Enacting multi-layered citizenship: Turkey’s Armenians’ struggle for justice and equality

Abstract

Throughout the history of the Turkish Republic, Turkey’s Armenians have been subjected to a trade-off between the limited minority rights granted by the 1923 Lausanne Treaty and equal national citizenship. Traditionally a closed, depoliticized community, the citizenship practices of the Armenian minority have become increasingly differentiated in recent years. Building on a notion of citizenship as multi-layered and constituted through collective practice, this article investigates the implications of the political acts of Turkey’s Armenian minority on sub-national and national citizenship in Turkey. We show that Turkey’s Armenians are coupling rights demands, identification, normative references, and mobilization at the sub-national, national, and transnational levels in innovative ways, and are thereby negotiating different layers of citizenship in Turkey in a way that strengthens equal national citizenship.

Keywords:

• Turkey’s Armenians
• acts of citizenship
• Armenian Patriarchate
• European Court of Human Rights
• 1915

Acknowledgments

We thank Ziya Kaya for research assistance and the reviewers and editors of Citizenship Studies for their detailed comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Our research does not cover irregular migrants from Armenia, who are residing in Turkey.

2. In the cases of other citizen-groups in Turkey, this negotiation process has yielded different results (see Rumelili, Keyman, and Isyar 2011).

3. Media analysis focused mainly on Agos and Radikal newspapers as well as online news sources, such as Bianet.

4. Interviews were conducted at the Armenian Patriarchate (Istanbul, 16 November 2014), Agos newspaper (Istanbul, 27 October 2014), Surp Kevork Foundation (Istanbul, 7 January 2015), and Hrant Dink Foundation (Istanbul, 5 November 2014). Based on our analysis of the news coverage on the three issues, these institutions were identified as critical actors representing different positions. Established in the fifteenth century, the Patriarchate is historically the most important autonomous institution in not only the spiritual, but also civil and political matters concerning the community. Agos is a Turkish-Armenian newspaper, established in 1996, which plays a critical role in bringing Armenian issues and perspectives to the public sphere in Turkey and fostering engagement between Turkish and Armenian intellectuals. Hrant Dink Foundation is established in the name of the former chief-editor of Agos, who was assassinated in 2007, and aims to promote understanding, mutual respect, and reconciliation between Turks and Armenians. Finally, Surp Kevork Foundation was interviewed to represent the views of Armenian foundations, which have pursued the return of properties seized by the Turkish state via litigation in the ECtHR. In the interviews, respondents were asked to evaluate Turkey’s Armenians’ approaches to their sub-national and national citizenship rights and obligations, and indicate their views regarding the differences of opinion in the community regarding the three issues. Interviews were conducted in Turkish and later translated to English by the authors.

5. As of March 2015, one Armenian is appointed as advisor to the Prime Minister.

6. According to our interviewee at the Armenian Patriarchate, national resources have been allocated to the upkeep of Armenian institutions for the first time in 2014, although the funds have not yet been received.

7. Ors and Komsuoglu survey was conducted with 228 participants in 2004–2005. Ozdogan et al. survey was administered to 258 subjects active in Armenian associations. Ercetin survey was administered online to 120 participants.

8. Historically, the religious foundations have been in an organic relationship with the Patriarchate (Kaya 2014), and continue to support its leadership.