PDF Dosyası - Ankara Üniversitesi Kitaplar Veritabanı

Immigration continued until the end of the 1920s, when Finland hadbeen an independent country for more than ten years. At that time theynumbered approximately six hundred. In Finland the region of the capitalcity of Helsinki inclusive of the tovvn of Jârvenpââ, the industrial city ofTampere 150 kilometres north of Helsinki as vvell as Viipuri (Vyborg)and Terijoki in the south-eastern part of the country vvere their principalplaces of settlement.The first imam (mullah) vvas appointed by the Russian army in Helsinkiin 1836; during the Russian regime the military imams vvere religiousleaders of the Tatar civilians too. Originally the prayer house vvas locatedin the residence of the imam. In 1871 a Müslim graveyard donatedby the Finnish authorities vvas offîcially opened in Helsinsi.Finland gained political independence in 1917. A lavv ensuring generalfreedom of religion vvas promulgated in 1922, and three years later,on April 25, 1925, the Islamic Congregatiorı in Finland vvas established.For fifty years Finland vvas the only Western country offîcially to acknovvledgethe rights of a Müslim community; in 1974 Belgium vvas thefirst to follovv the Finnish example. In 1958-1961 the islam House vvasbuilt by the Congregation in Helsinki (Fredrikinkatu 33). This centre ofthe Tatars in Finland houses a mosque, an assembly hail, a kitchen, kindergarten,library, secretariate and several offıce rooms.I mentioned the city of Tampere as one of the centres of the Tatarcommunity-150 km north of Helsinki. The follovving description of thiscommunity -the northernmost Turk one in the vvorld- is based on a numberof articles dealing vvith the Tatars in Finland vvritten by Mr. HarryHalen and Mr. Antero Leitzinger (see the bibliography) as vvell as on anintervievv given to me at the beginning of this year by tvvo leading personsin the Tatar congregation in Tampere, viz. Mr. esad Baibulat andMr. Âkram Neuman. Mr. Baibulat has been the Chairman of the IslamicCongregation in Tampere for the last 15 years; before his retirement hevvas the financial manager of a vvell-knovvn clothing factory in Tampere.Mr. Neuman, a member of the congregation board, served as the salesmanager of the leading shoe factory in the same city. Both of them vvereborn in Tampere, in 1925 and 1926, resp. I am very grateful to these gentlemenfor their hospitality and the very pleasant hours of conversationvvith them.From the middle of the last century on, Tampere vvas a rapidly grovvingcity vvhere the textile industry played an important role; a Russiangarrison too vvas located in city. The first Tatars seem to have settled inTampere in the 1880s. As in Finland in general, the forefathers of the Tatarsof Tampere came from the Aktuk, Uraz and other villages of the Sergachregion in the province of Nizhniy Novgorod; some of them had beenliving earlier in other cities in Finland, vvhile others came directly fromRussia.725