The Armenian Institute is happy to present the book launch: Mobility and Armenian Belonging in Contemporary Turkey: Migratory Routes and the Meaning of the Local by Salim Ayküt Öztürk.
“Imagine traveling through landscapes haunted by a genocide that is not officially acknowledged, but leaves its traces everywhere: scattered fragments, but not destroyed. In rich ethnographic detail, Salim Ayküt Öztürk describes some of the constant journeys taken in rebuilding Armenian belonging to these places, creating a different kind of geometry in the process.” Sarah Green, University of Helsinki, Finland.
What remains and becomes Armenian in a historically informed moment of increased mobility?
Looking at case studies ranging from bus and taxi drivers travelling between Armenia and Turkey to undocumented migrants deported from Turkey and now living in Armenian cities, as well as Armenian residents of Istanbul, Dr. Salim Ayküt Öztürk provides a vivid description of contemporary non-Muslim life in Turkey through the lives of Armenian Turkish citizens and undocumented migrants from Armenia, as well as Greek, Jewish and Kurdish communities.
Taking an anthropological approach with ethnographic data collected from Turkey and Armenia over the course of almost 10 years, this book focuses on themes of migration, human movement, community-making and the conditions that facilitate mobility and place-making. Salim Ayküt Öztürk provides both a critical account of how historical and more contemporary forms of violence and structural discrimination have targeted Armenians in the country. He also focuses on the re-articulations and appropriation of a sense of belonging by these and other minority communities.
Dr. Salim Ayküt Öztürk (PhD in Anthropology, University College London) conducted his doctoral research in Armenia, Georgia, and Turkey. Later research continued in different postcolonial urban contexts including Jerusalem, London, and Nairobi. Öztürk holds an MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies from SOAS and a BA in Political Science from Boğaziçi University. He is a former Hrant Dink Foundation Fellow and was involved in civil society initiatives between Armenia and Turkey. Currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark, he continues teaching a variety of anthropology/sociology courses.
