IDENTITY ISSUES OF THE GEORGIAN DIASPORA IN KURGAN

Abstract

After Russian-Turkish war in the end of 19th century, some part of Muslim population of Georgians, residing on this territory, decided to immigrate to Ottoman land.      The purpose of the research was studying and identifying the ethnic identity of Georgian Diaspora in Korgan, their economic and cultural interests and determine the possibilities of increasing their contacts with historical homeland based on the above. The research was conducted within the frames of the students’ project at the department of social and political sciences of I. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.    The research was held in several stages. At the first stage the research dealt with ethnic identity of Georgian population based on the following aspects: the level of language maintenance, historical memory, the knowledge of the history of respondents’ own family names and ethnic belonging. One important aspect was also their knowledge about Georgia.                At the second stage the researchers   attempted to identify the views of ethnic Georgians concerning the most relevant way to develop links   with Georgia. In this case, we took into consideration the respondent’s profession and status, and the interview was carried out in the relevant direction.      As for the third stage, researchers attempted to find out what the most relevant way to develop contacts between Korgan population and Georgia, defining what problems or perspectives existed in either direction.