Pomakların izinde : Bir Türkleştirme hikayesi

This research observes the traces of the identity strategies adopted by the Pomaks in the acculturation process based on field research by revealing the Turkification and assimilation policies carried out on the Pomaks, an ethnolinguistic minority, with a spatial and historical context during the General Inspectorate of Thrace period between 1934 and 1948/1952. The aim of the study is to reveal the identity strategies of Pomaks living in Kırklareli/Pehlivanköy and Çanakkale/Biga, taking into account the variable structure of identity, based on the migration movements that are the beginning of the identification inherent in Pomak identity. Within the study, a historical background is created through the reasons for the beginning of the acculturation process inherent in the Pomak identity and the migration movements of the Pomaks, which started with the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878 and continued in the one-party period. Subsequently, the perception of the Pomak identity in the eyes of the state was revealed and the Turkification policies carried out on an ethnolinguistic minority, Pomaks, during the General Inspectorate of Thrace period in the Turkish nation-state, were examined by conducting archival research and literature review methods. In this part, which constitutes the essence of the study, a map that sheds light on the present day and an idealized village project on rural planning are revealed. In the last chapter of the study, based on the map showing the settlements of the Pomaks drawn by the General Inspectorate of Thrace, in order to observe the dynamics of Pomak identity in the acculturation process and the identity strategies of Pomaks, field research, semi-directive and group interviews were carried out in Biga district, Çanakkale and two villages connected to Biga, and in Kırklareli, Pehlivanköy district center and a village connected to the district. The first claim that this study presents with a spatial comparative perspective is that the Pomaks of Biga, which the General Inspectorate of Thrace could not reach within the possibilities of the period related to spatial factors and where the Turkification policies and the integration process were interrupted, have integrated into society with self-identification and, as a consequence, preserving their identity as a result of the withdrawal strategy, then to open up to the exterior by valuing and asserting their identity, and other intermediate strategies. However, the other claim of the study is that the Pomaks of Pehlivanköy continue to melt into the Turkish identity as a result of their adoption of assimilation as an external identity strategy in addition to the intermediate strategies they have developed.