Circassian Colonization in the Danube Vilayet and social integration (preliminary notes)

Abstract

The Treaty of Edirne, concluded in 1829, placed in Russia’s hand the coastal area from Anapa to Poti, and the land between the Kuban valley and the region of Akhaltsikhе and Akhalkalaki. Expecting new military conflicts with the Sultan, Russia acted to preclude the eventual alliance between the Ottomans and the Circassians. In order to ensure the safety of the Russian trade, towns and quarantine ports, the Russian officials proposed the resettlement of the Circassians inside the Russian territory. However, the preliminary expenditure accounts prepared by a special Resettlement commission evinced as impossible the mass relocation. Conscious of the Russia’s highly contestable attempts to conquer the Northwest Caucasus, Prince Baryatinsky regarded the Circassian migration into the Ottoman Empire as an alternative less devastating for the Russian reputation and as a final solution to the year-long conflict. So, for the next 16 years, beginning in the autumn of 1858 onwards, the migration constituted the only reasonable attitude for both parties. My paper outlines the longer process of the Circassian colonization, economic integration and socialization in the Danube vilayet. It draws on archival sources such as state regulations, newspaper notes, tax registers and examples of the correspondence between the local, vilayet and central Ottoman government. The paper emphasizes the Ottoman efforts to avoid or to limit a mass humanitarian crisis, the free aid, in cash and kind, extended by all Sultan’s subjects and later by the already colonized Crimean refugees. It pays attention to the colonization process, the varying material status of the Circassians, their agricultural activity and education. It launches the suggestion that the Circassians’ adaptation to the new environment was slowed down by the Ottoman attempts to prevent excess budgetary expenditure, to economize a share of their tax revenues or quickly to recompense the offered state aid

Keywords

• Circassians, colonization, Danube vilayet, material status, agriculture, education

Circassian Colonization in the Danube Vilayet and social integration (preliminary notes)

Abstract

1829’da sonuçlanan Edirne Anlaşması, Anapa’dan Poti’ye kadar olan kıyı kesimini ve Kuban vadisi ile Ahıska ve Ahılkelek bölgesi arasında kalan toprağı Rus hâkimiyetine vermekteydi. Sultanla yeni askeri çatışmalar bekleyen Rusya, Osmanlılarla Çerkezler arasındaki muhtemel işbirliğini önlemeye çalışmaktaydı. Rus ticaretinin, şehirlerinin ve karantina limanlarının güvenliğini sağlamak amacıyla Rus yetkililer, Çerkezlerin Rusya’nın iç bölgelerine yerleştirilmesini önermekteydi. Ancak, özel bir iskân komisyonu tarafından hazırlanan ilk gider hesapları böylesine büyük bir yer değiştirmenin imkânsız olduğunu açığa vurmaktaydı. Rusya’nın Kuzey Kafkasya’yı zaptetmesinin oldukça şüpheli olacağının bilinciyle, Prens Baryatinsky, Çerkezlerin Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’na göçünü Rus itibarını daha az zedeleyici ve uzun yıllar süren çatışmayı kesin şekilde çözecek alternatif bir yol olarak addetmekteydi. Bu nedenle, 1858’in sonbaharından sonraki 16 yıl, göç, her iki taraf için de tek mantıklı tutumu oluşturmaktaydı

Keywords

• Çerkezler, kolonileşme, Tuna Vilayeti, maddi durum, tarım, eğitim

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