Kazak Refugees In Turkey: A Study Of Cultural Persistence And Social Change
by Ingvar Syanber /
1990 / English / PDF
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In the mid-1950s about 1800 Kazak refugees settled in Turkey. They had left Xinjiang in the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s due to the political changes in northwestern China. They have developed into an ethno-community of about 5000 living in Turkey including some working abroad in western Europe and USA. In the new environment the former nomads have been transformed into sedentary artisans and farmers. Economic changes during the decades in Turkey have resulted in the migration of the Kazak refugees from their former rural settlements in Anatolia to Istanbul. They have gathered in segregated neighbourhoods. This book discusses how, over three decades, the former Kazak nomads have become successful immigrant artisans in bustling Istanbul. With detailed ethnographic descriptions concerning rituals, customs and food habits, the book analyzes how the Kazak identity persists, while their social organization and cultural patterns are changing. The book also provides further understanding of multi-cultural Turkey.
