Page 31 - 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
P. 31
there and back: circassians in anatolia
electric bass guitar. And as the latter instrument suggests, there is a similar
fluidity as to style. Circassian ethno-pop is now a recognized genre (with
notable stars such as the Canadian-Circassian singer Aslan Gotov and the
well-known chanteuse Svetlana Kushu), and it is not uncommon for Circas-
sian concerts to host star singers and accordionists with synthesized back-
ing in which the clappers have been replaced by the familiar reproduction
drum kit. Provided the music is recognizably an emblem, a badge, of Cir-
cassian identity – and the ubiquity of a specific accordion style is key here
– many genres are possible, and may even be juxtaposed at a single event.
One Turkish doctoral student at Erciyes University described to me a so-
called Uzunyayla Fellowship Night in Kayseri, in which a music and dance
ensemble from Ankara shared the platform with a well-known Circassian
pop singer. And in an interesting twist on the politics of language, the sing-
er included some Turkish popular songs in Circassian translation.
My final remarks are about return. For long enough the native soil –
the idea of it – exerted a powerful influence in absentia on Turkish Circas-
sians, with children encouraged to ‘turn their faces towards the Caucasus’
from the earliest age. But the reality of a Caucasian homeland, known only
to their distant ancestors, remained inaccessible. Then, with the break-up
of the Soviet Union, this too began to change. Again the associations were
instrumental, acting as important channels to the ancestral homeland,
working as facilitators for the repatriation committees, arranging cultural
exchanges and excursions, and hosting visiting academics and tour groups
from Nalchik or Maikop. Initially membership of a music or dance ensem-
ble was one of the easiest and most practical ways for young people to vis-
it both the North Caucasus and Abkhazia. These early returns had some-
thing of a pilgrimage character (the Mecca analogy was often made). They
were testing grounds for the matching up of image and reality, and as such
they were invariably highly charged emotionally. But they also provided
opportunities for cultural transfer, and in both directions. The familiar ex-
ilic trope of cultures preserved in diaspora and then transferred back to the
homeland was active here too.
It is now common enough for Circassians in Turkey to return to the
Caucasus. But, as Jade Cemre Erciyes notes in an admirable study, return
can mean many things.14 There is a spectrum: occasional visits, ‘virtual re-
14 Jade Cemre Erciyes, Return Migration to the Caucasus: The Adyge-Abkhaz Dias-
pora(s), Transnationalism and Life after Return (PhD Diss., University of Sussex,
Brighton, 2014).
29
electric bass guitar. And as the latter instrument suggests, there is a similar
fluidity as to style. Circassian ethno-pop is now a recognized genre (with
notable stars such as the Canadian-Circassian singer Aslan Gotov and the
well-known chanteuse Svetlana Kushu), and it is not uncommon for Circas-
sian concerts to host star singers and accordionists with synthesized back-
ing in which the clappers have been replaced by the familiar reproduction
drum kit. Provided the music is recognizably an emblem, a badge, of Cir-
cassian identity – and the ubiquity of a specific accordion style is key here
– many genres are possible, and may even be juxtaposed at a single event.
One Turkish doctoral student at Erciyes University described to me a so-
called Uzunyayla Fellowship Night in Kayseri, in which a music and dance
ensemble from Ankara shared the platform with a well-known Circassian
pop singer. And in an interesting twist on the politics of language, the sing-
er included some Turkish popular songs in Circassian translation.
My final remarks are about return. For long enough the native soil –
the idea of it – exerted a powerful influence in absentia on Turkish Circas-
sians, with children encouraged to ‘turn their faces towards the Caucasus’
from the earliest age. But the reality of a Caucasian homeland, known only
to their distant ancestors, remained inaccessible. Then, with the break-up
of the Soviet Union, this too began to change. Again the associations were
instrumental, acting as important channels to the ancestral homeland,
working as facilitators for the repatriation committees, arranging cultural
exchanges and excursions, and hosting visiting academics and tour groups
from Nalchik or Maikop. Initially membership of a music or dance ensem-
ble was one of the easiest and most practical ways for young people to vis-
it both the North Caucasus and Abkhazia. These early returns had some-
thing of a pilgrimage character (the Mecca analogy was often made). They
were testing grounds for the matching up of image and reality, and as such
they were invariably highly charged emotionally. But they also provided
opportunities for cultural transfer, and in both directions. The familiar ex-
ilic trope of cultures preserved in diaspora and then transferred back to the
homeland was active here too.
It is now common enough for Circassians in Turkey to return to the
Caucasus. But, as Jade Cemre Erciyes notes in an admirable study, return
can mean many things.14 There is a spectrum: occasional visits, ‘virtual re-
14 Jade Cemre Erciyes, Return Migration to the Caucasus: The Adyge-Abkhaz Dias-
pora(s), Transnationalism and Life after Return (PhD Diss., University of Sussex,
Brighton, 2014).
29
