ABSTRACT
There are Chechen diaspora and refugee communities in many parts of the world. In Turkey and the Middle East the diaspora formed mainly as a consequence of the RussianCaucasian War in waves of forced migrations, though there had been earlier minor emigrations to Turkey and Persia following major clashes between the Russians and Chechens starting from the seventeenth century. In 1860 alone, 80,000 Chechens left for the Ottoman Empire, to be followed in 1865 by another 23,000, some of whom were settled in the Balkans. The Russians had no compunction calling what had happened a forced expulsion. One of the last mass emigrations took place following the Russian Civil War. Nowadays, tens of thousands of Chechens and Ingush live in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries. Because it is generally difficult for an outsider to distinguish between the Chechens and Ingush, and since the former are more numerous, both groups are referred to as Chechens in this account. Chechens who joined the French Foreign Legion spread across France’s colonies, their descendants still to be encountered in Algeria, Morocco and Central Africa.
