MEMORY, IDENTITY, HISTORY AND NATIONALISM
Written by M. Hakan Yavuz
The scope of work proposed herein is part of a larger project entitled Memory, Identity, History and Nationalism: Socio-economic and Political Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples of Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, Including Relations with Modern Turkey (“Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples”) that will explore the past histories and shaping of contemporary Turkic-majority states and their relationships with modern Turkey via scholarly work, community participation, social media, and support for new research. The project will focus on how intellectual and political developments in Russia and the Caucasus relate to Ottoman and Turkish identity and the Republic's formative ideology and national identity.
Background of Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples Project
The main goal of our project is to examine intellectual origins which led to the dehumanization of Ottoman Turks or Ottoman Muslims. This phenomenon of intellectual dehumanization is manifested in terms of the dominant narrative of Turkophobia, which is found in Europe and in Russia. Our publications and conferences have examined how Turkophobia has been constructed in various ways and then how these negative images have been deployed to carry out European policies against the Ottoman state. In summary, the Turkish Studies Project has given us the essential platform to decipher the intellectual narrative in order to understand the workings of the Eastern Question: that is, eliminating the Ottoman Muslim presence in Europe by way of creating a number of ethnic states. When these states were created, in part, to resolve the Eastern Question, the state actors engaged in wars to ethnically cleanse or kill the Ottoman Turks. With this new project we hope to focus on Russia, the principal adversarial power against the Ottoman state and a champion of the pan-Slavic and pan-Orthodox movements against the Ottomans. Virtually all negative images of the Turks in the Balkans and in the Caucasus are direct products of the Russian intellectual landscape. To understand the underlying forces of the dehumanization of Turks and ethnic cleansing against the Ottoman Muslims requires us to acknowledge fully Russia’s contribution to this intellectual phenomenon. The geographic extension of the project is the proper and natural link to the previous project which focused on Europe. We cannot fully comprehend the events of ethnic cleansing of the Ottomans in the Balkans and the Caucasus by ignoring Russian policies and the intellectual debates that directly informed these anti-Ottoman strategies of Russia. In short, we will continue to decipher Orientalism and the dehumanization of the Turks by focusing on Russia’s role, especially in the intellectual domain.
The status quo of Turkic peoples and Turkic-majority states and territories has emerged out of a series of traumatic events. The most important include crises and exile in the Crimea, forced Sovietization and collectivization in Caucasus and Central Asia, seven decades of Soviet domination and difficult post-Communist transition trajectories. The traumatic history of the Turkic peoples and states have thus shaped a spectrum of contemporary republics and territories, some independent, others (such as Crimea) dominated by Slavic-majority states and most facing social, economic and political challenges due to past history of Communism, contemporary authoritarianism, lack of political pluralism, widening intra- and inter-state income disparities, in addition to problematic environmental issues (such as the drying of lakes and unsafe nuclear facilities and waste sites).
The Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples project will focus on the historical factors shaping collective memories and identities, and contemporary problems and challenges facing Turkic peoples in Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. By organizing a series of conferences and disseminating their proceedings through a number of avenues, including the Internet and social media, the project hopes to open a new "conversation over these narratives" and understand their causes and consequences for the Turkic peoples and their collective identities. The diverging status quo of Turkic peoples from the Crimea (in Russia) to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (in China) provides a spectrum of histories and contemporary issues facing the Turkic peoples, nations and Turkic-majority states and their relations with modern Turkey. The project envisions a number of foci including investigations of: Turkic peoples’ social and political organization under Ottoman rule; historical accounts of the 1916 Ürkün (‘The Exodus’) of the Kyrgyz and Kazakh peoples, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands in forced migration; the 1944 mass deportation and forced relocation of the Crimean Tatars and Meskhitian Turks to Central Asia and Siberia; forced accounts of collectivization and Sovietization during 1917-1991; post-communist trajectories of petrol-rich and hyrdo-rich republics; analysis of the history and plight of the Uighurs; and environmental problems and solutions facing the Turkic peoples and Turkic-majority states.
The project will compare and contrast the policies of Russian and Ottoman Empire against their minorities. The first counterinsurgency policy was developed and implemented against the Circassian Muslims in 1864 and Russia’s anti-Muslim policies deeply informed the Ottoman strategies vis-a-vis other minorities. Incorporating the cross-fertilization of ideas, policies, and tactics of these two rival empires is crucial to develop a better understanding of the Ottoman state. The project will stress the Ottoman contribution to the development of minority cultures and religious traditions within a comparative perspective.
Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples Project Components
Project Fellowships
The Sponsor will provide support of approximately $18,500 per student for fellowships that will produce dissertation research on the histories and socio-economic and political challenges facing the Turkic peoples and states and their relationship with modern Turkey. The Fellowship recipients will be selected by the Sponsor on a competitive basis from candidates who have been admitted to the University of Utah and accepted into a graduate program. Candidate applications will be ranked based upon their academic record and on how well their work matches the themes and parameters of the Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples project. The fellowships will be offered on terms that are mutually agreeable to the Sponsor and to those receiving the fellowships. Sponsor will arrange to send all funding for such fellowships through the Director of the Scholarship Office at the University of Utah.
Conference Series with Publication
The Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples project will include an annual conference supported by the Sponsor to bring together the best scholars in the field to explore the past and present of the Turkic peoples and their relations to the modern Turkish state and society and provide insight into the future.
Publication Support
The Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples project also envisages a website identified with the project and Sponsor with background materials, upcoming events, research papers, publications, and project-related media coverage. The project will subsidize lecture series and book or journal publications related to the goals of the project.
Postdoctoral Position
To stimulate new scholarship and publication in this field, a competitive Postdoctoral Fellow position will be established. For the next five years, we will explore topics that include, but are not limited to the following: (1) Past, present, and future of the Tatar peoples: from the Crimea, the Volga and Kazan. (2) Impact of trauma on the Turkic peoples’ identities and politics: Analyses of the 1916 Ürkün and 1944 collectivizations, mass exiles and forced relocations of the Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tatars and Meskhitians; and the Russian and European origins of Turkophobia. (3) Revisiting Jadidism: How has the Turkish and Central Asian Jadidism movement affected contemporary politics of Turkic peoples? (4) The Nationalism in the Caucasus and the evolution of Azerbaijani State; (5) Ethno-religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire and their connections with the Caucasus. The primary goal of the research professorship is to promote Turkish Studies at the University of Utah by creating a community of research scholars whose written work contributes to and promotes Turkish Studies at the national and international level. The award recipient will also be required to offer a course based on his or her research. The selection committee will include the Project Director, the Graduate Director of the Department of Political Science, and a member of the Department of History. If there is a need, the Director of the Project shall use the funds for the Postdoctoral Position to initiate a new research circle.
Scope of Work
To stimulate new scholarship and publication in this field, Sponsor agrees to support the work of Professor M. Hakan Yavuz as follows:
For the next five years, Professor Yavuz will explore topics that include, but are not limited to the following: (1)The intellectual origins of Turkophobia in Russia and the Caucasus; (2) Past, present and future of the Tatar peoples: from the Crimea, the Volga and Kazan. (3) Impact of trauma on the Turkic peoples’ identities and politics: Analyses of the 1916 Ürkün and 1944 collectivizations, mass exiles and forced relocations of the Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tatars and Meskhitians. (4) Revisiting Jadidism: How has the Turkish and Central Asian Jadidism movement affected contemporary politics of Turkic peoples? How did these ideas shape the founding philosophy fo the Republic of Turkey?
In addition, to ensure that the various components of the Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples project move forward with academic integrity and continuity to achieve the objectives outlined by the Sponsor, Professor M. Hakan Yavuz, will oversee the Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples project. He will also be responsible for coordinating all Project conferences, workshops, overseeing publication projects related to the Project, and facilitating community outreach.
