ETNİK KİMLİĞİ ANLAMA VE ETNİK KİMLİK TANIMLAMASI: BİR ORTABATI AMERİKA ŞEHRİNDE YAŞAYAN AHISKA TÜRKLERİ

Öz

Bu çalışma, Columbia, Missouri, ABD‟de yaşayan Ahıska Türklerinin etnisite ve etnik kimliğini anlamaya odaklanmıştır. Katılımcıların etnik kimliğini anlamak için, alan araştırması ve dokuz Ahıska Türkü ile görüşme yapılmıştır. Çalışma, Ahıska Türklerinin etnik kimliğinin en önemli bileşenlerinin din, dil, aile ve topluluk içi evlilik olduğunu göstermiştir. Katılımcılar, etnik kimliklerini isimlendirmek için çoğunlukla „Ahıska Türkleri‟ ni kullanmışlardır. Ahıska Türkleri etnik kimliği değişmez ve sabit değil; farklı ülkelerde ve farklı sosyal ve ekonomik şartlar altında değişmekte ve yeniden tanımlanmaktadır. Soy bağı, “Ahıska Türkü kemiğinden, dokusundan, kanından” olmak, katılımcılar için önemli olsa da, Ahıska Türkü olarak hissetmek ve topluluğun kültürel normlarına uymak, Ahıska Türkü soy bağına sahip olmaktan daha önemlidir. Böylece, katılımcıların etnik kimlik hakkındaki görüşleri, ilkçi yaklaşımdan daha çok durumsal yaklaşım ile uyumludur. Ayrıca, etnik kimlikleri homojen parçalara ayırmak ve “pasta kalıbı” mantığıyla analiz etmek imkansızdır ve bu çalışma günümüzün dünyasında, birçok etnik grup için paylaşılan ortak mirasın fiziksel özelliklerden daha önemli olduğunu göstermiştir

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ahıska Türkleri, Etnik Kimlik, İlkçılık, Durumsallık

NDERSTANDING AND DEFINING ETHNIC IDENTITY: AHISKA/MESKHETIAN TURKS IN A MIDWESTERN AMERICAN CITY

Öz

This study focuses on understanding ethnicity and ethnic identity of Ahiska/Meskhetian Turks in Columbia, Missouri, USA. To understand the participants‟ ethnic identity, I conducted fieldwork and interviewed nine Ahiska Turks. The study demonstrated that the most important components of Ahiska ethnic identity are religion, language, family, and endogamy. Participants mostly used Ahiska Turks for naming their identity. Ahiska Turks‟ ethnic identity is not unchangeable and rigid, and it has been changing and redefining in different countries and under different economic and social conditions. Although ancestry, “bone of Ahiska Turkish bone, flesh of Ahiska Turkish flesh, and blood of Ahiska Turkish blood” is important for them, feeling Ahiskan, and obeying cultural norms of their Ahiskan community is more important than having Ahiskan ancestry. Thus, their comments about ethnic identity are more in line with the circumstantialist concept of ethnicity than with the primordialist concept of ethnicity. Also, it is impossible to divide ethnic groups into homogeneous units and analyze them with a „„cookie-cutter‟‟ approach, and this study showed that common shared heritage is more important than physical characteristics for many ethnic groups in today‟s world.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ahiska Turks, Ethnic Identity, Primordialism, Circumstantialism

Kaynakça

1. Alba, R, D. (1990). Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America. New Haven: Yale Press.
2. Aydingun, A. (2002). Creating, Recreating And Redefining Ethnic Identity: Ahiska/Meskhetian Turks in Soviet and post-Soviet contexts. Central Asian Survey,Vol.21, Nu:2 (185-197).
3. Aydingun, A., Harding, B., Hoover, M., Kuznetsov, I. and Swerdlow, S. (2006). Meskhetian Turks: An Introduction to Their History, Culture and Resettlement Experiences. Washington, DC.
4. Avci, O. (2012). Understanding the Culture of Ahiska Turks in Wheaton, Illinois: A Case Study. The Qualitative Report,Vol.17, Nu: (1-23). Barth, F. (1969). Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. Boston: Little Brown&Company.
5. Bilge, N., (2012). Meskhetian Turks Exploring Identity through Connections of Culture. Phd.Thesis. Arizona State University, Arizona.
6. Cetinkaya, K. and Kodan, S. (2012). Ahiska Turks in Philadelphia: Keeping Cultural Identity and Religion in a Multicultural Environment. International Journal of Social and Human Sciences, 6.
7. Coskun, U.(2009). Ahiska/Meskhetian Turks in Tucson: An Examination of Ethnic Identity. MA Thesis. Arizona State University, Arizona.
8. Eller, Jack D. and Coughlan, R. (1993). The Poverty of Primordialism: The Demystification of Ethnic Attachments. Ethnic and Racial Studies 16

9. Fishman, J. (1980). Social Theory and Ethnography. In Ethnic Diversity and Conflict in Eastern Europe(ed Peter Sugar). Santa Barbara: ABCClio,.
10. Geertz, C.(1963). The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States.
11. Gil-White, F. (1999). How thick is blood? The plot thickens . . .: if ethnic actors are primordialists, what remains of the circumstantialist/primordialist controversy?.
12. Jenkins, R. (1998). Ethnicity : Anthropological Aspect. SAGE Publications.
13. Kusnetsov, I. (2007). Consructing Identity and Social
14. Networks:Meskhetian Turks in the Russian Federation. A., Trier T.& Khanzihn. Meskhetian Turks at a Crossroads:Integration, Reparation or Resettlement? (197-237).
15. Moerman, M. (1965). Ethnic Identification in a Complex Civilization: Who are the Lue? The American Anthropologist Vol. 67.
16. Palmer, C., Groom E. and Brandon J.(2013). Kindness, Kinship and Tradition in Newfounland/Alberta Migration: From edonism to Descendant-Leaving Strategy.: University of Missouri, n.d, Missouri. Ray, K. (2004). Displaced Populations: A Challenge to International Planning.
17. Phd.Thesis. Columbia University, New York. Safran, W.(2006). Language, Ethnicity and Religion: A Compex and Persistent Linkage. Japan.
18. Screws, R. D.(2006). Retaining their Culture and Ethnic Identity: Assimilation among Czechs and Swedes in Saunders County, Nebraska, 1880-1910. Lincoln: ETD- University of Nebraska.
19. Scupin, R. (2012). Race and Ethnicity: The United States and the World. Pearson.
20. Seferov, R. and Akis, A. (2008). Sovyet Doneminden Gunumuze Ahiska Turklerinin Yasadiklari Cografyaya Genel Bir Bakis. Turkiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi,24 (393-411).
21. Strauss, J.M. and Corbin, A. (1990). Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques.
22. Sumbadze, N. (2007). Back Home Again:The Repatriation and Integration of Meskhetian Muslims in Georgia. A., Trier T.& Khanzihn. Meeskhetian Turks at a Crossroads: Integration, Reparation or Resettlement?(288-339) Berlin Germany: Lit Verlag.
23. Trier, T. and Khanzihn, A. (2007). Meskhetian Turks at a Crossroads: Integration, Reparation or Resettlement? Berlin, Germany: Lit Verlag. Tonkin, E., Chapman M. and McDonald M. (1989). History and Ethnicity. Routledge