Looking Back: Armenian Emigrants, Nationalism and Modern Turkey

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Description

Looking Back is a compelling account of how Armenians, as migrants in Canada, remember their past lives in Turkey and make sense of their experiences in two very different landscapes. Anchored in the workings of the Turkish nation, theirs are stories about loss, denial, trauma, and discrimination on the one hand, resilience, survival, and community on the other.

Bayars in-depth examination tackles questions about memory, citizenship, and being a minority inside a nationalist landscape while revealing rich and multilayered accounts of everyday encounters with institutions, friends, and strangers. Looking Back is a timely study about the costs of nation-building and the ways minorities navigate an exclusionary landscape.

Reviews

This is an excellent study of how minoritized populations like the Armenians who have had genocidal violence in their past negotiate two diasporas, a diaspora in modern Turkey where they become minoritized through state and societal violence on their own ancestral lands, and a diaspora in contemporary Canada where they join a multitude of immigrant populations. * Fatma Mge Gek, Professor, University of Michigan, USA *
This brilliant, beautifully written investigation of the experiences of Armenians moving to Canada is a treasure troverich life histories recounting 20th-century Turkish history, and a superlative meditation on the perils and promises of nationalism. A very great achievement, deserving praise and readers. * John A. Hall, Professor, McGill University, Canada *

Author Bio

Yesim Bayar is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at St. Lawrence University, New York. She is the author of Formation of the Turkish Nation-State (1920-1938).