CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Rossman-Kiss, Aron |
|---|---|
| Title | A Mobile Homeland? Trajectories Of Syrian Circassian Repatriates To Abkhazia |
| Summary | The thesis explores the trajectory of a group of Circassian Syrian repatriates to Abkhazia, a largely unrecognised republic in the Caucasus. Uprooted from their homeland by Russian imperial expansion in the 19th century, their ancestors fled to the Golan Heights before being displaced again in 1967. Offered refuge from the Syrian War by the Abkhaz Committee for Repatriation, around five hundred members of the diaspora made their way to the shores of the Black Sea. Combining ethnographic fieldwork, oral history and insights from a wide range of disciplines, the work retraces this singular diasporic trajectory. How can their present-day encounter with a quasi-state trouble our perspective on state-building and citizenship? What does their historical trajectory reveal about the intersection between indigeneity and diaspora? Neither reducible to eager builders of a late nation-state nor to modern-day refugees or transnational migrants, their case evades readymade categorisations. Casting them as inter-imperial actors, my work charts their journey across a wide diaspora space defined by overlooked mobilities, shifting boundaries and impossible homelands. In highlighting the way their journey unsettles prevailing perspectives on citizenship, belonging and indigeneity, I hope the work can contribute to a wider interdisciplinary and methodological effort that seeks to recognise a variety of modernities, globalisations and transnational identities. Keywords: Displacement, diaspora, indigeneity, citizenship, state-building |
| Supervisor | Violeta, Zentai |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/rossman-kiss_aron.pdf |
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