Türkiye’de Yaşayan Çeçen Mülteci Kadınların Travmaları: Anlam Kurma ve Başa Çıkma Stratejileri

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 3 Sayı: 2, 145 - 170, 01.12.2018

Hatice Ekici

https://doi.org/10.12738/mejrs.2018.3.2.0044

Öz

Bu araştırma, savaşın ortaya çıkardığı sıkıntıları ve özellikle travmatik kayıp yaşamış Türkiye’de yaşayan Çeçen mülteci kadınların deneyimlerini anlamlandırabilmelerini ele almaktadır. Daha özelde ise bu kadınların anlam kurma ve başa çıkma stratejileri ele alınmaktadır. Araştırmanın verileri 13 Çeçen mülteci kadın ile yapılan yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yoluyla toplanmıştır. Verilerin analiz edilmesinde yorumlayıcı fenomenolojik analiz kullanılmıştır. Katılımcıların anlatıları, Çeçen kadınların kırılgan ve sıkıntılı hâle geldiklerini göstermektedir. Savaşın travmatik deneyimlerine yanıt olarak, travmatik anılarıyla baş edebilmek için kaynak sağladığından dolayı, dinî inançlarını kuvvetlendirmişlerdir. Bu çalışmada Çeçen kadınlarının anlam kurma ve başa çıkma stratejileri göz önünde bulundurulduğunda tekrarlanan 10 tema bulunmuştur. Bunlar şunlardır: dinî ibadetlerin arttırılması, Allah’ın iradesine teslim olmak, Elhamdulillah, savaşın sebeplerine yönelik teolojik izahlar, travmatik deneyimleri kişisellikten çıkarmak, bir kişiyi şehit olarak nitelendirmenin unsurları, şehitlikten beklenen faydalar, şehitlik mertebesine erişmek, şehitliği idealize etmek ve zorunlu bir mutluluk anlatısı. Zorunlu mutluluk anlatısı dışındaki başa çıkma stratejileri, Çeçen kadınların önemli başa çıkma ve yılmazlık kaynakları olarak bulunmuştur. Ancak zorunlu mutluluk anlatısının bu kadınların iyileşme süreçlerine engel oluyor gibi görünmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Rus-Çeçen çatışması • Mülteciler • Travma • Başa çıkma stratejileri • Din

The Trauma of Chechen Refugee Women Living in Turkey: Meaning-Making and Coping Strategies

Öz

This research aims to explore how Chechen refugee women living in Turkey who have lived through the distress of war and traumatic loss in particular make sense of their experience. More specifically, it examines these women’s meaning-making and coping strategies. The semi-structured interviews with 13 Chechen refugee women have provided the main data of this research. Interpretive phenomenological analysis has been used to analyze the data. The analysis of the accounts shows Chechen women to have become vulnerable and distressed. In response to the traumatic experiences of war, they have deepened their religious beliefs, as these beliefs provide resources for dealing with their traumatic memories. In consideration of the meaning-making and coping strategies of the Chechen women in this study, 10 recurrent themes have been found: increased religious service, submitting to the will of God, Alhamdulillah, theological explanations for the causes of war, depersonalizing traumatic experiences, what qualifies one as a martyr, the expected benefits of martyrdom, earning the honor of this martyrdom, idealizing the martyr, and a narrative of obliged happiness. All coping strategies except the narrative of obliged happiness have been found as important resources for coping and resilience for Chechen women. The narrative of obligatory happiness, however appears to interfere with these women’s healing processes.

Anahtar Kelimeler

The Russian-Chechen conflict • Refugees • Trauma • Coping strategies • Religion

Kaynakça

• Akhmedova, K. (2005). Group therapy with traumatized children in the Chechen refugee camps. Nato Security Through Science Series E Human and Societal Dynamics, 1, 32–33.
• Ambert, A., Adler, P. A., Adler, P., & Detzner, D. F. (1995). Understanding and evaluating qualitative research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 879–893.
• Askerov, Ali. (2011). The Russo-Chechen conflict: Analysis, impact, transformation (Doctoral disssertation, University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada).
• Baddeley, J., & Singer, J. A. (2010). A loss in the family: Silence, memory, and narrative identity after bereavement. Memory, 18(2), 198–207.
• Baker, A., & Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N. (1995). Differential effects of trauma on spouses of traumatized households. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18(1), 61–73.
• Basoglu, M., Paker, M., Paker, O., Ozmen, E., Marks, I., Incesu, C., ... Sarimurat, N. (1994). Psychological effects of torture: A comparison of tortured with non-tortured political activists in Turkey. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 76–81.
• Canadian Council for Refugees. (2002). State of refugees in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.web. net/%7Eccr/state.html
• Caplan, S., Paris, M., Whittemore, R., Desai, M., Dixon, J., Alvidrez, J., … & Scahill, L. (2011). Correlates of religious, supernatural and psychosocial casual beliefs about depression among Latino immigrants in primary care. Mental Health, Religion, and Culture, 14, 589–611.
• Cook, D. (2007). Martyrdom in Islam. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• De Haene, L., Grietens, H., & Verschueren, K. (2010). Attachment in the context of refugee traumatization: The impact of organized violence and forced separation on parental stress of mind regarding attachment. Attachment and Human Development, 12(3), 249–264.
• de Jong, K., van der Kam, S., Ford, N., Hargreaves, S., van Oosten, R., Cunningham, D., … Kleber, R. (2004). The trauma of ongoing war in Chechnya: Quantitative assessment of living conditions, and psychosocial and general health status among war displaced in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Conflict and Health, 13, 1–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-1-4
• Fazel, M., Wheeler, J., & Danesh, J. (2005). Prevalence of serious mental disorders in 7000 refugees resettled in western countries: A systematic review. Lancet, 365, 1309–1314.
• George, M. (2010). A theoretical understanding of refugee trauma. Clinical Social Work, 38(4), 379–387. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10615-009-0252-y
• Gilligan, E. (2010). Terror in Chechnya: Russia and the tragedy of civilians in war. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Goodman, J. H. (2004). Coping with trauma and hardship among unaccompanied refugee youths from Sudan. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 1177–1196.
• Habiballah, N. (2004). Interviews with the mothers of martyrs of the Aqsa of Intifada. Arab Studies Quarterly, 26, 15–30.
• Hammerli, A., Gattiker, R., & Weyermann, R. (2006). Conflict and cooperation in an actors’ network of Chechnya based on event data. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 50, 159–175.
• Harber, K., & Pennebaker, J. (1992). Overcoming traumatic memories. In S. A. Christianson (Ed.), The handbook of emotion and memory: Research and theory (pp. 359–386). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Hasanovic, M. (2012). Posttraumatic stress disorder in Bosnian internally displaced and refugee adolescents from three different regions after the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia Herzegovina. Pediatrics Today, 8(1), 22–31.
• Hussain, D., & Bhushan, B. (2011). Cultural factors promoting coping among Tibetan refugees: A qualitative investigation. Mental Health, Religion, Culture, 14(6), 575–587.
• Jishkariani, M., Kenchadze, V., & Beria, Z. (2005). Traumatic stress among child war victims and problems of rehabilitation in Georgia. Developing Strategies to Deal with Trauma in Children, 1, 34–39.
• Johnson, H., Thompson, A., & Downs, M. (2009). Non-Western interpreters’ experiences of trauma: The protective role of culture following exposure to oppression. Ethnicity and Health, 14, 407–418.
• Kaplan, Z., Matar, M. A., Kamin, R., Sadan, T., & Cohen, H. (2005). Stress-related responses after 3 years of exposure to terror in Israel: Are ideological-religious factors associated with resilience? Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66, 1146–1154.
• Khamis, V. (2000). Political violence and the Palestinian family: Implications for mental health and well- being. Oxford, UK: The Haworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press.
• Khamis, V. (2012). Impact of war, religiosity, and ideology on PTSD and psychiatric disorders in adolescents from Gaza Strip and South Lebanon. Social Science & Medicine, 74, 2005–2011.
• Kinsie, J. D. (1988). The psychiatric effects of massive trauma on Cambodian refugees. In J. P. Wilson, Z. Harel, & B. Kahana (Eds.), Human adaptation to extreme stres (pp. 305–319). New York, NY: Plenum Press.
• Kinsie, J. D. (1993). Post-traumatic effects and their treatment among Southeast Asian refugees. In J.P. Wilson & B. Raphael (Eds.), International handbook of traumatic stress syndromes (pp. 311–321). New York, NY: Plenum Press
• Koenig, H. G. (1997). Is religion good for your health? The effects of religion on physical and mental health. New York, NY: Haworth Press.
• Kramer, M. (2010). Guerilla warfare, counterinsurgency and terrorism in the North Caucasus: The military dimension of the Russian-Chechen conflict. Europe-Asia Studies, 57, 209–290.
• Kvale, S. (2008). Doing Interviews. London, UK: Sage.
• Laor, N., Wolmer, L., Alon, M., Siev, J., Samuel, E., & Toren, P. (2006). Risk and protective factors mediating psychological symptoms and ideological commitment of adolescents facing continuous terrorism. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 194, 279–286.
• health of refugees and internally displaced persons: A meta-analysis. The Journal of the American
• Medical Association, 294, 602–612.
• Pünamaki, R. L., Qouta, S., & El-Sarraj, E. (2001). Resiliency factors predicting psychological adjustment after political violence among Palestinian children. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 256–267.
• Rasmussen, A.,Wilkinson, J., Raghavan, S., Nguyen, L., Vundla, S., & Miller, K. E. (2010). Rates and impact of trauma and current stressors among Darfuri refugees in Eastern Chad. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(2), 227–236.
• Renner, W., & Salem, I. (2009). Post-traumatic stress in asylum seekers and refugees from Chechnya, Afghanistan, and West Africa: Gender differences in symptomatology and coping. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 55, 99–108.
• Renner, W., Lareiter, A., & Maier, M. J. (2012). Social support as a moderator of acculturative stress among refugees and asylum seekers. Social Behavior and Personality, 40(1), 129–146.
• Renner, W., Salem, I., & Ottomeyer, K. (2006). Cross-cultural validation of psychometric measures of trauma in groups of asylum seekers from Chechnya, Afghanistan and West Africa. Social Behavior and Personality, 35(5), 1101–1114.
• Renner, W., Salem, I., & Ottomeyer, K. (2007). Posttraumatic stress in asylum seekers from Chechnya, Afghanistan and West Africa: Differential findings obtained by quantitative and qualitative methods in three Austrian samples. In J. P. Wilson & C. Tang (Eds.), The cross-cultural assessment of psychological trauma and PTSD (pp. 239–278). New York, NY: Springer.
• Robertson, C. L., Halcon, L., Savik, K., Johnson, D., Spring, M., Butcher, J., … Jaranson, J. (2006). Somali and Oromo refugee women: Trauma and associated factors. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 56(6), 577–588.
• Ryan, D., Kelly, F. E., & Kelly, B. D. (2009). Mental health among persons awaiting an asylum outcome in western countries. International Journal of Mental Health, 38, 88–111.
• Rynearson, E. K. (1995). Bereavement after homicide: A comparison of treatment seekers and refusers. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 507–510.
• Sachs, E., Rosenfeld, B., Lhewa, D., Rasmussen, A., & Keller, A. (2008). Entering exile: Trauma, mental health, and coping among Tibetan refugees arriving in Dharamsala, India. Traumatic Stress, 21, 199–208.
• Sakwa, R. (2005). Chechnya: From past to future. London, UK: Anthem Press.
• Schmidt, M., Kravic, N., & Ehlert, U. (2008). Adjustment to trauma exposure in refugee, displaced, and non-displaced Bosnian women. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 11(4), 269–276. http://dx.doi. org/10.1007/s00737-008-0018-5
• Schumaker, J. F. (Ed.). (1992). Religion and mental health. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N. (2003). Liberating voices: The political implications of Palestinian mothers narrating their loss. Women Studies International Forum, 26, 391–407.
• Shaw, A., Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2005). Religion, spirituality and posttraumatic growth: A systematic review. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 8(1), 1–11.
• Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2007). Interpretive phenomenological analysis. In J. A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods (pp. 53–81). California, CA: Sage.
• Stocks, C. (2007). Trauma theory and the singular self: Rethinking extreme experiences in the lights of cross cultural identity. Textual Practice, 21, 71–92.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2006). Helping refugees: An introduction to the UNHCR. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/420795964.pdf
• Vojvoda, D., Weine, S. M., McGlashan, T., Becker, D. F., & Southwick, S. M. (2008). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in Bosnian refugees 3 ½ years after resettlement. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 45(3), 421–426.