3
village located 40 km. away from Istanbul. Neighbor villages are; from east Huseyinli,
Ogrumce and Saripinar, from south Resadiye, Alemdag and Tasdelen, from southeast
Omerli, from north Zerzevatci, Mahmut Sevketpasa and Cumhuriyet and from
southwest Cavusbasi. (Cichocki, 2006 and Kaya, 1994)
6
.
Location of Polonezkoy
This research addresses different forms that the Polish identity underwent from the
establishment of the village around mid 19
th
century to the present under the framework
of place-identity conceptualization. The transmigrated
Polish identity is going to be
discussed on the ethnicity and religion axis and in comparison to other existing identities
in the village so as to evaluate its transformation throughout the history of the village
under the framework of cultural dialogue versus cultural conflict.
The case of Polonezkoy within its historical and sociological context is significantly
unique in terms of place versus
space in relation to
identity discussions in addition to
other cultural issues. This Polish village is also important in the social and cultural
5
“I feel myself in Adampol as Adam felt himself in heaven” (Bauer- Antonowicz, 1990 p.60)
6
Among these villages, Cavusbasi (lately came up as a place used by one of the fundamentalist Islamic
groups) and Cumhuriyet Koyu (was a village of Greek immigrants in the past and populated by people
from Black Sea region of Turkey) are significant ones for our future research agenda, namely analyzing
Polonezkoy in comparison with the neighboring villages. For instance, when Polonezkoy was passing from
agricultural phase to pension tourism, Cumhuriyet Koyu was at the beginning of agricultural phase and
never became a touristy attraction.
Convention