Diaspora and identity: ?tepresh? a field of expression for the multi cultural identity of the crimean tatars living in Eskişehir and İstanbul.

This work focuses on `tepresh? rituels which are held by Crimean Tatars in Eskişehir / Karakaya and İstanbul / Çatalca. Tepresh rituels both held in Eskişehir and İstanbul were viewed by the method of participant observation from 2002 to 2008, and in those field works it is observed that Eskişehir and İstanbul Tatars differentiate from one another by some performances within the tepreshes. This work assumes that diaspora experience and `imaginations? formed according to that experience are the causes of the different cultural identities of Crimean Tatars.In some cases, according to related community, diaspora becomes a formation in which imagination mechanisms are activated. Imaginations especially focus on the axis of homeland which is far away and in addition to those imaginations, contact with resettled community and its quality constitute important mechanisms in forming cultural identity of diasporic community. Consequently that reformed cultural identity occurs as an ordinary result of diasporic process.In spatial context, diasporic identity is built between the contradiction of `here? and `there?. Thus `homeland? and `resettlement location? are the vital dynamics of diasporic identity. In this context diasporic identities contain multiple identity structure. Crimean Tatars too build up their cultural identity between homeland Crimea and Turkey without prefering one to the other. Calling themselves `Crimean Turks?, as it happens in Turkey, is the most important indication of this.This work explores how Crimean Tatars reflect their cultural identity to their music in tepresh, going beyond timbres, working in the axis of concepts and behaviours producing those timbres. Within these limits, the work aims to improve current meaning of diasporic identity.