Microsoft Word mitatcelikpaladokto doc

 
 
 
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  
 
 
 

---