TURKLERIN ILK AMERIKA'YA GELISLERI
ATATURK: FATHER OF THE TURKS
ATATURK PHOTO GALLERY
ANCIENT TURKS
PIRI REIS MAP-ANCIENT WORLD MAP
ANCIENT TURKS' LANGUAGE
TURKS' RECENT HISTORY
WHO ARE TURKS?
KIPCHAK TURKS
OGUZ TURKS
TURKS AT AMERICA
MIGRATION & CENTRAL ASIA
NE MUTLU TURKUM DIYENE
HISTORY BEGINS WITH TURKS
TURAN
ATATURK'S GREAT SPEECHES
ANTI-TURKISM -TURK DUSMANLIGI
TURKLERIN ILK AMERIKA’YA GELISLERI, MELUNCANLAR VE SONRASI
16. yuzyilin baslarinda Osmanli Imparatorlugu gucunun doruguna ulasti ve etkisini uc kitada buyuk olcude hissettirdi. Bu arada, diger bir kita olan Amerika 15. yuzyilin sonlarinda Avrupalilar tarafindan uzerinde insanlar yasiyor olmasina ragmen kesfedilmis olarak tanimlandi. Osmanli Imparatorlugunun tum ticaret yollarini ve Akdeniz’i kontrolunde tutmasi sonucu, Avrupalilar degisIk kaynaklar aramaya yoneldi. Her ne kadar cesitli Papalarin Osmanlilara karsi hacli savaslari ilan etmesi de Osmanli’nin gucunun kirilmasina yeterli olmadi. Osmanlilar deniz guclerini Akdeniz’de saglamlastirmisken, dunyanin cesitli noktalarina kesif yolculuklari da yaptilar. Her ne kadar Turklerin Amerika’da kayitli olarak gorundukleri ilk yer North Carolina ve tarih 1635 olarak belirtilmisse de, 16 yuzyilda bazi Turk denizcilerin Amerika aciklarina ve Amerika’ya geldikleri bugun bulunan belgelerle kanitlanmistir.
Bazilari da korsan olarak Karayipler aciklarinda yasamislar, daha sonra Ingilizler bolgeye hakim olmaya baslayinca Florida uzerinden Amerika iclerine goc etmislerdir. Karayiplerin Avrupa’ya en yakin adalari olan Turks ve Caicos adalarinin ilk ev sahipleri de bu Osmanli Turk denizcileriydi. Bu adaciklarin en buyugu olan ve benim de ziyaret etmis oldugum Grand Turk bu adaciklarin bugun de baskentligini yapmaktadir. Grand Turk adi 16 yuzyil Osmanli Imparatorlugu’nda padisahlara ve ozellikle Kanuni Sultan Suleyman’a verilen lakapti. Osmanli Turk denizcileri Ingilizler gelene kadar adanin ismini ve hakimiyetini korumus, karayiplerde diger Ispanyol/Portekiz ve Ingiliz/Fransiz denizciler ve korsanlarla devamli mucadele icinde olmuslardi. Ingiliz Imparatorlugunun bolgeye hakim olmasi sonucu, bu denizcilerin bircogu Florida uzerinden Amerika iclerine dogru goc etmislerdi. Ingilizlere yakalananlar ise Sir Francis Drake tarafindan Osmanli Imparatorluguna getirilip teslim edilmislerdi. Adaciklar 17 yuzyilda Ingilizlerin eline gectigi zaman adaciklarin ve Grand Turk adasinin ismi hemen degistirilmistir. Fakat ada bir onceki yuzyilin sonlarinda ilk ismi olan Grand Turk ismini tekrardan almistir. Bu arada bu adada gecmiste Turklerin varligini inkar edip fakat adanin bir sekilde Turklerle ilgisini belirtmek icin Ingilizlerden kaynaklanan kirmizi fese benzer kaktus hikayesi de tamamen uydurulmus bir hikayeden baska birsey degildir. Benim bu adaya ziyaretimde gordugum; kaktuste degil de bir agacta yetisen kirmizi cicegin Turklerle ve Osmanli’nin 19. yuzyilda kullanmaya basladigi kirmizi fesle goruntu olarak hicbir alakasi olmadigi gibi boyle birseyin anlatilmasi bile komiktir.
Iste Meluncan hikayesi de 16. yuzyil sonlari ve 17. yuzyil devamindaki tarihlerde baslar. Bu tarihlerde Florida’dan yukari cikan Osmanli Turk denizcileri dogu kiyisinda ve ic kisimlarda yasayan yerli halkla kaynasir ve diger bir kismi da dogu kiyilarinda diger Anglo-saksonlarla karisip asimile olurlar. Ozellikle de bu ilk grup Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia ve Tennessee yorelerinde karisip meluncanlarini olusturdular.
Iste Meluncan hikayesi de 16. yuzyil sonlari ve 17. yuzyil devamindaki tarihlerde baslar. Bu tarihlerde Florida’dan yukari cikan Osmanli Turk denizcileri dogu kiyisinda ve ic kisimlarda yasayan yerli halkla kaynasir ve diger bir kismi da dogu kiyilarinda diger Anglo-saksonlarla karisip asimile olurlar. Ozellikle de bu ilk grup Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia ve Tennessee yorelerinde karisip meluncanlarini olusturdular.
Bu karisimin bazi yerli gruplarinda etkisi fazlasiyla gorulur, mesela Cherokee’ler Oklahoma’ya zorla goc ettirilmeden ve bu gocte bircogu hayatini kaybetmeden(Trail of Tears) once Florida’nin ust kisimlarinda yasayan yerli bir halkti.
Sekoyah ve diger Cherokee yerlilerinin giyim ozelliklerinde Turk denizcilerine benzer yani sarik, yelek, kusak, mintan gibi kiyafetler gorulmustur.
Bu arada Kizilderililerin bu bolgede verdikleri adlar, Turkceyle inanilmaz bir yakinlik gostermistir. Benim de 20 yil once Florida’ya yaptigim bir gezi sirasinda bir hediyelik esya dukkaninda gordugum bir bayrak Turklerin bu bolgede Amerikan ic Savasi sirasinda oldugunu fazlasiyla kanitlamistir. Ic savas sirasinda guneyden gelen askerler savasa giderken geldikleri bolgenin bayragini tasimislardi. ust Florida ve Alabama’yi, guney Georgia'yi icine alan bolgenin askerlerinin bayragi da Osmanli Bayragina inanilmaz benzemekteydi, yani kirmizi uzerine beyaz ay ve bircok yildizin oldugu bir bayrak…
MELUNCANLAR; beyaz, siyah, melez ve Kizilderili olarak siniflandirilamazdi. Onlar, yasal acidan, renksiz insanlar olarak siniflandiriliyorlardi. Sahip olduklari onemli arazi parcalarina el konuldu; egitim, oy kullanma ve adli islem haklari reddedildi ve bati yakasina ya da Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky ve Bati Virginia daglarinin yukseklerine surulduler.
MELUNCANLAR; beyaz, siyah, melez ve Kizilderili olarak siniflandirilamazdi. Onlar, yasal acidan, renksiz insanlar olarak siniflandiriliyorlardi. Sahip olduklari onemli arazi parcalarina el konuldu; egitim, oy kullanma ve adli islem haklari reddedildi ve bati yakasina ya da Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky ve Bati Virginia daglarinin yukseklerine surulduler.
Bir kisim bilim adamina gore bu insanlarin kokenleri kesinlikle Osmanli Turklerine kadar uzanmaktadir.
Bunu ispatlayan isimlerin en unlusu ise Prof. Dr. Brent Kennedy. Kokenleriyle tanismasini bir tesadufe borclu olan Kennedy, doktorlarinin bir turlu teshis koyamadigi bir hastalik nedeniyle 1988 yilinda yataga dustu. Yuruyemiyor, hareket etmekte zorlaniyordu. Artik cocuklari ve esiyle vedalasip olumu beklemeye basladigi bir sirada doktoru Brent, kendisine Akdeniz Anemisi (Mediterranean Fewer) teshisini koydu. Ancak ortada garip bir durum vardi. O gune kadar kokleri Irlandali ve Ingilizler’e dayandigi soylenen Brent, nasil olur da Akdeniz insanlarinin yakalandigi bir hastaliga yakalanabilirdi?
Cocukken annesine, akrabalarini gosterip sordugu “Nasil olurda benim kardesim diger akrabalarim Ingiliz ve Irlandali’lardan daha cok dogu insanina benzer?” sorusunun cevabi aklini daha cok kurcalar oldu.
DNA testleri yaptirdi. Cevresindekileri de bu testi yaptirmaya ikna etti. Sonuc sasirtici idi.
Cunku sonuclar koklerinin Azerbaycan, Turkiye ve Dogu Afrika’ya kadar uzandigini gosteriyordu. 177 Meluncan’in yapilan kan testlerinde Sarcoidosis, Thalassemia, Behcet’s Disease, Machado-Joseph gibi Akdeniz insaninda gorulen hastaliklara ait bulgulara ulasildi.
ILK SEYAHAT, ILK TANISMA
Hastalik seruveni ile birlikte Turkler’e ilgi duymaya baslayan Brent, ilk kez 1995’de cevresindekilerin gitme demesine ragmen Turkiye’ye yolculuga cikti.
Bugune kadar da toplam 10 kez Turkiye’yi ziyaret etti. Gezdigi Anadolu illerinde gordukleri, koklerinin Anadolu’ya dayandigi tezini guclendirdi.
1997 yilinda yazdigi “The Resurrection of a Proud People: The Melungeons” eserinden sonra “From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish American Dialogue” kitabinda Osmanli-Meluncan baglantisini arastiran Brent Kennedy kendisini kalben Turk olarak hissetmektedir.
Brent kitabinda, benzerliklerden bahsederken sunlari soyluyor:
“Anadolu folk danslarini seyrettigimde buyuk saskinlik duydum. Oyunlarin Apalacyalilar’inkiyle buyuk benzerlik tasidigiii gozlemledim. Yerli Amerikan kabilelerden Cherokee Sefi Sequoya’nin kiyafetinin benzerlerini Istanbul Deniz Muzesi’nde gordugum Osmanli Deniz Levendleri’nin kiyafetlerinden farki yoktu.”
Brent ayrica Turkce’de hayir anlami tasiyan ve basi yukari dogru kaldirarak cikarilan “cikk” sesinin, kendi aile fertleri tarafindan kullanilmasina da dikkat cekerek sunlari dile getiriyor: “Annemin, bir seye hayir demek istediginde basini yukari dogru sallayip ‘cikk’ dedigini hatirlarim hep.
Ayni davranis seklini Turkiye ziyaretimde gordugum insanlarin da yaptigina tanik oldum.”
19. VE 20. YUZYILDA Turklerin AMERIKA'YA GELISLERI
Hastalik seruveni ile birlikte Turkler’e ilgi duymaya baslayan Brent, ilk kez 1995’de cevresindekilerin gitme demesine ragmen Turkiye’ye yolculuga cikti.
Bugune kadar da toplam 10 kez Turkiye’yi ziyaret etti. Gezdigi Anadolu illerinde gordukleri, koklerinin Anadolu’ya dayandigi tezini guclendirdi.
1997 yilinda yazdigi “The Resurrection of a Proud People: The Melungeons” eserinden sonra “From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish American Dialogue” kitabinda Osmanli-Meluncan baglantisini arastiran Brent Kennedy kendisini kalben Turk olarak hissetmektedir.
Brent kitabinda, benzerliklerden bahsederken sunlari soyluyor:
“Anadolu folk danslarini seyrettigimde buyuk saskinlik duydum. Oyunlarin Apalacyalilar’inkiyle buyuk benzerlik tasidigiii gozlemledim. Yerli Amerikan kabilelerden Cherokee Sefi Sequoya’nin kiyafetinin benzerlerini Istanbul Deniz Muzesi’nde gordugum Osmanli Deniz Levendleri’nin kiyafetlerinden farki yoktu.”
Brent ayrica Turkce’de hayir anlami tasiyan ve basi yukari dogru kaldirarak cikarilan “cikk” sesinin, kendi aile fertleri tarafindan kullanilmasina da dikkat cekerek sunlari dile getiriyor: “Annemin, bir seye hayir demek istediginde basini yukari dogru sallayip ‘cikk’ dedigini hatirlarim hep.
Ayni davranis seklini Turkiye ziyaretimde gordugum insanlarin da yaptigina tanik oldum.”
19. VE 20. YUZYILDA Turklerin AMERIKA'YA GELISLERI
Asimile olmadan Turk kimligini kaybetmeyen Turklerin Amerika'da kayitlarda ilk gorundugu tarih 19. yuzyilin ortalarina rastlar. 1820'de yapilan bir nufus sayiminda Amerika'daki Turk sayisi 20 olarak belirtiliyor. 19. yuzyilin sonlari ve 20.yuzyilin baslarinda Amerika'ya gelen Turkler sadece ekonomik amacli ve ailelerini getirmeden gelmislerdi. Bu Turkler daha sonra New York, Boston, Detroit gibi endustri sehirlerinde isci olarak calismaya basladilar. Bu Turkler cevrelerinde cok caliskan olarak tanindilar ve kazandiklari paralari muntazam biriktirip eve donme hayalinde icinde olduklari anlatilirdi. Bu Turk gocmenler ayni caddelerde ayni evleri paylasarak yasadilar, ise beraber gittiler ve is sonrasinda zamanlarini hep beraber gecirdiler, zaman buldukca tavla oynadilar, Turk kahvelerini ictiler, Turk yemekleri yediler, Turkce sarkilar soylediler, birbirlerine gures tuttular. Bir anlamda Anadolu geleneklerini ve yasamini Amerika'da kaybetmediler. 1930'da krize kadar olan donemde is gucunun ve is bulma rekabetinin fazlalasmasindan ve Turkler hakkinda Yunan ve Ermeniler tarafindan yayilan ve Amerikalilari da etkileyen yalan propagandalardan etkilendiler. Muslumanliklarindan dolayi toplumdan izole edildiler, hatta Turkle evlenen Amerikalilara toplum tarafindan baskilar yapildi. Iste bu arada patlayan I. Dunya savasinda geride kalan ailelerinden endise duyan Turklerin bir kismi Turkiye'ye dondu ve Osmanli ordusuna katildi. Amerika'da kalanlar ise Amerikan ordusunda askere alindi, hatta ordu kayitlarina gore Fransa'da Amerikan ordusundaki bir Turk savasta hayatini kaybetti. 
Daha sonra Turkiye'nin Yunanlilar tarafindan isgale ugradigi haberi gelince Amerika'daki Turkler ve Yunanlilar arasinda cesitli yerlerde kavgalar cikti, bir kisim Turkler Turkiye'ye donerek Kurtulus savasinda Turk ordusunda yerlerini aldilar. 1930 da ekonomik kriz sonrasi Amerika'daki Turklerin durumu daha da guclesti. Ataturk Turkiye'nin modernlesmesinde ve savaslar sonrasi yeniden yapilanmasinda Turklere ihtiyac duydugu icin Amerika'ya gemi gondererek buradaki 20. yuzyilin baslarinda Amerika'ya gelen Turklerin yaklasIk %85'inin Turkiye'ye donmesini sagladi. 1940 yilinda yapilan sayimlarda Turk kokenlilerin sayisi 104 bin olarak belirtilmistir.
1960 yilindan sonra Turklerin Amerika'ya gocleri tekrardan artti, bugun itibariyle yaklasik 500 bin Turk kokenli Amerika'da yasamaktadir.
Daha sonra Turkiye'nin Yunanlilar tarafindan isgale ugradigi haberi gelince Amerika'daki Turkler ve Yunanlilar arasinda cesitli yerlerde kavgalar cikti, bir kisim Turkler Turkiye'ye donerek Kurtulus savasinda Turk ordusunda yerlerini aldilar. 1930 da ekonomik kriz sonrasi Amerika'daki Turklerin durumu daha da guclesti. Ataturk Turkiye'nin modernlesmesinde ve savaslar sonrasi yeniden yapilanmasinda Turklere ihtiyac duydugu icin Amerika'ya gemi gondererek buradaki 20. yuzyilin baslarinda Amerika'ya gelen Turklerin yaklasIk %85'inin Turkiye'ye donmesini sagladi. 1940 yilinda yapilan sayimlarda Turk kokenlilerin sayisi 104 bin olarak belirtilmistir. 1960 yilindan sonra Turklerin Amerika'ya gocleri tekrardan artti, bugun itibariyle yaklasik 500 bin Turk kokenli Amerika'da yasamaktadir.
INTERVIEW WITH BRENT KENNEDY
CURSED SOULS NO MORE
A TURKIC FABLE IN THE BACKWOODS OF VIRGINIA
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The Turks who began to head to the United States in the 20th century may not have been the first Turkic people to reach noth America. Genetic, artistic and perhaps linguistic similarities have led to the newly respectable belief that some native Americans may descend from Central Asians who migrated over the Bering Strait.
The Moscow newspaper Izvestia, for instance, reported in 1998 that scientists had found a 72% correlation between genes of American Indians and a village in Russia's Central Asian republic of Tuva - and that the Turkic Tuvans looked exactly like American Indians too. Likewise, a University of Arizona study found a strong linkage between 19 Native Amrican groups and 15 from Siberia. The broadest study of Eurasia's genetic heritage yet, published in the U.S in 2001, found evidence to support ancient Turkic legends of being a major source of Eurasian populations.
Central Asian males were found to have the most diverse, and arguably oldest, gene pool, which then spread out to Europe, the Indian sub-continent and America.
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One native American, however, was intrigued by the idea of a Turkic connection. I met Frank Keel in a smoked-glass office building that houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs on that outskirts of Washington D.C. Here he ran U.S. government relations with the 26 native American tribes of the eastern seaboard. A state department diplomat by training, and speaking in 2000, before the latest rash of genetic discoveries had been published, he was cautious about the Bering Strait theory.
"It's not something that mainstream American archaeologists go along with," he said.
He told a Canadian anthropologist Ethel G. Stewart, who spent years among the native peoples of Central Asia and the north-west Canadian seaboard. She published a book in 1991 noting cultural connections and claiming that a wave of Turkic peoples had arrived in North America by boat in the 13th century, fleeing Genghis Khan. Her work has been greeted with academic brickbats.
"Eskimos still visit each other across the Bering Strait. but they aren't Indians. And some of the Indian tribes have strong traditions that they came from the south. There are all these possibilities out there. Some are goofy. But there is still no definitive answer to where the Indians came from," he said.
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Keel was not ready to rule anything out. he himself was an American Indian of the Choctaw Chickasaw nation. He looked thoroughly Central Asian, too, which led to delegates clapping him on the back as a blood brother when by chance his U.S. diplomatic functions brought him to a conference of Turkic peoples in Turkey. On another occasion, he was assigned to meeting shamans and Turkic community leaders in Siberia as part of an American dialogue with Russia about minority rights.
"One of the guys just looked like my cousin." he said. "We were there to talk about economic development, but they kept sidling up to me to say: 'We`re Turkic, that's what's very important to us.'"
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Keel suggested I call up his friend Türker Özdoðan, a Turk who had moved to the United States in 1970 and described himself as an abstract expressionist sculptor. He is also an amateur anthropologist with a passion for proving the Turkic-American Indian connection. When I reached him, Özdoðan told the story of his epipany when he spend the night in a lakeside Indian reservation hotel called the Havasu lodge. He had been astonished to find out that the word Havasu meant much the same in both languages - air-water in Turkish, sky-water in the local tongue.
he claimed to have found 500 Turkic words in Navaho Indian, and another 500 shared with the Maya of Mexico.
"Native Americans and Turks worship the wolf. They value the color turquoise. Shamans exist in both worlds," he said. "There is a common legend , too. Kukulkan was a man who came by the sea and taught everything in the Manas epic of the Kyrgyz. In Mexican legend, he also appears as a white-bearded, knowledgeable man."
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He listed American Indian tribal names like Koman and Yörük, exactly the same as well-known Turkic clans. Core Turkic words like ata for father and anne for mother are shared with the Cherokee and other tongues. The word yurt means tent for the Obigwa. But many of the associations that he listed sounded far-fetched - for instance, the idea that the Niagra falls were named after the Turkish expression ne yaygara, or "what a noise."
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Improbable as it seemed, there was another group that supported the theory og kinship to the Turks. These were the Melungeons of Virginia, a people who inhabit a remote recess of the Appalachian mountains south-east of Washington D.C. They don't just claim a possible Turkic descent from the west, through intermixture with American Indians. I first heard of the Melungeons when a delegation of their leaders arrived in Turkey in 1996 and proudly announced themselves to be descendants of Ottoman Turkish galley slaves cast away on the coastline of the New World.
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The Turks welcomed them as long-lost cousins. Turkish newspapers conjured proof of the Melungeon link from the words melun can, which translates from Turkish to mean cursed soul. They accepted the Melungeons' embrace of Turkishness much as their Ottoman anscestors welcomed anyone who would proclaim the one-sentence credo of Islam. The unremarkable-looking American tourists of the Melungeon delegations were astonished to be feted as prodigal sons everywhere they went, and even won an audience with the Turkish president.
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The Melungeon idea was certainly romantic. Their claim made it possible to think of the Turkic peoples as a belt of ethnic cousins who did not just span Eurasia but also girdled the globe. I sent an e-mail message to their main spokesman, who invited me to visit him in the town of Wise, Virginia. It took me a while to find it on a map, but a few weeks later I was driving my way to the toe of Virginia that borders Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.
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Seen from my car on the Interstate highway, green forests carpeted gentle appalachian slope sbarely worthy of the name of mountain. But after i turned westward and began to drive uphill, valleys grew steeper and the vegetation thicker and more impenetratable. Compared to the Virginia foothills the country was poor. The homes were often pre-fabricated and the cars kept out front were often unwashed pick-ups. Businesses included and unusual number of Pawnshops, car lots and gun dealerships.
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A little short of Wise, I stopped to ask my way at Frank's Machine Tool Shop. I was at the foot of Stone mountain, a legendry sanctuary of the Melungeons as the racist laws pushed them off the fertile land the once owned on the valley floor. A man left his lathe in the workshop and came outside with a slow and easy gait to greet me. I outlined the purpose of my visit.
"My wife's a Melungeon," Dwayne said. "We saw a program on them. Her surname is the same as the ones in the program. Let me call her. Ethel maybe will talk to you."
He dialed a number. The conversation lengthened.
"She feels she has nothing to tell you. She says that as a matter of fact she's not a Melungeon," Dwayne said sheepishly.
"What makes a Melungeon a Melungeon?" I asked.
"They're good folks, but they keep to themselves. They're very friendly once they know you," Dwayne said. "Then of course, they do have that kink in the hair . . ."
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Dwayne pointed to my onward road "up yonder," reminding me of early travelers to the region who related that the Melungeons spoke a broken Elizabethan English. Such survivals are unsurprising. Insecurity and prejudice has long persuaded the Melungeons to stay private. Dwayne's wife's reaction indicated that just the name can still be an insult in itself, a snide reference to a people at the bottom of the pile, white trash that was not quite white. But in the 1990's, circumstances conspire to break open the diffidence of this community of 75,000 people.
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The catalyst for change was a brush with death by a charistmatic local man called Brent Kennedy. All kinds of treatments failed to cure his painful, puffed up limbs and difficult breathing. But when doctors eventually said he was suffering from sarcoidosis and Mediterranean fever, the diagnosis raised more questions than answers. Both diseases are genetically transmitted through people of east Mediterranean origin, thereby challenging the family claim of Scots-Irish descent. he gave up a big city public relations job and started digging into his family history. Ultimately, his research and his fight against his sickness transformed him into the cheif historian and then undeclared leader of the Melungeons. It was controversial in the Appalachians, where many feared he might prove links to African-Americans and provoke new discrimination. One cousin burtn photographs rather than let him have them. But gradually his revelations forstered Melungeon community pride.
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Kennedy's vision of 16th century history shoulders aside some of the Anglo-centric view of the settlement of the New World. He found that British captain Francis Drake, unable to sell a group of captives or take them back to England, left 500 Turks and North African Moors at Roanoke. The group dissapeared within a months, possibly into the nearby hills now lived in by Melungeons. Records also show that the legendarily "Anglo" Jamestown Colony included charachters like "Mehmet the Turk" from the Ottoman Empire. He found a decree from the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia that in 1690 prohibited the importation of any more "Turks or infidels."
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Whatever the science of it, the modern Melungeon-Turkish relationship is blossoming. "Welcome to our guests from Dumlumpinar," said a banner hanging from one building at the university of Virginia's campus at Wise, reffering to an exchange program between Wise and a small Turkish college. When I entered the rector's building and met him, Kennedy was quick to tease me about other Turkic connections.
There was also evidence that he said linked him genetically to Central Asia. He clicked a nail under his front teeth and tilted his head back to show his shovel-teeth, a Turkic trait.
"Here, feel the back of my head! I've got a golf ball there," he said, putting my hand on a lump by which today's right-wing Turkish nationalists also purport to be able to tell if someone is Turkic. "I believe that Turkic anscestors came here from both directions, fron east and west, and that I'm the genetic proof of it."
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Originally and most frequently, the people who came to be known as the Melungeons called themselves a word that sounded like Portuguese. Given the fact that the Spanish and Portuguese roamed the coasts of America as well, anscestors from that quarter could be expected. But local slang includes many Middle Eastern leftovers, like the old Melungeon word for a watch, saat.
"When I started looking into out origins, I didn't go for the Turks initially. We first approached the Spanish and Portuguese embassies. They weren't particularly interested. But there was immediately a warm response from the Turks. They invited me to Turkey, and it grew from there. I felt like an orphan who rediscovers his family, goes to visit all his grandpearants, and finds that only one of them shows any interest," Kennedy said.
"Why do you think that was?" I asked.
The book Kennedy wrote about his trail of discovery gushes with comparisons between Melungeon and Turkish hospitality, his feelings on discovering that the inhabitants of the Turkish coastal town of Çeþme shared his blue eyed, dark complexion - the town is now twinned with Wise - and even that he did not suffer from allergies while in Anatolia.
But his answer was more interesting.
"You know how the Turks are vieewed by the world. If you understand that, you understand our relationship," he explained. Like the Turks, he said, Melungeons felt that they were isolated, surrounded and oppressed, that they had had their history written by outsiders, and that their experience taught them not to show weakness, or else they would be destroyed. He sympathized with the Turkish struggle to counteract their negative image from films like Midnight Express. The Melungeons suffer similarly from the film Deliverance, in which a group of men out on a camping trip tangle with Appalachian backwoodsmen, portrayed as retarded, sadistic, inbred rapists.
"I mean, we're not that inbred. We don't have six fingers, like they keep saying!" Kennedy remonstrated.
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We were having a drink with his fellow Melungeons at Moseby's, a mall-corner restaurant dedicated to a dashing Captain Mosby and the southeners' cause in the American civil war. The repartee was witty, self-depreciating and good-hearted.
"For me, all the genetic evidence I'm collecting is irrelevant compared to the spiritual growth of my people." Kennedy maintained.
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Harnessed to the cause, I found I could conjour Turkic links out of almost anything. One of the confederate flags hanging over our heads featured a red field with stars and moons, similar to many Turkic flags. I suggested that it was copied from the star-and-crescent of the Ottoman Empire. Nobody could prove me wrong.
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"I'll tell you something else nobody can explain," said Kennedy, his blue eyes sky-bright. "Why is it that the Seminole Indians, who were practically naked before the arrival of people from Europe, are pictured soon afterwards wearing Ottoman-style Turbans?"
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Kennedy was getting 20-30 letters a week from Turkey, expressing solidarity, or looking for medical treatment, jobs or scholarships. A few were successful in their search for a new opening. Like Alihan Kartal, a well-build 22-year-old from Istanbul. he'd been bitten by the American bug during a spell at school when his father was posted in New York, despite being teased about being a barbarian, about Midnight Express, and, the perennial complain of Turkish-American schoolchildren, being tainted in the playground about being a "turkey". (Once discovered by Turkish-American parents, this phenomenon was the origin of a still-influencial movement to change Turkey's official English name to the Turkish Türkiye). Alihan's family had contacted Kennedy after seeing him talk about the Melungeons on a Turkish television show. Alihan found his way to university at Wise, and, when his money ran out, Kennedy arranged for him to be supported in his buisness studies by local well-wishers.
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"I thought I would be bored, but I loved it here! I felt something unique about this place. Deep inside me, this reminds me so much of home," Alihan said.
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Alihan couldn't tell if his empathy with Wise was because Melungeons looked a little like Turks, whether it was the southern hospitality, the olive oil in the food, or the Turkic echoes he heard in blue grass music. Like many of his countrymen, migration was in his blood: half of his family came from central Anatolia, the other reached Turkey a century ago from Turkish regions at Romania. He didn't know where he'd end up in life. But he was sure he wouldn't forget his Turkishness.