International Northern Caucasus Symposium

Location: Ali Emiri Hall, Fatih Municipality, Istanbul TURKEY

The symposium will bring together specialists on the Caucasus from a range of disciplines in order to create an academic climate of exchange and cooperation in this highly contested field.The symposium will be purely academic without any political agenda. Energy policy and economic issues will not be covered in this symposium.
The focus will be on issues that connect the different ethnic groups and peoples of the North Caucasus rather than on what separates them. The purpose is to overcome micro-nationalisms which have come to manifest themselves as regional particularism in the scholarly field.
The organizers are looking forward to original and challenging approaches which may be related to the following broader topics:
1. Northern Caucasus as a regional entity (including history of Northern Caucasus, geography and political structure, ethnic and linguistic makeup)
2. Social and cultural life (i.e. adat, chabze), religious life
3. Caucasian-Turkish relations and interdependencies (historical ties, migrations, recent revival of Caucasian-Turkish relations)
4. Areas of ethnic, religious and cultural conflict and possible solutions

During the second day, a half-day workshop and a round table meeting will be held to discuss areas of conflict in the region as well as prospectives for peace and tranquility.

Please note that unfortunately there is no funding available from the side of the organizers.
Papers can be held in Turkish, English and Russian. Please send your abstracts no later than Friday evening May 20th to yogurlu@iticu.edu.tr
Contributions will be published in a separate conference volume.

Tentative Program

1. First Session: Introduction to Caucasus

a. Caucasus as a whole

b. History of North Caucasus

c. Introduction to geographical and political partition

d. Ethnic structure and Languages

2. Second Session: Socio-Cultural and Religious Life

a. Social and Cultural Life (Customs/Xabze)

b. Religious Life

3. Third Session: Relations and ties between North Caucasus and Turkey

a. Historical Bonds

b. Migrations from Caucasus

c. Re–established ties after 1989

4. Fourth Session:

Areas of ethnic, cultural and religious conflicts in Caucasus and Proposed Solutions

Round Table Meeting of Experts: Regionally based Rational and Humanitarian Solutions for the future of the North Caucasus. (Chechnya, Daghestan,Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkesia, Adygea, Ossetia, Abkhazia)

Email: yogurlu@iticu.edu.tr