Çerkez Birliği Ve Onun Yayin Organi “İttihad Gazetesi” (Kahire)
Caucasian Newspaper in the Late -19th Century Cairo : ‘İttihad Gazetesi’

Summary/Abstract: The ‘Society of the Circassian Unity’ established in October 1899 in British-occupied Egypt by a group of antagonists of the Abdülhamid II’s absolutist regime, set itself as an object, on the one hand, spreading the ideas of Ottoman constitutional-liberal (Young Turk) movement among the North Caucasian (Circassian) diaspora population of the Middle East, and, on the other hand, consolidating the national identity of its fellow-countrymen through their ethno-cultural enlightenment. The society’s periodical – ‘İttihad Gazetesi’ – focused its attention on criticism of the Porte’s policies regarding the North Caucasian immigrants and on appraisal of perspectives of their ‘national’ advance in the Ottoman domains. Despite very short duration of the period of activities of both the society and the newspaper, they witnessed certain level of maturity of new ethnic intelligentsia formed in diaspora that was seeking to articulate the specific interests of Middle Eastern Circassians within the framework of the doctrine of Ottomanism. The article examines the conditions of formation, ideological attitudes and major activities of the first legal association of the North Caucasian diaspora in the Middle East – the ‘Society of the Circassian Unity’, established in Cairo in 1899. The reasons of its failure to implement its program objectives are analyzed.

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