Comparative Cases in Long-Distance Nationalism: Explaining the Émigré, Exile, Diaspora and Transnational Movements of the Crimean Tatars By Filiz Tutku Aydın A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Toronto ©Copyright by Filiz Tutku Aydın 2012 Comparative Cases in Long-Distance Nationalism: Explaining the Émigré, Exile, Diaspora and Transnational Movements of the Crimean Tatars Filiz Tutku Aydın Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Toronto 2012 Abstract This dissertation is an attempt to explore the unexpected mobilization of the Crimean Tatar diaspora in the recent decades. Why and how did the Crimean Tatar communities, all of which resided outside their homeland, develop a political identity and engage in nationalist mobilization in the 1990s? How did the communities, living apart from each other, in some cases for more than a century, mobilize simultaneously? What explains the variation in forms of mobilization among these communities? Does the transnational mobilization of the Crimean Tatars amount to an emergence of a transnational nation? I explore these questions by comparing the cases of the Crimean Tatar diaspora communities, located in the former USSR, Romania, Turkey, and the United States across space and time. ii This dissertation attempts to develop a dynamic theory of diaspora by demonstrating how recent unexpected mobilization was a consequence of the interaction of movement framing processes with discursive and political opportunity structures. I emphasize the unique set of political and discursive opportunities that emerged in the transnational political space due to new technologies of communication and ease of transportation that precipitated simultaneous mobilization of communities as well as the attempt for constructing a transnational nation. The thesis also introduces a typology long-distance nationalism which includes newly developed concepts of émigré, exile, diaspora and transnational nationalism to explain the variation in identities and mobilization of these communities. The theoretical framework developed in this study will be useful for studying and comparing other cases of diasporas. iii Acknowledgments This project would not have been completed without the tremendous support and guidance of my advisor, Dr. Donald Schwartz. Dr. Schwartz tirelessly encouraged me with his positive attitude, dedication, patience, generosity, and wisdom. Dr. Schwartz has the unique ability for providing structure, critique and direction to students while allowing them freedom to follow their own thoughts. Dr. Hakan Kırımlı’s works on the history and nationalism of Crimean Tatars, and our countless conversations on this constant common topic of ours were an invaluable source of information and inspiration as I prepared this work. Beginning from my undergraduate years, when he took me along in his field trips, and introduced me the history of Turko-Muslim peoples of Russia, for over a decade, Dr. Kırımlı’s work and advice has influenced my thinking, and played a considerable role in shaping my work. I am very grateful to Dr. Joseph Carens, and Dr. Jacques Bertrand for their valuable insights and suggestions when I was preparing the earlier drafts of this dissertation, and for involving me in the Ethnic and Democratic Governance Project. I am indebted to Dr. Carens, Dr. Ronald Beiner, and Dr. Neil Nevitte for their contributions in developing my political science understanding and outlook. I am also grateful to Dr. Phil Triandafulopoulos for reading my dissertation draft and valuable comments. I would like to thank to Dr. Thomas Faist, Dr. Harold Troper and for Dr. Howard Ramos for providing suggestions on preliminary chapters. I would be remise if I did not thank Dr. Ahmet İçduygu for first encouraging me to write on the Crimean Tatar diaspora, and Dr. Orhan Tekelioğlu for introducing social and political theory to me. iv The Department of Political Science, the Center for European and Russian Studies, and the Petro Jacyk Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, the Ethnicity and Democratic Governance Project of SSHCR, Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TIKA), and Mr. Cemil Otar contributed financially for this project. I am indebted to scholarship provided earlier by the St. Petersburg State University for my knowledge of Russian. There are those whose previous works on the Crimean Tatars laid a foundation for building this work. The works of Cafer Seydahmet Kırımer, Mehmet Niyazi, Müstecip Ülküsal and Cengiz Dağcı constitute the canon in Crimean Tatar diaspora thinking and have provided me with the inspiration required to put this work together. Emel, as the major archive of the Crimean Tatar diaspora was an invaluable source of information and insight to the diaspora identity. The Crimean Tatar samizdat and tamizdat form a significant source of information for the exile experience. Other Crimean Tatar journals, Kırım (1957-60), Kırım (1992-), Bahçesaray, Kalgay, Golos Krıma, Yanı Dünya, Kırım (Dostluk), and Karadeniz also documented the diaspora experience for considerable periods. The Crimea-l, Kırım-l, and yashqirim e-mail lists and Crimean News Agency (QHA), Fikirde Birlik, www.tatar.net and www.icc.org as online sources provided opportunity of understanding and following the diaspora identity-in-the-making, which was not available to researchers in the previous periods. Ahmet Özenbaşlı, Edige Kırımal, Halil İnalcık, Kemal Karpat, Edward Lazzerini, Alan Fisher, Valeriy Vozgrin, Mustafa Abdulcemil Kırımoglu (Cemilev), Mihail Guboglo and Svetlana Chervonnaia, Gülnara Bekirova, Rüstem Hayali, Ayşe Seytmuratova, and Otto Pohl all threw lights to parts of the Crimean Tatar history, and hence provided a foundation for this work. v I owe a debt of heartfelt gratitude to the Crimean Tatar community whose support, generosity, and care made the research possible and who continuously inspired and challenged me. Many Crimean Tatars living in Crimea, Romania, Turkey, the United States and Canada received me into their homes with their genuine hospitality. The individual Crimean Tatars who made important contributions to the study are too numerous to mention except for a few. In Crimea, I would like to thank the family of Erecep and Esma Hayreddin for their expansive hospitality, Esma Apte for delicious Crimean Tatar and Uzbek dishes, and Elzara, Elmas and Azize for their friendship. I am grateful to Dr. Ediye Kangiyeva and her family for their hospitality, guiding and driving me in and around Bahçesaray, introducing me to interviewees, and for our helpful discussions. I owe many thanks to Milara Settarova for insights on the national movement, and to all of her family for their warmth and hospitality. The Qardaslıq Association and its members Uriye, Dilara, Girey, and Eldar contributed my research not only by accompanying me in field trips, introducing to interviewees and providing assistance in research, but by inviting me their homes, including me in their meetings and sharing their ideas with me. I am thankful to Nariman Reşitov for introducing me to Canköy Crimean Tatar community and guiding me. Rustem Hayali’s mentorship was invaluable for understanding the national movement in Uzbekistan and Crimea, and the nature of Crimean Tatar historiography. I express a sincere gratitude to Mustafa Abdulcemil Kırımoğlu and Safinar Cemilova for their hospitality, and Mustafa Aga for allowing me to work in his private archives, and Elvedin Çubarov for guiding me through these archives. Special thanks are due to the Crimean Tatar Mejlis staff and library for providing me resources and assistance. I appreciate very much the Crimean State Industrial Pedagogical Institute and İsmail Gasprinsky Library vi for allowing me to use their resources and facilities. I would like to thank the professors of the Crimean State Pedagogical University (KGPU), particularly Dr. İsmail Kerimov, Dr. Adile Emirova, Dr. Nariman Abdulvahap, Dr. Enise Abibullayeva, and Dr. Eldar Seydahmetov for providing me the intellectual environment when I was in Crimea. Many thanks to returnees from diaspora to Crimea, especially Levent Yüksel for providing me accommodation and guidance in Simferopol, and to Necmettin Yalta for introducing me to interviewees and accompanying me in participant observation. The members of Azatlıq organization, particularly Nadir Bekirov, and Sinaver Qadirov, who involved me in their meetings, and provided me with interviews and documents and the residents of Fontana, who provided me with interviews, and neighborhood tours, invited me their homes, and shared their personal archives with me made significant contributions to the project. I extend my gratitude to İsmet and Gayana Yüksel, Safure Kadjametova, Seyran Süleyman, İzzet Hayırov, Vasfiye Hayırova, Rıza Fazıl, Timur Dağcı, Ayşe Seytmuratova, Zampira Asanova, Server Kakura, Dilaver Bekirov, Refat Kurtiyev, and İsmet Şeyhzade. I am deeply grateful to Eldar Seytbekirov and Bekir Mahmutov for providing me with the archival issues of Golos Krıma and Kırım. Thanks are also due to Dr. Ulker Musayeva for accompanying me in state archives, interviews, and providing me documents. In Romania, I would like to thank my hosts Naci and Nurten Celal in Agigea, and Urfet Nubin in Madgidia. My Romanian field trips became also a search for personal roots and relatives. I would like to thank all of my newly found relatives for their hospitality, warmth, and