![Oleksiy Honcharenko](https://static.euromaidanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/F8A79C50-3DD8-4C48-ABFF-FA6C2B6A94E2_cx0_cy5_cw90_w1023_r1_s1.jpg)
Their leader, Oleksiy Honcharenko, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has also called on PACE to do the same. He attempted to speak via a video recording to the Third International Congress of Circassians in Istanbul but was blocked by those who feared offending Moscow.
The Istanbul meeting attracted some 70 Circassian activists from more than a dozen countries, but it divided between those who believe that securing international recognition of the genocide is the most important task and those who argue that ensuring the return of Circassians to the homeland is.
While the first were enthusiastic about the Ukrainian plans, the second were very much opposed, arguing that a Ukrainian action in this regard would offend Moscow and make it impossible for Circassians to make progress on the return of their numbers to the North Caucasus, an attitude Moscow clearly supports and appears to have orchestrated.
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