The demise of empires in the first half of the twentieth century has witnessed the rise of competing nationalisms and the establishment of ethno-national and ethno-sectarian states. The course offers a contextual reading of nation-states in both the Balkans and the Middle East that were established out of the aches of the Ottoman Empire by taking the residual Armenians in Turkey as a case study.

The establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Armenian genocide ‘survivors’ became citizens of a nation-state that once sought their annihilation. We read the history of Turkey parallel with the Armenian experience available in ethnographies as well as social and oral historical accounts. We contrast official and critical historiographical accounts of Turkey and modern Armenians to map silences, absences, and misrepresentation of Armenians in such accounts. Building on the literature of settler colonialism the course seeks to understand the process that turned Armenians from a ‘native’ population into ‘foreign’ minority in their ancestral homeland.

Course Requirements:

2 short essays, film report and final essay.

Intended Audience:

Undergraduates interested in nation-state building in Middle East and Balkans, sectarianism and governance, post-genocide Armenian history, social history of Turkey, Christians of the Middle East, post-genocide societies, historical and anthropological approaches to the study of the Middle East and the Balkans (the post-Ottoman).