Aytek Namitok was born in February 1892 in the village of Ponezhukay. His family was involved in trading and could be considered middle-class by the standards of that era. Like many intellectuals of that time, Aytek attended Stavropol High School. He graduated in 1912. He left the Caucasus for St. Petersburg to pursue an academic education in law.
Aytek Namitok
His university education took place during the pre-revolution era, and he joined revolutionary movements. In 1916, he graduated and registered with the Petrograd Bar. During the February Revolution, he held several bureaucratic positions, including Head of the Commission on National School Issues under the Ministry of Public Education of the Provisional Government. His involvement in preventing the Wild Division from suppressing the February Revolution is considered one of his most influential actions in the history of the Caucasus.
Aytek Namitok by Yuri Artsybushev (1919)
On the eve of the Russian Civil War, Namitok became a member of the Rada, the Kuban Legislative Assembly. He was elected to the First Kuban Legislative Council, representing the highlander faction. Namitok also joined the South-Eastern Union Government. After World War I ended, Namitok was among the Kuban Rada members elected as delegates to the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920). During his time in Paris, he played an active role in establishing a friendship treaty with the Union of the United Caucasian Highlanders Republic. For this reason, like the other members of the Kuban delegation in Paris, Namitok was condemned by General Denikin and sentenced to death in absentia for treason against “the united and indivisible Russia." During his early days in Europe, he wrote articles for the magazine L'Europe Orientale advocating for the liberation of non-Russians in the former Russian Empire. He could not establish a permanent life in one place while in exile. He constantly traveled between Paris, Prague, and Istanbul. He often struggled financially, and Haydar Bammat supported him during those difficult times.
Aytek Namitok, Paris-1930
He was actively involved in Freemasonry during his time in exile. He was initiated into the Lodge of the Golden Fleece in Paris on April 29, 1925. He was raised to the second degree on October 10, 1925; to the third degree on August 4, 1926; and he retired on December 31, 1926. Later, he joined the Astrea Lodge, raised to the fourth grade in 1927. Together with his Masonic brother Georges Dumezil, he studied the history of Circassia and the North Caucasus, as well as the region's etymology, language, and folklore. In 1931, he met the wealthy widow of General Met Yusuf Izzet Chunatuko, Hayriye Melek Hunch, in Paris and married her.
Marriage Certificate of Hayriye Melek Hunch and Aytek Namitok (1950)
On the eve of World War II, he participated in negotiations with Nazi Germany as a member of the Council of the Caucasian Confederation. In July 1941, he signed a petition addressed to Joachim Ribbentrop, urging Nazi Germany to ally with the Caucasians against Stalin's regime. After the war, he moved to Turkey with his wife, where they registered their marriage on July 20, 1950. The couple first settled in Hadjiosman, the hometown of Hayriye Melek Hunch, in Manyas, and later moved to Istanbul. He worked at several academic institutions and taught French. Namitok died of a sudden heart attack on July 26, 1963, at the age of 71, and was buried in the Karacaahmet Cemetery in Üsküdar. In commemoration of this day, I made the e-copy of the original 107-page draft of the first book of one of Namitok's major works, "The Origin of the Circassians," available to our members in our archives. You can also access e-copies of the Turkish, French, and Russian print editions of the work via the links below. Cem Kumuk, Istanbul, 26 July 2025
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