STORIES OF CHARDAKINTS

Here comes Father

By origin, I am a Chechen from the Kurchaloi teip. My ancestors moved to Turkey in the mid-19th century, during the mass exodus of Chechens and Ingush from Chechnya, after the Russian-Caucasian war. On the way to the Ottoman Empire, my father lost many of his relatives and companions. When they finally reached Turkish soil, and then nature turned out to be unkind to them - due to the unusual climate: too hot summer and very wet winter, most of the settlers were wiped out by an epidemic of malaria and fever.

Having buried his deceased relatives in the village of Pazarzhik, where the family had stayed as soon as they arrived from Chechnya, my grandfather left him along with the survivors. Later they moved to where the village of Chardak was created. Of ours, only my father and his sister remained.

Chardak is no different from an ordinary Chechen village. But it’s especially surprising how the climate suits us: it is as close as possible to the mountainous Caucasian climate.

In our village, old things that were once brought by the first settlers from Daimohk are still preserved. They are a precious relic for us, and of course, they somehow connect us with our homeland.

We believe that this war will end very soon and that we will someday return to Chechnya. Our grandfathers and fathers lived with this dream and died with it. We live this dream too.

Dilek Ozmen

I am from the Khachiroi teip, the Modpharoev family. My grandfather's name was Ahmed, he was the son of Ali. They all lived in Khachiroye in the village of Modpharoi. As my father said, my grandfather had a twin, Mohmad, but he died while they were living there. In 1890, during the Russian-Ottoman war, my grandfather, already thirty years old, moved to Turkey. After long wanderings across Turkish soil, he finally settled on the outskirts of Istanbul. But he didn't live here long. Being a rural man, my grandfather left the capital, saying: “There is not even room here to tie a cow.”

My grandfather was a typical long-lived mountaineer: he died at the age of 111...

Most of the residents of our village kept all the Chechen adats until the seventies. But then Turkish culture began to penetrate more and more quickly among the Chechens, and significant assimilation took place. This is mainly due to the migration of Chechen youth from the village to big cities for study, and some with their entire families left the village, leaving for the cities. The Chechen population has declined sharply. Many mixed families arose. Unfortunately, today you rarely meet Chechens who know their native language and who are under forty-five years old. However, except for the language, everything can be said to be the same - lovzarg, sinkeram, Chechen cuisine...

I am twenty years old, and I must admit, I hardly speak the Chechen language, although I myself am a student at the Faculty of Philology - my specialty is Japanese language and literature. This is due to the fact that we lived in the city and studied at a Turkish school. And we only went to our village for the summer holidays.

I sometimes ask myself: how Chechen am I? I imagine the high-mountain village of Modpkharoy - this indescribable beauty, the rustle of mountain forests, the sound of a stream on the stones, the sonorous voice of an accordion and a pondar boy, and I firmly answer: what are the words “Daimokhk”, “Nokhchiycho” or “Nokhcho” for every Chechen in any part of the world , – they mean the same for me. I am immensely in love with this small mountainous country and its people! I believe that the war will end and Chechnya will rise, I believe that we - its children, scattered by fate in different parts of the world - will gather there and live under the peaceful Chechen sky. I wish this for all of us!

Filiz Aydin

I am a Chechen from the Ersinoi teip. My name is Filiz - it means sprout (sintar in Turkish). I’ll tell you right away: the absolute majority of Chechens here have Turkish names, since the law (although they want to repeal it) prohibits calling children by foreign names. I work at the cultural center "Caucasus".

My grandfather and his parents moved to Turkey when he was only six years old. My great-grandfather's name was Top-polat.

From my father’s stories, I know that my ancestors were from Shali, as I said above, from the Ersina teip. According to the grandfather’s stories, the family experienced many difficulties both on the way to the Ottoman Empire and after settling here. He said that the biggest problem was finding a partner - both for Chechen girls and boys. After all, everyone was related, there were few strangers, and even those were more and more married or married. Therefore, they began to marry Turks if there were not enough of their own. So, for example, my mother is Turkish, but she speaks Chechen better than me - her grandmother is also Chechen. My grandfather was eager to return to his homeland until his last days; they say he did not forget about it for a minute...

Where we live now, there are several villages that the Turks call Chechen, although now there are few Chechens left there. But in the city and near Sivas there are quite a lot of Chechens and other people from the Caucasus.

I now understand the Chechen language perfectly, although I’m not very good at speaking it. I know how to cook all our national dishes: I like to make zhizhig-galnash, akhar-khudar, khingalsh. All our girls dance Nokhchi Khalhar excellently. Our parents tried to pass on to us, their children, if not all, then at least some of the customs and adats. They themselves did not grow up in their homeland, and of course, Turkish culture left a very noticeable imprint on them, and even more so on us. But I didn’t consider myself Turkish for a minute - I’m Chechen and I’m proud of it.

I have always dreamed of going to Chechnya, looking at those lands, especially seeing Shali. There was a time when my friend and I even saved money to go there. I don’t know why, but I’m drawn there, although, to be honest, I probably couldn’t live there. It’s just that, as those who came from Chechnya say, the way of life there is completely different.

I believe that the war will soon end and the sacrifices made for the peace and tranquility of Chechnya will not be in vain.

I would like to meet the Ersinoevites and other Chechens.