Captivity, Exile, Freedom in the Memoirs of Crimean Turkish Authors: Volga Kızıl Akarken and Hatıralarda Cengiz Dağcı

Abstract

While Crimea experienced a difficult period with Soviet policies in the 20th century, this process was also reflected in literary works. Sharing scenes from his own life in his book Hatıralarda Cengiz Dağcı (1998), Dağcı remembers and reminds us of being torn away from his homeland as a Crimean Turk. Another name that represents the suffering of the Crimean Turks with his life is Şevki Bektöre. Volga Kızıl Akarken (1965), can be read as an epitome of the treatment of nationalist intellectuals who were deemed dangerous. This work, in which Bektöre conveys his experiences during a long period of captivity and exile, approaches narrative as if to relieve the reader from the weight of a horrific book of testimonies. However, once the historical process behind the text is remembered, the truths that brought the work into being are revealed again. These texts, inspired by the lives of Dağcı and Bektöre, essentially present traces of the collective consciousness of an entire nation. In both works, the idea of freedom gains value while addressing the issue of exile and captivity, which is a common practice of Soviet domination. Ultimately, the suffering of people torn from their homeland and the wounds inflicted by captivity become stages in understanding the importance of freedom. In this study, two memoirs that are the products of the same historical process were evaluated together and the reflections of human suffering in the texts were emphasized.