Category: minorities
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Alev ve Kül: From the Ashes of a Collection
A look at an obscure short Turkish novel published in Bulgaria in 1927, and what we can learn about its author, context, and potential importance for broader literary history.
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Flipping pages: an Overview of Kurdish Periodical Culture
An look at the British Library’s Kurdish periodical collection, with a contextualization of the holdings, and copious links to help those interested find research about periodicals in the various Kurdish languages and dialects.
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Märjani and Lebib: The Struggles of a Jurist and his Lonely Publisher
A close look at a biography of Shihabetdin Märjani written in Tatar and published in Turkey in the 1960s, with particular attention paid to socio-political context and language.
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Kitab, nom, kinige, or bichik: the more the merrier!
A look at the various words for “book” in the Turkic languages, their roots, and their appearance across media and time.
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Publishing the Diaspora: North Caucasian Periodicals in Turkey
An exploration of periodicals published by the North Caucasian diaspora in Turkey over the latter half of the 20th century, with a particular view towards activist networks and expressions of identity.
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Not Your Stereotype: Laz Written Expression in Turkey
A few months ago, I wrote about a small-run personal history of the town of Azakh written in the Azakheni dialect of Arabic. In the preamble, I mentioned that there are a whole host of ethnicities resident in Turkey lacking official recognition or support for cultural autonomy. Despite such administrative inertia, the names and customs […]
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Kushta/Istanbul
As Jews, we often operate in two overlapping, but distinct cultural realms. Growing up in Canada, my sisters and many of my friends had two names: an English one and a Hebrew one. I was lucky to have a name that worked in both languages, but those who did have two monikers were none […]
From Altay to Yughur 