172
Council, which would consist of 20 Russian, 20 non-Russian and 20 personally
invited delegates. Related with non-Russian populations, the Center proposed
plebiscite on independence following the liberation of Russia from the Bolshevik
control.
444
This kind of a formation naturally disturbed and provoked each and every
non-Russian emigres of the Russia. Therefore, the Center suffered from the outset
due to the unwillingness of Caucasian and other non-Russian groups to cooperate
with it.
In this period the North Caucasians had, unfortunately, no consolidated
political structure. The group consisting mainly of ‘new emigres’, under the
leadership of Abdurrahman Avtorkhanov, established the Caucasian National-
Democratic Party and began to function in cooperation with the Russian groups
and took part in the Center. Avtorkhanov, through his periodical Svobodny Kavkaz,
was propagating the policies of the Center.
445
The ‘old or earlier emigres’, on the other hand strongly refused to work
together with the Russian groups. This group, despite their close connections to the
Americans evaluated the Center and the Russians as the enemy. These Russian
organizations, according to this group, were unsuitable allies, because they were
struggling for an indivisible Russia. Moreover, ‘newcomers’ who were working
together with these groups, according to the ‘olds’, were the ‘usurpers’, former
communists and ‘Nazi Collaborators. The old emigrants were functioning within
the North Caucasian National Committee that was founded by Ahmet Nabi
444
A. Magoma, “Muvaffakiyetsiz Bir Deneme Daha,” 9.
445
This periodical was published in the years 1951-53. From the old emigres only Vassan Girey
Jabagi contributed regularly. All the other leading names were ‘the newcomers’.
173
Magoma and Ali Khan Kantemir. This group produced the periodicals of United
Caucasus
446
and Kafkasya
447
. On the initiative of Kantemir and Magoma, the North
Caucasians, with the aim of analyzing the events and developments of the period,
organized a Congress in Munich in September 1951 and expelled Avtorkhanov
from the Committee. This was the real breaking point for the North Caucasian
emigres. From then on they continued their struggle, ‘the North Caucasian struggle
for the unification and independence’ separately. While the old group, together
with other Caucasian groups working within the Caucasian Independence
Committee that was established in December 1952, the youngsters organized their
own structure together with the Russian groups.
By the late 1950s, in correlation with the American-Soviet relations the
activities of émigré North Caucasians in search of a unity and the independence
diminished day by day. Moreover the natural removal of the prominent leaders of
the struggle forced the remnants to change their policies and the style of the
struggle. Nevertheless, these devoted fighters left behind them a tradition of
struggle for the North Caucasians. In the volumes of printed material, they
scrutinized each and every aspects of North Caucasian society and life and they
constituted extensive blueprint for the Unified North Caucasian State.
446
Kantemir and Magoma published this periodical in Munich in Russian, Turkish, and English.
447
Kantemir, Barasbi Baytugan and Balo Bilatti published Kafkasya (Kaukasus) again in Munich.
The first issue was published in August 1951. Later by the No. 18-19 published in January-February
1953, as an official organ of the Caucasian Independence Committee, it took the name Birleşik
Kafkasya (Der Kaukasus) or The United Caucasus
174
CHAPTER IV
THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION AND REEMERGENCE
OF UNITY
After the Second World War, the Mountaineers’ activities in Europe
became negligible. The activities of the North Caucasians, primarily the
Circassians in Turkey, with the participation of some exiles from Europe
revitalised slowly.
During the early years of the new Turkish Republic, for domestic
448
and
international
449
reasons, the North Caucasians could not lead an independence
struggle in Turkey.
450
By the beginning of multi-party democracy and after the
establishment of Democratic Party rule, the activities of the North Caucasians were
enhanced in the form of organizations established, and in periodicals and books
published.
451
Nevertheless the ideology and purpose of these new North Caucasian
448
Atatürk’s and Inönü’s state building policies under the one party system did not allow any of the
other nationalism or nationalist activity. Thus a kind of an assimilation policy was carried out. Any
talk of cultural peculiarity was barred, as separatism that ran counter to the whole thrust of Turkish
policy which was to build a unified nation. Moreover, the policy of secularization of new Turkish
society undercut the very reason North Caucasians had originally taken refuge in the Ottoman
Empire. At last close relations between the leaders of the North Caucasians and the Ittihad Party of
Ottoman period made the leaders of new State more hesitant with the activities of the North
Caucasians.
449
In that period Bolshevik or Soviet Russia was emerged as the sole friendly partner for Turkey.
Because of the existence of serious problems with the other bordering neighbours, Turkey did not
want to have a problem with Soviet Union and thus did not allow the irredentist activities of the
North Caucasians in Turkey.
450
Before the 2
nd
World War the North Caucasian publications in exile were forbidden to enter
Turkey by governmental decrees. Without making any difference, the Promethean Gortsy Kavkaza
and Severnyi Kavkaz and Bammat’s Kavkaz, didn’t allow spreading in Turkey. For the decrees see
Başbakalık Cumhuriyet Arşivi, (BCA), 030.18.01. Later, even Ali Kahn Kantemir expelled and lost
his Turkish citizenship in 1938. See BCA, 030.18.01
451
For the emergence and the history of the North Caucasian organizations and the activity in
Turkey see Erol Taymaz, “Kuzey Kafkas Dernekleri,” and Alexandre Toumarkine, “Kafkas ve
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