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<h1 class="gmail-with-tabs">New Circassian scholarship — between homeland and diaspora</h1>
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<p>By <span>Sally Bland</span> - Feb 26,2018 - Last updated at Feb 26,2018</p>
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<p class="gmail-p1"><span class="gmail-s1">Istanbul: Journal of Caucasian Studies (JOCAS), September 2015-March 2017</span></p><p class="gmail-p2"><span class="gmail-s3">The Journal of Caucasian Studies (JOCAS) is a peer-reviewed, bi-annual, international, academic journal.</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">It
is also multilingual, including articles in English, Turkish and
Russian. JOCAS gives voice to a new generation of Circassian scholars
who have emerged in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse, and
are assertively researching the history and culture of the Caucasus in
the context of today’s globalised world. Included in the editorial board
is anthropologist Seteney Shami, who grew up in Jordan, taught at
Yarmouk University, and is now director of the Arab Council for Social
Sciences in Beirut.</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">The first
issue of JOCAS (Vol. 1, No. 1, September 2015) attests to the intent to
cover historical as well as contemporary issues in many fields of
relevance to Circassian communities at home and in the diaspora.</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">Lars
Funch Hansen leads off with an article entitled “iCircassia: Digital
Capitalism and New Transnational Identities”, contending that: “A
concrete empowerment of Circassian actors through the Internet is taking
place.” (p. 1)</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">Whereas the
exile of Circassians from their homeland in 1864 wiped Circassia off the
map, the recent creation of many Circassian websites and Circassians’
avid use of social media has restored their homeland to the global map.
Hansen considers this on-line activity part of the Circassian revival,
and poses many pertinent questions about its implications, such as how
the Internet contributes to new hybrid identities, and whether it will
encourage Circassians to return to their ancestral homeland or have the
opposite effect.</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">In another
article in JOCAS’s first issue, Sufian Zhemukhov and Sener Akturk
address the future of the Circassian language by analysing Russia’s
language policy over the years. They begin by noting that “although the
Soviet Union was originally the most ardent supporter of multiethnic,
multiculturalist, affirmative action policies when it was founded in the
1920s, the political leadership in Moscow gradually shifted towards
assimilationist state policies already during the Soviet period but
decisively after the collapse of the Soviet Union”. (p. 42)</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">The
authors innumerate the many obstacles to reviving the Circassian
language erected by said state policy, and connect language to other
issues such as nationalism, education and immigration possibilities.
They conclude, “Circassians and other non-Russian ethnic groups struggle
with an ineffective language policy and an education system that puts
their languages on the brink of extinction.” (p. 65)</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">A
third article in the same issue by Yahya Khoon focuses on Prince Sefer
Bey Zanuko who led the Circassian resistance to Russia’s conquest of the
Northwest Caucasus in the early 19th century, but has received less
attention in Western and Soviet research than the leaders of the
resistance in the Northeast Caucasus. Though this article is purely
historical, one notices a parallel to current reality, though Khoon does
not mention it: Prince Zanuko’s main rival for leadership was Muhammad
Amin, an Islamist, who was bolstered by ties to Imam Shamil, the famous
leader of the militant Sufi movement, presaging by over a century the
Islamist challenge to nationalist movements and regimes throughout the
Middle East.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">This
biographical account is one of several in the journal’s first issues.
Other important persons covered are Hadji Murat, a deputy of Imam
Shamil; Muhammed Zahid Shamil, Imam Shamil’s grandson; and General Musa
Kundukhov, who organised the resettlement of approximately five thousand
Chechen, Ossetian and Circassian families in Ottoman territory.</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">In
the March 2017 issue (Vol. 2, No. 4), there is an interesting article
on the return of the Adyge and Abkhaz living in Turkey to their
ancestral homeland in the Caucasus—something that had only been a dream
until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many visited, but some decided
not to settle down in view of the difficult conditions prevailing in
their homeland. Others, “with a decision to burn all the bridges, moved
to the homeland for good”. The author, Jade Cemre Erciyes, concludes,
“Since 1991, the ideology of return has been transformed according to
the conditions of travel and communication.” (p. 2)<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">The
topics covered in the journal’s first two years of publication are
wide-ranging. History predominates with studies of the Caucasian
politics of Russian Tsar Paul I; the Circassian-Polish-Hungarian
Alliance in the final days of the 1848-1848 Hungarian Revolution;
“Russification” in the North Caucasus; the Abkhazian migration of 1867
to the Ottoman Empire, as recorded in Russian, Ottoman and British
documents; and Ottoman policies on Circassian refugees in the Danube
Vilayet (today Bulgaria), as well as social projects for children, the
poor and the elderly among the immigrants there.</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">Other
articles involve culture and/or more current issues, such as
mythological narratives in the folklore of the Circassian diaspora in
Turkey; current and potential ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus;
the phenomenon of political alienation in the historical fate of the
Circassian people; and Circassians in American newspapers. Some volumes
include reviews of relevant books.</span></p><p class="gmail-p4"><span class="gmail-s3">Judging
from the first few issues, JOCAS will contribute not only to Caucasian
studies, but to historical reassessment of aspects of Ottoman, Russian
and great power politics, as well as to refugee, displacement and
diaspora studies in a global context. JOCAS can be accessed online at
<a href="http://dergipark.gov.tr/jocas">http://dergipark.gov.tr/jocas</a></span></p> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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