ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 1 I preferred to use Crimean Tatars, even though that in documents with the

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1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has had a long period of germination. My professors at Bucharest University, Faculty of Geography, where I began my work with a study about the Crimean Tatar ethnic minority offered support, guidance and enthusiasm, and then a doctoral dissertation in History with the University of Bucharest. After my years of doctoral study, I proved unhesitating enthusiasm and interest in language and identity processes about Crimean Tatars of Dobruja 1. Diatcu Elena, then manager at Kriterion Publishing House, was among the first persons I discussed my interest in Crimean Tatars ethnic minority. She guided me with tips on literature about nationalism and ethnic politics published in Romania. She taught me intellectual rigour and the ability to express warmth and empathy. I benefited from the intellectual and material resources of the libraries of the Bucharest University and Istanbul University. I never was the beneficiary of a generous grant from a Social 1 I preferred to use Crimean Tatars, even though that in documents with the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (The Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister s Office) they are named Kırım ahalisi and the Nogays are named Nogay kabilesi because along side with the Crimeans there are many Nogays in Dobruja, even though the Romanian census never had a separate entrence for Nogays. 13

2 Scientific Research Centre or Foundation, and I supported my financial fieldwork, which allowed me to conduct this research. My first introducing to Central Asia's history and culture was a conference trip in domain, which effectively plugged me to steppe cultures and allowed me a closer look into the multi-ethnic climate of ex-soviet countries and Central Asia countries. After a few years, a conference trip in Kamlık Republic, Russian Federation allowed me to learn about Turkic peoples and languages and to develop my research focus in identity politics. Virginia Barghiel and Cristina Prelipceanu, Assoc. Prof., Ph.D., with the University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, The Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication together with Elena Diatcu, former chief editor with Kriterion Publishing House offered sustained intellectual and emotional support and encouragement all through these years, together with incisive and very constructive critique. They read sections of this manuscript at very short notice. Sincerely thanks to my former Erasmus student, Serdar Göktaş, today Ph.D. student in History, who has shown much sensitivity and understanding for demands this book made on my time and attention. I am grateful to Kemal Gurulkan, researcher with the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (The Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister s Office), who has been an invaluable friend and colleague. He read my initial drafts and helped me to find my way through a maze of ideas and information. He has been very generous in the time and attention he gave to this manuscript, despite being under enormous pressure of his own studies. 14

3 INTRODUCTION 1. Argument and structure The Crimean Tatars of Romania have along and tragic history of displacement that makes their case unique. In Romania we never had studied about their historical migration or about the cruel deportation of Many of us don t know anything about their homeland - Crimea and the history of their refuge, which started during the tsarist Russia, in the end of the 18th century. Most of our ancestors runaway from Crimean peninsula and were forced to migrate towards the Ottoman lands. In the 20th century, under the influence of nationalism, even though they were far away from Crimea, the Crimean Tatars of Romania started to see the peninsula as homeland, and themselves as a nation linked to its land. It was during the Second World War that the Crimean Tatars of Romania fought for the attachment to Crimea as a national homeland that allowed them to sustain their identity. The history of the Crimean Tatars of Romania was shaped by their experience of migration and nationalism, and by these phenomena s role in their life. This work is focused on the Crimean Tatars experience who, run away from the tsarist Russia after annexation and how that process shaped the identity of this 15

4 un-studied ethnic-minority group. Also, I try to describe the historical process that influenced the transformation of this traditional Muslim ethnic-minority into a secular community with a modern sense of identity and different sense of attachment to homeland. Their history is one of the most unique examples in the Eastern Europe history. This work provides insight the ways in which an Eastern European un-studied Muslim ethnic-minority have developed its modern identity under Christian-Orthodox church and communist rule. From transformed mosque into a villa in Constanta County (see Enclosure no. 1), to the destroyed villages in Constanta County (see Enclosure no. 2) is obvious that this Muslim ethnic-minority is increasingly active in its efforts to establish its ethnic identity. The case of the Crimean Tatars of Romania and their historical experience could be an example of understanding the issues related to identity, ethnic minority and nationalism for the Muslim ethnic minorities of Eastern Europe who have to live in-between Orthodox and Muslim worlds. In their case, I have to underline their uprooting history and similarities with the tragic history of other minority groups, such as the Meskhetian Turks. There are communities of Crimean Tatars not only in Romania, but also in Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and United States, and they are united in their emotional understanding of their homeland - the Crimean peninsula. During my talks with my colleagues and friends from Crimea who really lived and survived the exile and then came back to Crimea, I realized that it was the concept of the lost homeland that made our identity so strong and well defined. 16

5 However, this work is a socio-historical study of the small ethnic minority living in Dobruja, the easternmost region of today s Romania, extending from the northward course of the Danube to the shores of the Black Sea. Some pages of this work cover their remarkable history related to inner Central Asia, nomadic Turkic tribes, Ottoman lands and Balkans. I emphasized the time when the Crimean Khanate and the Crimean people, who lived there, were the rulers of the Dasht-i-Kipchak, and their state was the most modern state of the Eastern Europe. In order to fully understand the Crimean Tatars of Romania and their day-to-day life is necessary to follow the ways in which community s tragic history of migration and separation from the lost homeland influenced its ethnic identity. 2. Key questions and arguments Addressing some key questions is the focus of this book. One of the key questions of the first chapter are: Where did the Turkic peoples come from, and when? Who were the Turks who made up the population of the Crimean khanate? What kind of nation were the Crimean Tatars when the visible transcripts told us the history of their transformation from refugees to Romanian citizens after the Romanization process. These diverse but interconnected questions are the subject of the first and second chapter of this book. These questions proved to be vital for the third chapter by assessing the Crimean Tatars community s history and their life in Romania, as well as for understanding their efforts to shape a distinctly Eurasian identity, seek integration into a European framework, redefine 17

6 and deepen their close links with Crimea, and to selectively separate them self from the other ethnic minorities in the region About this book It is a great pleasure to write this volume devoted to the Crimean Tatars of Dobruja, their origins, homeland, history and day-to-day life, as I am a native Crimean Tatar born in Dobruja, Romania. This book attempts to highlight several aspects about social history of the Crimean Tatars of Dobruja, political events experienced by masses of refugees after the annexation (1783), the Crimean Wars ( ) and the Ottoman-Russian War of based on documents with the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (The Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister s Office) Istanbul and Arhivele Naționale Istorice Centrale (National Central Historical Archives) Bucharest. This book renders a part of the process of settlement of the Crimean Tatars after the Ottoman-Russian War of in their new homeland Dobruja, an Ottoman province based on newspapers of time found with Biblioteca Județeană Constanța Ioan N. Roman (County Library of Constanta Ioan N. Roman ). This research has tended to focus on the Crimean Tatars of Dobruja, their social life and challenges rather than on historical and political environment, but these indicators could not be separated. The aim of my book is to show the influence of historical and political environment on social relations and educational background that over time has influenced changes that occurred inside the community.

7 4. Methods related to this research Methods applied today in micro-and macro-historical study will certainly make Balkan social history richer, more complete, and more true to life experience of people of various nationalities and cultures who settled on the Balkans in the past and those who live there today. Such a new Balkan social history will also enrich and help reshape the history of Eastern Europe, as well as of the whole European continent. This book focuses on the social and political events involved during and after the wars, trying not to overshadow the aspects of diplomacy from all parts involved in. This research is based both on quantitative and qualitative variables of some documents, which are part of the heritage of the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (The Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister s Office) and the Romanian National Archives. As for the archival documents, Fond Ministerul de Interne, Diviziunea Administrativă (Fund Ministry of Interior, Administrative Division) from Romanian National Archives, diplomatic correspondence, collection of HariciyeNezareti, CevdetDahiliye, SadaretDefterleri and Irade collections of the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives have been used during this work. Moreover, Albina Carpaților, Farul Constanței, Gazeta Dobrogei, and Analele Dobrogei are among the main periodicals contemporaneous to the after Ottoman- Russian War of Publications and periodicals are owned by Constanța County Library Ioan N. Roman. Research methods used with this book are: thematic analysis, quantitative and qualitative analysis, content analysis, comparative analysis of archive sources. 19