CIRCASSIAN NATIONALISM in the WRITINGS of HAYRİYE MELEK HUNÇ by CEMİLE ATLI Submitted to the Graduate School of Social Scienc
CIRCASSIAN NATIONALISM IN THE WRITINGS OF HAYRİYE MELEK HUNÇ by CEMİLE ATLI Submitted to the Graduate School of Social Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sabancı University October 2019 CEMİLE ATLI 2019 © All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT CIRCASSIAN NATIONALISM IN THE WRITINGS OF HAYRİYE MELEK HUNÇ CEMİLE ATLI HISTORY M.A. THESIS, OCTOBER 2019 Thesis Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. AYŞE OZİL Keywords: Circassians, Women, Activism, Nationalism, Hayriye Melek Hunç This thesis aims at exploring the elements of Circassian nationalism in the works of an important yet an under-researched woman activist of Circassian descent, Hayriye Melek Hunç. The study explores the notions of “homeland”, the importance of history-memory of Russo-Circassian Wars and the protection of a distinct Circassian identity in her writings. Doing that, it does not ignore the place of “women’s issue” in her works. Her approach towards the women’s issue and her opinions about Islamic women, in general, and Ottoman women in particular, will be conveyed. In these aspects, the study aims to contribute to a growing literature which emphasized women’s activism of the late Ottoman era, challenging the nationalist historiography which shows Ottoman women as passive and ignorant subjects of a static political entity. Regarding the socio-political changes which took place in the late Ottoman Empire, the study also aims at exploring the impacts of modernization by concentrating on the rise of nationalism and activism of one of the ethnic groups of the empire, the Circassian community. Increasing activism and agency, surely, were the consequences of this process.
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