THE CRIMEAN TATAR NATIONAL MOVEMENT IN THE PUBLICATIONS OF INNER AND OUTER DIASPORA: LENIN BAYRAGI, EMEL AND DERGI A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY ALTER KAHRAMAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EURASIAN STUDIES AUGUST 2014 Approval of the Graduate of Social Sciences _________________ Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. _________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Akçalı Head of the Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. _________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşegül Aydıngün Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Akçalı (METU, PSPA) _________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşegül Aydıngün (METU, SOC.) _________________ Prof. Dr. İsmail Aydıngün (Başkent, PSIR) _________________ I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Alter Kahraman Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE CRIMEAN TATAR NATIONAL MOVEMENT IN THE PUBLICATIONS OF INNER AND OUTER DIASPORA: LENIN BAYRAGI, EMEL AND DERGI Kahraman, Alter M. Sc., Department of Eurasian Studies Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşegül Aydıngün August 2014, 198 pages This thesis analyzes the Crimean Tatar National Movement in and outside the USSR through their publications in different countries (Lenin Bayragı in Uzbekistan, Emel in Turkey and Dergi in Germany). It consists of two basic parts: the development of the National Movement in exile, and the evaluation of the documentary research and the interviews on Lenin Bayragı, Crimean Tatars’ only newspaper in exile. Some concepts and terms, which were derived from the interviews, such as diaspora, collective memory, common trauma, and homeland are elaborated to understand the exiled Crimean Tatars’ relationship with their homeland Crimea. Keywords: Crimean Tatar National Movement, Lenin Bayragı, Collective Memory, Deportation, Emel iv ÖZ DAHİLİ VE HARİCİ DİASPORANIN YAYINLARINDA KIRIM TATAR MİLLİ HAREKETİ: LENİN BAYRAGI, EMEL VE DERGİ Kahraman, Alter Yüksek Lisans, Avrasya Çalışmaları Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Ayşegül Aydıngün Ağustos 2014, 198 sayfa Bu tezde Kırım Tatarlarının Anavatan Kırım’a dönebilmek için Sovyetler Birliği’ne karşı verdikleri mücadele Kırım Tatar Milli Hareketi’nin farklı ülkelerde çıkardığı yayınlar üzerinden incelenecektir (Özbekistan’da Lenin Bayragı, Türkiye’de Emel ve Almanya’da Dergi). Tez iki kısımdan oluşmaktadır: Kırım Tatar Milli Hareketi’nin tarihi gelişimi ve Kırım Tatarlarının sürgünde Kırım Tatarca çıkardıkları yegane gazete olan Lenin Bayragı üzerine yapılan belge araştırması ve mülakatların değerlendirilmesi. Araştırma süresince ortaya çıkan kolektif hafıza, travma, anavatan, diaspora gibi kavramlar sürgündeki Kırım Tatarlarının Kırım ile kurdukları ilişkinin açıklanmasında yararlanılabilecek uygun araçlar olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kırım Tatar Milli Hareketi, Lenin Bayragı, Kolektif Hafıza, Sürgün, Emel v To My Parents, Bahtişen and Fayidin vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A number of people have made valuable contributions to this thesis, but first, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşegül Aydıngün for her everlasting guidance, advice, criticism, encouragements and insight throughout the research. Without her persistent help this thesis would not have been possible. I also thank her to support my thesis by giving me a chance to conduct a fieldwork, which was made possible by a grant from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), in Crimea. I would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Akçalı for her criticism and advice, and I thank the examining committee members, Prof. Dr. İsmail Aydıngün and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Akçalı, for their valuable contributions. It is my pleasure to express my appreciations to the informants from KIPU, Mejlis and Lenin Bayragı for their evaluations and contributions. I owe special thanks to the kind staff of IRCICA Library in Istanbul and Crimean Tatar Gasprinskiy Library in Simferopol (Akmescit), and the Crimeans for their help during and after the research in Crimea. I would like to thank Asan E., Eldar S., Türker Yüksel, Safiye Olgun, Fethi K. Şahin, Susanna Mustafayeva, and others, who helped me with various stages of the study. Many thanks are also due to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elmira Muratova, Assist. Prof. Dr. Yuliya Biletska, Viktoria Demidova, and Natasha Nikolenko. I would like to thank F. Bilge Cengiz, who helped and supported me during the study. Finally, I would like to express my deepest concern and love to my beloved family for their support and understanding. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM.................................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... iv ÖZ ................................................................................................................................. v DEDICATION ......................................................................................................... …… vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................vii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introducing the Study .................................................................................... 1 1.2 Methodology ................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Field Research in Crimea ............................................................................... 7 1.3.1 Documentary Research .......................................................................... 8 1.3.2 Expert Interviews ................................................................................... 9 1.4 Chapters ...................................................................................................... 10 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................... 12 2.1 Imperial Russian Period ............................................................................... 12 2.2 The Soviet Period ......................................................................................... 15 2.2.1 The Struggle for Crimea ....................................................................... 15 2.2.2 The Sovietization of Crimea ................................................................. 17 2.2.3 The German Occupation (1941-1944) ................................................. 23 2.2.3.1 Crimean Tatar - German Relations ................................................... 26 2.2.3.2 ‘Collaboration’ .................................................................................. 30 2.2.3.3 Motives for ‘Collaboration’ .............................................................. 37 2.2.4 The 1944 Deportation .......................................................................... 44 viii 3 CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................... 49 3.1 Diaspora ....................................................................................................... 49 3.2 Collective Memory ...................................................................................... 52 4 OUTER DIASPORA IN FREE WORLD ........................................................................ 65 4.1 Interwar Period: Prometheus League ......................................................... 65 4.1.1 Dergi and Emel ..................................................................................... 68 4.2 Cold War Years: Émigrés ............................................................................. 75 4.2.1Evaluation of the Developments in the USSR by the Diaspora Movement 77 4.2.1.1 Lenin Bayrağı .................................................................................... 82 5 CRIMEAN TATAR NATIONAL MOVEMENT .............................................................. 84 5.1 The National Movement’s Struggling Methods .......................................... 88 5.1.1 Tone of the Petitions ............................................................................ 92 5.1.2 The Requests by the Petitions.............................................................. 94 5.2 The Decree of September 5, 1967............................................................... 96 5.3 Gorbachev Era ........................................................................................... 103 5.4 Organization of the Crimean Tatar National Movement and the Return . 106 5.5 Russian Occupation of Crimea (2014) ....................................................... 111