The Circassians, referring themselves as Adyge are the indigenous people of the North-West Caucasus who were exiled to the Ottoman lands in nineteenth century. As a result of the Russian expansion into the Caucasus, and support of the Ottoman Empire, large numbers of Circassians emigrated to Ottoman lands such as Anatolia, Syrian Province and Balkans. The largest wave of emigration was to Anatolia; and today, in Turkey there is a large Circassian community; it is the largest Circassian community when compared to Syria, Jordan and Palestine/Israel. This study considers Circassians in Turkey a diaspora and it employs the notion of diaspora first, as a choice which is manifested as a voice at the political level and which even though ambivalent and fragmented may serve to deconstruct hegemonic nationalism. Secondly, diasporas are regarded as composed of multiple actors who participate in several networks of relationships with the homeland, host community, international community. Such an approach aims to move away from the idea of “victim diaspora” and to locate diaspora in a more complicated web of relationships, bargains and strategies. Thirdly, this study considers diaspora a heuristic device through which multiple terrains of nationalism, ethnicity and globalization can be explored. Given such a theoretical framework, this paper is based on in-depth interviews with Circassian diaspora nationalists (activists and intellectuals) and it aims to explore the Circassian narratives on their experiences of education. Throughout the interviews I realized that in the narratives of Circassian activists regardless of my questions education had a significant role in constructing their identities. Educational institutions have been one of the first settings within which they declared or learned to hide their identities as Circassian. Teachers have been one of the first people that they met who punished them or warned their parents for not speaking Turkish: since then the mother tongue had been the language of the private sphere. For some people I interviewed classrooms have been the first setting within which they learned the difference between an official language and “the other language”. Also history classes have been one of the first settings within which their ethnic origin has been associated with treason. For most of the Circassians born in villages education have been their first extensive relationship with the state and Turkish official historiography. Hence education has been one of the basic mechanisms Turkish state uses to relate to the Circassian community in Turkey just like any other minority group.

Education is one of the various settings in which meanings and practices of nationalism, identity and citizenship are created and recreated. These meanings and practices should be read not only through the notions of assimilation, oppression, conflict or ethnic 'problem' but also within their own complexity, with the recognition of the multiplicity of actors that shape and are shaped by the terrains of nationalism, ethnicity and citizenship. I argue that exploring the way Circassians relate to educational institutions, curricula and practices sheds light on the way they relate to the state, official historiography and multiple identities in Turkey. Exploring the Circassian narratives on education will bring the Circassian nationalism into dialogue with official historiography and the recent literature on education in Turkey.