Syrian Armenians and the Turkish Factor

This volume examines significant social transformations engendered by the ongoing Syrian conflict in the lives of Syrian Armenians. The authors draw on documentary material and fieldwork carried out in 2013-2019 among Syrian Armenians in Armenian and Lebanese urban settings. The stories of Syrian Armenians reveal how contemporary events are seen to have direct links to the past and to reproduce memories associated with the Armenian genocide; the contemporary involvement of Turkey in the Syrian war, for example, is seen on the ground as an attempt to control the Armenian presence in Syria. Today, the Syrian Armenian identity encapsulates the complex intersection of memory, transnational links to the past, collective identity and lived experience of wartime everydayness. Specifically, the analysis addresses the role of memory in key events, such as the bombing of Armenian historical sites during the commemorations of 24 April in the Eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor; the (perceived) shift from destroying Syrian Armenians' material culture to attempting to destroy the Armenian community in urban Aleppo; and the informal transactions that take place in the border area of Kessab. This carefully-researched ethnography will appeal to scholars of anthropology, sociology, and political science who specialize in studies of conflict, memory and diaspora.

Combines fieldwork and interviews with archival and media sources (newspapers, social media, and academic literature) Examines the ongoing Syrian conflict from a new perspective, that of the Syrian Armenian refugee community Sheds new light on urban wartime events and diaspora issues through the lenses of transnationalism and memory studies

Autorentext

Marcello Mollica is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at the University of Messina, Italy.

Arsen Hakobyan is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: The Syrian Armenians and The Turkish Factor: Kessab, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor in the Syrian War.- 2. Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: From Violence to Genocide.- 3. Religious Affiliation and the Armenian Diaspora in the Middle East.- 4. Armenian Communities in the Syrian War.- 5. Deir Ez-Zor and its Lieux de Mémoire.- 6. Aleppo Armenians at War.- 7. Kessab in the Syrian War.- 8. The Occupation of Northern Syria.- 9. Conclusions.