- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Protests Hit Sochi.Park Cultural Center in London

© RIA Novosti . Valery Melnikov / Go to the mediabankSochi.Park in London
Sochi.Park in London - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Demonstrators staged a protest Sunday against the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics outside a cultural center dedicated to the event in London's Kensington Gardens.

Demonstrators staged a protest Sunday against the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics outside a cultural center dedicated to the event in London's Kensington Gardens.

The entrance to the Sochi.Park marquee was picketed by several activists from the NoSochi group, who say they are against the staging of the Olympics in a territory that saw ethnic cleansing of the Circassian people in the mid 19th century.

"Sochi is a land of genocide," a protest leader shouted through a megaphone. "You can take your Games and get lost."

A statement on the group's website NoSochi2014.com expanded on its position.

"The Sochi Olympics in 2014 will take place on the land of the Circassian Genocide, and even more insultingly, on its 150th anniversary."

The group held similar protests in Vancouver for the duration of the 2010 Winter Games.

Circassians are natives of the North Caucasus region of southern Russia. Many of the protestors are descendants.

Russia conquered the region in a long war that ended in 1864. The mass expulsion of Circassians ensued, with estimates of those killed ranging up to 400,000.

The Sochi.Park houses a cinema and also an ice rink, which opened to the public on Sunday.

The aim of the park is to familiarize Olympic visitors to the British capital with the concept of the Sochi 2014 Games and Russian traditions in general.

 

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала