Armenians of Turkey have recently been applying for citizenship in Armenia in growing numbers. Based on research in Istanbul and Yerevan, we examine the contextual developments in both countries that ...contributed to the emergence of this practice, the motivations that Armenian citizenship applicants are guided by, and the implications of the process on their feelings and expressions of belonging. This move of many Armenians of Turkey appears to be mostly a strategic choice motivated by recent developments in the two countries (2015-2020). The Armenian passport is seen as a tool that could enable mobility from increasingly precarious Turkey. However, our analysis also reveals dimensions and implications of this praxis that transcend mere instrumentalism and relate to affective realms of belonging. To some of its holders, the newly acquired Armenian citizenship represents an opportunity or hope for a fully recognised belonging, in contrast to their traditional step-citizenship in Turkey.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
In Istanbul, a city that is undeniably shaped by bodies of water, boats constitute ethnographic sites to observe the multiple processes of community-making. By looking at the time travelled on boats ...en route to the famous Prince’s Islands Archipelago located off the city proper, this article demonstrates how different understandings of time and temporality among the permanent (both winter- and summer-time) and the temporary (summer-time only) residents of the islands both define and inform particular relationships to the islands. For instance, to what extent everyday practices of accommodating time – such as waiting for boats and anticipation of delays – reflect different ways of belonging to the islands? In relation to the very specific demographic compositions and public imaginations about these islands as a non-Turkish/Muslim space populated by Jews, Greeks and Armenians, this article necessarily investigates how accessibility to urban mobility plays out in the (un)making of national unity. In doing so, it follows a specific approach to understanding noise, sound and hearing as ethnographic data, and tackles the ways through which non-Muslim difference and diversity are expressed (and/or similarly silenced) in the city. This is how the article provides an ethnographically thick description of the “stigmatization” of these islands in Turkish national and public imagery by way of focusing on the tangible aspects of (spending) time which is often sensed as discriminatory by the islanders.
This PhD thesis studies regimes and everyday practices of both short- and long-distance mobility that produce physical and cultural distances among Armenians in and en route to Turkey. It is ...concerned with portraying how people, things, and ideas are re-made as they travel (Tsing 2010: 347) and works towards a collage of mobility in which heterogeneous narratives present 'a greater picture' of place-making (Clifford 1997: 12). This is how it triggers discussions on the co-constitution of particular antagonisms of space and affiliation, and invites readers to a new perspective of comprehending 'dwelling' with 'travelling', 'insides' with 'outsides', 'natives' with 'foreigners', and state-imposed definitions of unity with personal accounts of unity (and diversity). The thesis deals with the physical and imagined components of unity through a metaphor of islands, which guides the reader through the ethnographic material collected during multi-sited research conducted in Turkey, in Armenia, and on the roads that connect these two neighbouring countries. The metaphor does not define distinct and compartmentalized zones of culture, history, and economy; instead, it accounts for ongoing connection and movement despite physical and imagined barriers in/between the two countries. However, the metaphor is not devoid of physical substance; an entire country, a migrant enclave, a city block, and a literal island off Istanbul constitute its more tangible components. The thesis gives a vivid description of the human geography of dwelling in and travelling to Turkey. Inspired by Green's work on the Greek-Albanian border (2005), it locates its Armenian protagonists as 'people who take mobility for granted' and provides the historical, political, and physical conditions behind this sentiment. In doing so, it portrays the making of a "state-crafted" epistemological regime (see Navaro-Yashin 2012), in which an Armenian minority is invented along with a Turkish majority (al-Rustom 2015: 413). It necessarily tackles the making of contemporary Turks as much as Armenians.
U Istanbulu, gradu koji je neporecivo određen vodenim površinama, brodovi su etnografski teren u okviru kojega se mogu promatrati različiti procesi stvaranja zajednica. Istražujući vrijeme provedeno ...na brodu na putu prema znamenitim Prinčevim otocima, koji se nalaze nedaleko Istanbula, u članku se istražuje kako različita shvaćanja vremena i temporalnosti među stalnim i povremenim stanovnicima otoka (tj. onima koji tamo žive i zimi i ljeti, odnosno samo ljeti) definiraju njihov odnos prema otocima i utječu na njega. Na primjer, do koje mjere svakodnevne prakse prilagodbe vremena – kao što su čekanje broda ili predviđanje njegova kašnjenja – odražavaju različite načine pripadnosti otocima? Uzevši u obzir specifičan demografski sastav Prinčevih otoka te predodžbu o njima kao o neturskom/nemuslimanskom prostoru koji nastanjuju Židovi, Grci i Armenci, u ovom se članku istražuje kako pristup urbanoj mobilnosti dovodi do (ra)stvaranja nacionalnog jedinstva. Točnije, u članku se buka, zvuk i slušanje shvaćaju kao specifični etnografski podaci te se istražuje kako oni dovode do izražavanja (i/ili ušutkavanja) različitosti i raznolikosti nemuslimana u Istanbulu. Tako se – istražujući opipljive aspekte (provođenja) vremena na putu, što stanovnici otoka često shvaćaju kao diskriminatorno – daje etnografski gust opis “stigmatizacije” Prinčevih otoka u turskom nacionalnom i javnom imaginariju.
