Muhajir Resettlement and Women's Memory of the Russo-Ottoman War 1877 – 1878
Muhajir Resettlement and Women's Memory of the Russo-Ottoman War 1877 – 1878

Summary/Abstract: The authors deal with the oral transfer of memory of women migrated to Ottoman Empire (Muhajir movement) after the annexation of Muslim Ajara by the Russian Empire in 1878. The research is based on study trip in former ethnical territories, which nowadays are part of Turkey, and in the inner provinces of Turkey. From generation to generation, people from different parts of Georgia and outside of Georgia were passing the stories about the "great resettlement". The interviewed women point to the Russian oppression as a main reason for the migration. Some women blame the two rival Empires for the misfortune of the Georgians. Particularly interesting was the information about the secret writing system ‘dedabruli’ created by the Georgian women to safeguard the secrecy of the correspondence under the Ottoman rule. The information about Georgian women serving as nurses or collecting money and cloths to support the Georgian soldiers during the war has also been provided.

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