THOSE WHO CANN’T HOLD ONTO THEİR OWN STORİES ON THE MİGRATİON ROUTE: THE EXAMPLE OF THE NOVEL ‘UMUT PERONU’

Abstract

The establishment of relations between Turkey and Germany, driven by trade, education, and similar reasons, dates back to the 1760s*. A special regulation issued by the Ottomans for Germans in 1857 formalized this emerging social proximity, facilitating a mutual labor and migration relationship between the two countries, contingent on the condition that migrants were farmers or artisans (Mortan and Sarfati, 2011: 14). While the influx of workers may not have begun with Ahmed Talib, who was sent to Germany as an apprentice in 1917, the step taken under those circumstances was highly significant. Ahmed’s journey learning shoemaking with three German youths, leaving his master in 1923, selling his household goods to open a small shop, and becoming engaged to a German woman, which cost him his Turkish citizenship marks the beginning of an extraordinary story. Although Ahmed applied for German citizenship and his application was rejected following the rise of the National Socialists to power, leaving him stateless. He was eventually granted East German citizenship in 1961 but died in 1983 without ever fulfilling his deep desire to see Istanbul. A similar story is that of Rebia Başokçu, who employed 60 tailors. Arriving in Berlin from Paris with only 7 Franks in her pocket, it opened first tailor’s shop, closely observed German society, and became an influential figure in fashion. Noting that, ‘women stopped wearing hats and stockings for economy due to the continuous devaluation of the German currency, and men reused old top hats at home to avoid buying new felt hats’ (Çelikbudak, 2015: 227), Başokçu would later be remembered as one of 44 prominent Turks. Herr President, Prof. Theodor Heuss’s visiting to Turkey in 1957, his invitation of 150 young people to Germany for vocational training and the subsequent decision of their interns at the Ford Plant in Cologne (1958), who are referred as ‘Heuss Turks’ and have opted for retirement instead of repatriation in the 1990, were phenomena of sociological nature.  Similarly, the acceptance of Prof. Fritz Baade’s project by the German Foreign Ministry to bring skilled individuals from Turkey and provide them with ‘vocational and language training’ marked a foundational step.

* On April 2, 1761, a Treaty of Friendship, Navigation, and Commerce was signed between Prussia and the Ottoman Empire. Although this treaty is considered the beginning of official relations, the interaction is more notably remembered for the campaign of Frederick Barbarossa, the first German Emperor, who passed through Konya (Battle of Iconium, 1190) on his way to Jerusalem during the Third Crusade (1189-1192).