new Republic.
The new Government exercised its power over the entire country until the end of May 1919, when General Denikin invaded the territory of the Republic. Fought fiercely by all the Circassian peoples, this general was never able to establish his domination over the entire country. The high mountain regions always escaped his power, just as they still escape that of the Bolsheviks today. And finally, faced with our energetic resistance, General Denikin had to evacuate our entire territory.
This stubborn struggle had partly exhausted the Circassian peoples; so when they found themselves in the presence of Bolshevik troops, equipped with completely modern weaponry, with cannons of all calibers and armored trains, they had to allow them to occupy the plain and the region bordering the railway line, which was more favorable for defense, and, despite all the efforts of the Soviets, they remained the absolute masters of this entire important region which constitutes three-quarters of their territory. At present, our country still has a regularly constituted government, an armed force, and a territory entirely free from any foreign influence and comprising the mountainous part of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Ossetia, and Kabarda, with a population of more than one and a half million inhabitants out of the total population of about three million.
Military operations are guided by a General Staff composed of senior officers; the troops are commanded by Circassian officers belonging to the former Russian Imperial Army and by Turkish officers of Circassian origin, descendants of Circassian political émigrés who left their country in 1864 for Turkey.
The Soviets, aware of the power of national sentiment and the inflexible will of the Circassian peoples to live or die free, were already obliged, in February 1919, to recognize by decree the political independence of the North Caucasian Republic. This recognition was confirmed this year.
But practicing the same imperialist policy of the old Russian regime, the Soviets continue to militarily occupy our territory and to establish a regime there contrary to the political, social, economic, and religious conceptions of our population, as well as to its traditions and its family and racial ties. To better combat the violence and the current occupation of the country by Bolshevik forces and to defend its freedom and that of the other peoples of the Caucasus, around which the Circassians have been guarding for centuries against the invader from the North, my country entered, by a formal act of June 10, 1921, into a close alliance, based on a single political and economic system, with its neighbors, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. The League of Nations had already received at the time the text of the above agreement, signed by the Representatives of all these countries.
Strengthened by this agreement with the other Caucasian peoples, supported by common efforts, long recognized as an independent state by its neighbors, confident in the justice of its cause and in its right to determine its own destiny, the Republic of the North Caucasus will therefore remain in the future as resolute and persevering in the struggle for its independence as it was in the past. Deeply convinced that in the current circumstances in Russia and the Caucasus, the civilized nations, members of the League of Nations, have sufficient means to exert diplomatic pressure on the Moscow Soviets, the Circassian peoples ask the League of Nations for its moral support in compelling the Russians to evacuate the territories of the Caucasus.
Independent of the aforementioned political reasons, the requested evacuation is necessitated by other economic considerations, which are as follows:
The presence of considerable contingents of foreign troops, the incessant war separating the plain from the mountains, contributions on food, the export of food reserves both by Soviet institutions and by individuals, soldiers and their families to the North, as well as other excesses of the Bolshevik regime, have completely disorganized the economic life of our country, hindered all productive work and stifled trade and industry. Peasants, intimidated by the acts of violence perpetrated against them by the Soviet regime and the Red Army, are forced to limit their cultivation of the land to what is strictly necessary to meet their own needs. As a result, without the complete evacuation of the country by foreign troops, the problem of food supplies and the fight against epidemic diseases can only be resolved temporarily without a definitive solution.
I have the honor of requesting the assistance of the League of Nations to combat another evil. I refer to the fate of our refugees who have had to flee their country to avoid the atrocious fate reserved by the Soviets for their political enemies: deportation or death without trial or mercy. The number of our emigrants scattered throughout Turkey reaches approximately a thousand men, and their situation is materially precarious; they therefore hope with resignation that the League of Nations will take their fate into its own hands. In summary, the undersigned has the honor to request from the General Assembly of the League of Nations, in the name of the high principles on which the said League is based, a vote of protest and disapproval against the military occupation of the territory of the North Caucasus Republic by the Red Soviet troops.
Likewise, I firmly hope that the League of Nations will not refuse my country the aid and assistance of all organizations that are or will be created by the League itself or under its auspices for the purpose of combating famine, epidemics, and providing relief to refugees.
Chermoy’s memo was sent to Paul Mantoux, Chief of the Political Department of the League of Nations, for review on September 16, with the following cover letter attached:
Geneva, le 16 septembre 1921.
Pour Monsieur Mantoux,
You may recall the presence in Paris, during the Peace Conference, of a delegation known as the Republics of the Mountain Peoples of the North Caucasus, whose representatives claimed to speak on behalf of free tribes composed of diverse ethnic groups, some Muslims, others the most authentic descendants of the ancient Scythians, still living as Herodotus described them.
The memorandum contained in this file appears to me to originate from this same delegation. The cover letter is signed: A.M. Tchermoeff, who is, it is said, not unknown in the Caucasian countries, since he participated in the war there, first as an officer in the Russian Guard, and then later, during the Turkish invasion, on the other side, where he held an important command.
His presentation was intended to draw the attention of the League of Nations Assembly to the plight of the unfortunate peoples of Circassian origin: Dagestanis, Chechens, Ossetians, Kabardians, and Circassians, all suffering under the harsh Bolshevik regime, as are, further south, the Georgians, Azerbaijanis, and Armenians.
The appeal made by this delegation had three objectives:
1.) To obtain from the League of Nations a protest against the Soviet occupation regime in the northern Caucasus;
2.) To include these regions among those suffering from famine and to receive aid from associations established for this purpose;
3.) To ensure that refugees of Circassian origin receive the same assistance as Russian refugees of other ethnicities.
It does not appear necessary to examine in detail the potential outcome of each of these requests.
The purely administrative question that arises is what use should be made of this document. Its origin, being relatively uncertain, leads me to believe that it could have been refrained from being distributed. However, if the Assembly were, during its session, to be called upon to protest against the distressing plight of the various nations of the Caucasus (Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani), there would seem to be no objection to including the Circassian tribes mentioned in the document. Indeed, one can assume that their situation is no more favorable than that of the others.
If the Assembly intends to demonstrate its sympathy in this way, the distribution of this document would be justified; otherwise, it might be better to do nothing at all.
Requests concerning the supply of food to the Caucasian regions and assistance to refugees could be communicated to Dr. Nansen, High Commissioner of the Red Cross, for one matter, and to the League of Nations for the other. I would therefore propose that a copy of this letter be sent to Dr. Nansen, indicating the issues about the two areas of activity for which he has kindly agreed to assume responsibility. Upon acknowledging receipt of his letter, Mr. Tchermoeff could be informed, as a courtesy, of the communication addressed to Dr. Nansen.
When Paul Mantoux transferred the memo to Red Cross High Commissioner Dr. Fridtjof Nansen on September 24, he attached the following cover letter:
Mr. High Commissioner,
I have the honor to transmit herewith two copies of a memorandum recently received by the Secretariat of the League of Nations. This document is accompanied by a letter dated September 8, 1921, addressed by Mr. Tchermoeff, in his capacity as President of the delegation of the Republic of the North Caucasus, to the Peace Conference. The Secretariat of this delegation is located at: 2 rue Dufrénoy, Paris.
The appeal made by the North Caucasus delegation has three objectives:
1.) To obtain from the League of Nations a protest against the Soviet occupation regime in the northern part of the Caucasus;
2.) To have these regions included among those suffering from famine, which will be aided by the associations created for this purpose;
3.) To provide refugees of Circassian origin with the same assistance as Russian refugees of other races.
I feel it necessary to send you copies of this document since two of the issues raised therein relate to the two areas of activity that you have kindly assumed the direction of: one as High Commissioner of the League of Nations for Russian Refugees, and the other as High Commissioner of the Geneva Conference for the Supply of Russia.
Please accept, Mr. High Commissioner, the assurances of my highest consideration.
For the Secretary-General,
Director of the Political Section
Paul Mantoux
Paul Mantoux also wrote in his reply message to Abdülmedjid Chermoy:
Sir,
In your letter dated September 8, 1921, No. 409, you kindly forwarded to me a memorandum concerning the current situation in the North Caucasus region and the suffering of its inhabitants.
I read your report with great interest. Its purpose was, among other things, to ensure that the northern Caucasus is included among the regions suffering from famine and will receive aid from organizations established for this purpose, and, furthermore, to ensure that refugees of Circassian origin receive the same assistance as Russian refugees of other ethnicities.
I thought it best to respond to your intentions by bringing these requests to the attention of Dr. Nansen, who has kindly agreed to serve as High Commissioner of the League of Nations for Relief to Russian Refugees and as High Commissioner of the Conference of Red Cross Societies for the Supply of Food to the Starving Regions of Russia. I therefore take the liberty of urging you to establish direct contact with Dr. Hansen, who will undoubtedly devote his full attention to the plight of the unfortunate populations of the North Caucasus.
Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Secretary General,
Director of the Political Section.
However, neither the League of Nations nor Dr. Fridtjof Nansen showed the same kindness to the peoples of the North Caucasus as they did to the peoples of the Transcaucasus. Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, chose to remain deaf and dumb when it came to the peoples of the North Caucasus. The written statement issued by Dr. Nansen's office on October 3rd was merely an informational message confirming receipt of the documents in question.
Today's so-called United Nations is just as distant and disinterested in the issues related to the North Caucasus as the League of Nations of 1921. While the Caucasus is rapidly being transformed into a Russian homeland, the ancient indigenous peoples of the Caucasus have been losing their physical and spiritual existence day by day.
In this context, it is worth noting the use of the exonym "Circassian" in the document as a geographical identity designation. This document serves as concrete evidence against the polemics that attempted to attribute this exonym merely to the Adyghe people, as one of the North Caucasian peoples, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
As has been emphasized in my previous papers several times, we clearly see that Aziz Meker of Abaza origin, Bekir Sami Kundukh, Alikhan Kantemir and Ahmed Tsalıkkatı of Ossetian origin, Haydar Bammat of Kumyk origin, and, as in this document, Abdülmedjid Chermoy of Chechen origin, and Ibrahim Han Ibrahim Bek of Lezgin origin used the exonym "Circassian" to address the external world as a geographical identity designation encompassing the entire North Caucasus.
Asserting that only the Adyghe in the modern Caucasus identify with the “Circassian” exonym—an outcome of Stalinist nationality policies that shaped, coerced, and manipulated the peoples of the North Caucasus for eight decades—and treating this as an objective scholarly fact amounts to implicitly validating the very Soviet-era destruction imposed on the region.
It is impossible to equate the claims of the intellectual statesmen of the time, who used the "Circassian" lexeme in its most accurate form while representing the North Caucasus on the highest-level international platforms, with those whose minds were clouded by the teachings of the 80-year Bolshevik regime. It would be greatly beneficial for the reader to examine this important historical document from this perspective.
Cem Kumuk
Istanbul, 22 November 2025