CREATIVE SYNCRETISM AND GENRE TYPOLOGY OF THE DEPORTATION FOLKLORE OF THE AHISKA TURKS

Abstract

The article examines the functional, semantic, and structural characteristics of the deportation folklore of the Ahiska Turks. Historically settled in the southwestern Caucasus region, the Ahiska Turks were deported to Central Asia and Kazakhstan in 1944. Speaking a Turkish dialect enriched with local elements of Eastern Anatolia, the Ahiska Turks are now dispersed across more than ten countries and receive education in eight different languages. In the absence of a fertile ethnocultural environment, folklore became the main means of preserving national identity, while simultaneously undergoing deep transformations in this new context. The study shows that the key changes in the folklore of the Ahiska Turks are primarily reflected in the heuristic nature of its bearers and narrators. Today, alongside traditional storytellers, the creators of deportation folklore are educated individuals—often with literary backgrounds—most of whom were born during the deportation period and live within modern information societies. As a result, folklore increasingly exists in written form. The article analyzes the content, genre, and stylistic features of Ahiska Turk folklore, identifying and classifying the characteristics of folklore-literature syncretism. It highlights the aestheticization of texts and the decline of their traditional informative function, the replacement of magical thinking with creative imagination and literary fantasy, and the strengthening of individuality and personal expression.