NJ Circassians Take Protest to Olympics

A delegation from New Jersey's Circassian community is travelling to the Summer Olympics in London this weekend to protest the upcoming winter games.

The group is upset that Sochi, Russia will play host to the 2014 Winter Olympics. New Jersey's 5,000 Circassians represent the largest cluster in the United States of a group that considers its ancestral homeland between the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains.

The group traveling to London tells The Record of Woodland Park they plan to march Saturday in London alongside several groups protesting some aspect of the Olympics.

Circassians say the Russian Army committed genocide against their ancestors and exiled them from Sochi 150 years ago. Russia has denied the genocide label.

Many relocated to the U.S. and settled in northern New Jersey.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)