Ossetians in Turkey

The main reasons for the resettlement of Ossetians to Turkey are considered to be several factors:

• 1) The Caucasian War (1785-1864);
• 2) the orientation of the Ossetian Muslims to single-faith Turkey;
• 3) agitation from Turkey to mujajirism ;
• 4) low land .

In the 19th century, thousands of Muslim Ossetians from North Ossetia migrated to Turkey, having founded settlements there. Among the immigrants were representatives of both ethnodialectic groups of the North Ossetian people - the Iron and Digor. The Irons were represented mainly by people from Tagaura society , and to a lesser extent Kurtatinsky, Alagir and Tursovsky societies, and the inhabitants of the flat Muslim villages created in previous decades - Zilgi , Shanaevo (now Brut ), Zamankul , Tulatovo (now Beslan ), Khumalag predominated , Vladimirskoye (now Old Batakyurt ) and others. And from the mountain villages of the Iron people the most noticeable number of Muhajirs were given by Dargavs , Saniba , Koban ). The Digor part of the North Ossetian settlers was mainly made up of residents of the village of Magometanovsky (now Chikola ), as well as Tuganovsky (now Dur-Dur ), Karadzhaevsky (now Khaznidon), Karagach and others. Religiously, almost all migrants were undoubtedly Sunni Muslims ^{[1 ]} .

Turkey made great efforts to resettle highlanders (including Ossetians) on its territory, thereby it sought to colonize Muhajirs with their sparsely populated provinces, military strategic points for a possible war with Russia (that is, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 ) ^[2]

Ossetians began to move to Turkey in the late 50s of the XIX century. The organizer of the first resettlement of 1859 was the Digor feudal lord Abisalov. Other feudal lords left with him along with subservient peasants . It is noteworthy that the factor stimulating resettlement here was clan relations (that is, one relative left - another relative went after him). ^[2] In 1860, the Digor and Kurtatin feudal lords ( Aldars Tuganovs and Akhmet Tsalikov) organized the next resettlement (two thousand Ossetians left). However, many returned because they did not see the "paradise on earth" promised by Turkey. Some died on the way to the Ottoman Empire .

The abolition of serfdom in 1861 indirectly stimulated the relocation. Classification was developed in Digoria and Tagauria , as well as the position of Islam. Unlike Digorians and Tagaurts, tribal democracy and Christianity were preserved in Kurtatia and Alagir . Thus, the Digorian Badelates and Tagaura, who had serfs and slaves at their disposal, had something to lose. ^[3]

In 1865, the third relocation took place under the leadership of General Musa Kundukhov . The number of Ossetians who went along with Kundukhov ranges from one hundred to several hundred.

Ossetians, who returned to Ossetia in 1860 , tried to dissuade their compatriots from going to Turkey. Therefore, Gutsir Shanaev was sent there in order to see the life of the settlers on the spot and see if it really is so good there, as Kundukhov draws. In his letter from Turkey, Shanaev warned the Ossetians against resettlement, urging them not to believe false promises. Shanaev managed to repeatedly reduce the number of people wishing to move out together with Kundukhov.

Another critic of the Ossetian resettlement was the famous Ossetian writer Inal Kanukov , a migrant who returned at an early age with his parents to Ossetia. In his essay, Highland Migrants, he wrote:

According to various estimates, the Ossetian population in Turkey is from 20 thousand ^{[3] [5]} to 36 thousand people. ^[6] Now most Ossetians live in large cities: Ankara , Istanbul and Izmir . ^[7]

Ossetians of Turkey still retain their Ossetian identity. So, on behalf of the Turkish Ossetians, congratulations were sent to President Eduard Kokoity and the people of Ossetia on the recognition of the independence of South Ossetia . ^[eight]

In 1989, the Alan Cultural Charitable Foundation was established. Currently, it is headed by Remzi Kanukati (Remzi Yildirim). ^{[8] [9]} In Ankara and Istanbul, the foundation has opened courses for children to learn the Ossetian language .

• Sarykamysh ^[10] ( Kars )
• Bozat ^[10] ( Kars )
• Poirazly ^[11] ( Yozgat ).

In conditions of isolation from the main area of ​​language distribution, the Ossetian language in Turkey has acquired a number of interesting features. So the synthetic future tense with the suffix -zi began to be used as the Turkish aorist II, and complex future constructions of the Feninag d « n “see” type are used as the future tense (instead of fendzynæn ). Nouns with numerals appear in the nominative case (as in Turkish): fonds bon (instead of fonds bon , as in Caucasian Ossetian).

According to some reports, the number of Ossetian surnames in Turkey is more than 100. Thus, Turkish Ossetians communicate with each other by surname in Ossetian pronunciation, however, in official documents they use “ousted” surnames. The Turkish analogue of the surname Kodzyrtæ (Kozyrev) = Octar , Zoloitæ (Zoloevs) = Aidovan , Dzasokhtæ (Dzasokhovs) = Kılıj , Rubaytæ (Rubaevs) = Ezbay , Tsæhiltæ = Alpay , etc. ^[12]

• Kundukhov, Musa Alkhasovich - Russian Major General, Turkish Division General.

• Kunduh, Bekir-Sami - First Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey (May 3, 1920 - May 8, 1921).

• Ossetians
• Muhajirism

• The site of the cultural and charity foundation "Alan" (tour.)
• Poyrazlikoyu.net - Site of the Ossetian village of Poyrazli (Turkey) ( tur .)
• History and fate of Caucasian migrants to Turkey (50s – 70s of the 19th century)
• Ossetians from Turkey and Syria arrived in North Ossetia (video: plot of North Ossetian television)