Taming Anxieties, Coping with Mnemonic Conflicts: Cultural Diplomacy of Crimean Tatar and Lithuanian American Diasporas through Historical Films

Year 2022, , 17 - 32, 09.04.2022

Didem Buhari Gülmez , Dovilė Budrytė

https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1086514

Abstract

This study focuses on the cultural diplomacy of Crimean Tatar and Lithuanian American diasporas, who both suffered from deportation at the hands of the Soviets and are conducting anti-Russian diplomacy today. Historical films are useful in terms of showing how the diasporic communities seek to reconstruct a collective memory on a traumatic event and tame their anxieties of death, meaninglessness, and condemnation that constitute “unknown unknowns” by turning them into the fear of a “known unknown” through securitization. Therefore, this study aims to grasp the multiplicity of anxieties reflected upon the Crimean Tatar and Lithuanian diasporas’ recent historical films that demonstrate how diasporas’ varying anxieties translate into diverse strategies of political representation and mobilisation against Russia. It thus reconciles the scholarship on diaspora’s memory politics with anxiety/fear nexus in securitization theory.

Keywords

Trauma, deportation, securitization, anxiety of death, memory politics

Kaygıları Bastırmak, Bellek Çatışmalarıyla Baş Etmek: Tarihsel filmler yoluyla Kırım Tatarı ve ABD’deki Litvanya Diasporalarının Kültürel Diplomasisi

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Sovyetlerin sürgününe uğramış ve bugün Rusya karşıtı diplomasi yürüten Kırım Tatarı diasporasının ve ABD’deki Litvanya diasporasının kültürel diplomasisine odaklanmaktadır. Tarihsel filmler, diasporaların travmatik bir olayla ilgili kolektif belleği nasıl yeniden inşa etmeye çalıştıklarını ve güvenlikleştirme yoluyla “bilinmez bilinmeyenlere” karşı duyulan ölüm, anlamsızlık ve itham edilme kaygılarını nasıl “bilinen bilinmeyene” yönelik korkuya dönüştürerek bastırmaya çalıştıklarını göstermesi açısından yararlıdır. Dolayısıyla, bu çalışma Kırım Tatarı ve ABD’deki Litvanya diasporalarının son dönemdeki tarihsel filmlerine yansıyan çoklu kaygıları ve diasporaların bu farklı kaygılarının nasıl çeşitli Rusya’ya karşı siyasi temsil ve seferberlik stratejilerine aktarıldığını anlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu sayede, diasporalarda bellek siyaseti literatürüyle güvenlikleştirme kuramındaki kaygı/korku bağlantısı literatürünü buluşturmaktadır.

Keywords

Travma, sürgün, güvenlikleştirme, ölüm kaygısı, bellek siyaseti

References

• Aleksandravičius, Egidijus (2006). “Išeivija ir Lietuvos užsienio politikos uždaviniai”, Oikos, Vol. 1, No 1, p. 11-17.
• Anušauskas, Arvydas (2001). “‘Genocido’ sąvoka Lietuvos istorijoje”, Genocidas ir rezistencija, Vol. 2, No 10, p. 105.
• Aydın, Filiz Tutku (2021). Émigré, Exile, Diaspora, and Transnational Movements of the Crimean Tatars: Preserving the Eternal Flame of Crimea. New York, Palgrave.
• Boyarin, Jonathan (ed.) 1994. Remapping Memory: The Politics of TimeSpace. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
• Brinkerhoff, Jennifer M. (2019). “Diasporas and Public Diplomacy: Distinctions and Future Prospects”, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Vol. 14, No 1-2, p. 51–64.
• Bubnys, Arūnas (2011). “Įvadas”, Arūnas Bubnys (ed.), Holokaustas Lietuvoje 1941–1944 m.. Vilnius, Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras.
• Budrytė, Dovilė and Ėrica Resende (eds.) (2013). Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates. New York, Routledge.
• Buhari-Gulmez, Didem (2016). “Religion and Nation-Building in Crimea”, Rico Isaacs and Abel Polese (eds.), NationBuilding and Identity in the Post-Soviet Space: New Tools and Approaches. London, Routledge, p. 65-82.
• Buhari-Gulmez, Didem (2018). “‘Crisis’ and Crimean Tatars: Discourses of Self-Determination in Flux”, Ėrica Resende, Dovilė Budrytė and Didem Buhari-Gulmez (eds.), Crisis and Change in Post-Cold War International Relations: Ukraine in a Comparative Perspective. London and New York, Palgrave, p. 203-224.
• Čiubrinskas, Vytis (2020). “Uncertainties of Transnational Belonging: Homeland Nationalism and Cultural Citizenship of Lithuanian Immigrants in the USA”, Electronic Journal of Folklore, https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol78/ ciubrinskas.pdf (Accessed 21 February 2022).
• Damušis, Adolfas (1998). Lithuania against Soviet and Nazi Aggression. Chicago, The American Foundation for Lithuanian Research.
• Embassy of Ukraine in Turkey, 18 May 2020, https://turkey.mfa.gov.ua/en/news/press-release-regarding-76th-anniversarydeportation-crimean-tatars-and-commemoration-victims-genocide-crimean-tatar-people (Accessed 18 June 2021).
• Foti, Silvia (2021). The Nazi’s Granddaughter: How I Discovered My Father Was a War Criminal. Washington, D.C., Regnery History.
• Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. New York, Polity Press.
• Gudelis, Dangis and Luka Klimavičiūtė (2016). “Assessing ‘Global Lithuania’: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Lithuanian Diaspora Engagement Strategy”, Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. 47, No 3, p. 325-348.
• Human Rights Watch (2014). “Rights in Retreat: Abuses in Crimea”, 17 November 2014. https://www.hrw.org/ report/2014/11/17/rights-retreat/abuses-crimea (Accessed 21 February 2022)
• Human Rights Monitoring Institute (2 April 2019). “Lithuania: Soviet Repression Deemed Genocide”, https://www. liberties.eu/en/stories/drelingas-v-lithuania-soviet-repressions-genocide/16958 (Accessed 18 June 2021).
• Hutchison, Emma (2016). Affective Communities in World Politics: Collective Emotions after Trauma. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Karatay, Zafer (18 May 2021). “Crimean Tatars between Russia and Ukraine”, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0Gbc4rrmGPE (Accessed 18 June 2021).
• Kırımlı, Hakan (1989). “Soviet Educational and Cultural Policies Toward the Crimean Tatars in Exile (1944–1987)”, Central Asian Survey, Vol. 8, No 1, p. 69–88.
• Kinnvall, Catarina (2004). “Globalization and Religious Nationalism: Self, Identity and the Search for Ontological Security”, Political Psychology, Vol. 25, No 5, p. 741-767.
• Klumbytė, Neringa (2019). “Sovereign Uncertainty and the Dangers to Liberalism at the Baltic Frontier”, Slavic Review, Vol. 78, No 2, p. 336-347.
• “Lietuvos gyventojų netektys 1940-1986 ir 1991 metais”, http://www.genocid.lt/centras/lt/147/c (Accessed 18 June 2021).
• Mälksoo, Maria (2015). “‘Memory must be defended’: Beyond the Politics of Mnemonical Security”, Security Dialogue, Vol. 46, No 3, p. 221-237.
• Mission of Ukraine to the EU (18 May 2020). https://ukraine-eu.mfa.gov.ua/en/news/invitation-watch-online-haytarmafilm-about-stalins-deportation-crimean-tatars (Accessed 12 December 2021).
• Mission of Ukraine to the EU (20 May 2020). https://ukraine-eu.mfa.gov.ua/en/news/spilna-zayava-ministriv-zakordonnihsprav-ukrayini-estoniyi-gruziyi-latviyi-litvi-ta-polshchi-do-76-h-rokovin-deportaciyi-krimskotatarskogo-narodu (Accessed 16 June 2021).
• Mitzen, Jennifer (2006). “Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma”, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 52, No 3, p. 341-370.
• Özçelik, Sezai (2020). “The Russian Occupation of Crimea in 2014: The Second Sürgün (The Soviet Genocide) of the Crimean Tatars”, Troyacademy, Vol. 5, No 1, p. 29-44.
• President of the Republic of Lithuania (5 April 2018). https://www.lrp.lt/en/media-center/news/the-president-ashes-inthe-snow-a-testimony-of-truth-about-lithuania/29745 (Accessed 12 December 2021).
• Rumelili, Bahar (2015). “Ontological (In)security and Peace Anxieties: A Framework for Conflict Resolution”, Bahar Rumelili (ed.), Conflict Resolution and Ontological Security: Peace Anxieties. London & New York, Routledge, pp. 10-29.
• Rumelili, Bahar (2020). “Integrating Anxiety into International Relations Theory: Hobbes, Existentialism, and Ontological Security”, International Theory, Vol. 12, No 2, p. 257-272.
• Rumelili, Bahar and Umut Can Adısönmez (2020). “Uluslararası İlişkilerde Kimlik-Güvenlik İlişkisine Dair Yeni bir Paradigma: Ontolojik Güvenlik Teorisi”, Uluslararası İlişkiler, Vol. 17, No 66, p.23-39.
• Šarkūnaitė, Dovilė (2018). “Identity Formation in the Lithuanian Diaspora Press”, Lituanus, Vol. 64, No 1, p. 9-31. Shotter, James (10 November 2019). “Poland’s Prime Minister Brands Macron ‘Irresponsible’ on NATO”, Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/a0a71b16-03a1-11ea-a984- fbbacad9e7dd (Accessed 18 June 2021).
• Steele, Brent and Alexandra Homolar (2019). “Ontological Insecurities and the Politics of Contemporary Populism”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 32, No 3, p. 214-221.
• Subotić, Jelena (2019). Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism. Ithaca NY, Cornell University Press.
• Subotić, Jelena (2018). “Political Memory, Ontological Security, and Holocaust Remembrance in Post-Communist Europe,” European Security, Vol. 27, No 3, p. 296-313.
• Tillich, Paul (1952). The Courage to Be, New Haven CT, Yale University Press.
• Uehling, Greta (2004). Beyond Memory: The Crimean Tatars’ Deportation and Return. London & New York, Palgrave. Vabariigi Presidendi Kanselei, “14 June. Statement by the Presidents of the Baltic States”, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PDxZvovKmvg (Accessed 18 June 2021).
• Viktoria Veselova and Oleksandra Melnykova (9 February 2016). “Crimean Tatar Singer Hopes To Take People’s Tragedy To Eurovision”, RFERL, https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-jamala-eurovision-crimean-tatar-singer/27541517.html (Accessed 18 June 2021).
• Volkan, Vamık (2001). “Transgenerational Transmissions and Chosen Traumas: An Aspect of Large-Group Identity”, Group Analysis, Vol. 34, No 1, p. 87-88.