Abecaz

The Abkhaz presence in Turkey has an origin marked by pain: between the 1810s and 1860s, Russian expansion into the Caucasus caused the mass expulsion of Muslim Abkhaz from their homeland, who sought refuge in the domains of the Ottoman Empire. This forced migration scattered entire families across Turkish territory, where they had to start life over amid a culture and language different from their own.

As generations passed, the descendants of these refugees became increasingly integrated into Turkish society, adopting its customs and, in many cases, leaving the original language behind. Thus, the same people who kept the Orthodox tradition alive in Abkhazia was, in Turkey, shaped by the culture and faith predominant in the country that welcomed them.

In Turkey, the Abkhaz today live largely integrated into Turkish life, concentrated in the northeast of the country, in rural areas where many families work in agriculture and animal husbandry, following a way of life tied to the land that has carried on through generations since the arrival of the first refugees. They still maintain their own customs of hospitality, in which welcoming those who come from outside is a sign of honor for the whole family.

Many families keep the memory of their Caucasian origin alive through family ties, cuisine and festive occasions, even though Turkish has become the everyday language for much of the community. This coexistence between two identities, the inherited and the adopted, is part of the daily experience of those who grow up knowing where their family came from, even without mastering the language their grandparents spoke.

The Abkhaz who live in Turkey are mostly Sunni Muslims, reflecting the predominant faith of the country that welcomed them after their expulsion from their homeland. This religious identity has become so intertwined with daily life that today it is practically inseparable from being Abkhaz in Turkey, shaping everything from family customs to the way the community relates to its neighbors and the rest of Turkish society around them.

In Abkhazia, however, the reality is different: there, Orthodox Christianity is the dominant tradition, a sign of how the same people, separated by borders and history, can develop very different relationships with faith over time.

The Abkhaz language is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, the same system used in the people’s region of origin, but much of the community living in Turkey today expresses itself mainly in Turkish in daily life. This language shift also affects access to the Word: even where texts or materials exist in the ancestral language, familiarity and habit with Turkish make it the most natural path for any written message to reach these families.

In Turkey, openly witnessing about the Christian faith is risky and strongly discouraged, which makes any approach to the gospel a discreet and cautious gesture. Added to this is the fact that, for the Abkhaz living in the country, Muslim identity is deeply intertwined with community life and the integration achieved over generations, making any change of faith a step that also touches family and social ties built with such effort.

Divided between two borders and two religious traditions, the Abkhaz of Turkey face the challenge of keeping alive an identity at risk of dissolving into the surrounding majority culture. There is a real need for the people’s heritage, their language, history and roots, not to be completely lost among the younger generations.

On the spiritual front, the Abkhaz people in Turkey lack close contact with a Christian community that speaks to their reality and bears witness to the gospel in a way that is accessible and respectful of their culture.