Panel Talk: Resisting Deletion Marks from Abkhazia to Turkey

Date: 24 February 2018, Saturday
Time: 16:30

Dr. Jade Cemre Erciyes – Researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Abkhazia
Elbruz Aksoy – Author of the book My Name is 1864
Aşba Tayfun Habicoğlu – Member of Düzce Abhazian Cultural Association

Realised by the support of the SKLAD Cultural Center in Abkhazia, Deletion Marks is an artistic narrative of the spirit of resistance of Abkhaz people from the perspective of two artists, Tareq Daoud and Elisabeth Denys, who have followed the traces of identity and reconstruction of memory in a culture and geography they were unfamiliar with.

This panel that is adjacent to the exhibition, is bringing together three people, who have been aware of the deletion marks that Elisabeth and Tariq have observed in the diaspora settlements and in Abkhazia during their research. The panelists have been putting an effort to resist the disappearance of the culture, memory and the sense of belonging of these people.

Jade Cemre Erciyes is a sociologist living and working in Abkhazia since 2007. She is going to reflect upon the geography and the people represented in the exhibition, sharing fragments from her decade long research of the diaspora and return migration to the Caucasus.

Elbruz Aksoy, whose book on oral history narratives of exile and diaspora has just come out from İletişim Publishing House, is going to share bits from the accounts of Abkhazians that he has been collecting since 1996, while shedding light onto the historical significance of the exhibition.

Aşba Tayfun Habicoğlu has taken an important role in the formation of a digital archive relating to Abkhazia and Abkhazians, and also has taken part in various Abkhazia related associations and organisations in Turkey. Sharing a selection of pieces from his digital archive, he is going to talk about the war and the diaspora organisations from the perspective of an Abkhaz from Düzce.