MUSTAFA CHOKAY'S ACTIVITIES IN THE CAUCASIA

Abstract

Mustafa Chokay was born in Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan, on December 25th, 1890. He struggled his whole life for the freedom of not only his fellow Kazak Turks but also Uzbek, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijan Turks. Additionally, he fought for other people like Ukrainians and Georgians that suffered similar atrocities under Russian rule. After his education at the university of Petersburg, Chokay was on the frontline of the freedom movement of Turkestan people and had important duties in the Presidency of Turkestan, declared on November 26, 1917 and in Alash Orda autonomy which had been established by Kazakh leaders such as Alikhan Bokeykhanov and Ahmet Baytursynov. When the national governments of Turkestan were dispersed by the Bolshevik forces, Mustafa Chokay tried to continue liberating Turkestan Turks by forming alliances with the peoples under Soviet sovereignty. Within his life of political struggle, the period he had in Caucasia is of great importance. After he realized that the Turkestan Turks could not succeed in the struggle for independence by their own forces, they started to seek for allies to the national movement. For this purpose; he sought the possibilities of working with Azerbaijani Turks and Georgians living in a similar fate and he tried to integrate Ukraine into the Turkestan-Caucasus alliance by establishing an organization called "Erkin Odak" in 1919. But Mustafa Chokay, who had to leave Georgia after the Soviet armies invaded the Caucasus, went to Europe through Istanbul and pursued his struggle from Paris until the end of his life. In this study, the activities of Mustafa Chokay in the Caucasus between January 1919 and February 1921 is tried to be examined on the basis of the works published in Turkey, Kazakhstan , Georgia and newspaper articles of the time.