Publicist, translator, historian-ethnographer

Year of birth: April 20, 1950

Papba (Tuna), Makhinur Aazizovna (04/20/1950, p. Alyndzha, Turkey) - writer, publicist, translator, historian and ethnographer. Writes in Turkish and Abkhaz languages.

In 1973 she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Istanbul University. In the same year, she visited the Soviet Union for the first time and made a trip to her historic homeland, Abkhazia. After a personal acquaintance with the People’s poet of Abkhazia, B. Shinkuba took an active part in the translation and publication in Turkish of his historical novel The Last of the Gone (1995). For many years she was an assistant to the outstanding representative of the Abkhaz abroad, the poet and historian Omar Beygua, a resident of Istanbul.

In different versions of M. Papba’s translations, Abkhaz epos “Nartskie legends” (2001), “Abrskil” (compiled by B. Shinkub), “Abkhaz tales” (2010) appeared in Turkish. She is the author of a scientifically public essay published in a separate book, Apsilia and Tsebelda, a book about the first Turkish artist Mihri Musfik, who came from the family of Abkhaz prince Ahmed Rasim Pasha Achba, a resident of Istanbul (2007). In her translations, the novel “The King Leon” by V. Amarshan (2008) and the “History of Abkhazia” by V. Biguah (2006) are published. Many publications of folklore materials by M. Papba, research and popularization articles are posted on the pages of magazines and newspapers in Turkey and Abkhazia.

In 2000, M. Papba united and led a group of enthusiasts, in collaboration with whom she published a number of books that popularized knowledge of ancient and modern Abkhazia in Turkey.

In 1991-1998 led the Abkhaz Cultural Center in Istanbul.