REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

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Remembrance in Time
The main message of Ahmed Dogan and MRF activists which provoked my research
states that the resistance of Turkish population, guided by its leader was the main factor
to overthrow communist regime. In a seminal 1995 essay, Alison Landsberg discusses the
implications of what she calls 'prosthetic memory' - memories which do not come from a
person's live experience in any strict sense. Although memory might always have been
prosthetic”, she writes, "the mass media - technologies which structure and circumscribe
experience - bring the texture and contours of prosthetic memory into dramatic relief." In
particular, Landsberg contends, cinema has for roughly a century had the capacity to
generate experiences and memories of its own - "memories which become experiences
that film consumers both possess and feel possessed by." (Landsberg 2000: 191). The
essential assumption of prosthetic memory as a theoretical construct is that reality always
has been mediated, as a consensus upheld through narrative and information cultures - or
indeed through the very structure of language itself.
Taking these considerations into account, I would like to present following arguments in
this paper: Politics of (re)shaping groups memories had resulted in different hidden
histories in terms of Halbwachs (1984:55) which articulate between Turks, born before
and after early 80s. Deep rupture in communication between generations emerged.
Different memories shape different identities in young and older generations. Those
generations often use communist times as a point of reference.
Despite Bulgarian 1989 was branded by the exodus of Turks during the summer there are
not so many researches concerning the problems related to so call “renaissance process”
(1984-1989), Turkish resistance and the events which follow (Stoyanov 1998;
Karamihova 2000; Karamihova 200a; Grouev, M. A. Kalyonski. 2008; Todorova;
Marushiakova&Popov) . The first to write on so called “renaissance process” were close
related to socialist state security (Gotcheva 1991). Though the first academic results are
taken into account in writing this article.
Methods
The determined objects of research demand elaboration of several research methods
aimed to collect and analyze relevant data. The research started from classical
Ethnological methods – structured and semi-structured interviews, participant
observations, free conversations and observations between 1988 and 2012 during
fieldworks held in different towns and villages populated by Turks. There were conducted
more than 100 interviews with informants at age from 19 to 79. Male and female
informants are balanced in number. The educational status of informants predominantly is
8 school degree (minor educational status), but about 2% of informants hold University
degree. The economical status of informants is almost equal – low monthly income (100-
150 Euros) despite their job positions (or retirement). Almost all of them own houses and
land and produce food to support their households. Participant observation was held
during different local fests. The aim of those observations was to monitor interactions
between citizens from different ethnic and religious groups, to register group identity
manifestations in terms of symbols, music and location, eating together or separately; to
measure how the group borders function after the years of tensions and small scale
conflicts.
To collect data on MRF messages were used media and internet based sources.