PSIA Seminar: The ‘Other’ Citizens – Armenians in Turkey between Isolation and (dis)Integration

More than a century after the Armenian Genocide, anti-Armenian public rhetoric, misrepresentations, false rumors and assumptions are commonplace in print and broadcast media, among government officials, public figures and the general public. Indeed, being an Armenian in the post-Genocide Republic of Turkey has meant going through a continuous process of state imposed and societal minoritization in virtually all aspects of communal and individual life. On the micro-social level “religious-cultural differences” between Armenians and Turks have not been defining markers of minority-majority interaction in Turkey. However, in the post-Genocide period, state discrimination against the Armenian community—and generally the non-Muslim minorities—has been institutionalized and systematically used towards the detriment of the target community. The speaker will present these issues and the processes of state and societal ‘othering’ of the Armenians in Turkey, with a particular focus on the impact of such policies and public discourses on the current situation of the community.

Dr. Hratch Tchilingirian is a sociologist and associate faculty member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Following his doctoral studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (PhD in Sociology), he taught and held various academic positions (2002-2012) at the University of Cambridge. He has held leadership positions in academic and non‐profit institutions in Britain and the United States. His main research interests are in the field of sociology, religion, and political science, with particular focus on inter‐ethnic conflicts, diasporas, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. He has published extensively and lectures widely in Europe, the US and the Middle East (www.hratch.info).