Publication: STALİN’İN MİLLİYETLER POLİTİKASININBEDELİ OLARAK AHISKA SÜRGÜNÜ VEAHISKALILAR’IN SÜRGÜNDEKİ YAŞAMLARI
Abstract
İnsanları evleri ve vatanlarından uzaklaştırarakonları boşlukta bırakmayı amaç edinen sürgün,zorunlu göç hareketlerinden biri olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Sovyet Sosyalist CumhuriyetlerBirliği’nde (SSCB) Stalin döneminde gerçekleşen sürgünler de Sovyet devletinin farklı gördüğü Türk ve Müslüman halkları yaşadıkları yerleri terk etmeleri için uyguladıkları politikanınbir parçası ve SSCB’nin milliyetler politikasının1930’larda yön değiştirmesi ve Ruslaştırmayadönüş kapsamında uygulanan bir stratejidir.Sovyet yönetimi, 1944 yılında Türk ve Müslüman halkların bazılarını sürgüne göndermiştir.Bu halklar arasında Gürcistan’ın Türkiye sınırında yaşayan Ahıska Türkleri de bulunmaktadır.Ahıska sürgününü Stalin döneminde değişenmilliyetler politikası çerçevesinde inceleyen buçalışmada, Ahıskalıların sürgünde yaşadıklarınayer verilmektedir. Ahıskalıların anlatıları, AhıskaTürkleri ile Bulgaristan Türklerinin Türkiye’yegöçlerini konu edinen, 2010-14 yılları arasında gerçekleştirilen nitel araştırma kapsamındaAhıskalıların yoğun olarak yaşadıkları İstanbul,Bursa ve Kocaeli’de yapılan derinlemesinegörüşmelere dayanmaktadır. Anlatılardan dagörüldüğü gibi, Ahıskalılar 1956’ya dek sürgüne gönderildikleri bölgelerde kamp hayatıyaşamak zorunda bırakılmışlar ve asimilasyonamaruz kalmışlardır. Ama kamp hayatı boyuncaasimile olmak bir yana Türk kimliklerini pekiştirmiş ve zorluklarla mücadele etmişlerdir.
forcing them out of their homes and homelands, is a type of forced migration. Some of the Turkish and Muslim communities living in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were unwanted by Stalin and sent to exile as part of the Soviet state’s policy followed to force people out of their homes. At the same time, it was a strategy implemented as a result of the changing Soviet nationalities policy in the 1930s and return to the Russification process. The Soviet administration sent some of the Turkish and Muslim peoples to exile in 1944. Ahıska Turks (Meskethian Turks) living on the Georgian-Turkish border, were among the exiled peoples. This article is about the Ahıska Turks’ exile. Their narratives are based on in-depth interviews conducted with the ones living in Istanbul, Bursa and Kocaeli provinces as a part of a qualitative research carried out in 2010-14 period about the Turkish forced migration from Bulgaria in 1989 and the Ahıska Turks’ migration from the ex-Soviet republics. As seen in the narratives, the Ahıska Turks were forced to live a camp life in the Soviet regions to which they were exiled and were subject to assimilation. But they were not assimilated, instead they strengthened their Turkish identity and struggled against hardships they faced.
forcing them out of their homes and homelands, is a type of forced migration. Some of the Turkish and Muslim communities living in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were unwanted by Stalin and sent to exile as part of the Soviet state’s policy followed to force people out of their homes. At the same time, it was a strategy implemented as a result of the changing Soviet nationalities policy in the 1930s and return to the Russification process. The Soviet administration sent some of the Turkish and Muslim peoples to exile in 1944. Ahıska Turks (Meskethian Turks) living on the Georgian-Turkish border, were among the exiled peoples. This article is about the Ahıska Turks’ exile. Their narratives are based on in-depth interviews conducted with the ones living in Istanbul, Bursa and Kocaeli provinces as a part of a qualitative research carried out in 2010-14 period about the Turkish forced migration from Bulgaria in 1989 and the Ahıska Turks’ migration from the ex-Soviet republics. As seen in the narratives, the Ahıska Turks were forced to live a camp life in the Soviet regions to which they were exiled and were subject to assimilation. But they were not assimilated, instead they strengthened their Turkish identity and struggled against hardships they faced.