Multifaceted experiences of Turkishness: a grounded theory approach to belongingsof Arabs, Kurds, and Syriacs

Download

index.pdf

Date

2020

Author

Bal, Özgür

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

290
views

373
downloads

This dissertation addresses the processes of formation/deformation of national belonging in Turkey, concerning the experiences of Arab, Kurd, and Syriac peoples in Mardin, Diyarbakır, and Urfa. The purpose is to understand if, when, how, and with what consequences do they relate to Turkishness and to explain how their belongings and subjectivities were formed within this context. The research method is grounded theory aiming at theory-building. Belonging itself emerged as a complex, multiple, and multidimensional process in the research findings with positional, emotional, and economic aspects being definitive to it. Findings were grounded in the participants’ experiences, practices, and perceptions. The conclusive argument is that there are basically three social-historical processes, interplay of which play constitutive role in making and unmaking of belongings for the participants of this research. These are violation, access to and mobilization of social relations to one’s good, and inclusion/exclusion in the running economic system. The variation in the experiences of these processes and how they interacted for each participant and each named group were defining in the consequent variation of belongings and subjectivities that are formed. Turkishness emerged to be a multifaceted experience that had three constitutive pillars, which were namely the state, Turks, and home/land. In conclusion, grounded in the research findings conceptualizations of Vionation, Cautionation, Modernation, and Localinationwere proposed to stand for the four fundamental forms that ‘nation’ forms in the experiences of the participants. These basically referred to formation of Turkishness through processes of violation, caution, modernization, and localization.

Subject Keywords

Turkic peoples, National Belonging, Violence, Social Capital, Economic Exclusion / Inclusion, Turkey.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625100/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/45453

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Contents of Turkish identity, national-social identifications, and inter-group relations in Turkey Taşdemir, Nagihan; Öner Özkan, Bengi; Department of Psychology (2013) This thesis investigated the relationships between contents of Turkish identity, national social identifications, and perceptions of inter-group relations in Turkey. 64 university students participated in Study 1, which explored contents of Turkish identity as Definitions of Turkish In-group Boundaries, Characteristics of Turkish Identity, Meanings of Having a Turkish Identity, and Turkish In-group’s Relations with Others. 324 university students participated in Study 2, which showed that National Participa...
Mobilizing the Kurds in Turkey : Newroz as a myth Aydın, Delal; Yeğen, Mesut; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2005) This thesis analyses the role of Newroz in the process of mobilization of the Kurds with the claim of separate identity in Turkey. It is claimed that Newroz is utilized as an ideological tool in order to construct/create Kurdish cultural or national unity. This function of Newroz is examined through two theoretical perspectives which are related to each other. On the one hand, Newroz is taken as a myth which has been used in the construction of Kurdish national identity. On the other hand, Newroz is conside...
Identity and the Nur movement in Turkey: "trying to see the gray" Wuthrich, Aimee M; Özdalga, Elisabeth; Department of Middle East Studies (2007) This thesis analyzes the identity of the Nur movement in Turkey from the emic perspective on two levels, the group and the individual. Research was conducted through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with ten university students who identify themselves as Nur students. With regard to group identity, first, the emergence and function of the movement is considered in light of Norbert Elias's "Changes in the We-I Balance," concluding that the movement constitutes an important "survival unit" for the student...
Turkish modernity and Kurdish ethno-nationalism Ökem, Mekin Mustafa Kemal; Ayata, Ayşe; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2006) This dissertation analyzes the context and discourse the Kurdish ethno-nationalism have emerged in modern Turkey. In a critical survey of a selected Kurdish nationalist theories, it tries to analyze the historical and contextual trajectory the nationalist discourse have assumed vis-à-vis Turkish modernity. A particular emphasis is given on how and on what basis Kurdish nationalism has questioned the formation and the sources of the legitimacy of the Turkish state and its role in the making of Turkish modern...
Gendered citizenship: experiences and perceptions of the Bulgarian Turkish immigrant women Kaytan, Özge; Aslan Akman, Canan; Department of Gender and Women's Studies (2014) The aim of this thesis is to analyze the citizenship experiences and perceptions of the Bulgarian Turkish immigrant women with specific reference to their participation to the public sphere, their engagements in the private sphere, different socialization processes they have been through and their daily lives. It is argued that the Bulgarian Turkish women’s citizenship practices were constructed through their ethnic minority identity in Bulgaria, in Turkey their citizenship has become a gendered construct d...

Citation Formats

Ö. Bal, “Multifaceted experiences of Turkishness: a grounded theory approach to belongingsof Arabs, Kurds, and Syriacs,” Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Graduate School of Social Sciences. Sociology., Middle East Technical University, 2020.