A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details RETURN MIGRATION TO THE CAUCASUS: THE ADYGE-ABKHAZ DIASPORA(S), TRANSNATIONALISM AND LIFE AFTER RETURN Jade Cemre Erciyes A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Sussex for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in MIGRATION STUDIES SCHOOL OF GLOBAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Brighton, UK, January 2014 DECLARATION I HEREBY DECLARE THAT THIS THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED, EITHER IN THE SAME OR DIFFERENT FORM, TO THIS OR ANY OTHER UNIVERSITY FOR A DEGREE. SIGNATURE: JADE CEMRE ERCIYES For all those who are searching for their belonging in the Caucasian mountains… and in memory of the ones who found it there... DEGUF SABAHAT BAYBAS LUGON 8 April 1934 – 27 January 2012 2 October 2011, on our way from Abkhazia to Adygeya, Deguf Sabahat is telling about what she learned as a child – the three things that makes a person Adyge: Kheku (the homeland), Khabze (the etiquette) and the Bze (language). Sabahat was not only an Adyge by her deep connection to her ancestral homeland, etiquette and language, but she was also the symbol of a transnational life that awaits a whole new generation of Adyge-Abkhaz people, living between her homes in Turkey, Switzerland, Adygeya and Abkhazia, in between modernity and traditions, in complete freedom of soul and body, travelling far and beyond but always finding parts of herself in the Caucasian mountains. RETURN MIGRATION TO THE CAUCASUS: THE ADYGE-ABKHAZ DIASPORA(S), TRANSNATIONALISM AND LIFE AFTER RETURN Jade Cemre Erciyes University of Sussex PhD Migration Studies Abstract This thesis investigates the dual transnationalism of ancestral return migrants, that is to say people “returning” to the territory where their ancestors had once migrated from. Dispersed from their homeland in the second half of the 19th century, the Adyge-Abkhaz diaspora has been involved in a variety of transnational practices in relation to their homeland in the Caucasus; and some, with considerable effort, have been settling there especially in the last two decades. The transnational involvement of this diaspora, most of whom live today in Turkey, is motivated by their search for belonging. Many who go back and forth between Turkey and the Caucasus are involved in transnational diaspora associations and take an active role in the formation of a transnational ethno-political-cultural environment for new generations growing up in the diaspora. The majority of those who have “return migrated” to their homeland in the Caucasus, in this study to two republics, Adygeya (an autonomous republic under the Russian Federation) and Abkhazia (a republic with contested independence), develop new transnational links to their diaspora communities in Turkey. This thesis is the product of a multi-sited, multi-method research project that combines theories related to transnationalism, diaspora and return, as well as migrant adaptation. Using life-history interviews, semi-structured interviews and participant observation, fieldwork for the research took place in rural diaspora settlements and urban diaspora organisations in Turkey as well as in the Caucasus, thereby enabling the researcher to study both ends of the migration route. Existing studies on ancestral return migration focus on pull and push factors, which hitherto have focused on sending and receiving countries separately. This thesis argues that their dual transnationalism, both in the diaspora (in Turkey) looking back towards the diasporic homeland, and after return looking back towards the diaspora, turns them into the “diaspora of their diaspora”. Table of Contents DECLARATION.........................................................................................................................i Dedication...................................................................................................................................ii Abstract......................................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................iv List of figures ..........................................................................................................................vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................1 1.1 Research Questions .....................................................................................................3 1.2 The Framework: Dual Transnationalism ....................................................................4 1.2.1 Transnationalism .................................................................................................6 1.2.2 Diaspora...............................................................................................................7 1.2.2.1 Classical Definitions and Critiques ................................................................8 1.2.2.2 Transnationalism of the Diaspora...................................................................9 1.2.3 Return ................................................................................................................11 1.2.3.1 Transnationalism and Return..........................................................................13 1.2.4 Post-Return Processes .......................................................................................13 1.2.5 Dual Transnationalism ......................................................................................15 1.3 Overview of the Thesis .............................................................................................17 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND...............................................................................................20 2.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................20 2.2 Caucasian History .....................................................................................................21 2.2.1 Abkhaz Kingdom ..............................................................................................22 2.2.2 Circassia/Cherkessia..........................................................................................22 2.2.3 Hundred Year Wars...........................................................................................23 2.2.4 Exile...................................................................................................................25 2.3 Diaspora ....................................................................................................................27 2.3.1 Life in the Ottoman Empire and the Young Republic of Turkey......................28 2.3.2 First and Second-Generation Attempts to Return .............................................29 2.3.3 Diasporisation: Urbanisation and the “Dernek”................................................30 2.3.4 Third and Fourth-Generations “Returnist” Movement .....................................33 2.3.5 First Visits to the Homeland (1970s) ................................................................34 2.4 Adygeya ....................................................................................................................35 iv 2.4.1 Borders and People............................................................................................36 2.4.2 Laws and Regulations on Return.......................................................................36 2.5 Abkhazia ...................................................................................................................37 2.5.1 Borders and People............................................................................................37 2.5.2 Laws and Regulations on Return.......................................................................38 2.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................40 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND FIELDWORK CONTEXT......................................42 3.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................42 3.2 Choice of Field Sites .................................................................................................45 3.2.1 Choice of Field Sites in the Caucasian “Homeland”.........................................45 3.2.2 Choice of Field Sites in Turkey.........................................................................46 3.2.2.1 Ankara........................................................................................................47 3.2.2.2 Istanbul ......................................................................................................47