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| Meet the ancestors: Circassians in Sochi sport traditional headwear – that bears a remarkable similarity to Boris Johnson's blond-mop hairstyle |
Elders of the Circassian community — famous for their blond hair, blue eyes and “warrior-like” demeanour — have invited the Mayor to visit them in Southern Russia.
They offered to help Mr Johnson, who has no plans to attend the Winter Games, track the roots of great-great-grandmother Hanifa Fered, who they say originates from the region.
His ancestor was one of 1.5 million Circassians — or Adygea — to flee the area now known as Sochi in the 19th century as Russia conquered it.
Hanifa crossed the Black Sea to the Ottoman Empire — present-day Turkey — but was sold as a slave on arrival, a fate that befell many Circassian women who were considered to be among the world’s most beautiful (Miss International Australia 2013, Felicia Djamirze, is Circassian).
The story has been passed down the Mayor’s family: Hanifa was bought as a concubine, and later married, Mr Johnson’s great-great-grandfather Ahmet Hamdi Kemal, a beeswax merchant from the village of Kalfat. Their son Ali Kemal, a journalist, poet and politician, married his Anglo-Swiss wife Winifred in London before returning to Turkey. He was murdered during the Turkish War of Independence. » | Will Stewart in Moscow and Pippa Crerar | Thursday, February 13, 2014
