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The Haidar Bammate archive collection at IRCICA has been made digitally accessible and launched with a meeting held on 11 May 2026. Haidar Bammate (1890-1965), was one of the leaders of the Caucasus independence movement that led to the foundation of the Republic of Northern Caucasus in 1918 and served as its Foreign Affairs Minister. His collection, an invaluable primary source about the period, consists of archival materials (in total 3400 items) and printed materials (1600 items) belonging mainly to Haidar Bammate, including some from his father Necmettin Bammate and additions by his son Dr. Necmettin Bammate. The latter, a scholar in law at the Sorbonne, author on Islamic culture, and the OIC Representative in Paris, bequeathed the collection to IRCICA a few months before his death in 1985. It was delivered to IRCICA by his younger brother Timur Bammate, with the request to keep it unopened for twenty years due to then delicate international circumstances.
In his address at the meeting, IRCICA Director General Prof. Mahmud Erol Kılıç briefed the audience on the private collections which were donated to IRCICA by cultural personalities from various countries and said that these collections were being opened to access digitally for the benefit of researchers throughout the world. Professor Kılıç pointed out that the Bammate archive is one of the most important among them because it contains invaluable historical information as well as scholarly works authored by Haidar Bammate and Necmettin Bammate. Next, Mrs. Neslihan Sandal, Acting Head of IRCICA Library and Archive, gave a detailed description of the collection, its contents by subject, by type and by language, and the classification system. This was followed by a scholarly presentation by Mr. Cem Kumuk, researcher and author on the history of the Caucasus, shedding light on the deep importance of the collection for the history of the period and pointing to connections of the records, documents, correspondence and other primary sources in the collection with the history of the region and the independence movement. The last speaker, Prof. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, former Secretary General of the OIC, former Director General of IRCICA, shared souvenirs of his collaboration with Dr. Necmettin Bammate in the context of IRCICA’s work and his bequeathing the collection to the Centre. After the speeches, the moderator Dr. Attallah Rawashdeh, Assistant Head of Research and Publications at IRCICA, invited the audience to visit a display of samples from the collection. The meeting was attended by a large number of specialists on the history of the Caucasus and cultural personalities of Caucasian origin, including Prof. Murad Donogo, former Director of Dagestan National Museum of Visual Arts and author of a book on the 1917 founding congress of the said Republic, and Mr. Veysel Arıhan, Coordinator of the Caucasus Waqf in Istanbul.
