Armenians in Southeastern Turkey Multiple Identities and Representations of Citizenship

Citizenship has been hotly debated across many disciplines such as political science and sociology. The daily practices and experiences of belonging have changed tremendously within the legal, political, social and cultural spheres. The practices of citizenship which has been defined by constitution and laws, are affected by migration, displacement and wars. Moreover, citizenship includes or excludes people with respect to place, time, ethnicity, and religion. Armenians have been subjected to assimilation policies, maltreatment and discrimination and they have had unsecured and unsafe lives in their lands more than a hundred year. This is why we selected them as the research target. In this context, we explore the question of how Armenians perceive and place themselves as citizens with regards to their multiple identities, freedom of belief and geography they live in. In addition, how they practice their citizenship in their daily lives is also explored. Based on a qualitative method with a social psychological stance, face-to-face interviews were conducted with Armenians from the southeastern region of Turkey, around April 24, 2015, during the 100th commemoration ceremonies of the 1915 events. The interviews reveal how Armenians’ perceptions of identities, state, constitution, native language, freedom of belief, and geographies are reflected in their citizenship representations and their narratives of their civic practices