Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde demografik mühendislik ve devlet inşa pratikleri: Gönen Manyas Çerkes sürgünü
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Tarih
2019
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Özet
İmparatorluk döneminden devralınan demografik mühendislik pratiği Cumhuriyet dönemi inşa sürecinde devletin şiddet repertuarında berdevamdır. Nüfus düzenlemeleri ve iskân politikaları Cumhuriyet dönemi Türkiye’sinin devlet-inşa ve ulus-inşa süreçlerinin temel biçimleri olagelmiştir. 1922-1923 yılları arasında gerçekleşen Gönen-Manyas Çerkes sürgünü, Cumhuriyet kurulmadan hemen önceki süreçte rejimin “itaatsiz unsurlarla” başa çıkma yöntemlerini netleştirmesinde bir tarihsel dönemeci işaret etmektedir. Gönen, Manyas ve Bandırma’nın on dört köyünün topluca yerlerinden edilmesi, rejimin kurucu unsurlarına, devlet otoritesine karşı çıkmanın toplumsal maliyetlerini muhaliflere belletmede zorunlu iskân stratejilerin oynadığı rolü tartma imkânı sağlamıştır. Sürgün kararının kaldırılmasıyla bölge Çerkesleri mülksüzleşmiş ve yoksullaşmış olarak eski yerleşim yerlerine geri dönebilmişlerdir. Kararın geri alınması, sürgüne tabi tutulan köylerin karara mukavemet göstermemeleri ve iç sürgün stratejisinin kurallarını harfiyen uygulamalarıyla açıklanır. Bu çalışma, sürgün sonrasında bölge Çerkeslerinin kimlik müzakerelerini ve Çerkes toplulukların “Türklük”e entegre olma ve hayatta kalma stratejilerini söz konusu ‘sürgün’ deneyiminin izlerini sürerek tartışma iddiasındadır. Ulus-devletin inşa sürecinin belli bir uğrağında gerçekleşen Gönen-Manyas Sürgünü, bölge Çerkeslerinin ve sürgünden haberdar olan Türkiyeli Çerkeslerin “Türklük”e entegre olmada benimseyecekleri stratejileri tartmaları açısından da önemli bir dönemeci ifade eder. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti sınırlarında yaşayan Çerkeslerin bir kısmı, yönetici seçkinlere ve ev sahibi topluma sadakatlerini kanıtlayabilmek amacıyla etnik kimliklerini gizleme; etnik kimliklerini sınırlı bir kültürel alana hapsederek otantik bir unsura indirgeme; yönetici seçkinlerle çeşitli düzeylerde ittifaklar kurma ve devletin şiddet aygıtının gönüllü neferleri olma stratejilerini benimseyerek hayatta kalmaya çalışmışlardır. Nispeten dar kapsamlı sayılabilecek bir zorunlu göç hareketi olarak Gönen-Manyas sürgünü, Çerkeslerin kolektif hafızalarında 1864 Büyük Sürgünü ve trajedisini tazeleyerek, Çerkes topluluğunun içerisinden yükselebilecek muhtemel muhalif seslerin çok önceden bastırılmasına zemin teşkil edebilecek bir uğrağa işaret eder.
Demographic engineering, inherited from the Ottoman Empire, had significant impact on the formation of the Republican State’s repertoire of violence. The strategy of population transfers and (re)-settlement schemes have almost become the dominant forms of state-making and nation-building in Republican Turkey. Based on these considerations, this paper contends that the Exile of Gönen-Manyas Circassians, which took place in the period of 1922-1923, has been an auspicious moment that stood as a test-case for the Turkish state authorities in dealing with ‘unruly’ ethnic constituents. The deportation of fourteen villages of Gönen, Manyas and Bandırma have given the opportunity to the early Republican elites to assess the role of forced displacement and replacement in demonstrating to the dissidents of the regime how costy it would be to stand up against the state authority. With the rescission of the decision, the Circassians returned back to their homes having been impoverished and dispossessed. The fact that the deportation decision was revoked after one year and the villagers were allowed back appears to be related to the lack of any resistance to the decision. This study discusses how Turkey’s Circassiansnegotiated their post-exile identity and how Circassian communities developed strategies of integration with “Turkishness” by tracking their experiences of the exile. The Gönen-Manyas exile, an event which occurred at a specific moment of nation-state formation, has also been a turning point in the self-definition and options of survival strategies of Turkey’s Circassians, as a diasporic group and a stateless people at those times. The Circassians who lived through such sort of traumatic incident tended to use the following survival strategies in order to prove their loyalty to the governing elite and the host nation: concealment, dissimulation, alliance-making and enlistment. This “forced population movement” which was rather limited in its scope reminded the great exile and tragedy of Circassians in 1864 and therefore proved to be very effective in silencing their voices. In this respect, exile, as it ensured the transformation of collective punishment into the destruction of collective memory, made the performance of silence on detrimental issues (one of the most important clauses of the “Turkishness Contract”) a fundamental survival tool for Circassians.
Demographic engineering, inherited from the Ottoman Empire, had significant impact on the formation of the Republican State’s repertoire of violence. The strategy of population transfers and (re)-settlement schemes have almost become the dominant forms of state-making and nation-building in Republican Turkey. Based on these considerations, this paper contends that the Exile of Gönen-Manyas Circassians, which took place in the period of 1922-1923, has been an auspicious moment that stood as a test-case for the Turkish state authorities in dealing with ‘unruly’ ethnic constituents. The deportation of fourteen villages of Gönen, Manyas and Bandırma have given the opportunity to the early Republican elites to assess the role of forced displacement and replacement in demonstrating to the dissidents of the regime how costy it would be to stand up against the state authority. With the rescission of the decision, the Circassians returned back to their homes having been impoverished and dispossessed. The fact that the deportation decision was revoked after one year and the villagers were allowed back appears to be related to the lack of any resistance to the decision. This study discusses how Turkey’s Circassiansnegotiated their post-exile identity and how Circassian communities developed strategies of integration with “Turkishness” by tracking their experiences of the exile. The Gönen-Manyas exile, an event which occurred at a specific moment of nation-state formation, has also been a turning point in the self-definition and options of survival strategies of Turkey’s Circassians, as a diasporic group and a stateless people at those times. The Circassians who lived through such sort of traumatic incident tended to use the following survival strategies in order to prove their loyalty to the governing elite and the host nation: concealment, dissimulation, alliance-making and enlistment. This “forced population movement” which was rather limited in its scope reminded the great exile and tragedy of Circassians in 1864 and therefore proved to be very effective in silencing their voices. In this respect, exile, as it ensured the transformation of collective punishment into the destruction of collective memory, made the performance of silence on detrimental issues (one of the most important clauses of the “Turkishness Contract”) a fundamental survival tool for Circassians.
Açıklama
Anahtar Kelimeler
Zorunlu Göç, Sürgün, Kimlik İnşası, Çerkesler, Türklük Sözleşmesi, Forced Migration, Excile, Identity Construction, Circassians, Turkishness Contract
Kaynak
Mülkiye Dergisi
WoS Q Değeri
Scopus Q Değeri
Cilt
43
Sayı
4
Künye
Göker, E. A. (2019). Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde demografik mühendislik ve devlet inşa pratikleri: Gönen Manyas Çerkes sürgünü. Mülkiye Dergisi, 43(4), 681-706.
