That day

So that day has come... 21st of may... The memorial day for the exile of Caucasians from their homeland. Some people oppose to the use of this term "exile". They say it was a chosen migration. They say the Muslims migrated. They say people went for better harvest. Some say the elite sold or convinced or took their people... Some say that it was not an exile but a deportation with agreement of parties... Some argue they had choices... Whatever they say, today the day that marks the end of the Russio-Caucasus wars, that is 21st of May, which was a day of celebration for Tsarist Russia of victory in the Caucasus, is a day of remembrance for the people who died in this event of the 19th century.
The family histories, and records of official archives, say that people were put on ships. The ships were overloaded, and many sank on the way. Many people died of hunger and diseases on the ships and after arrival.
The territories shown to migrants were not suitable for settlement, many more died in the next months.
The last couple of decades, the remembrance day, 21st of may, has been the most important event of all political-cultural organizations of the Diaspora. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the memorial day was also a big event in Abkhazia. Last year they showed on TV how people travel from all regions, in buses, and how crowded it was. The president of the time -Bagrat Shinkuba, the writer of the famous book THE LAST OF THE DEPORTED- was making a speech about the exile.
Just yesterday, an early returnee was telling me how crowded it would be and how they would throw flowers with candles to the sea from a ship, and even on the most wavy day the flowers would float away to Black Sea...
Three years ago when I came, the event was just a flower putting ceremony on the morning of the 31st. It was very interesting to learn that, in Abkhazia, it was suggested during the war by president Ardzynba, that it should be on the 31st. The Adyghe brothers will do their ceremonies in their hometowns on the 21st, and they would all come to Abkhazia and on the 31st it would be a bigger ceremony all together. Besides, Abkhaz were exiled 13 years later than Adyghe. So it was decided and memorial was on the 31st. The first year I was in Abkhazia, I wanted to memorize Shish Nanni and read it, but they told me nobody makes here such events.
The second year, Naala did organized one. All alone, I mean without any government or institutional support, just with her friends, and with an economic support by Aquafon, she arranged the first memorial day. It was sometime in June, but it did not matter. A group of people came. We made the tailors sew 20 red-green-white akhtarphas, like the Abkhaz flag, within 4 hours! Lana Copua was reading a poem, Nona and a few others were singing Shish Nanni. Some people made speeches, Bagrat Shinkuba's grandson Lavan was there; Hayri Kutarba was there. Kamma had a big Abkhaz flag. Later when we went to drink something at than new Apra Cafe, from all the tables they sent us champaignes since we were talking in Abkhaz (trying) and we had aktharphas and flags. At the event, we were promised to be supported by the Repatraition Committee in the coming year.
The second year, ofcourse, they were hesitant to keep their promises. But in the end, we organized with Lana Agyrba an exhibition called Abkhazia and Diaspora: Understanding each other... We also shot a short symbolic movie on exile and return... The event was big. More than a thousand people and both TVs came to shoot. We had the sound system, screen, the first and only concert of the chorus apsadgyl (homeland) with Ivana Shamba, we had the white aktarphas (again 20), we had the torches prepared by Syndukh Ergun and the youth, again Lana Copua reading a poem, and many others... The event was very spectecular... We even made a protest for not building of a statue in the memorial. The events were supported by Repatriation Committee, Committee of Sports and Youth, and even Ministery for Foreign Affairs.
This year Ozlem and Naala, organized again with the Committee of Sports and Youth but in the last minute, the government opposed the ceremony to be made on the 21st. The SMS were sent by both mobile phone companies, and a few hours later messages came saying it will be on the 31st. However, without any state representative, without any TVs to record, without any sound system, without half of the planned speakers, the youth did it again. There were only about 100 people to watch. But they were there all from heart. That was good. There were new aktarphas, mainly black but also green and white. I do not know the number since I was not in the event organization. (I had been away for a while, and the last two weeks I have a terrible throat infection which keeps me back from taking place in aything!) Naala was in a traditional dress so was Dijin who was playing the flute (an Adyghe from Turkey who lived in Nalchik for over 15 years). Ivan Bakij, our famous singer who returned from Jordan was wearing an akhtarpha over his shoulders as he played his guitar. Taha Gecba was dressed all in black, as he sang songs in Adyghe. Little Ozan was again reading a poem in Abkhazian. There were short speeches by some attendees. The youth walked with torches again and made the nart fire! No matter what people say. No matter what people fear. No matter how, no matter what, no matter why... If some people believe in what they do: the result is unforgettable... This is how that day was in Abkhazia... For those who wish to know... (For those who wish to see more photos press here)
Oh and I forgot to tell, there was the Yearly Dance Contest Adyzh and the view was spectecular as they walked through the city on that day...

From dance

Fieldwork in Abkhazia (2)

While organizing the fieldwork I had many problems to deal with. Since I do not have a good assistant who can organize the people and transport. At the NGO and in the first project I had Martha to help me with everything, some of you who read this blog frequently will remember she recently got married and is living happily in Moscow for the time being. I am looking for her return not that because she will be a great partner in research but also she is a great friend, making your day all the time with her comforting smile. Anyway, when she was in Abkhazia, she comfortably organized people and transport and all I had to tell was when and where to. I realized how much work she had to do when I had to call and recall all my team to fix a suitable group for a region. What can be so hard about is, I want to take all team members to places they have never been. Abkhazia is a small country but local people who are not involved in works that force them to travel around, do not visit any place except for weddings or funerals. And social events means responsibilities as I mentioned before. So many of them do not even realize the historical remains or natural beatuies they pass by. When we are in the field, I want to see these things and I want the team to see them. It should be something more than work, more than running from one respondent to another, it should be something they enjoy doing. I try to take them to places they have never been which is a hell of a job since they are not always available for work and I dont want them to loose that chance to see there.
I want to make sure fieldwork gives them a lot of memories, unforgettable ones, some laugh, some good taste of food if possible. In our first fieldwork, once we were trying to finish a village and it was after lunch time and all our food was finished and everybody was very hungry. I had thought we would be in the city by than and be in a restaurant so I had food enough only for breakfast. From one of the houses that we were making an interview, a man came with fresh home made cheese, freshly baked cheesebread (achoaf) and acika (peppersalt). We wanted to reject it but at the same time very much wanted to eat it. So I was -as traditions required- rejecting nicely. And the host just put it on the seat of the car. When he saw we were too many, he called his wife to bring more and we were presented some more bread. When we were eating it I just thought this is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. That taste has been unforgettable to all the team, just like it has been to me. And I know that when this story is retold in the field `it is time to eat something!`.
Since now I know the conditions, I make orders on the night before so that we will have enough food in the rural areas. In many parts of Abkhazia, you wont have a chance to find a restaurant and even a small village shop to buy a drink or bread. Villages are self sustained in most senses and only some durables are sold in the village shops (if there is any). Many people go for shopping once a month to the cities or town centres, or they ask for relatives working in the city to bring in things when they come to the village in the weekends. Still, in all the houses you will be offered what ever they have, for sure a cup of coffee (not instant one), very likely a piece of homemade cheese, homegrown hazelnuts and/or fruits, some chocolate and ofcourse homemade wine or chacha (double destilled vodka with about 70 % alcohol). I leave the choice to eat or drink to the team, except alcohol. Since I know it will never end, if they start traditional drink and pray ceremony and I would not like my interviewers to be drunk. So they are strictly forbidden. However, once during the beneficiary assessment, we were in a village where each house is located far from one another. I left the male interviewer alone and asked him to go to three houses nearby (still he had to walk 20 minutes) and and wait for our return in the last one. Though we had the car, we had to travel 40 minutes drive to reach one of the houses. And by the time we returned to pick him, he was in the last house for over an hour and the phones were not wroking in this village. So they made him drink (and he had no other option) so he was all drunk and complaining to me saying it was my fault to leave him there, though I understood and was not angry to him. Somethings are unavoidable.
The climate in Abkhazia, is also a problem for fieldworkers. You may start the day with a warm sun and end soaked up in heavy rain. Many times I had to build up a system to dry wet questionnaires at the back of the car. I wished to buy special trasnparent pancho rain coats for the team but never found something as I wished. Still after many times being soaked in the field, or freezing because of sudden weather change, I have to remind the team to take umbrellas and coats with them in all seasons. Besides, the young people in Abkhazia are really caring for how they look and sometimes I laugh at their choices of clothing for rural fieldwork. They wear white shoes, and ofcourse stop many times to clean them from the mud they had to step on while entering a house or manure they stepped on just by mistake. Short skirts are also funny since they do not have the chance to move comfortably though clothing is not a problem for village elderly as I had seen in rural Turkey. There girls should really care what they wear.
Security is not an issue in fieldwork in Abkhazia, though I care very much about it. What I mean is, we have never been treated badly or threatened in anyhow. OfcourseI do not count a drunk elderly wishing to have a photo with one of the girls hugging her, or a mentally ill kid following us all through the village.
I am sure I have a lot more to say about fieldwork, but I guess all this will be enough to understand how we do it in Abkhazia. If you are interested in knowing about ethical issues or more about our projects you can visit our website.
It is time for abkhaziadiary to be back to daily issues.

Fieldwork in Abkhazia

I applied to attend the meeting of the World Abkhaz-Abaza People's Assembly and said I will stay only for three days. At the airport, to see the joy and excitement of all those people, made me change my mind and I said, I will stay for a week together with the long term group. IT was a good decision. On the second and last day of the meeting, the had prepared a dinner. There I was walking around the tables and stopped by a table full of young people where joyful laughs was heard. I asked if anyone spoke English, and found out these people were the employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia and all spoke English. One of them was very kind and friendly and asked me to the table. I explained to him that I was a sociologist and I would like to know his opinion and feelings about the event. (Than my Russian was really poor, I had no practice at all so I could only communicate with English speakers). This young boy, with glowing look in his eyes, told me how he was happy to see his people smiling, first time since the war. He told me how it was important that Abkhaz should return to their homeland... I said I was interested very much in the topic of return... Than my focus was more on Adygeya though... He said we need sociologists in Abkhazia and I said "will you help me if I come?". "Anything I can do..." Before I get up from that table (a few hours later) I promised him I will come back to stay and work on the topic of return migration/repatriation and any other topic that will be usefull for them. He on the other hand promised to help me with the language school at the university, accommodation, connections and job if I wish. He did everything he could as he promised. Wrote for me many letters, made many calls. Even one year after I came to Abkhazia, I told I will take the job he offered me a year ago, and I am still working in that centre... That boy was Maxim Gunjia, my first friend in Abkhazia, now the Minister of Foriegn Affairs, back than Vice Minister. A person who can be happy with a smile on his people's face. A person who can keep his promises. I was lucky to know him. Because thanks to him, I came to Abkhazia.
Anyway, working with migrant communities is always hard. In the case of Abkhazia, where people have "many others" and always feel the sense of "being the other" it was also hard. There has been moments that I wanted to give up on this topic and leave or live but away from the return migrants. However, there has been always people motivating me for the study of this topic, as many as there were people trying to de-motivate me.
Still my first country wide field work experience came with a position I took in an NGO in 2008. They asked me to do a survey and I said there is no sociology department and I need to educate young people so that what we do will be of good quality.
I organized 4 parallel trainings on field research methodology, with more than 40 people but only 15 of them could complete the training. The second group was 4 months later and just before I was starting the field work on the countrywide political participation and pre-election survey. Though I was a stranger in the field, and my team was unexperienced, we managed to do 1130 Questionnaire interviews- anonym (since the topic was sensitive) in all over Abkhazia. I used the voting regions (36 of them but the last three was combined into 1 since I did not have the full list) as stratas and the team did at least 30 interviews with random people in all stratas.
Anyway, less than a year after the first country wide survey, I established a firm for Social and Market Research (research.bazala.net) and realized a second wide survey- a beneficiary asessment about a development project. The third project came just after that, and we have just recently finished the fieldwork since we had many reasons to delay our work, including elections in December (and pre-election period) which was stressfull though our topic was non political; New Year Celebrations that last about a month (Christmas, New Year, Old New Year, New-old New year, etc....) when people were all drunk; the exams in the university, since many of the team members are students at the university; holiday after the exams, since we all needed a rest; than the loss of Abkhazia's first president Ardzynba...
However, it was hard to work due to these big events, in general it is hard to find the right day and time for interviewing in Abkhazia. Every friday, saturday and sunday are filled with marriages. Many days people are busy with funerals and memorial feasts of their extended families and friends' families. Weekdays, people go to the cities to do some jobs they need to, to shop, and even to work and come back "home" in the village for weekends.
Most team members are enrolled at the university in the weekdays. So we had to work in the weekends which was hard due to social responsibilities of possible respondents. But we managed, by leaving the city as early as 8-8.30 and arriving to the villages just when people are finishing their breakfasts and before they leave their houses.
To be continued

Fieldwork

What I most like about doing research is traveling around. The first country I have traveled from Turkey was Azerbaijan. I traveled there for a field work on internet and democratization. I did in-depth interviews and worked from early morning to late at night since I had to fit to the schedules of my informants, and most of the time they were talking so much and sending me to some other people. My host was a nice lady, a russian language teacher, azeri nationalist, hard working, open minded person. She told me on the weekend-- you cant work everyday! You have a right to rest and you should visit holy places when you travel to some new place. It is good and a necessity for your psychology. So she took me to the museum, zoroaster temple, a mosque... and to a wedding of her relative. I danced with the people and the bride at the wedding. And with joy sent a message to my boss (I was working as a researcher at a center in the university) with a picture of me dancing. Saying it has been a great opprtunity and thanking her... I returned to Ankara and was sent to United Kingdom, to do research on the networking of Turkish speaking community by the Institute where I was writing my masters. My boss told me-- you wont find a wedding to dance in the UK. The first days we spent in Oxfordand when we went to London to do the field work, the first night we went to Cemevi (religous center of Alevis) and encountered a circumcision feast and I danced with the people and took a picture to send to my boss. I wrote to her-- you can never know what you will come across in the field.
So after this I was more comfortable, more open minded, and enjoyed every minute of field work travels. Because I knew-- anyhting could happen and it will be informative for my work and good feeling for my soul.
My third field work outside of Turkey was to Romania, to understand the determining factors of identity of the Crimean Tatars. I came across the tennis team of my university (who I very well knew since I spent a lot of time at the courts) in a bus stop on the way to Costanza. There I swam in the Blacksea and not much enjoyed the feeling of saltless brownish-blackish dirty water.
From there I travelled to Budapest, Vienna, and Prag as a backpacker. I Budapest I spent time with the most intersting group of people, all from different places and danced for more than 6 hours in a bar. To Vienna I arrived on a sunday and everywhere was closed. I did not like it much there and I moved to Prag. There I did not enjoy much the houses and details since I had heard about them so much and after this root it was kind of boring. However, I enjoyed a variety of modern art exhibitions and I dream of organizing one in Abkhazia in a near future. When I arrived to Stutgart, Germany- I had only one Euro left in my pocket with which I called my aunt and asked her to pick me up at the train station.
I traveled to Poland from Germany. Before attending a conference in Krakow, I visited my best friend from university in Szcezcin, who was visiting her family at the time. At the conference in Krakow, I met a very interesting researcher from Israel and we walked in Zakopane mountains.
Later, I traveled for the first time to the Caucasus- to Adyghea. Stayed there for 3 months, enjoyed real good friendships as well as many troubles but managed to write my dissertation with the help of sisters* and big brother* there (*very distant cousins in European senses) .
I saw all Adyghea in two months while I was doing research.
After a year I quitted my job, than finished my masters and decided to travel the world for three months. My friend suggested I start my travel from Abkhazia. And I said --why not! And that is how my life changed.
coming soon: field work in Abkhazia

Yes, today I cried. And I am not shamed of it...

Today, I cried. Most of the day I had been crying. Sometimes I tried to hold myself. I could not. The reason was not the ongoing effect of the death of Abkhazia's hero and symbol of independence...
The reason was not the jobs, reports and proposals I got to finish...
The reason was not the village heads that promised to call, or meet but didn't to give me the questionnaires they were supposed to fill in...
The reason was not the death of an elderly woman I knew, who had lost her son just a few weeks back...
It was a book. It was a memoir of an Abkhaz war veteran from Turkey, Bekir Ashba- I am cold (Üşüyorum)... There are so many thing to tell about it. But I would not like to destroy the feeling of it. Oh yes, it creates such a feeling that I could not leave it aside except for the minutes I looked for handkerchiefs and except for the moment I could not see anything because of my wet eyes. Don't think of this book as a book that agitates, that tries to make you cry. It is just the pure feelings and memories of a man- no I am sorry-- of a boy, who has lived SELF-REALIZATION of his Abkhaz identity, and Caucasian origins; who has become a pro-return Cherkess; who has lived the reality of WAR, death of friends; conflicts with father, family, elderly and friends; the breaking of his heart when he could not be in both with his family and with his country at once...
I could finish reading this book today. But I had to stop. To breath in the realities of the time... I stopped reading. Because I know what will come next, just with the earned victory, more loss, more pain...
Today I cried. Not for something that happened. Not for something that can happen. I cried for today I am living here in Abkhazia, free, comfortable, with hope and expectations, thanks to people like those in that memoir, who put their hearts on independence and freedom of their homeland. Yes, I cried. and I am not shamed of it.

Sometimes words are not enough

I know that there is a need to make a connection with my previous post before going on with ordinary life. Though life is running, I can not say it is back to normal. And it wont be so easy to be back to normal...
Just two days ago we were in Muk village doing some interviews on agriculture with the villagers. The first house, I entered with my interviewer Mramza, who had not that much of an experience (she is working at the university and never found the chance).
So we were met by the bride of the house in the garden and than invited inside. The father of the house greeted us şnfront of the house. The first thing he said "I am very sorry but I have drank, i am coming from a funeral. And I have been very sad lately. You know we have lost our great leader, hero Ardzynba just recently. And I saw you both at the funeral, it was on TV. But everyone was there..." " Yes everyone was there" responded Mramza... We entered and she started the interview. Than, in the middle a guest arrived and the topic again returned to Ardzynba. The old man's words were just like what a friend had told me on the day he died: "I feel like I have lost a son". Similar remembrance words were repeated in many of the houses we visited. Ardzynba was a family member. And he will stay that way in people's memories...
I got a lot of things to tell about the field work. But today still is not the right time. Besides they are doing some repairs in electric power station and we have constant balckouts... Maybe tomorrow the sun will help me find the right words. Oh yes, the weather is warm here. Spring has arrived here already.

Its raining and raining...

It's been raining nearly non-stop for the last two days... The sky was so dark, and the cold was so itchy, and the streets were so silent that it felt like the mood of the people is reflected by the nature. I know that its the season for such sudden weather changes and long rains. Still, one can not stop thinking how our lives are so much connected with the nature and that (super)natural events take place when in life, there has been a sudden turn of events.
Like a Kontradieff cycle, there are ups-and-downs in the nature, so in the political systems, so in culture, so in demography and so in our lives. We born, grow, get old and die. Sometimes the cycle is broken by external factors. In the case of important political leaders, the cycle can break at the peek. For Ardzynba, that's what has happened. His life cycle has come to an end. He no more breaths among us. But his political cycle- that's something at its peek and will not start getting down as long as the Abkhaz nation lives free and independent in their own land.
So this site is all about daily life in Abkhazia. At some points I tried to tell what has been going on with official words of the state institutions, some other time I gave links to pictures. Now, I am trying to tell the past, the moment and the future- all at once, and all through a single character-V. Ardzynba. It is not easy.
What made him so important? That part you can all find in a simple search. But in short, I can say he was the leader of Abkhazia who has lead the people and the country at a very hard time-war. Just in 1992-1993 took place the war, that brought the independence, freedom, honor, besides pain, loss, barocade, suffering to Abkhaz people. And he was there. Strong. Logical. Realistic. Courageous. Dignified. Elegant. Productive. Perseptive. Historian. Academician. Thinker. Hero. Leader.
Abkhaz nation had long existed. So the political history of this nation. But he, connected the past to the present, brother to the brother, nation to the state, state to the future.
In the political participation survey we did just a year ago, despite his heavy illness some people mentioned him as the ideal leader and politician of the time. If we had asked all times, the rate would be higher for sure... So he was out of politics but he was there, till the last breath he took, thinking of his nation, proud of what the Abkhaz youth has turned into, honored to see the developments of the country, aware of the ongoing process of of change and the role of each citizen in this process. And so did the people know, he was thinking of them...
An eastern belief says the breath you are going to take in life is limited and fixed in your life time. He has breathed in such a way that his last breath lives in everything he has created.
I wrote before. I never had the chance to meet him. Luckily I could read some of his writings, both political and academic. I see myself lucky to be here at this very moment, when I can see in the eyes of every woman and man who he is.
So let me tell you how the news of his death reached us. "Is it true?" was the call I got from a repatriant boy... "They are saying Ardzynba has passed away. Is it true". I did not know the answer. So I called a friend. Asked her "Is it true?" She said "unfortunately." So I called someone else.... That's how we all learned about it. Than they put his photos on the screen in AT and Abaza TV. Than it was all about him.
I went to work and nobody seemed to know anything at all. How, when, where were the repeated questions and everybody was telling their own mind. Nobody had any answers.
Than the news came. He died in cold morning, in Moscow where he was taking treatment for his chronic illness.
The next morning they made a ceremony in Moscow.
Than there was a rumor saying his body will arrive to Abkhazia at 6 o'clock in the evening. The people started to gather at the Abkhazia's not working airport long before that time. It was such a heavy rain and seemed to increase as people got excited when somebody said they had seen a light or heard a voice. But it was only the lightening and the wind that they saw and hear...
At 9, the plane landed. The longest minutes seemed the ones when the plane circled the ground after landing. Abkhazia's current president S. Bagapsh had arrived a while ago and was waiting among the people. The plane parked and suddenly people were all walking towards the plane.

From Ardzynba

There were about three thousand people, who were all wet both because of crying and the rains. And there was the proud Abkhaz army who carried his coffin out of the plane.

From Ardzynba

He left the airport at 9.40... On the way home there were people standing on both sides of the road. Standing still and silent. Some were holding their cry but their eyes couldn't.
At the airport were children and the elderly women and men and abkhaz and adyghe and ubykh and families and friends and political allies and political oppositions and war veterans and military and many many more...
Nearly all went to his house and it was huge crowd that had been waiting. And people rushed to say their fairwells to their hero...

From Ardzynba

A line of people was climbing the stairs to his flat on the third floor of an appartment, infront of which we had been washed by chaimpaign, opened by his wife- also a historian- on the day of the recognition.

From celebrations

So here we were. In his house. This was not the meeting we had dreamed of. But we met at last. And I am honored for that...

Today, he is being visited by people from all over Abkhazia. They say the official farewell ceremony and the funeral will be on tuesday. Till than our street (oh yes, we live in the same street) will be crowded by silent people, the only voice heard will be that of the rain, and that of the hold down sob of the people...