Turkey’s Abkhaz diaspora dreams of home

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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"We would like to see this place through our own eyes, a place where our language is spoken," Nalan Uran, a middle-aged Mezit homemaker, told the EurasiaNet Web site as she held a black-and-white photograph of her great-grandfather in the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi.

That is a desire the de facto Abkhaz government would like to encourage. Promoting the return of diaspora members is seen as one way to strengthen efforts to secure the territory's independence from Georgia.

Thousands of Abkhaz, known as makhadjiri, fled Abkhazia for Turkey in the mid-19th century after resisting the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. Today, Turkey is home to the world's largest Abkhaz diaspora community. Size estimates vary Ğ diaspora leaders say 1 million people, but Abkhaz estimate a range from 150,000 to 500,000.

Their value for the de facto government in Sukhumi lies more in their interest in Abkhazia and their financial influence. Turkey's diaspora community reportedly remains a potential key source of outside investment, a long-term priority for de facto leader Sergei Bagapsh's administration. Campaigning for Turkish recognition of Abkhazia's independence fulfills another role.

The catch lies in getting those diaspora who return home to stay. Since the end of the 1992-1993 war with Georgia, only about 3,500 diaspora members have returned to live permanently in Abkhazia, according to Anzor Mukba, head of the territory's Committee on Repatriation. "Not everyone wants to return to a place where a war might start tomorrow," Mukba said.

The financial incentives are limited. The committee pays for housing for those members of the diaspora who wish to return and have no property within Abkhazia. It also pays for any school-related expenses and for a 150-guest wedding. Those who can demonstrate that they are of Abkhaz origin are additionally eligible to receive Abkhaz passports. To cover the expenses, the de facto government takes a 2 percent cut from each paycheck issued in Abkhazia.

"I don’t expect a mass migration [from Turkey]. A mass migration can only happen if people feel they are badly off where they are, and they don't feel badly off in Turkey," said Mukba.

Some members of the diaspora community concede as much. "Turkey opened their arms to us and we really appreciate that," said Turgut Cilo, the ethnic Abkhaz owner of a transport company in İnegöl. "We've always been conscious of our culture, but we've tied our destiny to this country."

Investment lets these Abkhaz balance both identities, they say. Emphasis reportedly falls on tourism and agriculture, yet details are scant.

Abkhaz diaspora entrepreneurs in Turkey say that now is a great time to invest in Abkhazia. Georgian pressure on Turkey to block any such investment has declined since the August 2008 war with Russia, they said. "The situation has changed," said Irfan Argun, chairman of the Istanbul-based Caucasian-Abkhazian Solidarity Committee, a diaspora group that was established to support separatist Abkhaz during the war with Georgia in the early 1990s. "The Turkish attitude is getting softer."

Disappointment

Immediate hopes focus on establishing a direct plane or boat link between Turkey's Black Sea port of Trabzon and Abkhazia. Members of the diaspora wanting to visit their homeland must currently travel via the Russian city of Sochi to reach Abkhazia, a lengthy route that requires a Russian visa. Travel via Georgia is not considered an option.

Some diaspora members who visit are disappointed to find that reality does not live up to their preconceived notions. Dilapidated buildings and a sketchy phone system perplex one middle-aged woman from Ankara. "It wasn't what I expected," she said.

Seated at a diaspora-owned cafe in downtown Sukhumi, a group of ethnic Abkhaz from Turkey recently complained that Russian border guards demanded a $5 payment for each visitor to Abkhazia not on a pre-approved list. "They're setting the conditions and pushing hard. They're asking where we're going in Abkhazia, why, when," said Aslan Yavuz Sir, a young foreign policy analyst from Ankara. The impression left on some diaspora travelers is that "the Russians don't want us to come back," Sir said.

Skepticism over Moscow's intentions among some diaspora members conflicts with the views of many Abkhaz in Abkhazia, where Moscow's support is seen as an essential, if not always beloved, buffer against a belligerent Georgia. Diaspora leaders in Turkey maintain that pragmatism alone drives Abkhaz ties with Russia. "The Russia thing didn't come out of sincere love or affection," said the Caucasian-Abkhazian Solidarity Committee's Argun. "The negative policies of the world states pushed Abkhazia closer to Russia." Transportation company owner Cilo agrees. Russia's recognition of Abkhaz independence "we do not see as a gracious act, but as something to pay its debt from the past," he said.

But for Turkey's Abkhaz diaspora, that past includes no Soviet experience. Some say they had no information about Abkhazia until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The ignorance worked both ways. On a 1991 trip to Abkhazia, local Abkhaz "looked at us like aliens," Cilo recalled with a chuckle. More than 17 years on, the reference points can still be different. Abkhazia's tendency to see the present in terms of the past strikes one Sukhumi hotel owner who migrated from Istanbul in 2001. "The war [with Georgia] ended 15 years ago. We need to strengthen [our people's] psychology," said Talik Khuatish.