Displacement and the Politics of Identity: Reterritorialization of Ahıska Turk identity in the United States

Abstract

Today, most anthropologists seem to agree that world views based on the fixed category identity-place, such as the ideology of the nation-state, wrongly assume that identities are inescapable destinies, naturally predetermined by kinship ties, ethnicity, locality, and shared culture. For refugees, the complexity of their experiences in their countries of origin, and in response to their diaspora itself, add further complexities to the process of ethnic identity formation. Ahıska Turks, a stateless community, who has experienced multiple displacements, violent persecution, and ongoing exile since 1944, claim to preserve their ethnic identity during exile years in different geographic locations through a strong link of place with memory, loss, and nostalgia. This article aims to investigate whether the Ahıska Turk identity is de-territorialized and reterritorialized through adapting the routines of the host culture in everyday life in the midst of all the efforts of achieving an economically and socially self-sufficient family and community lives in the United States.