This following article is an interview with Larissa Khadipash, who is one of the circassian activists in Moscow. She is now in the midst of preparing a project, to bring circassians from diaspora and from Circassia together. In this summer, they will conduct a tour onto the Ush-hamafe, the Elbrus-Mountain.  This interview started as a facebook-chat about the project and than I came to the idea, to make an interview out of it, because it touched important topics.

So, the first part is more like a chat and in the second part it turns more into a normal interview.

*****

Jinal: „I know, its not an easy job to organize such thinks, especially with people from different countrys.“

Larissa: „We would like to build a good team for the future work. We are working with our website where all info will be collected. You can find it on booklet: www.umaho.ru We translated this info to adygabze, turkish, arab, deutsch and english.“

Jinal: „Thats well.“

Larissa: „The main idea - is unity of  circassians (adyghes) and return to our home, this project is only one of little steps forward to collect together circassians (adyghes) from different countries who can work together further. We do not need tourists, we need patriots, real patriots.“

Jinal: „Are you the head-organizor or another person or is it a complete team-work?“

Larissa: „:) I guess you know the answer

Jinal: „No.“

Larissa: „Firstly this was my idea. But many people help me :) with translation, with booklets, website organization etc. it is better to say that this is a teamwork.“

Jinal: „Thats very interesting too, because from our tradition I guess, we were been more ´Thamada-oriented´, with one head. So this shows new ways of acting and thinking. Can you agree?“

Larissa: „May be you are right. I didnt think about it before. But sometimes people need a leader. especially now and of course, I think - a woman shouldn't be ahead, this is wrong.“

Jinal: „I don´t agree totally, just in part, first, I guess a leader is needed so long, as the others   don´t take their responsibility, but the more people are acting skillfull and responsible, the less we need sole leader-figures. Second, a woman can bring new impact and a female view and way of acting, this could be a chance too - look at Cicek Chek, espacially in talks with men.“

Larissa: „Something like democracy?“

Jinal: „Of course democracy.“

Larissa: „I dont know this woman but I heard about her, I dont know... this is a difficult question because - to be honest - if you look at our people who live here - all of them are leaders, no one listen the other one and this is really not easy to talk with such a people who think that only he is right in such cases - dont you think that there should be one person?“

Jinal: „Of course, democracy needs to listen to each other.“

Larissa: „To whom everyone will listen?“

Jinal: „I dont know.“

Larissa: „Me as well, but we will go ahead and see what will be tomorrow. I believe to one thing - if you do nothing - nothing will happen.“

Jinal: „But democracy doesn´t mean, that everyone will listen to one person or ideologie. Democracy needs plurality, different kinds of thinkings and acting.“

Larissa: „What I see - in our case it doesn´t work still.“

Jinal: „Larissa, to complete our interview, I have some more questions. Can you tell a bit about yourself? What is your profession? When did you came to Moscow?“

Larissa: „I was born in Krasnodar, Adygeya. My father is abdzakh, my mother is bjedug. I am a doctor, cardiologist, graduated PhD in Moscow. I live in Moscow more than 15 years. Now I work in one international pharmaceutical company.“

Jinal: „And when did you realized, that the circassian cause needs activists like you?“

Larissa: „Actually I always thought that women shouldn't participate in such activities. But I understood that our internal and external circassian organizations don't do anything except for words only. Or do not enough. Words are nothing. I see what happens with my nation. We are disappearing, we are very less here. Our language and our Adyghe Khabze are dying. If we still sit and wait - it is clear what will be happened. That is why I started to find the people who think like me and who worry about our future. It doesn't matter - who they are - men or women. Maybe women care more than men about this cause because they should think about future. I want also my children and my grandchildren to stay circassians. Hopefully we have a very good team here, in Moscow and several compatriots in other Diasporas as well who are ready to work together with us for circassian question.“

Jinal: „You and your team are now in the mids of preparing a very interesting event. Can you tell us about it, what is the target, you want to reach with it and when did you get the idea, to conduct such an event?“

Larissa: „We were thinking about it for a long time, about 2-3 years. But it was just like a dream. For me - Ioshkhemafe - is a symbol of our freedom, of our circassian soul, of our common future. This is not like a touristic trip. No. Our targets are:

• Drawing the attention of the Circassians and the global community to the basic problem of the Circassians - territorial lack of coordination.
• Visual proof of the spiritual unity of the Circassians around the world, regardless of their places of residence.
• Promotion of unity of the people in their historic homeland through a joint climb to the highest peak of the Caucasus and Europe Ioshkhemafe.“

Jinal: „In the last month you conducted many demonstrations because of the repatriation topic of the Syrian circassians. Which experiences did you made with it? How did the Russian public and the security services, as well as the politicians reacted on your activities?“

Larissa: „Yes, we performed several stand on pickets in August and October, we performed a picket on 23 September not only in Moscow but in other Diasporas including Turkey, USA and Germany as well to support our compatriots dying in Syria. We performed also a big meeting on 02 December in Moscow with more than 160 people. The main experience for me is: if we want - we can reach everything if we are together!                                                                       

This information was published in several media in internet and local newspapers in Kabardino-Balkaria. But I know nothing about reaction from the Russian public or security services. From the other side we received a very good feedback from international circassian society. They supported us and it is very important.“

Jinal: „We heard, that after the presidential election, because of the many demonstrations in Russia, Putin changed many laws in relation to democratic rights. Did this effect your activities?“

Larissa: „Yes, that's right. But I cannot comment it. We will see what will be in the future. We are not going to stop our activity.

At the end I would like to wish all circassians all around the world not to forget the main thing: all of us have CIRCASSIAN blood in our veins and CIRCASSIAN soul inside.

Jinal: „That was a very interesting discussion. Thank you and a big success for your project. I think, this is not the last time, we hear about it.“

Larissa: „Well, thank you very much for the interesting discussion, see you, bye.“

http://umaho.ru/

http://umaho.ru/eng/

http://umaho.ru/tur/

http://umaho.ru/grm/

http://umaho.ru/arb/

Röportaj: Jinal Tamzoque

Tarih: 21/03/2013 Cherkessia.net /Almanya

***

Çerkes Aktivist Larissa Khadipash (Moskova) ile Röportaj :