Andrea Weiss (Central European University Budapest)

Turkish Muslim Georgians? The historical Georgian diaspora in Turkey and its connection to today’s Adjara and Georgia

The expansion of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus at the expense of the Ottoman Empire led to the forced movements of Muslims from this contact zone between the two empires. From the beginning of the 19th century until the early Soviet era, Georgian Muslims settled in the Ottoman Empire and remained as so-called Muhajir in the territory of Turkey as a result of the demarcation of the border after the First World War. This eventful history is embodied in the Adjara region along the shores of the Black Sea, which is now an autonomous republic of Georgia on the border with Turkey. Andrea Weiss’ research project deals with the Georgian diaspora in Turkey, especially with religious Muslims and their contacts to Adjara/Georgia since the opening of the border in 1988. In post-Soviet Georgia, the fact that the Georgian understanding of nationhood is usually associated with a commitment to Christianity has led to Muslim Georgians, about one-third of the population of Adjara, being marginalized. Against this background, the identification of the predominantly Muslim Georgian diaspora in Turkey with the Christian country of origin is problematic. As a result of the decades of separation by the Iron Curtain, Georgian Muslims in Adjara appeared to their Turkish relatives to be Sovietized and hardly religious Muslims any longer. Nonetheless, religious Muslim Georgians from the diaspora also maintain contacts to Adjara. The project investigates how this situation is reflected in the internal dynamics of the Georgian diaspora, especially among religious Muslims.