Diaspora - Diaspora

Nirit Reichel
The role of the educational system in retaining Circassian identity during the transition from Ottoman control to life as Israeli citizens (1878–2000), Israel Affairs Vol. 16, No. 2, April 2010, 251–267

The purpose of this article is to examine the role played by the educational system of Kfar Kama in maintaining Circassian identity: how this has been expressed in different periods and what methods have been used as agents of conservation, as an agent of change? What factors have influenced the educational system?What methods did schools choose to employ? The article examines the decision-making processes regarding the school at Kfar Kama, the role of the internal system in determining educational policy, the results of the dialogue with the national state educational system, and what arrangements have beenmade to enable retention of Circassian culture by the Ottoman, British and Israeli governments.

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Dr. Muhittin T. Özsağlam
"21 Mayıs 1864 Çerkes Sürgünü ve Kıbrıs'a Yansıması...", Nart Dergisi, Sayı 73, 2010, ss. 7-8.

21 Mayıs 1864 artık sadece Çerkes halkı tarafından değil belli başlı ülkeler, uluslararası örgütler ve sivil toplum örgütleri tarafından da Büyük Çerkes Sürgünü’nün resmen başladığı tarih olarak kabul edilmektedir.

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Ayhan Kaya
Circassian Diaspora in Turkey: Stereotypes, Prejudices and Ethnic Relations, Nedret Kuran-BurçoÄŸlu and S. G. Miller (eds.). Representations of the Others in the Meditarrenean World and their Impact on the Region, Istanbul: The ISIS Press, 2005: 217-240

This article primarily aims to explore the basic dynamics of the current ethnic resurgence within Circassian diaspora in Turkey. In doing so, the author shall also address some of the other key issues related to the Circassian diaspora such as the ways in which stereotypes, prejudices, inter- and intra-ethnic relations, and cultural reification are being produced and reproduced in diaspora context. Before scrutinising these issues, a literature survey both on the Circassian diaspora in Turkey, in particular, and diaspora, in general, shall be made in order to situate the Circassian diaspora experience vis-à-vis the processes of globalisation.

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Ayhan Kaya
Political Participation Strategies of the Circassian Diaspora in Turkey, Mediterranean Politics, Vol.9, No.2 (Summer 2004), pp.221–239

This study is an attempt to summarize the political participation strategies generated by the Circassians in Turkey since the 1970s. In depicting those strategies, the institutional channelling theory shall be used. The relevance of this theory in comparison to the class and race/ethnicity theories is that it highlights the importance of the dominant political and legal institutions shaping and limiting the migrants’ choice possibilities. The principal strategies explored in this regard are initially the ideological strategies of the revolutionaries and returnists in the 1970s, then the minority strategy carried out in the 1990s as a reaction against the majority nationalism of the 1980s, and finally the diasporic identity which has become the principal strategizing tool in the last few years. The article explores both theoretical and practical aspects of the diasporic identity with particular reference to the Circassians in Turkey.

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Chen Bram
Circassian Re-Immigration To The Caucasus, "Routes and Roots: Emigration in a global perspective", ed. by S. Weil, Magnes, Jerusalem, 1999. Pp. 205-222

This study, which is based on anthropological field work in the Galilee between 1990- 1994 and on field trips to Northern Caucuses in 1990 and 1993, deals with questions concerning the re-emigration of the Circassians to their homeland up to the beginning of 1994. This chapter will examine this process and the changing attitude of the Israeli Circassians towards their relations with their homeland, namely, the transformation from an aspiration and vision of returning to their homeland sometime in the future, to a claim that the relation of the Circassians to the Caucuses and their brothers who live there should be like the connection between the American Jews and the State of Israel. In other words, the chapter examines the definition of a community in exile who are in the process of re-defining a more complicated definition of Diaspora-Center connections. This new definition influences group identity and patterns of accommodation in Israel.

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Amjad Jaimoukha
The Circassians in Jordan (A Brief Introduction), Amman: The Folklore Committee, Al-Ahli Club, 1998

1. Historical Background

1.1 PRE-WAR GEOGRAPHY.

The original homeland of the Circassians, or Khakuzh (the Old Country) as it is referred to by them, is Northwest Caucasia between the Black Sea to the west and the Urukh river to the east, and between the Caucasus Mountains to the south and the Kuban, Bakhsan and Terek rivers to the north (map 1). Historical Circassia, a term used to designate Circassian lands prior to commencement of the catastrophic Russian war in the Caucasus at the beginning of the 19th century, had an area of approximately 100,000 square kilometres, roughly a quarter of the size of the whole Caucasus, which made it the largest country in the region.

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WRITENET
The North Caucasian Diaspora In Turkey, A report commissioned by UNHCR, 1 May 1996
Source: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6a6bc8.html

The Abkhazians living in Turkey have preserved very well the customs, languages and dances carried there from Abkhazia by their ancestors. The etiquette of the Abkhazians [apswara] is strictly observed. Of late they have been asking us to send them copies of the alphabet, books, teaching manuals, films on Abkhazia, recording of songs, language-primers.

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John Colarusso
Circassian Repatriation: When Culture is Stronger than Politics, The World & I, November, 1991 issue. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Times Publishing Corporation. Pp. 656-669.

The Circassians may be returning home in the next few years. But before one can appreciate how remarkable this prospect is, one must be told who the Circassians are and how they came to their present plight far from their homeland.

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Shawket Mufti (Habjoka)
The Circassians in Jordan and Syria, â€˜â€˜Heroes and Emperors in Circassian History’’, Beirut, 1972

The Circassians who had gone to the Balkans as emigrees sub­sequently left those regions owing to the Russian penetration of the Ottoman lands in 1877, and re-settled in Anatolia. A small part of them came to Syria and Jordan where the Ottoman State gave them agricultural land on which to live. The Shapsughs were the first tribe to leave Turkey on board a ship which caught fire while at sea. About seven hundred were burnt to death, and the survivors landed in Acre, then moved to Nablus where they stayed for a year before crossing the Jordan and settling in Amman. In 1880 groups of Kabardians and Bzadughs migrated to Jordan. Others migrated at other times and founded seven villages in Trans-Jordan, including Amman, which later became the capital of Jordan. In 1905 a small number of Chechens and some Daghestani families also migrated to Trans-Jordan.

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