The Past as Resource in the Turkic Speaking World

This volume draws attention to the importance of memory and to the ways in which history has been perceived and instrumentalised within the Turkic speaking world. It reveals itself as a complex and diverse space in which various groups assert their identity through manipulation, subversion or promotion of selected elements of past experience. All chapters demonstrate how the past can serve as a resource to create or perpetuate group cohesion and social identities; they pay attention to ideology and its instrumentalisation to legitimate claims not only to material resources but also to intangible social status. They emphasize the value of exploring the complex interplay between memory and history in a large geographical area.