Page 23 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2017. Glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti - Musical Migrations: Crossroads of European Musical Diversity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 1
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there and back: circassians in anatolia
to Georgian traditions. And again I was reminded of the performances I
had heard in the Circassian communities of Anatolia.8
Which brings me at last to Turkey. In the early evening of 22 May last
year I joined several hundred Abkhazians and Circassians in the Turkish
city Kayseri for their annual ‘genocide day’ commemoration (the day it-
self is actually 21 May). The genocide in question (though there are the usu-
al queries about the term) took place in the mid 1860s, with 1864 as the
key date. In the wake of a comprehensive defeat of the legendary Dagestani
warrior Imam Shamyl in 1859, Russia engaged in a campaign of destruction
and deportation, marking a definitive stage in its conquest of the Caucasus.
At this point vast numbers of Circassians were exiled to Anatolia, and Ab-
khaz Muslims were expelled shortly after. The preservation and subsequent
reconstruction of their cultural identities in the Ottoman world was a long,
arduous and defensive process. But it was driven throughout by a powerful
sense of that original injustice. The imperative was to counter the injustice
through the reconstitution of an ethnic memory. Preserving the culture –
the cultural nation – was a political enterprise from the start.
The events in Kayseri began with an organized walk. We made our
way northwards along Mustafa Kemal Paşa Bulvari, and then, describing
a kind of extended arc, into Ayvacil Caddesi until finally we arrived at the
Kadir Has Kongre Merkezi ve Spor Komplexi for the formal part of the cer-
emony. Distinctive green Circassian flags were held aloft during the walk,
along with innumerable placards, some referring to the genocide itself, oth-
ers calling for a wider international recognition of Abkhazia. The mood
was festive and good-humoured, and it was soon clear that this is a tight-
knit community, one where people know each other well. At the main au-
ditorium the events of the 1860s were evoked through a lengthy representa-
tional sequence, involving old photographs, film, dance, music, poetry and
mime, all clearly designed to draw together the public and private dimen-
sions of the massacres and the subsequent expulsion, in the course of which
many more died. The more monumental aspects of the history were cer-
tainly on display, but there were also vignettes depicting the impact of these
events on domestic life. It was an impressive programme, and it became
8 The major studies of Abkhazian music are in the Russian language. They include,
Мери Xaшба, Народная Музыка Абхазов: Жанры, Стилистика, Кросс-Кулл-
турные Параллели [The National Music of Abkhazia: Genres, Styles and Cross-Cul-
tural Parallels] (Sukhum: Abkhazian Academy of Sciences, 2007) and Д. А. Чурей,
Из Пессено-Инструментальной Традиции Абхазов [From the Vocal-Instrumen-
tal Traditions of Abkhazia] (Sukhum: Abkhazian Academy of Sciences, 2014).
21
to Georgian traditions. And again I was reminded of the performances I
had heard in the Circassian communities of Anatolia.8
Which brings me at last to Turkey. In the early evening of 22 May last
year I joined several hundred Abkhazians and Circassians in the Turkish
city Kayseri for their annual ‘genocide day’ commemoration (the day it-
self is actually 21 May). The genocide in question (though there are the usu-
al queries about the term) took place in the mid 1860s, with 1864 as the
key date. In the wake of a comprehensive defeat of the legendary Dagestani
warrior Imam Shamyl in 1859, Russia engaged in a campaign of destruction
and deportation, marking a definitive stage in its conquest of the Caucasus.
At this point vast numbers of Circassians were exiled to Anatolia, and Ab-
khaz Muslims were expelled shortly after. The preservation and subsequent
reconstruction of their cultural identities in the Ottoman world was a long,
arduous and defensive process. But it was driven throughout by a powerful
sense of that original injustice. The imperative was to counter the injustice
through the reconstitution of an ethnic memory. Preserving the culture –
the cultural nation – was a political enterprise from the start.
The events in Kayseri began with an organized walk. We made our
way northwards along Mustafa Kemal Paşa Bulvari, and then, describing
a kind of extended arc, into Ayvacil Caddesi until finally we arrived at the
Kadir Has Kongre Merkezi ve Spor Komplexi for the formal part of the cer-
emony. Distinctive green Circassian flags were held aloft during the walk,
along with innumerable placards, some referring to the genocide itself, oth-
ers calling for a wider international recognition of Abkhazia. The mood
was festive and good-humoured, and it was soon clear that this is a tight-
knit community, one where people know each other well. At the main au-
ditorium the events of the 1860s were evoked through a lengthy representa-
tional sequence, involving old photographs, film, dance, music, poetry and
mime, all clearly designed to draw together the public and private dimen-
sions of the massacres and the subsequent expulsion, in the course of which
many more died. The more monumental aspects of the history were cer-
tainly on display, but there were also vignettes depicting the impact of these
events on domestic life. It was an impressive programme, and it became
8 The major studies of Abkhazian music are in the Russian language. They include,
Мери Xaшба, Народная Музыка Абхазов: Жанры, Стилистика, Кросс-Кулл-
турные Параллели [The National Music of Abkhazia: Genres, Styles and Cross-Cul-
tural Parallels] (Sukhum: Abkhazian Academy of Sciences, 2007) and Д. А. Чурей,
Из Пессено-Инструментальной Традиции Абхазов [From the Vocal-Instrumen-
tal Traditions of Abkhazia] (Sukhum: Abkhazian Academy of Sciences, 2014).
21
