Research Project: “The Garibaldi Team”: Hungarian-Polish Converts in Istanbul
The Revolutions of 1848, however pretty much unsuccessful they were in the military sense, came into being in a more radical manner. The Hungarian uprising, as part of the broader 1848 Revolutions in Europe, was quelled by joint military efforts of Tsarist Russia and Austria, after which the well-recognized Hungarian and Polish revolutionary leaders and their less-recognized followers found asylum from Sultan Abdülmecid of the Ottoman Empire in 1849. As a result, thousands of political refugees composed mainly of Hungarian, Polish, and Italian descent entered the Ottoman territories. In the end, while some refugees voluntarily converted to Islam, others, including most of the leaders of the movement, bitterly rejected to become Muslims. Adopting Islam without renouncing ethnic origin made the personalities of the Hungarian and Polish outlaws one bridge which facilitated cultural transactions between the two spheres of the Mediterranean in the years to come. My contribution to the literature would be threefold. First, I would like mainly to explore the activities of the non-elite, rank-and-file revolutionary figures, who chose to convert to Islam, settle in Istanbul, and happen to be minorities, whose voice has not been heard until now. Second, transnational connections of the converts that were gathered in Istanbul in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially their negotiation and cooperation with the Italian revolutionaries led by Giuseppe Garibaldi would be sought to unfold. Third, as a port city and a center for revolutionary brotherhood movements across the Mediterranean basin, the role of Istanbul, the center of the Islamic Caliphate, in bringing together Central Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Islamicate would be investigated by focusing on the convert revolutionaries, their Italian counterparts, and the cultural transactions between the two.
2015-2018 Master of Arts; Boğaziçi University, The Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History.
2014-2015 Erasmus & Exchange; Universitatea Babeş Bolyai, The Faculty of Political Administrative and Communication Sciences as an Erasmus-Exchange student in one semester (25/09/2014- 09/02-2015).
2010-2015 Bahelor of Science; Middle East Technical University, Political Science and Public Administration Department.