Mustafa Adil Özder’in Birinci Dünya Savaşı Hicret Anıları ve Muhacirlik Destanı
Mustafa Adi̇L Özder’s Memoirs of World War I Migration and the Epic of Immigration

Summary/Abstract: Epics written in verse form in our folk literature tell historical and social facts about important events that left deep traces in social life. In our minstrel literature, epics written in verse form and whose performers are known are generally documents about events that took place in recent history. Immigration, which is another name for the drama that occurred due to the Russian occupation; It means leaving home and embarking on a relentless journey to an unknown destination, hungry, thirsty and afraid. After the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877- 78, also known as the War of 93, and the First World War in 1914, migration to the west of Anatolia became mandatory after the occupation of the Eastern Black Sea region by the Russians. As a result of the withdrawal of the Russians, the persecution of the Armenians continued until February 1921. The poet, who experienced these troubles with his family when he was a child, described his memories in his work titled "Some Documents-Memories-Pictures Related to the History of Artvin and Its Region", which he wrote on a typewriter in 1974. In this study, the "Immigration Epic", consisting of 40 quatrains, was combined with the memories he wrote and examined. In "Emigration Epic", one of Özder's first poems describing the migration he experienced in his childhood, the troubled migration from April 6, 1915 to Artvin Demirkent to Sungurlu in 1920, and the subsequent return to homeland on October 15, 1920, are described in detail. Despite the difficult geographical conditions and economic difficulties, the villagers of Demirkent handed over their young people who had reached military age to the Ottoman army with drums and pipes after they were made halal; Women also provided logistical support by knitting socks and sewing panties and shirts to the militia forces fighting against the Armenian oppression that continued after the migration.

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