Korkmaz, A.

English

During the Armenian genocide of 1915-16, around 300,000 Armenians were driven out of the Ottoman Empire across the Russian border, settling in what would soon become Soviet Armenia. While adapting to numerous political and socio-economic transformations in Armenia over several decades, the ex-Ottoman Armenians and their descendants have been reflecting on the violent past and expulsion from their Ergir. A territorial construct in Armenian, Ergir translates to “the Old Country” and connotes the former living spaces of Armenians in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Contemporarily, the term is used both as a politically-charged “national homeland” (analogous to the terms “Western Armenia” and “Historic Armenia”) or a “local homeland” like a village, city, or region located in Turkey’s east. This thesis examines how this national-local “homeland” was brought into life in Armenia in its physical absence. How were its traces, namely the abandoned homes, graves, churches, deceased relatives, and everything else that ex-Ottoman Armenians had to leave behind, mediated and made present? I argue that Ergir’s void was, and continues to be, filled by a crafted presence, a mediated presence that manifests itself in portable mnemonic repositories. I define crafted presence as a response to what no longer exists (or perhaps never has existed) and is thus rendered an object of longing. This can be a time period, an event, an experience, a place, an object, a person, a tradition, or an ideology. Crafted presence aims to counter the perceived absence of these things by supplanting them with a deliberately constructed symbolic presence, locked into a frozen and timeless state. In the aftermath of the Armenian genocide, the ex-Ottoman Armenians and their descendants in Armenia have skillfully crafted the presence of lost homes, graves, families, and everything else that was rendered absent by the catastrophe of 1915-16 through orally transmitted memories, literary representations, commemorative objects, and rituals

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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl)UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)Crafted presenceThe afterlives of the Armenian genocideKorkmaz, A.Publication date2022Link to publicationCitation for published version (APA):Korkmaz, A. (2022). Crafted presence: The afterlives of the Armenian genocide. [Thesis, fullyinternal, Universiteit van Amsterdam].General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s)and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an opencontent license (like Creative Commons).Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, pleaselet the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the materialinaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letterto: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Youwill be contacted as soon as possible.Download date:15 Apr 2023                       CRAFTED PRESENCE:    The Afterlives of the Armenian Genocide in Armenia  AYŞENUR KORKMAZ DOCTORAL THESIS   University of Amsterdam  1  Crafted Presence: The Afterlives of the Armenian Genocide     ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT  ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. ir. P.P.C.C. Verbeek ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op woensdag 30 november 2022, te 11.00 uur  door Ayşenur Korkmaz geboren te Istanbul           2   Promotiecommissie Promotor:   prof. dr. J.T. Leerssen   Universiteit van Amsterdam Copromotor:   dr. M.M. Leezenberg    Universiteit van Amsterdam  Overige leden:  prof. dr. F.P.I.M. van Vree   Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. M. Kemper    Universiteit van Amsterdam dr. M.A.M.B. Lous Baronian  Universiteit van Amsterdam dr. S. Kasbarian    University of Stirling prof. dr. A.G. Altınay   Sabancı University   Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen                  3   Table of Contents List of Figures, Maps, and Tables ................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................... 6 A Note on Transliteration ............................................................................................................... 8 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 10 Ergir: Historical Underpinnings ............................................................................................... 12 Contribution to Armenian Studies ............................................................................................ 16 Crafted Presence: Theoretical Explorations .............................................................................. 21 Research Design and Method .................................................................................................... 27 On Challenges and Rapport .................................................................................................. 32 Structure of the Thesis............................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 1: The Armenian Genocide and Its Aftermath: A Historical Overview .................... 39 The Armenian Genocide and Flight to the South Caucasus (1915-16)..................................... 40 From Ottoman Subjects to Soviet Citizens ............................................................................... 46 Under Persecution: The Great Terror (1936-53) ....................................................................... 50 After Stalin: The Khrushchev and Brezhnev Years (1953-82) ................................................. 58 On the Road to Independence: The Karabakh War and Genocide Memory ............................. 60 Post-Independence: Ethno-Religious Nationalism and Sacralization ....................................... 62 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 65 CHAPTER 2: In the Absence of Ergir։ Literary and Cultural Representations in Soviet Armenia....................................................................................................................................................... 67 Nostalgic Reminiscing in Early Soviet Armenia ...................................................................... 69 Revenge of Memory: The Post-Stalin Period ........................................................................... 75 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 80 CHAPTER 3: Crafting Roots: Ancestral Heritage and the Nation’s Survival ............................. 82 National Genealogical Imaginaries in Armenia ........................................................................ 89 The Post-genocide Family Trees ............................................................................................... 94 Of Ancestral and Geographic “Roots” .................................................................................... 103 Narratives of Death and Survival ............................................................................................ 107 Looking Backward Moving Forward .................................................................................. 117 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 125 4  CHAPTER 4: In Search of Ergir: Armenian-Roots Tourism in Eastern Turkey ....................... 127 Past and Present: Historical Background to Travel ................................................................. 132 Theorizing Roots Tourism ...................................................................................................... 136 The Itineraries ......................................................................................................................... 140 The Roots Tourists .................................................................................................................. 148 Presences and Absences: In the Search of Ergir ..................................................................... 151 Churches and Monasteries .................................................................................................. 153 Battlefields and Graveyards ................................................................................................ 166 Ancestral Sites ..................................................................................................................... 170 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 174 CHAPTER 5: “Mer Surb Hayreni Hoghy:” A Contested Sacred Land ...................................... 177 Constructing Sacred Space ...................................................................................................... 182 Narrative Sacralization ....................................................................................................... 184 Violence and desecration ..................................................................................................... 187 The ritual production of sacredness .................................................................................... 192 Contesting for the “Homeland” ............................................................................................... 196 Digging up the Past: Narrative contestation ....................................................................... 200 Ritual Contestation .............................................................................................................. 204 Consequences of Ritual Contestation .................................................................................. 205 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 210 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 214 “Give Our Lands Back!” The Future of Ergir ........................................................................ 219 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 223 Primary Sources ...................................................................................................................... 223 Interviews ................................................................................................................................ 224 Secondary Sources .................................................................................................................. 226 Summary: Crafted Presence: The Afterlives of the Armenian Genocide in Armenia ................ 256 Samenvatting: “Crafted Presence:” Het nabestaan van de Armeense genocide in Armenië ...... 257     

Crafted presence:The afterlives of the Armenian genocide

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Crafted presence:The afterlives of the Armenian genocide

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