The Long Story of the Circassian Repatriation Process to the Homeland

Year 2023, Volume: 8 Issue: 14, 43 - 56, 31.05.2023

Ömer Aytek Kurmel

https://doi.org/10.21488/jocas.1220595

Abstract

Whereas the Circassian diaspora engaged in a self-centered debate around the idea of repatriation to the Caucasus in the mid-1960s, it was already an offical Soviet policy targeting the Soviet emigration in the West as early as 1943. Moscow was resolute about eliminating the threat which it believed emanated from the millions-strong body of former Soviet subjects who had remained abroad at the end of the war. Following Stalin’s death, Kremlin (re)formulated an emigration policy and came up with several categories that ranged from the ring leaders to the ordinary rank-and-file. The campaign to lure the emigration did not amount to much save a few hundred individuals, mostly from South America, but it succeeeded in sowing seeds of mistrust within emigré communities. As far as the Circassians were concerned, some communities were more responsive to the idea of repatriation than others, namely Turkish Circassians. Having been indoctrinated against communism in this NATO member country, many demonized rapatriation as a Soviet plot to paralyze the diaspora, which in fact was not a viable political force. Surely, failing to discuss the idea of repatriation in a rational manner was a missed opportunity for Turkish Circassians, for they lagged behind their brethren in Syria and Jordan, something that puts them at great disadvantage even today

Keywords

USSR, repatriation, Circassian diaspora, Soviet emigration, World War II, Cold War

Çerkeslerde Vatana Dönüş Sürecinin Uzun Öyküsü [The Long Story of the Circassian Repatriation Process to the Homeland]

Abstract

Sovyetler Birliğinin 1943 yılı gibi erken bir tarihte Batı’daki Sovyet muhaceretini geri getirmeyi resmi politika haline getirmiş olmasına karşın, Çerkes diasporası Kafkasya’ya dönüş düşüncesini ancak 1960’lı yılların ortasında, üstelik kendisini merkeze alarak tartışmaya başladı. Moskova, savaş sonunda Batı ülkelerinde kalan kalabalık Sovyet muhaceretini kendi güvenliği için bir tehdit olarak algılıyor ve geri getirmek istiyordu. Stalin’in ölümünden sonra ayrıntılı bir göçmen politikası oluşturan Kremlin, sorumluluğu farklı biçimde dağıtarak değişik göçmen kategorileri kurguladı. Dönüş kampanyası Güney Amerika’dan dönen birkaç yüz kişi dışında başarılı olmasa da göçmen toplulukları içinde güvensizlik tohumları ekmeyi başardı. Çerkesler düzleminde, Türkiye dışındaki ülkelerde yaşayan Çerkesler dönüş konusuna daha yapıcı yaklaştılar. NATO üyesi Türkiye’deki Çerkeslerin tutucu kesimleri dönüş kampanyasını Sovyet komplosu olarak şeytanlaştırdılar. Dönüş tezini soğukkanlılıkla tartışmayı beceremeyen Türkiye Çerkesleri, etkisi bugün bile hissedilecek biçimde Suriyeli ve Ürdünlü soydaşlarının gerisinde kaldılar

Keywords

Sovyetler Birliği, dönüş, Çerkes diasporası, Sovyet muhacereti, İkinci Dünya Savaşı, Soğuk Savaş, USSR, repatriation, Circassian diaspora, Soviet emigration, World War II, Cold War

References

• Anderson, Betty S., Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
• Andrew, C., ve V. Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin archive. The KGB in Europe and the west, Londra: Penguin Books, 2000.
• Callanan, J. H., Covert action in the Cold War. US policy, intelligence and CIA operations, Londra: I.B. Tauris 2010.
• Cipko, Serge. “Monitoring the ‘Return to the Homeland’ Campaign: Canadian Reports on Resettlement in the USSR from South America, 1955-1957.” Re-imagining Ukrainian Canadians: History, Politics and Identity içinde, (Der.) Rhonda L. Hinther ve Jim Mochoruk, Toronto: University of Toronto, 2011.
• Dallin, A., “Recent Soviet historiography,” Russia under Khruschev. Ananthology from "Problems of communism" içinde, (Der.) A. Brumberg, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962.
• Darbinian, R., “The proposed second repatriation by the government of Soviet Armenia,” The Armenian Review 15 (1962): 3–10.
• Dyczok, M., The grand alliance and Ukrainian refugees, New York: St. Martin's Press, LLC, 2000. Golos Rodiny, Temmuz 1963, No. 47 (748).
• Gray, W. G., Germany's Cold War: the global campaign to isolate East Germany,1949–1969, University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
• Grose, P., Operation rollback: America's secret war behind the iron curtain, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
• Kirkpatrick, E. M., der., Year of crisis. Communist propaganda activities in 1956, New York: The Macmillan company, 1957.
• Kolarz, Walter. “The North Caucasus Peoples”, Russia and Her Colonies, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1952. L'Hommedieu, J. H., “Exiles and constituents: Baltic refugees and American Cold War politics, 1948–1960”, PhD Diss: University of Turku, 2011.
• Marrus, M. R., The unwanted. European refugees from the first world war through the Cold War, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.
• Mikkonen, Simo. “Radio Liberty: The Enemy Within? The Dissemination of Western Values through U.S. Cold War Broadcasts,” Europe-Evropa. Cross-cultural dialogues between the west, Russia, and southeastern Europe içinde, (Der.) M. Könönen ve J. Nuorluoto, Studia Multi-ethnica Upsaliensia / [Centre for Multiethnic Research, Uppsala University], Uppsala: Acta Unversitatis Upsaliensis, 2010.
• Mitrokhin, Vasiliy, (Der.) KGB Lexicon: The Soviet Intelligence Officer’s Handbook, Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 2002. Polian, P., Against their will: the history and geography of forced migrations in the USSR, New York: Central European University Press, 2003.
• Proudfoot, M. J., European refugees: 1939–52. A study in forced population movement, Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1956.
• Seale, Patrick. “Syria”. The Cold War and the Middle East içinde. (Der.) Yezid Sayigh ve Avi Shlaim, Oxford: Clarendon Press 2003.
• Susser, Asher., On Both Banks of the Jordan: A Political Biography of Wasfi al-Tall, Londra ve New York: Routledge, 2017.
• Tromly, Benjamin. Cold War Exiles and the CIA: Plotting to Free Russia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Weiner, A., “The empires pay a visit: Gulag returnees, East European rebellions, and Soviet frontier politics,” The Journal of Modern History 78, No 2(2006):333–376.
• Westwood, J. N., Russia 1917–1964, Londra: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1966.
• Yakovlev, A. N., A century of violence in Soviet Russia, New Haven ve Londra: Yale University Press, 2002.
• Yurchenko, O., “The latest Soviet amnesty,” Bulletin of the Institute for the Study of the History and Culture of the USSR II, No 9 (1955).
• Zalkalns, L., Back to the Motherland: Repatriation and Latvian Émigrés 1955–1958, Stockholm: Stockholm University 2014.
• Zieck, M., UNHCR and voluntary repatriation of refugees. A legal analysis, The Hague: Marinius Nijhoff Publishers, 1997.