IN LIGHT OF HUNGARIAN ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS, LIFE IN TATAR PRISON CAMPS LOCATED WITHIN THE BORDERS OF AUSTRIAN – HUNGARIAN LANDS, TURCOLOGY WORKS AND IGNÁC KÚNOS DURING THE WORLD WAR I (1915-1918)

Abstract

During the World War I, capturd Tatar soldiers serving in Russian Army were placed in Kenyérmező and Eger (Cheb) prisoner camps located within the lands of Australia Hungarian Empire. The establishment of these prisoner camps, was an opportunity to conduct anthropologic, linguistic and folkloric studies for scientists. The Hungarian Turan Association, which aims to investigate the kinship between oriental nations and Hungarians and to tighten relations, cooperated with Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Thus, a number of scientists were sent to these camps. Hungarian Turcologist Ignác Kúnos was one of them. He visited the camps between in 1915-1918 and collected folkloric data. Then he reported his observations to Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In the person of Kúnos who was a witness to the prison camps, Turcology works that are conducted behind the lines shows that the prisoner camps served the function of a school for Hungarian scholars. In addition, it emphasize the importance of Hungarian Turkology, not only in terms of Turcology, but also in terms of other disciplines. In thisstudy, Kúnos'visitsto and activitiesin the prisoner camps and This life in those are revealed in light of formal correspondences found in Hungarian Academy of Science Archive and in Hungarian Ethnography Museum Ethnology Archive, Kúnos personal correspondences, reports he presented to Hungarian Academy of Sciences, volumes of Turan Journal and some other documents and they are evaluated in terms