A Study On The Education Of Ahıska Women Before The Exile, During The USSR Period And Today

Abstract

Education is one of the basic conditions for a quality life and a key to minimizing inequalities between social groups and genders and adapting to the process of rapid change and development in today's world.  For this reason, the quality of education that society provides to its women is of great importance in terms of the inclusion of all segments of society. Looking at the studies on women's education, it is clear that women, including Turkish women in the Ahiska region, have faced difficulties in being educated and trained throughout history. Women's educational institutions were also affected by the change in the world system with the outbreak of World War I. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia, the occurrence of the Second World War, the tragedies that will cause radical changes and the reforms in education have turned into an opportunity for women. In this research a total of 36 women from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were interviewed. The results of the interviews have been transcribed in this article with the help of digital research sources.

When we look at the studies on women's education, it is obvious that women have had difficulties in education and training throughout history, including Ahıska Türkü women.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the change in the world system also affected Women's Educational Institutions. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia, the occurrence of the Second World War, the tragedies that will cause fundamental changes, as well as the reforms made in education, have turned into an opportunity for women. The situation has gained a different dimension with the compulsory primary and secondary school education, the death of Stalin, which led to the emergence of the Meskhetian Turks from under strict control, and the subsequent ‘Khrushchev's Spring’. There have been cases of girls attending schools, heterogeneity of classes, the destruction of old habits and perceptions, a change in the perception and position of women in Soviet society.