Evlad-ı Fatihan: marquer la comformabilité des immigrants des Balkans en Turquie

Abstract

This research aims to explore historical and spatial references conveyed by the term evlad-ı fatihan, a designation used in Balkan homeland associations in Turkey since the late 1980s. Drawing mostly on interviews conducted with members and directors of multiple homeland associations in Istanbul and also on observations made in these institutions between 2013 and 2015, the study opens a discussion on how references to Ottoman heritage and to Islam were experienced and interpreted by the actors and investigates how the usage of evlad-ı fatihan produced an anachronistic narrative of post-imperial migration and an “invented tradition.”