투르크메니스탄 고려인 사회의 형성과 변천과정에 나타난 특징

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the characteristics of the formation and developmentof the ethnic Korean community in Turkmenistan that is comparatively unknownto not only ordinary people but specialists concerned with national issues. As theinterrelationships between Republic of Korea and Turkmenistan intensifies, the needto examine the situation of the ethnic Korean people (Koryoin) rises in order to selectefficient strategy for improving conditions for South Koreans who engage in academicwork and business. The first community of Turkmen Koreans was established in Tashauz region byimmigrants from Karakalpakia (Uzbekistan) after the '1937 deportation' of Far EasternKoreans in the then USSR. According to the Soviet census of 1939, it was recordedthat 40 Koreans resided there in Turkmen SSR. And as times passed, the size ofKorean population became bigger and bigger: 1,919 (1959), 3,493 (1970), 3,105(1979),2,848(1989). The last official record by census in 1995 showed the ethnic Koreans as3,159 persons. As of now, the exact size is not known, though lesser, but the comingresult of the 2012 census will be helpful. The main activities of Turkmen Koreans performed in 'the 22nd Congress of CPSU'Kolkhoz and 'the 23rd Congress' Kolkhoz that the former was located in Kunya-Urgenchi district and the latter in Lininsk district in Tashauz region. Koreans weresuccessful and famous for producing rices because they were then the only nationwho could cultivate rices in Turkmen SSR. Through the Korean newspaper, 'LeninKichi' that was published from 1938 to 1990, I can obtain materials concerned withthese Kolkhozes. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new problems of Turkmen Koreanstook place: the necessity of studying Turkmen language, the preservation of Korean national culture and the adaptation to the newly conditions of economic system. Butmost of all, it is noted that the organization of Korean Association in Turkmenistanis not yet allowed as a legal group. Even establishing a center with the meaning ofnationality is prohibited by the government. That is the present situation in TurkmenKorean community nowadays.