KARACHAI
(Own name: Karachai)

A Caucasian people of 150.000, closely related to Balkar, who speak a western Turkic (Kipchak) Language. They live in Karachai-Cherkessia and are the second largest group in the republic, with Russians constituting the absolute majority. Ethnically descendent from Turkic tribes who migrated to the Caucasus in the fifteenth century, the Karachai were pressed up into the mountains by Cherkess and Kabard and mixed with indigenous Caucasians. In 1926 a Karachai Autonomous District was formed. Karachaya was occupied by the German Army from August 1942 to January 1943. In November that year the entire Karachai population was deported to Central Asia and the Autonomous District dissolved, part of their homeland was then given to Georgia, but was returned, and in 1957 they were permitted to return to a now combined Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous District. Karachai-Cherkessia became a Republic in 1991. Today the main claims are for more rehabilitation and improved conditions for their language and culture in their republic, where they constitute 26 per cent. There were also disputes over land with the local Cossacks.

Editor note: This information is taken from "The North Caucasus: Minorities at a Crossroads" written by Helen Krag and Larsh Funch.