Sirkassiërs vorm die titulêre nasie van die Russiese deelrepublieke Adigea, Karatsjai-Tsjerkessië en Kabardino-Balkarië. Hulle tuisland is die historiese streek Sirkassië in die Noord-Kaukasus van Rusland. In die Russiese Federasie leef sowat 720 000 Sirkassiërs, maar die meeste Sirkassiërs leef in Turkye. As gevolg van die Russiese verowering tydens die Russies-Sirkassiese oorlog in 1864 het die meeste Sirkassiërs dié streek verlaat en in die destydse Ottomaanse Ryk gevestig.
Die Sirkassiërs is hoofsaaklik aanhangers van die Soennitiese Islam, gevolg deur klein minderhede Oosters-Ortodokse en Rooms-Katolieke Christene sowel as Abchasies-Sirkassiese neopaganisme. Die etniese groep van die Sirkassiërs is verwant aan die Abchasiërs van Abchasië en die Abazyne in die Noordwestelike Kaukasus.
↑(tr) Alankuş, Sevda (1999). Taymaz, Erol (red.). Kültürel-Etnik Kimlikler ve Çerkesler. Ankara, Turkey: Kafder Yayınları.
↑(en) (2009) "The Formation of a Circassian Diaspora in Turkey".: 2, Adygea, Russia: Maikop State Technology University. Besoek op 4 Mei 2016. "Today, the largest communities of Circassians, about 5–7 million, live in Turkey, and about 200,000 Circassians live in the Middle Eastern countries (Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Israel). The 1960s and 1970s witnessed a new wave of migration from diaspora countries to Europe and the United States. It is estimated that there are now more than 100,000 Circassian living in the European Union countries. The community in Kosovo expatriated to Adygea after the war in 1998."
↑"Syrian Circassians returning to Russia's Caucasus region" (in Engels). TRTWorld. TRTWorld and agencies. 2015. Geargiveer vanaf die oorspronklike op 24 Oktober 2016. Besoek op 8 Mei 2016. Currently, approximately 80,000 ethnic Circassians live in Syria after their ancestors were forced out of the northern Caucasus by Russians between 1863 and 1867.
↑Lopes, Tiago André Ferreira. "The Offspring of the Arab Spring"(PDF). Strategic Outlook (in Engels). Observatory for Human Security (OSH). Geargiveer(PDF) vanaf die oorspronklike op 26 Julie 2019. Besoek op 16 Junie 2013.
↑(en) Spencer, Edmund, Travels in the Western Caucasus, including a Tour through Imeritia, Mingrelia, Turkey, Moldavia, Galicia, Silesia, and Moravia in 1836. London, H. Colburn, 1838. bl. 6.
↑(en) Loewe, Louis. A Dictionary of the Circassian Language: in Two Parts: English-Circassian-Turkish, and Circassian-English-Turkish. London, Bell, 1854. bl. 5.