by Kamil Bitiş. Translation Petrit Latifi

Summary

This article examines the historical migration of an Albanian family from Batumi, Georgia, to Sakarya Hendek in Anatolia during the War of 93 (1877–1878). Using gravestone inscriptions, oral family history, and Ottoman archival records, it traces the identity, social status, and continuity of the Arnavutoğlu family. The gravestones provide material evidence of Albanian presence in Batumi and document the family’s resettlement in Lütfiye village. Discrepancies in recorded surnames are analyzed through comparison of inscriptions and archival sources. The study highlights the role of forced migration, memory, and documentation in preserving Albanian diasporic identity within the Ottoman context.

This article is about an Albanian family that migrated from Georgia Batumi to Sakarya Hendek.

In Sakarya-Hendek on a grave of a family displaced from Georgia to Sakarya-Hendek in the village of Lütfiye During the War of 93 (in the years 1877/1878) it is written:

My request from those who visit me
is only a prayer
If today is for me
tomorrow is for you.

From the Batumi emigrants of the late Arnavutoğlu Shah Ismail.
The inscription on this tombstone of the deceased shows that there were Albanians in Batum, Georgia as well. Even on the two tombstones of his sons it is written “Arnavutoğlu-I biri i albanarit”.

The deceased died in 1910. Today, about 300 members of this family live in Hendek. It is believed that Shah Ismaili was from the Albanian Beglers. A very wealthy family. The elders of the family say that the area called this family the Albanians of Medhunjë.

In Batum, in the shops that sold textiles, they were theirs and they found in the Ottoman archive that the father of a deceased Ismaili was named Ali. The great-grandson of this deceased Burhan Atik says:

“In the book “The Migrants from Batumi During the War of 93 (the wars in the years 1877/1878)” by the author Murat Kasap, it is written “Aznavuroğlu” on the tombstone of my great-grandfather Shah Ismail. But a week ago I went to the village and cleaned the writing on the stone and saw that it said “Arnavutoğlu” and not “Aznavuroğlu”. Now I am trying to find the roots of my family where they came from.

I, in the Ottoman Archives in the Meclisi of the city of Trabzon, have found a register where it says “Arnavutzade”. This register is mentioned in a diploma thesis of Albanians who were interned-exiled by the Ottomans. I found the name of a policeman named “Arnavutoğlu Salih” in the Keda Saporat Village.