418

 Armenian Schools in Contemporary Turkey:
Governmentality, Community, Resilience

Declaration of Originality
The intellectual content of this dissertation, which has been written by
me and for which I take full responsibility, is my own, original work, and
it has not been previously or concurrently submitted elsewhere for any
other examination or degree of higher education. The sources of all paraphrased
and quoted materials, concepts, and ideas are fully cited, and
the admissible contributions and assistance of others with respect to the
conception of the work as well as to linguistic expression are explicitly
acknowledged herein.
Copyright © 898: Hülya Delihüseyinoğlu.
Some rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ^.9 International License.
To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/^.9/
vi
Abstract
Armenian Schools in Contemporary Turkey:


In the grip of central examination systems, the marketization and privatization
of schooling, regulations of a nation state which maintains its emphasis
on its Turko-Islamic tenets, and the escalation of competition
among students as an outcome of an endeavor to be incorporated into
global job markets, the Armenian schools struggle to breed a nurturing
soil for Armenian cultural sustainability. The main objective of this research
is to analyze to what extent the Armenian schools serve as places
of cultural empowerment in spite of the external constraints that the educational
system in Turkey breeds and the political targeting Armenian
community experiences today. Although the schools are places of acculturation
in which the wishes of the nation state almost always prevail,
this does not mean that latitude in education is fully encompassed by precepts
of national education. There is a possibility for the schools to function
as spaces for cultural self-realization as opposed to the political targeting
and marginalization they are subjected to. The aim of this study is
to unpack the broader educational 1ield encapsulating the Armenian
schools, and to paint a comprehensive picture which summarizes bureaucratic
functioning, quotidian practices, daily predicaments, the network
of relationships interwoven around the schools or any pattern that
delineate their overall milieu, so that it could be possible to understand
how self-meaning is produced in the schools.
SSa,999 words
vii

Merkezi sınav sistemleri, okulların özelleştirilmesi ve piyasalaşması,
Türk-İslam doktrini üzerindeki vurgusunu devam ettiren ulus devlet
yönetmelikleri ve küresel iş piyasalarına eklemlenme çabalarının sonucu
olarak öğrenciler arasında artan rekabet dinamiklerinin kıskacında,
Ermeni okulları kültürel devamlılığı sağlayabilecek koşulları beslemek
için mücadelesini sürdürüyor. Bu araştırmanın temel amacı, Türkiye’deki
eğitim sisteminden kaynaklanan dış etkenlere ve Ermeni toplumunun
bugün deneyimlemek zorunda olduğu siyasal hedef gösterilmeye rağmen
Ermeni okullarının kültürel güçlenmeyi sağlayabilecek alanları ne derece
sürdürebildiğini tartışmak. Her ne kadar Ermeni okulları ulus devletin
taleplerinin neredeyse her zaman galip geldiği kültürel baskı alanları olsa
da, bu durum eğitimdeki serbestlik alanının ulus devletin hükümleri
tarafından tamamen kuşatıldığı anlamına gelmiyor. Siyasi olarak hedef
gösterilmelerine ve ötekileştirilmelerine rağmen okulların kültürel
farkındalık alanları olarak işlemesi mümkün. Bu çalışma, Ermeni
okullarını çerçeveleyen eğitim alanını geniş ölçekte çözümleyerek ve
okulların bürokratik işleyişini, gündelik açmazlarını, etra1larında
ördükleri ilişkiler ağını ya da genel durumlarını resmeden örüntüleri
özetleyen kapsamlı bir resim çizerek okullarda anlam şemalarının nasıl
şekillendiğini anlama gayesi taşıyor.
SSa,999 kelime
viii
ix

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS/EMPLOYMENT
█ Nov. 89Sm – Jan. 89Sj: Junior Expert, Global Compact Network Turkey
█ Nov. 89Sm – Jan. 89Sj: Junior Expert, Turkish Industry and Business Association
(Tüsiad)
█ Feb. 89Sr – Feb. 89Sm: Project Coordinator, Turkey-Armenia Relations
Program, Hrant Dink Foundation
AWARDS AND HONORS
█ December 8988: Honorary Mention, “Governing Armenian Schools
Through Ambiguity”, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association Graduate
Paper Prize
x
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
█ Visiting Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program,
Northwestern University
INVITED TALKS
█ Apr. 8989: “Armenian Schools in Turkey”, Armenian Circle, University of
Chicago
█ Apr. 8989: “Türkiye’de Ermeni Okulları”, Turkish Circle, University of Chicago
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
█ May 8988: “Governing Armenian Schools Through Ambiguity”, Association
for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) World Convention
█ Dec. 898S: “Governing Armenian Schools Through Ambiguity”, Middle
East Studies Association Annual Meeting
█ Mar. 89Sr: “Expectations of Justice in the Context of the Peace Process in
Turkey”, Critical Approaches to the Peace Process in Turkey, the Centre
for Trust, Peace and Social Relations and Kurdish Studies Network
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
█ Sept. 89S8 – June 89S^: Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
Sabancı University
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
█ Aug. 89S: – Oct. 89S^: Research Assistant, Con1lict Analysis and Resolution
Program, Sabancı University
LANGUAGES
█ Turkish –Native Speaker
█ English – Fluent
█ German – Intermediate
█ Armenian – Intermediate
xi
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS
█ Middle East Studies Association
█ Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association
xii
xiii
Table of Contents
List of Tables xv
List of Figures xv
Glossary of Non-English Terms xvi
Abbreviations and Acronyms xxi
Note on Transliteration xxi
Acknowledgements xxiii
< INTRODUCTION <
u.u Context a
u.v Notes of a researcher j
u.w Methodology SS
u.x Theoretical Framework Sr
u.y Chapters 8:
= REVIEWING PAST AND PRESENT OF ARMENIAN SCHOOLS =>
v.u Armenian Community and Religious Education :S
v.v Reform Period and the Modernization of Education ^8
v.w Educational Refashioning in the Hamidian Regime aj
v.x Towards the End of Empire r:
v.y Republican Period and National Education m8
? GOVERNING ARMENIAN SCHOOLS THROUGH AMBIGUITY @A
w.u Reshuf1ling Perspectives towards the Turkish State jk
w.v Emerging New Social Forces with the Neoliberal Shift SS:
w.w Protracting Ambiguity as a Governing Mechanism S8^
B RECOVERING SPACES OF FAMILIAL CULTURE <C<
x.u Nuclear Family in Familial Culture Srj
x.v Where Familial Culture and Educational Policies Meet Smk
x.w Familiarity in Familial Culture SjS
x.x Familial Culture as a Safe Space Sjr
x.y Teaching as a Gendered Division of Labor 8SS
xiv
x.z Contested Spheres of Individuality 888
A RETHINKING ARMENIAN SCHOOLS IN INTERSECTING FIELDS OF POWER ==@
y.u Revisiting the Communal Field 8:m
y.v Leveraging in Educational Affairs 8^^
y.w Notables as a Social Force 8a^
C RELOCATING ARMENIAN IDENTITY IN SPATIALITY AND TEMPORALITY =>A
z.u Vanishing Culture, Displaced Identity 8kr
z.v Impacts of Nationalist Education 8j^
z.w Language, Religion and Space in Making Armenian Identity :9j
> CONCLUSION ?=>
REFERENCES ??>
xv
List of Tables
Table 8.S The list of Armenian Schools in 898: j:
List of Figures
Figure 8.S Armenian Schools in Istanbul in 898: j8
xvi
Glossary of Non-English Terms
Amira The upper class and notables of
the Armenian community
Alliance Israélite Universelle Universal Israelite Alliance
Արարատյան Ընկերություն Հայոց
[Araradyan Ingerutyun Hayots]
The Araratyan Armenian Association
Azınlıklar Tali Komisyonu The Secondary Commission of
Minorities
Ազգանուէր Հայուհյաց
Ընկերությունը [Azkanver Hayuhyats
Ingerutyunı]
The Armenian Patriotic
Women Association
Ազգային Կեդրոնական Վարժարան
[Azkayin Getronagan Varjaran]
(National) Getronagan High
School
Ազգային Սահմանադրութիւն Հայոց
[Azkayin Sahmanatrutyun Hayots]
Armenian National Constitution
Պատրիարքութիւն Հայոց
[Badriarkutyun Hayots]
Armenian Patriarchate
Պէյօղլու Սուրբ Երրորդութիւն
Եկեղեցի
[Beyoğlu Surp Yerrortutyun Yegeğetsi]
Beyoğlu Surp Holy Trinity
Church
Bolsahays Istanbulite Armenians
Daimi Meclis-i Maarif The Permanent Council of Education
Dar-ül Fünun Western style higher education
institution, university
xvii
Dar-ül Muallimin Male teacher training school
Ermeni Malları Müşterek İdaresi
Komitesi
The Committee of Collective
Management of Armenian
Properties
Էսաեան Դպրոց եւ Վարժարան
[Esayan Tbrots yev Varjaran]
Esayan School and High School
Կիլիկյան Ընկերություն
[Giligyan Ingerutyun]
The Giligyan Association
hokicaş Memorial dinner
Islahat Fermanı Reform edict
imam Muslim religious leader
İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti The Committee of Union and
Progress
Ժպիտ [Jbid] Smile
Kadıköy Asliye Hukuk Mahkemesi Kadıköy Civil Court of General
Jurisdiction
Գրաբար [Krapar] Classical Armenian
Maarif-i Umumiye Nezareti The Ministry of Public Education
Maarif Komisyonu The Council of National Education
Maarif Nizamnamesi The Regulation for National
Education
madağ Celebratory endowment dinner
xviii
Meclis-i Maarif-i Umumiye The Council of Public Education
Meclis-i Muhtelit-i Maarif The Council of Mixed Education
mekatib-i hususiye Private schools
mekatib-i umumiyye Public schools
Meclis-i Umur-ı Na1ia The Of1ice of Public Works
medrese Islamic theological colleges
Mekatib-i Ecnebiye ve Gayrimüslim
Müfettişliği
The Inspection Of1ice for Foreign
and Non-Muslim Schools
Mekatib-i Hususiye Talimatnamesi The Regulation on Private
Schools
Mekatib-i Rüşdiye Nezareti The Of1ice of Junior High
Schools
Mekatib-i Umumiye Nezareti The Of1ice of Public Schools
Միացյալ Ընկերություն Հայոց
[Miatsyal Ingerutyun Hayots]
The Union of Armenian Associations
millet system Religious community system
Muvakkat Meclis-i Maarif The Temporary Council of Education
müfettiş-i mahsusa A special group of inspectors
Mülhak Vakı1lar Appendant foundations (foundations
that were established
before the adoption of the civil
code)
xix
Նոր Քերականութիւն [Nor Keraganutyun] New Grammar
Բանկալթի Մխիթարեան Վարժարան
[Pangalti Mkhitaryan Varjaran]
Pangaltı Mkhitaryan School
Բառգիրք Հայկազեան լեզուի
[Parkirk Haygazyan Lezui]
Dictionary of the Armenian
language
rüşdiye okulları Junior high schools
Սանասարեան վարժարան
[Sanasaryan Varjaran]
Sanasaryan College
Սէմէրճեան Ճեմարան Վարժարան
[Semercyan Cemaran Varjaran]
Semerciyan Cemaran school
sıbyan mektepleri Primary schools, local neighborhood
schools
Սուրբ Կարապետ Եկեղեցի
[Surp Garabed Yegeğetsi]
Surp Garabed Church
Սուրբ Խաչ Դպրեվանք Վարժարան
[Surp Haç Tbrevank Varjaran]
Surp Haç Tıbrevank High
School
Սուրբ Ստեփանոս Եկեղեցի
[Surp Sdepanos Yegeğetsi]
Surp Istepanos Church
Şura-yı Ümmet The National Assembly
Takvim-i Vekayi Calendar of Events
Թանգարան [Tankaran] Museum
Tanzimat Fermanı Imperial rescript
Դպրոցասիրաց-արևելյան
Ընկերություն
[Tbrotsasirats-arevelyan Ingerutyun]
The Eastern Pro-school Association
xx
Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu The law on the uni1ication of
education
Türk Ermeni Azınlık Okulları Öğretmenleri
Yardımlaşma Vakfı
The Turkish Armenian Minority
Schools’ Teachers Solidarity
Foundation
Վարդապետ [Vartabed] Wandering teachers
Vilâyat-ı Şâhane Maarif Müdürlerinin
Vezâi1in-i Mübeyyin Talimat
Set of instructions explaining
the standards that the inspectors
needed to follow
xxi
Abbreviations and Acronyms
ABCFM American Board Commissioners of Foreign Mission
AKP Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development
Party)
ECHR The European Court of Human Rights
ÖSYM Ölçme, Seçme ve Yerleştirme Merkezi (Centre for Assessment,
Selection and Replacement)
TEAOV Türk Ermeni Azınlık Okulları Öğretmenleri Vakfı (Turkish
Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers Solidarity
Foundation)
The CUP The Committee of Union and Progress
VADİP Vakı1lararası Dayanışma ve İletişim Platformu (Interfoundational
Solidarity and Communication Platform)
YÖK Yüksek Öğretim Kurulu (The Council of Higher Education)
A Note on Transliteration
In the main text of this dissertation, Armenian names and terms were
transliterated in accordance with the ALA-LC (American Library Association
and Library of Congress) Armenian (western) romanization table,
available at https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/armenian.
pdf, with the exception of the Armenian letters ը, ղ, ւ – rendered in
the text as ı, ğ, v and the Armenian letter եւ – rendered in the text as yu
when at the end of a word.
xxii
xxiii
Acknowledgements
Over 1ive years of working on my dissertation, I have acquired many
debts. Words cannot express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Z. Umut
Türem for his academic guidance, feedback and patience. I could not have
undertaken this journey without his support and understanding. I am
also deeply indebted to my thesis monitoring committee members, Bülent
Küçük, Seda Altuğ and Cengiz Kırlı, who generously provided their
knowledge and expertise. Special thanks should also go to Ayça Alemdaroğlu
and Lerna Ekmekçioğlu. Joining my defense committee, they provided
brilliant comments and suggestions. I am grateful for having such
an amazing committee. I appreciate very much the insipiration and encouragement
they gave me. I would also like to express my appreciation
to Northwestern University and Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program
for giving me a visiting scholarship opportunity. I thank Ayça
Alemdaroğlu for her guidance and support during this program. Also
many thanks to the faculty members of the University of Chicago Department
of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations for being so welcoming.
I would like to especially thank Hripsime Haroutunian for accepting
me as her student and teaching me Armenian for two years. I thank Holly
Shissler for her comments and suggestions. I thank Dilek Tecirli and
Kadriye Aksoy for guiding me in bureaucratic processes. I would also like
to extend my sincere thanks to the principals and teachers of the schools
I visited for my ethnographic research and all my participants for letting
my research be an enjoyable moment. I thank T.E.A.O. Öğretmenleri
Yardımlaşma Vakfı for their help. I would be remiss in not mentioning my
family, my parents, my spouse and my friends for moral support and their
belief in me. Special thanks to my caring mom for her continuous encouragement
and support. I owe a great deal to my husband, Çağdaş Acar, for
supporting me through every step of this adventure. His belief in me has
kept my spirits and motivation high during this process.
NOTE: The in-house editor of the Atatürk Institute has made detailed recommendations
with regard to the format, grammar, spelling, usage, syntax,
and style of this dissertation.
xxiv
S
!
Introduction
iscussing the positioning of Armenian women in the 1ield of education
in her commentary, Kouyoumdjian ruminates the role of education
in sustaining Armenian cultural heritage, and inquires about the
frameworks to decide what should be maintained, modi1ied or created so
that Armenian cultural scenery can be kept alive when at the same time
educational institutions can meet the needs emanating from exigencies
and contingencies of the era (8999, p. 8jS). After 88 years her piece was
written, now the principal of the renowned Getronagan High School for
over ^9 years, Kouyoumdjian’s concerns still address currents of the educational
dilemmas of the Armenian community. Today, it is even more
necessary to ask these questions to capture the dilemmas intrinsic to the
educational sphere of the Armenian community in Turkey.
In the grip of central examination systems, the marketization and privatization
of schooling, regulations of a nation state which maintains its
emphasis on its Turko-Islamic tenets or the escalation of competition
among students as an outcome of an endeavor to be incorporated into
global job markets, the Armenian schools struggle not only to stand as
cultural symbols of Armenian cultural heritage, but also to breed a nurturing
soil for Armenian cultural sustainability by offering venues and
opportunities in their power. In the af1luence of factors impacting their
day-to-day functioning, the schools often 1ind themselves at an impasse
D
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8
in deciding their priorities. I argue that the state of the Armenian schools
indicates a paradox: although they are places of acculturation in which
the wishes of the nation state almost always prevail; this does not ipso
facto mean that latitude in education is fully encompassed by precepts of
national education. I maintain that there is a possibility for the schools to
function as spaces for cultural self-realization as opposed to the political
targeting or marginalization they are subjected to. Altering themselves to
ful1ill educational expectations of their students and parents in a climate
in which cultural sustainability is intimidated by global identities or educational
trends of the new global era, the schools sometimes have to relinquish
their role as cultural bearers; even so, they manage to redress
the balance in those situations and maintain their exclusive place in the
community. Therefore, throughout the text I contend that as the schools
are reactive to how power performs at different levels, the processes of
cultural empowerment are not so straightforward.
Maintaining their deep-seated educational traditions, appertaining to
catholic and apostolic Armenian communities combined, today there are
a total of Sr Armenian schools in Istanbul. As these schools undertake the
responsibility to provide educational needs of Armenian pupils studying
in all K-S8 levels, with their 8,k8k students registered in the 8988-898: education
year they also serve as the social and cultural centers in which
Armenian culture and language can be sustained in a communal venue.
The aim of my study and research is to unpack the broader educational
1ield encapsulating all these Sr Armenian schools, and to paint a comprehensive
picture which summarize their bureaucratic functioning, quotidian
practices, daily predicaments, the network of relationships interwoven
around them or any pattern that delineate their overall milieu, so that
it could be possible to understand how self-meaning is produced in the
schools. In other words, the main objective of this research is to analyze
to what extent the Armenian schools serve as places of cultural empowerment
in spite of the political targeting Armenian community experiences
today as well as of the external constraints that the educational
system in Turkey breeds. This attempt aims to unfold how the Armenian
schools contribute to cultural empowerment of the community as they
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:
endure as communal venues bringing the community together and purvey
certain means for cultural sustainability, whereas on the other hand
their communal characteristics reproduce them as spaces of exclusion
since they are positioned at the periphery of the mainstream education
system and subtly monitored by the Ministry of National Education. Although
the way I argue it the anomaly inherent to the course of the Armenian
schools appears like a duality, I do not intend to present these puzzles
as binary oppositions of the resilience of Armenian culture against
the domination by a nation state. Rather, throughout chapters I aspire to
unveil these processes in a continuum as they are intertwined in a diversity
of ways that sometimes even consolidate each other.
I put forward two main arguments in this study. I argue that, 1irst,
despite the nationalist discourse and constraints of the educational system,
the Armenian schools are signi1icant sites for cultural sustainability
of the Armenian community. I conceptualize the schools as safe spaces in
which cultural belonging, collective practices and imaginations prevail.
Second, they perform in interaction with both communal and societal
power dynamics and their operations are very well integrated into these
power dynamics. Analyzing the conditions and dynamics of the educational
context engul1ing the Armenian schools, this study captures their
current atmosphere altering as a response to socio-economic shifts and
concomitant changes in relationships, perceptions or expectations these
shifts entail. As regards, the framework I contend to bring by this study
does not see Armenian culture as a residue of the past whose existence is
recurrently threatened or compromised by a nation state equipped with
Turko-Islamic tenets, but rather focus on it as a contemporary and transforming
compound shaped by the totality of current developments especially
with the impact of the neoliberal shift in the educational realm. Unpacking
the present-day milieu of the Armenian educational 1ield, I offer
lenses to discuss how the sustainability of certain Armenian cultural constituents
in the Armenian schools could ensure a space of empowerment,
whereas the educational environment is already compromised by new
forms of governmentality and exigencies of the neoliberal era shaping
and molding new subjectivities conducive to this socio-economic shift.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
^
The novelty of this study comes from the fact that it does not portray
an Armenian culture or modus vivendi wedged in a distant past. I rather
analyze the educational 1ield engul1ing all Armenian schools, now only
left in Istanbul, from a broader perspective including networks of relationships
interwoven around these schools and revisit Armenian cultural
and social life with current conundrums emanating from the concomitant
shifts of neoliberalism in Turkey and thereby reproducing the larger edi
1ice and patterns inherent to the functioning and sustainability of the
schools. Throughout the chapters, I will show that the educational 1ield
where the Armenian schools reside is rife with precariousness, and the
impact of the state as an entity on the Armenian schools is not so straightforward,
however multilayered and circuitous. Unraveling the tenuous
domain of everyday life and nuances in practice, I argue that the perspective
I bring to the table carve out a new space to frame Armenian studies
in contemporary Turkey.
In addition to addressing precarious and complex domains in the conduct
of the schools, a more evident contribution of this study is to give
room to discuss the Armenian schools in their particular context instead
of explaining them within the broader category of minority schools. Although
community schools of Jewish, Rum, Armenian and Assyrian communities
are regulated by the same legal framework, particulars and currents
of these communities bring about variations in practice. Population
sizes, additional international agreements, their 1inancial resources or
socio-economic characteristics in1luence the ways these communities
maintain and operate their schools. Considering the fact that distinctive
needs, concerns and dynamics of the communities mainly stem from
their earlier experiences, I argue that it is signi1icant to analyze these
schools in their particular environment with reference to speci1ic events
that mold the perception of people. Unpacking the distinct atmosphere
of the Armenian schools, another contribution of this study is to reinstate
Armenian cultural and social life in its place in the present day and make
it more perceptible to the reader. This study has the intention of reminding
the reader that Armenian schools are not museums displaying Armenian
cultural heritage as an artifact, but very much robust reacting to
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
a
their surrounding conditions. Therefore, this research goes beyond historical
debates about the schools and includes a great deal of socio-political
analysis that in1luence their current state. Instead of settling with an
understanding that sees Armenian identity and culture as a constant and
essentialized entity, this study attempts to uncover its fragments, dilemmas
and priorities thereby the role of the Armenian schools in Armenian
social and culture life can be deciphered in a 1luid atmosphere altering in
response to the exigencies and contingencies of its era. This study takes
up a challenge to open a door to discuss despite its fragments how the
schools maintain a role in the sustainability of what we call Armenian
culture today.
§ Q.Q Context
Due to the expansiveness of the subject, this study touches upon variegated
areas and revisits different theoretical and daily discussions to duly
present the milieu of the schools. With the purpose of setting the stage,
throughout the chapters I spell out the general atmosphere, currents and
predominant tendencies in Turkey. Nevertheless, I believe that it is also
imperative here to foreground the overall atmosphere of Turkey for the
Armenian community to be able to elaborate on the discussion explaining
the need for this study as a part of the introduction.
Ruminating the patterns of silence and denial in everyday life, Zerubavel
addresses the gap between the awareness of an open secret and the
reluctance to express it publicly and he conceptualizes this phenomenon
as “silent witnessing” (899k, p. :). With the objective of grasping the motives
of collective denial, he accentuates a tension between knowledge
and acknowledgement, personal awareness and public discourse (899k,
p. :). Particularly in the last decade, we see various studies addressing
the tension Zerubavel pinpoints. While examining the links between
knowledge and acknowledgement of the past in the context of Turkey,
these studies contemplate how the aspects of silent witnessing predominate
in the social life in Turkey. Focusing on the formative years of Turkish
nationalism or the Turkish nation state, a considerable part of these
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
r
studies discusses strategies of state actors to breed the conditions in
which privileges of Turkishness thrive. Centering on the state’s role in
denial, Bora (899j) draws attention to the general tendency of the state
and governments to unlearn and wash away past events especially after
the establishment of the Republic. In order to foreground the extent of
denialism in the political and social edi1ice of Turkey, Ünlü (89S8) uses the
term of “the Turkishness Contract” to scrutinize the historical formation
and contemporary functioning of Turkishness as a social contract. He emphasizes
that a signi1icant part of this ideological belonging stems from a
collective conspiracy and act of reticence and obliviousness (Ünlü, 89S8).
With certain laws and means of violence stonewalling the generation and
dissemination of knowledge about the past, “the Turkishness Contract”
embraces denialism as an important segment of the political and social
system (Ünlü, 89S8).
In the af1luence of circumstances that promotes obliviousness towards
Armenian presence and cultural heritage, Bilal contends that the
impact of social interactions covered by silence and the rami1ications of
this social structure entail Armenian culture to appear as totalized, ahistorical,
homogeneous and spaceless (899m, p. kj). Accentuating continuities
between the late Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic, Suciyan’s
illuminating work contemplates that denialism becomes so intrinsic and
common to social as well as legal domains as various forms of violence
towards Armenians are normalized (89Sa). Her account examines the
ways Armenians manage to maintain their socio-political existence in the
denialist structures and spaces of post-genocide Turkey (89Sa). In order
to show the ways denial and silencing of collective violence against Armenians
persist across time and that they encompass a much larger span
from Smkj to the present, in her seminal book Göçek (89Sa) contends that
the historical construction of denial varies in accordance with the interaction
of structural and affective elements and the interaction of state
and society (p. ^). Thereby, she stresses personal, communal and structural
factors in determining the parameters of collective emotions (89Sa,
p. ::). Studying the denial of collective violence multilayered across time
for more than two centuries, she foregrounds the promotion of the state’s
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
m
own institutional agenda in setting up the emotional habitus of its citizens
as the state continually emphasizes the need for national security
concerns in the psyche of its citizens (89Sa, p. ::). In such a context, the
denial of violence and silencing of the past does not only become a significant
component of the common narrative through which the presence of
the Armenian population of Turkey is marginalized as an ahistorical representation,
but obliviousness waxes in quotidian practices and veils the
public visibility and presence of Armenian social and cultural life.
In their book focusing on actors’ and institutions’ role in generating a
social structure and a common narrative based on the denial of past
atrocities towards Armenians, Turan and Öztan (89Sk) unpack the ways
this habitus of denial is produced and reproduced in the of1icial discourse
with the state apparatus interacting with various actors and institutions
during these processes. While they address denialism as a form of social
amnesia, they decipher the obliviousness towards past atrocities and cultural
obliteration of SjSa and towards the Armenian presence in Anatolia
and cultural heritage as an integral part of the incessantly reproduced
founding agreement of the Turkish Republic (Turan and Öztan, 89Sk, p.
:^-:r). Since both the new regime and a considerable part of the Muslim
population bene1ited from the displacement of the Armenian population
and the liquidation of their derelicts, the basic tenets of the emerging political
and social structure were shaped around the denial of the past
atrocities (Turan and Öztan, 89Sk, p. S^). In building the social edi1ice of
the new Republic, ethnic cleansing and homogenization projects of the
late Sjth century and early 89th century did not only result in a demographic
change, but also paved the way for the following policies of cultural
eradication and assimilation to spring up as the habitus of denial
became so intrinsic to common narratives of the political and social life
of Turkey (Turan and Öztan, 89Sk, p. S^). That is why they contend that
even in the best scenario the Armenian population is often portrayed as
a folkloric richness disconnected from its historical and political existence
(Turan and Öztan, 89Sk, p. :^).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
k
In order to demystify the patterns of oblivion towards Armenian cultural
heritage and existence so ingrained in our daily practices and schemas
of thought, following the lead of the existing scholarship on this particular
subject (Göçek, 89Sa; Suciyan, 89Sr) it is imperative to pay regards
to history in terms of its continuities from the Ottoman Empire to the
Turkish Republic. The continuities from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish
Republic are re1lected well in the fact that the processes of Muslimi1ication
and Turki1ication continued after the establishment of the republic
as the rate of the non-Muslim population in Turkey plunged
considerably in the overall population throughout the years (Parla, 89Sj,
p. Sk). In order to grasp social, economic, and political power reproducing
the current edi1ice and the ways we read and understand history, Parla
suggests to pay attention to critical scholarship of the late Ottoman and
early republican period that foregrounds continuities, unlike the prevailing
wisdom focusing on an absolute rupture (89Sj, p. :j). Within a story
of rupture with radical reforms of Mustafa Kemal, Fortna explains the
mainstream historiography often rendering a disparity between an outmoded
Ottoman past and the self-conscious modernity of a nation state
as this historiography accentuates the newness of the Republic (89S8, p.
8S). Similarly, in their seminal work Kandiyoti and Saktanber reject arguments
seeing society as a constant variable which follows a straight line
of development from traditional and rural characteristics to a more modern,
industrialized and urban structure (Kandiyoti, 899:, p. Sr). Fortna
further remarks that the received wisdom of mainstream historiography
results from the Republican agenda itself, since the new republic generates
narratives promoting the stark contrast with the ancien regime even
at times when the degree of continuity is quite palpable (89S8, p. 8S). As
Kasaba draws attention well before, this idea also resonates in readings
of modernization which portray a disciplined and by no means ambiguous
world and overlook irregularities in social transformation (Sjjm, p.
8:).
As the objective of my research is to paint a comprehensive picture of
the Armenian schools in Turkey, understanding the educational 1ield of
the Armenian community entails me to pay regards to continuities as
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
j
well as ruptures. Since the schools were founded as community schools
in the Ottoman period and preserved by the warranty of international
agreements in the new republic as minority schools, analyzing this 1ield
demands deciphering events, motives and puzzles in a larger time span
and the continuance of certain aspects of social and political con1igurations.
§ Q.T Notes of a researcher
I started to conduct the research of this study of1icially in November 89Sk
with a pilot study mainly based on the interviews with the people that I
could reach as my 1irst contact persons or people in my friend/family circle.
However, the preparation of this research and its incipient stages go
far back to 89S: when I 1irst started to schedule interviews for my MA
thesis on the comparative study of variegated aspects of the understandings
of justice of Kurdish and Armenian communities in Istanbul. In this
sense, the research I will present in 1ive chapters is the outcome of my
observations, experiences and research extending in a time period of almost
ten years. A decade of interest, network of relations I built in different
settings, family and friend circles, and institutions I was af1iliated
with made the research of this dissertation study possible and attainable.
It was the support of the people I came across with, which rendered the
thorny conditions of a research smoother in a socio-political climate that
evoked dif1idence and precariousness among people when expressing
themselves.
As an outsider, a non-Armenian researcher, I felt a great deal of apprehension
about missing out the nuances, overlooking dissident voices or
more importantly perturbing people in a communal setting to where I
was welcomed as a guest. That is why when conducting my research and
later writing my dissertation I cared very much to refrain from trite or
stereotyped representations and images of Armenians. I narrated practices
and events in a way to be able to give a rather candid portrayal of
the actors involved. As an academic researcher it goes without saying that
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S9
my main objective was to grasp every phenomena pertaining to the Armenian
schools and to unravel some lurking nuances that could help the
reader to see the broader picture. My other signi1icant responsibility was
to care for my participants and not to interrupt the integrity of the spaces
I entered in any way causing some future stress. With that in mind, faithful
to my academic integrity I preferred to leave certain topics and discussions
out of this study and choose my wording accordingly. Particularly
when writing the chapters, the possibility of erroneously presenting
experiences, stories or perspectives of people who welcomed me to their
classrooms, homes or workplaces agitated me sometimes too much. I
suppose the uneasiness stemming from not doing justice to the veracity
of those stories was one of the key reasons why it took so long for me to
complete writing. However, I remembered that the best way overcoming
these concerns was once again to adhere to academic research and methodology.
Suf1ice to say that, my aspiration for precision caused me to be
uptight, timid or skittish at some instances and times. Despite the fact
that as much as every author I would like to have a seamless text as an
outcome, considering the nature of the work done I acknowledge that
there will always be room for improvement in this text. As I take the full
responsibility of everything written here, I hope the discussions or facts
I let slip unwittingly encourage more people with different backgrounds
to talk about the Armenian schools or present conditions and predicaments
of the Armenian community in Turkey.
This study does not promise to deliver stories which are not already
known by students, teachers, alumni or administrators of the schools. It
does not claim to cover everything taking place in and around the
schools. However, I insist that the composition I put together to tell the
story of the Armenian schools is veritably original. The narrative I employ
to illustrate the anecdotes my participants shared with me uniquely
places them in a larger picture. As I put all these stories into an extensive
perspective, this study equips the reader with a looking glass to interpret
and analyze the totality of the big picture portraying the Armenian
schools in temporality and relationality. Framing the comprehensive
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SS
story of the educational 1ield from different perspectives, this study contributes
to the literature as it pays regards to the schools not as passive
recipients of state regulations trying to monitor communal spaces, but
rather more vigorous and resilient terrains in which Armenian culture is
preserved in variegated ways and occasions. On this rare occasion, in unfolding
these liminal areas at the intersection of exclusion and communal
empowerment, my externality, resulting from my position and identity,
emerges as my strong suit. A great deal of practice, motives or patterns
taken for granted by insiders surface as matters that are needed to be
explicated in my study. I suggest that grasping the connections, formations
and everyday practice without bearing any former bias or experience
helps a great deal analyze the edi1ice of the educational 1ield surrounding
the Armenian schools today.
§ Q.U Methodology
Inasmuch as I argue that elucidating the everyday functioning of the educational
1ield and the communal space that greatly impinge upon the
schools is necessary to unravel the current milieu of the Armenian
schools, I contend that the suitable methodology to discuss the course of
solidarity and empowerment in this educational 1ield is ethnography and
interviews. Considering recent discussions in the scholarship that foreground
the need to look beyond the limits of institutional rules and regulations,
demystifying public, communal or private spaces in which cultural
practices embody relations of power engul1ing the Armenian
schools constitutes a great deal of this study. This research serves the aim
of delineating the quotidian domain of the Armenian schools in the terrain
of a whirlwind of political changes in governance emerging predominantly
from the neoliberal shift in Turkey. With the objective of unfolding
the Armenian schools with respect to their tenuous domain of everyday
practices and accentuating established practices and ambiguities in governing
the schools, the methodology of this research is based on an interview-
based ethnography. Although I acquired the data enabling this
study and analysis from my ethnographic 1ieldwork, I used additional
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S8
sources of information to have a complete picture of events and stories.
In order to compensate for the gaps, discontinuities or hiatus in stories,
events and narratives, I fact-checked my 1ieldwork data in reference to
newspaper articles, laws, regulations, circular letters or other various legal
documents. I sometimes even recti1ied mistakes of fact, when needed,
to promote the veracity and correctness of my writing. However, these
corrections or validations did not in any way disrupt the authenticity of
the story or experience told by my participants. My sole purpose by using
these additional written documents was to present a clearer picture to
the reader or to support the accuracy of statements with facts.
In order to comprehensively collect data from different perspectives,
I visited six of the total Sr Armenian schools in Turkey; three high schools
and three elementary and middle schools. All of the schools I visited belong
to the Apostolic Armenian community.1 As I conducted my 1ieldwork
in these schools by attending classes, participating in school events as an
observer, and spending time in teachers’ lounges while interviewing students,
teachers, and school administrators. Besides the ethnographic
study conducted in these six schools, I additionally talked to other students,
teachers and administrators af1iliated with the other schools that
I could not visited because of different reasons ranging from lack of contact,
reluctance of the administrators or I did not visit simply because I
1 Three of OP Armenian schools and their school foundations responsible for monitoring
their affairs belong to the Catholic Armenian community. With the schools and their
foundations owing allegiance to the spiritual leadership of Armenian Catholic Patriarchate,
the schools also accept Armenian students regardless of their religious sect. The
reason why I exclusively preferred to visit Apostolic Armenian schools is to portray the
communal space surrounding them, while locating them in a multiplicity of factors that
have an impact on their operation and sustainability. I argue that with different factors
inWluencing their operation, the story of the Catholic Armenian schools deserves to be
told separately. Since Catholic Armenian schools emerged from a different set of aspects
and sometimes stand apart from certain communal dynamics, patterns and practices
that I have described throughout my chapters applying to Apostolic Armenian schools
are not always meaningful and inWluential in their operation. Although both Catholic and
Apostolic Armenian schools have similar concerns and problems in their functioning
and sustainability, they are not identical or always experienced in the same way.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S:
did not expect to receive any novel information after spending considerable
time in the other schools I conducted my research.
Getting accepted as a researcher to the schools was the most dif1icult
part of this research. Although a lot of masters and doctoral students trying
to complete their research as a requirement of their studies have conducted
research in the schools before, not all of them were the best
guests. Therefore, my 1irst task was to introduce myself in a way to show
that I wanted to truly understand the predicaments of the schools not
only with respect to the regulations and practice of the Ministry of National
Education, but in a broader sense capturing the overall atmosphere,
root causes, interactions among actors including the disagreements
and dilemmas in the communal space. Having these priorities
about my 1ieldwork, instead of 1iling a permit to warrant my entrance to
the schools with the authorization of the Ministry of National Education
but without consulting the school principals, I started my 1ieldwork with
a pilot study through which I presented my research and objectives to
people who could be my gatekeepers. After I explained the objectives of
my research and my position as a researcher, further opportunities
opened up to me to be involved in variegated conversations and settings.
I can only hope that I did not perturb any teacher or student or give them
a wrong impression about what I was doing. I care about peace in the
places I visited the most and would not prioritize my research over tranquility
in those spaces for ethical reasons. As I know the political and social
context of Turkey very well in that it makes people timid and agitated
when expressing their experiences and thoughts on the matter, I did not
compel people to get satisfactory answers to my inquiries as this might
ruf1le someone’s feathers, although there were times that I wanted to say
more than I did.
With the objective of developing a panoramic understanding, in addition
to the ethnographic research and interviews with teachers, students
and administrators I also interviewed people involved in the
schools in different ways, such as board members of school foundations,
lawyers, legal experts on minority foundations, scholars, journalists, forHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S^
mer teachers and graduates. Depending on my proximity with the interviewee,
I was invited to different venues so that we could have a comfortable
and peaceful conversation; to their of1ices, homes, workplaces, cafes,
or communal spaces, and when meeting face-to-face was not an option
teleconferencing, video-calling and emailing became an alternative.
Thereby, I conducted more than S89 interviews. Since the duration and
format of interviews altered according to circumstances, it became unattainable
for me to give an exact number. Some of these interviews were
held one-to-one in a private atmosphere within safe boundaries of homes
or of1ices, some others were conducted with a focus-group format in
teachers’ lounges when it was not possible for me to headcount to have
an exact number of my interviewees. I had some interviews during recession
times between classes standing up and trying to squeeze as many
questions as possible into S9 minutes, while for some others I had more
than three hours as my participants had the time to express the way they
felt and perceived circumstances unfolding around them.
Of these more than S89 interviewees, students take the smallest
share. I could only talk in-depth to m students who were high school students
at the time of our meetings. As I expressed my interest to hear opinions
of students on the overall functioning of the schools, predicaments
pertaining to the educational 1ield as well as their opinions about the limitations
and possibilities of Armenian cultural sustainability, the students
whom I talked to depicted the predominant tendency among students by
an apathy towards the course of the sustainability and resilience of Armenian
culture and their reluctance to be involved in such matters.
Thereby, one of the limitations of this study is the paucity of access to
students to talk in-depth about quotidian challenges or dilemmas they
have and the inability to unpack these topics from their lenses in a context
in which concerns stemming from preparing for central exams, 1inding
better educational opportunities to land on and developing competitive
skills for future job prospects prevail.
In order to have rather more sincere conversations and delve into
the details of people’s experiences, I did not use any recording device
during my 1ieldwork or interviews. Therefore, it was not always possible
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sa
to re1lect the nuances in the discourse or wording of my participants into
the text. I did not note full names of my participants, did not ask them to
sign any kind of form. I only verbally explained my study and subjects I
was interested to learn further. Some of the people I contacted refused to
talk to me either because they felt uncomfortable talking to me or because
they had other personal matters going on. Since the educational
1ield of the Armenian community is such a restricted space and people
know each other, throughout the text I refrained from using descriptions
about my participants in order to conceal their identity. For the same reasons,
I also did not see any point adopting pseudo names. Although some
of my participants had no problems with having their names published,
for the consistency of my text and not to point out other people I only
gave little information regarding the identity of my participants.
Another limitation of this study has to do with my Armenian language
skills. Before my 1ieldwork, I took Armenian language classes for a
year. These classes introduced me a basic knowledge of Armenian and
schemas of thought to grasp the overall framework of conversations held
in Armenian, keep track of names of the books, places, literary works
mentioned during my 1ieldwork in their original language, and read and
write names in the Armenian alphabet. Yet during the 1ieldwork I was
unable to fully comprehend or follow conversations in Armenian. With
that reason, all the interviews were conducted in Turkish. I acknowledge
the constraints my limited knowledge of Armenian created. Only after the
1ieldwork, I improved my Armenian language skills when I continued my
Armenian language education and took language classes for two years.
By design, the study exclusively focuses on the Armenian schools.
Therefore, it does not explain or discuss perspectives, preferences or
mindset of parents or teachers who choose to register their children to
other public or private schools or who work in those schools. In that
sense, it does not present a comparative perspective. Since the aim of this
study is to explain the Armenian schools as a space, it does not delve into
a discussion on educational materials knowing that it requires a different
kind of research. It does not center on educational materials and therefore
does not give a detailed analysis of curricula, schoolbooks, other
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sr
complementary materials or changes in them. But it acknowledges that
there are already extended works written on educational materials that
provide insights and analysis on the matter.
§ Q.V Theoretical Framework
Unraveling a space where exclusion, domination, inclusion, solidarity,
empowerment or combinations of these processes take place, it is necessary
to address various subjects to decode the historical, political and social
context of the Armenian schools so that the complexity embodied in
the educational 1ield of the Armenian community could be examined.
With these concerns, as much as discussing the legal framework of the
Armenian schools, this study centers around the relations of power that
have an impact on the operation of the schools in different ways. Therefore,
a great deal of this study focuses on the practices, the assembly of
which can construe the ways how the processes of empowerment might
be possible in a historically exclusionary context. In a way, this research
aims to 1ind an answer to the question Bourdieu asks; how solidarity
could be possible in a social structure where hierarchy and con1lict are
predominating, albeit in different circumstances than Bourdieu focuses
on (Swartz, Sjjm, p. m:).
Explaining the rules of sociological method, if we want to understand
how the society design itself and the world encircling it, Durkheim argues
to scrutinize the nature of society instead of individuals (89S9, p. Sj). In
this design the condensation of certain patterns of behavior and thinking
emerge as a sui generis reality; while the collective order of things surfaces
in continuous performances, it subsists in patterns reproduced by
word-of-mouth, education or writing (Durkheim, 89S8, p. ::). That is why
in understanding how the collectivities perform, we need to pay attention
to their reality which surfaces in small details of social and everyday life.
Seminal works written to unpack collective order (Bourdieu, Sjmm;
Clifford, Sjkr; de Certeau, Sjkk; Hall, Sjj:; Bhabha, Sjj^) foreground the
signi1icance of understanding the play of patterns, reproductions and
repetitions in social activity and interactions. However, with cultural
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sm
1lows and global consumerism creating the possibilities of shared identities,
postmodern societies ceased to be de1ined by having 1ixed, essential
or permanent identities (Hall, Sjj8). As Featherstone contends that with
the intensi1ication of cultural goods and images it becomes more challenging
to read culture and to attribute 1ixed meanings and relationships
between cultural signs and social attributes of people who consume them
(Sjja, p. a). Whereas this study follows the lead of earlier scholarship in
examining the patterns in social activity to unravel the collective order of
things, it also takes up the challenge Featherstone (Sjja) mentions to understand
the performance of a collectivity in a neoliberal age, in which
cultural identities are compromised by the global marketing of lifestyles
(Harvey, Sjkj; Hall, Sjkm, Sjj8; Laclau, Sjj9).
Furthermore, following the lead of scholarship which underscore the
ways power performs in different areas of social life in the context of Turkey
(Kandiyoti and Saktanber, 8998; Erol et al., 89Sr), this research argues
that explaining the current state of the Armenian schools in reference to
a nation state and its bureaucratic practices does not suf1ice to present a
comprehensive framework. It was not likely at all to understand the tide
that the schools are in by merely looking at the laws and regulations applying
them or their bureaucratic practice, because they are not exempt
from the insecurities and ambiguities of the social and cultural life
around them. In his conceptualization of the theory of structuration, Giddens
sees the basic domain of study of the social sciences as social practices
ordered across space and time (Sjkr, p. 8). Individuals are regarded
as agents who reproduce the conditions that make their activities possible
(Sjkr, p. 8). It is the day-to-day activity of social actors which reproduces
structural features of social systems that are both constraining and
enabling (Giddens, Sjkr, p. 8^-8a). In this sense, Giddens put an emphasis
on the routine as the basic element of social activity and argues that
structural features of social systems emerge as long as forms of social
conduct are recurrently reproduced across time and space (p. xxi-xxiii).
As the repetitiveness of social life engenders the structural properties of
collectivities, the structuration of institutions can only be understood
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sk
with reference to social activities expanding across time and space (Giddens,
Sjkr, p. xxi). Unpacking social practices and patterns taking place
in the Armenian schools is crucial, because repetition in social conduct
signals structural features of the system that the Armenian schools reside
in. That is why I am concerned with incorporating quotidian practices
and everyday order of things into the analysis. I argue that the parameters
forming the milieu of the Armenian schools can be found beyond the
limits of public institutions governing the schools. Capturing the constitution
of social identity within the Armenian schools as a form of solidarity
or cultural empowerment requires looking into practices and patterns
that are embedded in different areas of social life. Such an analysis demands
looking into people’s strategies, belonging, and how they hear,
talk, behave or understand things in a certain way. That is why when analyzing
the Armenian schools in Turkey, my account discusses the Armenian
schools as the educational habitus of the Armenian community
which re1lect the aggregation of social practices pertaining to the realm
of the schools.
Bourdieu pithily explains “habitus” as a sense which has a capacity to
almost tell future moves in a given situation (Sjjk, p. 8a). While the future
of subjects is inscribed in the present state, they are endowed with a
“practical sense” that connotes the assemblage of preferences, principles
of vision and division as well as cognitive structures constituted by the
internalization of objective structures (Bourdieu, Sjjkb, p. 8a). Habitus
represents the marriage of multiplicity of factors; it refers to the basis of
practice which reproduces the entire system of differences engendering
the social order (Bourdieu, Sjjr, p. :). Conceptualizing habitus as a body
of dispositions shaping human behavior in a given society, Bourdieu accentuates
that neither mechanical imposition of structures nor the free
intentional pursuit of individuals brings about the social practices (Navarro,
899r, p. Sr). Objective structures do not unilaterally determine social
practice; rather it is generated by the “mutual solicitation of position
and disposition” (Wacquant, Sjjr, p. xvi). As the history of the group to
which the individual belongs is inherent to the habitus, the 1ield individuals
land on limits the range of their actions and options (Harker et al.,
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sj
Sjj9, p. 89:-89^). Individual agents receive and internalize structures inherited
from the previous generations, and preserve them by reproducing
in future generations (Robbins, 8999, p. rS). Individual choices and
social practice do not straightforwardly conclude from rules, norms, patterns
or constraints that monitor social life but also embody ambiguities
and uncertainties (Swartz, Sjjm, p. S99). In order to make a thorough analysis
of the society, practical cognition of individuals needs also be regarded
as a signi1icant part of the dissection; an analysis of the objective
constraints of the structure does not suf1ice to grasp social strategies, unless
assayed in consideration with the subjective intentions of the agent
as well (Wacquant, Sjjr, p. xvi). An analysis of the society needs to regard
the coexistence of the genesis of social structures and the disposition of
the habitus of the agents who exist in these social structures (Harker et
al., Sjj9, p. ^). In that regard, individual and society are not formulated as
two separate beings, but regarded as two dimensions of the same social
reality coexisting relationally (Swartz, Sjjm, p. jr). This line of thinking
allows us to decipher the creative, active, generative capacity of individuals
in social life as we ponder the course of intention and inventiveness
in practice (Harker et al., Sjj9, p. :a).
Based on the framework Bourdieu presents, Giroux explains that
schooling represents a major social site for the construction of subjectivities
and dispositions (Sjk:, p. mk). He further argues that either objectivist
or subjectivist approaches are inadequate to develop a theory of
schooling since they fail to go beyond one-sided approaches (Giroux,
Sjk:, p. ma). However, in explaining the schooling, habitus can allow us to
discuss the cultural 1ield of the schools as a mediating force within the
complex interplay of reproduction and resistance and to ruminate how
people tackle the existing social order (Giroux, Sjk:, p. kr). In the opening
pages of Bourdieu’s one of major works, the State Nobility, Wacquant
accentuates the dissection of practical taxonomies and activities through
which teachers and students collectively produce everyday reality (Sjjr,
p. xvi). With this perspective in mind, the habitus of education allows me
to analyze the communal 1ield surrounding the schools through which
processes of socialization can be captured to explain the complexity of
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
89
social practices. I argue that in explaining the liminal characteristics of
the schools, habitus becomes a signi1icant concept to show the social order
encircling the schools. I present the assemblage of factors pertaining
to the Armenian schools through habitus, because it refers to a link between
structures, social practice and reproduction of the social order
(Giroux, Sjk:, p. kj). It equips us with the lenses to examine how the cultural
1ield of the schools breeds a soil for both reproduction and resistance
as the schools maneuvered the existing social order unraveling
around them.
Whereas the schools perform according to the constraints of a particular
habitus and the perception towards their circumstances are 1iltered
through the same habitus, they are also reactive to the change of their
surrounding conditions (Harker et al., Sjj9, p. S98). Habitus results from
processes of socialization and that is why changes under certain circumstances
and long periods of time in order to 1it the surrounding social
world where it evolves (Navarro, 899r, p. Sr). Due to the fact that the communal
organization gradually established in the Ottoman period still
maintains its effective role in the operation of the schools, historically developed
dispositions exert substantial in1luence on the behavior of people
in the educational 1ield. The interviews I conducted are designed in a
way to unfold how certain communal edi1ices in governing the schools
are maintained throughout time. On the other hand, the schools struggle
to 1it in their new surroundings. Perceptions burgeoning in the neoliberal
era are also highly determinative in the habitus of education. Unpacking
the social practices within and around the schools, the altering external
conditions of the schools is a signi1icant part of the study. Thereby, another
novelty of this study derives from adopting a theory of habitus that
carves out an indispensable space for studying the Armenian schools in
a context in which they react to external conditions and incorporate ambiguities
through time and space. This research aims to illuminate particulars
and currents of the Armenian schools in their present condition.
Thus, it becomes attainable to deduce causes and effects from the big picture
as patterns resulting from the political atmosphere become more
apparent to track down.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8S
As much as the temporality of factors resulting in the current milieu
of the Armenian schools, I also see a need to challenge Turkish and Armenian
studies which analyze minorities and the minority schools in
Turkey exclusively with reference to the state and its regulations. Adopting
the theoretical framework that Bourdieu suggests offers manifold
lenses to discuss the Armenian schools in the sense that unlike former
studies explaining the operation of the minority schools within the limits
of an all-encompassing Turkish state or with reference to a durable structure
meticulously governing the schools, the theory of habitus opens up
possibilities to see how exclusion, inclusion, solidarity, diversity unpack
in the social life encircling the schools. It forms a basis through which the
discussion of communal culture and practices, the way people interact
with each other, the production of social identity, individual intentions in
participating in the administration of the schools or the history of Armenians
that generate the everyday reality of the Armenian schools becomes
a possibility. This line of thinking warrants us to go beyond arguments
regarding educational institutions as the vessels through which
the state inscribes its ideology from top-down processes.
In the context of Turkey, through studies focusing on various aspects
of daily life we already see the relevance of this perspective in comprehending
the complexity of social life. Contesting former conventional
studies center on the state apparatus or institutions in their analyses,
Kandiyoti and Saktanber (8998) carve out a new space for cultural analysis
to probe the complexity of social edi1ice. In a different discussion
capturing how the politics and symbolism of secularism 1ind new venues
and justi1ications in private spaces, Özyürek (899m) highlights the resilience
of the state in the context of Turkey by borrowing Steinmetz’ take
on the issue (Sjjj), and argues that despite its diminishing sway, the
state is still a signi1icant actor in various areas, only in different forms
(Steinmetz, Sjjj, p. :m). In a similar manner, in his attempt to remedy the
de1iciencies of the scholarship framing the state as all-encompassing in
the Ottoman period, Fortna (899a)’s study becomes meaningful in
spelling out the educational 1ield of the Armenian community. He denounces
arguments explaining schools as prisons of a mechanical and
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
88
brutal state or as spaces of domination crushing individuality. He argues
that these arguments not only undermine the reading of the nuances of
the trans1iguring educational apparatus, but also hinder to see how
power in1iltrates into local contexts and quotidian practices (899a, p. ^:).
Referring to Certeau’s “everyday resistance” and Bakhtin’s “answerability”
concepts, Fortna instead looks at the ways how everyday life works
in schooling (899a).
Based on the framework these studies offer, I design my study in a
way to tell the story of the Armenian schools from different angles covering
everyday practices of cultural and educational life. Nevertheless, in
doing so I do not underestimate the impact of state institutions as a sovereign
power governing the minority schools. Acknowledging the interrupted
attempts of state institutions to preserve the image of the state as
an all-encompassing entity based on Turko-Islamic precepts, I suggest
1inding new governing mechanisms outside the limits of the state. With
this perspective, this study aims to understand whether cultural empowerment
and solidarity could be attainable in a context2, which is historically
molded by the Turko-Islamic principles of a nation state as the con-
1lict it promotes in everyday lives of its non-Muslim citizens incessantly
shape societal edi1ice of communal venues.
As I explain throughout this study, with such a perspective people
who are involved in the operation of the schools either as students, teachers,
parents or administrators cannot be regarded as passive recipients
or simple outcomes of a structure. Rather, since operations of Armenian
schools are more complex, the educational 1ield of the Armenian commu-
2 Here, I employ the word of solidarity to refer to ties that bind people together in a group
by a psychological sense of unity as the members of this group share some form of
awareness of shared interests or common responsibilities. In that regard, the way I use
it, solidarity in this context is reminiscent of Durkheim’s mechanical solidarity
(O[\\/O[[^) that sees cohesion or integration in rather homogenous small scale societies.
In this account, by cultural empowerment, on the other hand, I connote all attempts
and efforts of self-determination with the purpose of undermining asymmetries or cultural
divisions to ensure a culture of belonging and culture of awareness for its constituents.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8:
nity harbors a variety of reasons, intentions or power plays that incessantly
motivate dispositions of people who play a role in the reproduction
of the educational system. I argue that if we want to understand whether
and how solidarity or cultural empowerment that maintains the social
and cultural life of the Armenian community could be attainable, bearing
in mind the network of relationships is equally signi1icant. Since one of
the objectives of the concept of habitus is to suggest the individual as the
“socialized body”, it demurs to see the individual in opposition to society
(Swartz, Sjjm, p. jr). This perspective, I contend, brings in a newness to
the literature as it goes beyond depictions of the schools and the Armenian
community as passive victims to whom certain things happen. Although
I acknowledge that the latitude of the schools is encircled by laws,
regulations, curricula, central examinations or values de1ined by the market,
I emphasize the fact that the processes governing the schools are not
so straightforward. The actors who have a part in the schools are not role
followers or norm-obeyers; rather, they are strategic improvisers who reply
to circumstances (Swartz, Sjjm, p. S99). As regards, the distinctiveness
of this study is to show the processes of how people react to opportunities
and constraints they live in.
§ Q.W Chapters
With the objective of unpacking the role and operation of the Armenian
schools, the chapters of this study are designed to introduce the themes
in an order that gradually peels layers and addresses discussions at different
levels of analysis. In order to set the stage and pithily explain the
historical backdrop of the schools, Chapter 8 tells the story of the schools
from their establishment to their present day and examines the ways the
ambiguous status of the Armenian schools developed over time. Planned
as a descriptive chapter, this chapter aims to equip the reader with basic
concepts, the interaction of actors involved and communal affairs in the
1ield of education particularly at the incipient stages of the schools. Visiting
the extended history of the schools from the Ottoman period to the
present day Turkish Republic, I also review the transformation of the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8^
schools in the grip of the modernization process and the responsibilities,
predicaments or discussions unraveling around their transformation, so
that the reader can have a grasp of how the surrounding economic, political
and social atmosphere have an impact on the milieu of the schools.
In this sense, instead of 1ixed or ahistorical entities the schools are portrayed
with respect to educational trends recurrently refashioning their
location in the centralized education system. In order to explain the current
situation of the schools, the chapter concludes with a description of
their bureaucratic functioning, educational regulations and other latest
developments.
In Chapter :, I ruminate how the Armenian schools are governed in
the present day Turkey and unpack the legal domain of the schools in the
terrain of a whirlwind of political changes in governance emerging predominantly
from the neoliberal shift of Turkey. Instead of studies that explain
the operation of the schools with respect to an evil raison d’état,
this chapter focuses on the quotidian domain of legality in governing the
Armenian schools. In this sense, the chapter brings a new perspective to
the table in that it offers lenses to see the governing of the Armenian
schools not as a straightforward relationship exercising in1luence from
an all-encompassing nation state towards its minorities. Rather, it addresses
the schools with respect to their tenuous domain of everyday
practices and accentuates legal ambiguity in governing the schools. I conceptualize
the Turkish state as a meandering state to argue as both forms
of sovereign power and governmentality, precision and ambiguity, continuity
and rupture prevail in governing the schools. As this chapter revisits
the schools with respect to the neoliberal shift in education, it illustrates
how new forms of governing perform within the schools along
with established precepts of the nation state.
In Chapter ^, I delve into communal aspects of the schools and delineate
the con1iguration of social interactions which renders solidarity in
this particular context attainable. Depicting the network of relations engul
1ing the schools by an allegory of familial culture, the chapter unravels
empowering networks which may help Armenian culture and identity
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8a
endure throughout the years. In doing so, the examples, events, narratives
that the chapter articulates also manifest complex relations that
take place in a family setting. As I discuss the relations unfolding in a familial
culture, I also incorporate how different actors stimulate change in
the operation of the schools. Exhibiting the ways the private sphere overlaps
with the communal sphere, another contribution of this chapter to
the overall narrative is to contend that the dynamics regarding the private
sphere of the family also have an in1luence on the edi1ice of the Armenian
community when overseeing the school affairs.
Chapter a furthers the discussions initially started in previous chapters
and gives some thought to the impact of communal politics on the
operation of the schools. Disclosing some nuances pertaining to the educational
1ield of the Armenian community, in this chapter I elucidate the
in1luence on the educational 1ield of the foundation boards or certain notables
who have a say in the operation of the schools. The objective of this
chapter is to address the ways power performs within an educational
1ield in which decisions are molded by the communal edi1ice and relations
unfolding in it. Thereby, this chapter makes a great contribution in
understanding the operation of the Armenian schools in the sense that at
odds with the prevailing understanding which sees those who are involved
in the administration of the schools as a monolithic and homogenous
group, I focus on fractions and disagreements in educational as well
as communal affairs in order to pinpoint the elaborateness of this habitus.
Finally in Chapter r, I talk about the perceptions and discussions
around the sustainability of Armenian cultural life that I mention
throughout the other chapters in bits and pieces but never articulate
clearly. The chapter aims to unpack the impact of the Armenian schools
on the Armenian identity and its diverse forms of re-articulation with respect
to the altering socio-political context surrounding the schools. By
this objective, I not only intend to revisit the prevailing contemporary
take on the conceptualization of the Armenian identity at intra-communal
and individual levels, but also to display tacit processes of self-meaning
formation. I argue that unveiling these processes help us comprehend
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8r
the perceived identities, cultures or histories that re1lect the currents of
the Armenian schools.
At the end, I conclude these chapters by a short commentary on which
terms and to what extent we refer to solidarity, cooperation, cultural sustainability,
empowerment or any other process that might help Armenian
culture and identity sustain to this very day in the context of the Armenian
schools as opposed to con1licts unraveling around them and to the
fact they stand in a precarious state. The discussion of these subjects is
not so straightforward or for that matter, as much as their surrounding
context, the processes pertaining to the Armenian schools are by no
means stable or 1ixed. Nevertheless, I argue that unpacking this educational
habitus allows us to take on the lenses to grasp the possibilities for
the tenacity and resilience of Armenian culture with respect to its sociopolitical
climate.
8m
"
Reviewing Past and Present of the Armenian Schools
he main objective of this second chapter is to tell the extended story
of the Armenian schools in Turkey and to introduce their current
structure and characteristics. In order to paint an elaborative picture describing
the Armenian schools, the chapter is based on a framework that
centers socio-political developments of the modernization process in
particular and takes cognizance of the educational reforms and regulations.
Considering that the formation of the Armenian schools goes back
to the Ottoman Empire, the chapter introduces certain developments
pertaining to the educational sphere of the Ottoman Empire as well as
some dynamics shaping the empire’s socio-cultural context.
The modernization process, which carried its weight chie1ly with the
reforms in the Sjth century, entailed concomitant shifts for the educational
sphere in the Ottoman Empire; thereby, altered the surrounding
conditions of the Armenian schools among other schools. In order to be
able to give a meaningful context to the developments centering the Armenian
schools, I will brie1ly visit the literature on the modernization of
education in the Ottoman Empire, and pinpoint some developments that
exigencies and contingencies of the era elicited in the sphere of education
in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. With reference to
these discussions, I plan to give a comprehensive context to the trans1ig-
T
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8k
uration of the Armenian schools as they veered from religious to Westernized
education, which eventually furnished the current edi1ice of the
schools. Although my main purpose with visiting the literature on the
backdrop of the historical formation of the Armenian schools is to show
how the currents of the schools were shaped initially by the reform period
in the Ottoman Empire and later by socio-political developments in
the Republic of Turkey, I argue that recapitulating their historical background
will also provide us the perspective to discuss root causes of current
predicaments of the minority schools.
Explaining the reasons of the transformation from the community
schools in the Ottoman Empire to the minority schools in the Republic of
Turkey, Somel (89S:) divides the history of the community schools into
seven subcategories: from Smm^ to Skar the period of decentralized administration
when the Sublime Porte did not have a systematic policy toward
the community schools, from Skar to Skmk the period of harmonization
when the Sublime Porte desired to tune the community schools into an
overarching legal framework in line with its Ottomanism ideology, from
Skmr to Sj9k the period of auditing when the regime of Abdulhamid II perceived
the community schools as a threat and wanted to control them,
from Sj9k to SjS8 the period of quest when in the relatively liberal atmosphere
of the incipient stages of the Young Turk revolution democratic
harmonization was sought, from SjS8 to SjSk the period of elimination
when the unionist dictatorship endeavored to eliminate non-Muslim
community schools in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and Ottoman
coup d’état, from SjSk to Sj8: the period of armistice when multicentralism
prevailed, and 1inally from Sj8: to Sj8a the period of the uni1ication
of education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat) when the “minority” rights introduced
by the Lausanne Treaty were ruled out by series of regulations and laws
including the law on the uni1ication of education. Somel’s framework offers
a powerful vantage point to comprehend the socio-political changes
engul1ing the community schools as he meticulously maps out the trans-
1iguration of the educational sphere cognizant of the altering dynamics.
It goes without saying that Somel’s analysis (89S:) is also richly suggestive
here to grasp the particular history of the Armenian schools as
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8j
his periodization captures the whirlwind of changes with respect to the
non-Muslim schools. However, for the purposes of this research and to
exclusively focus on the Armenian schools, I prefer to keep the historical
background rather simple and elucidate their milieu under three main
subtitles by liberally paying attention to historical periodization. The narrative
that I put together in this chapter by visiting various seminal works
written on the history of education in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic
of Turkey is rife with palpable events and details pertaining to the
Armenian schools to spell out speci1ic regulations and practices applying
to them. However, the historical formation, expansion and transformation
of the Armenian schools as I present in this chapter is not all-inclusive.
My intention is not to give a comprehensive list of the schools or
educational associations founded so far. Rather, I purport to pinpoint
some prominent and salient examples to such an extent that they can depict
the overall atmosphere and milieu of the era carving out a new space
for the Armenian schools.
On that note, I will start with explaining some characteristics of the
Armenian community and the administration of communal matters including
religious education in the Ottoman Empire. In the second section,
in order to paint a picture of the context I will unpack the ways the modernization
process in the Ottoman Empire elicited a concomitant shift in
the sphere of education. As I elucidate the restructuring of the Armenian
schools with reference to the exigencies and contingencies of the era, I
will also spell out the rami1ications of the educational regulations for the
community schools. Finally in the third section, I will delineate the steps
taken by the Turkish state to centralize the education system, and describe
the present milieu of the Armenian schools in reference to my 1ield
notes. Thereby, this chapter will provide a descriptive basis for the following
chapters to build on.
Although as aforementioned the initial aim of this chapter is to give a
context to today’s Armenian schools in Turkey, it is not my sole purpose
for writing this chapter. By unpacking the backdrop of their historical formation
and trans1iguration, my secondary but perhaps more signi1icant
objective is to accentuate the ways the ambiguous status of the Armenian
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:9
schools developed over time and to show that the reasons for their amorphous
manifestations lie in their past. Today, the schools are regarded as
an exception or anomaly to the modern Turkish education system. Unraveling
the history of the Armenian schools from the times of the Ottoman
Empire, when they were established for religious education of their
communities, to their modernization and secularization, this chapter
aims to show how their externality is constructed over the years. In this
sense, I contend that looking at the historicity of the Armenian schools is
conducive to demystifying their marginality in the current Turkish education
system. Capturing the historical development of the schools does
not only help us probe the historical roots of their current structure but
also more importantly to unpack aspects engendering these schools categorically
different today.
Having said that, unpacking the questionable representation of the
minority schools’ particularity can also provide us the perspective to be
able to challenge the image of the Turkish modernization reclaiming itself
in the sphere of education as well-disciplined, distinct and certain.
Despite its image to be all comprehensive and standard, tracking down
the history of the Armenian schools proves to us that the Turkish education
system holds onto the legacy of its precedents while blending this
legacy with global trends.
On a similar note, I argue that focusing solely on the historical heritage
of the Armenian schools breeds a nurturing soil to portray them as
archaic and out of context as if the precepts of the era do not apply to
them. The paucity of analysis on the current situation of the Armenian
schools contributes to the establishment of this perspective. I believe that
is why my day-to-day conversations regarding my 1ieldwork startled
many people who were not very familiar with the functioning of the Armenian
schools. Surprisingly enough, these people were not conventionally
accustomed to associate the Armenian schools with the central examination
system or the rami1ications of the neoliberalization of
education. Rather, the schools are believed to belong solely to a historical
realm. This approach often impedes capturing the educational bottleARMENIAN
SCHOOLS
:S
necks of the schools in the era of neoliberalism and disregards their current
predicaments. That is why I suggest looking at their historical reality
in a way to complement their present and to unriddle their retrospective
representation. I argue that connecting the past of the schools to their
currents will eliminate this representation and open up a more eloquent
space to scrutinize their setting. In that sense, although I refer to former
regulations and laws to explain the present structure of the schools in
this chapter, I will accentuate that the underlying causes of their current
situation also reside in the present.
§ T.Q Armenian Community and Religious Education
The administration of different communities and the durability of the
larger structure in the Ottoman Empire can only be grasped cognizant of
its millet system. Karpat (Sjm:) describes this system allowing the coexistence
of different communities as a religious-communal organization,
which distinguished various groups within the population with respect
to their ethno-religious af1iliations (Sjm:, p. i). According to this administrative
structure, the non-Muslim communities could practice their religion
and culture by a dhimmi1 status unlike the Muslims within the Empire
who were ruled by the Islamic law (Bayır, 89Sm, p. :r). Although this
administrative structure allowed certain communities to be ruled with
respect to their religious preferences outside the realm of the Islamic law,
Bayır advises not to see this legal pluralism through a Muslim versus non-
Muslim dichotomy (89Sm, p. ::). She foregrounds the fact that in spite of
the signi1icance of religious preferences in this communal organization
and their preponderance, religion was not taken into consideration as the
only criterion. Rather, the system was designed in a way that took account
of variegated aspects of the population including their cultural, ethnic,
economic, linguistic, regional or other differences (Bayır, 89Sm, p. ::). In
1 Kevorkian interprets this term as “protected nonbelievers” and further explains that
communities with the dhimmi status pay a special tax and follow collective limitations
in return to openly practicing their religion (O[P[, p. bc).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:8
that sense, the social con1iguration generated by the millet system was
not an institutional structure with its well-de1ined, explicit boundaries;
instead, it was the sum of a series of regulations altering across time or
space, varying from context to context (Koçunyan, 89Sr, p. m:; Braude,
Sjk8). Moreover, it also meant that the administrative system was not
central; rather, it was based on legal pluralism which was conducive to
speci1ic characteristics of the communities to be the determinative factors
in their ruling (Bayır, 89Sm, p. :^). Each of these communities was autonomous
in the administration of their civil matters that traditionally
fell into the realm of religion such as marriage, divorce, inheritance or
education (Somel, 899aa, p. 8a^).
In their comprehensive work focusing on the Armenian socio-cultural
life in the Ottoman Empire before SjSa, Kevorkian and Paboudjian foregrounds
the Islamic law as the political and societal mechanism generating
the authority of the state in a religious garb, and further depicts the
Armenian Patriarchate as an extension of this authority established with
this exact objective (89S8, p. S8). The Armenian Patriarchate2 was the representative
authority in the community that bridged the community to
the sultanate, and regulated civil matters in his name. Furthermore, having
religion as the main reference point of civil matters, if not the only
one, the clergy of communities was assigned as the authority over civil
matters as well as ecclesiastical issues. As long as the respective clergy
held the administration in Christian communities, it connoted the predominance
of the church over communal matters (Somel, 899aa, p. 8a^).
Education was also an extension of this authority. Like other communal
matters in non-Muslim communities, the administration of seminary
schools was subjected to the jurisdiction of their governing clergy
(Somel, 899aa, p. 8a^). Communal educational networks corresponded
with the requests of clerical clusters (Somel, 899aa, p. 8m9). Due to the
weight of the clergy, education was substantially religious education
which was essentially designed to teach reading the Bible and other similar
supplementary religious texts. However, the equation was not so
2 Պատրիարքութիւն Հայոց
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
::
straightforward. The impact of the amiras, the upper class and notables
of the Armenian community, was also noteworthy in communal affairs.
As they played a signi1icant role in 1inance, they identi1ied themselves in
good measure with the Ottoman bureaucracy (Karpat, Sjm:, p. kj). Their
proximity to Ottoman bureaucracy and more importantly their wealth
procured the means for their involvement in the educational affairs as
they became benevolent 1igures of the community and increasingly consolidated
their place through their 1inancial support. In such a context,
until the secularization of the schools, the teachers in the Armenian community
schools were mostly priests and the schools were funded by the
amiras (Somel, 899ab, p. j:). Acknowledging the power play in communal
affairs which colossally in1luenced the schools, I meticulously discuss
this subject and revisit the role of the amiras thoroughly in the following
chapters and explain the intra-community dynamics.
In order to further describe the religious education in non-Muslim
schools, Somel accentuates the similarity of the instruction at non-Muslim
schools to Muslim Quranic schools as both of which were dominated
by the instruction of religious subjects with the purpose of inculcating
the youth with religious values (899aa, p. 8a^). Just like the Islamic education,
the education in the Armenian community was not standardized
or structured. Although the Armenian community had an ancient community
structure that thrived over many centuries, it was bereft of any
functioning educational network up until the nineteenth century when
1inally with the modernization of education certain communal institutions
were introduced to regulate the realm of education (Somel, 899aa,
p. 8ra). Education connoted religious education offered by irregular local
seminaries, 1irst of which was believed to be introduced by a personal
initiative of a priest in Istanbul at the end of the Sath century (Özdoğan et
al., 899j, p. Sk8). Before this date the education was tantamount to a few
sporadically founded monastery schools nearby churches or the instruction
offered by teachers wandering around in the Empire, widely known
as vartabeds [վարդապետ] (Somel, 899aa, p. 8ra).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:^
In addition to irregular classrooms for religious instruction, with the
development of a curriculum the Skth century also witnessed the establishment
of new schools. The Skth century marked the restructuring of
Armenian education as irregular instruction left its place to relatively institutionalized
education in the seminaries. Tekeli and İlkin point out the
Skth century as a noteworthy step in communal education when a new
school structure was introduced in the Armenian educational sphere and
the number of the Armenian schools started to accelerate by the developments
(Sjj:, p. :a). Despite the lack of a comprehensive chronological
list of the schools established in the era, the existing scholarship on the
history of the Armenian schools offers some insights about the schools
founded under the orbit of churches. Looking at some of these schools
gives us an idea about the education during that period and about their
smooth transformation into more structured teaching methods.
For instance, the historical monastery school Amlorti (Amrdolu) in
the Bitlis region advanced its education methods in SmS9 and incorporated
natural sciences classes into its curriculum alongside its religious education
(Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. :a). In SmSa in the Üsküdar neighborhood of
Istanbul, a school with theology and philosophy classes in its curriculum
was opened for the education of clergy candidates (Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:,
p. :a). In Sm89 again in Istanbul, this time with the initiative of Patriarch
Hovhannes IX Golod of Bitlis3, another school was founded in one of the
additional buildings of the Surp Garabed Church4, and later within the
compass of the same church site a monastery was built for the visiting
ecclesiastics to Istanbul (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. SSr, SSm).5 In
3 Պատրիարք Յովհաննէս Թ. Կոլոտ Բաղիշեցի
4 Սուրբ Կարապետ Եկեղեցի
5 After its restoration and rebuild in different periods, in O[\d in the Republic of Turkey,
the monastery became the famous Cemaran School (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, bfOb, p.
OOP, OO^). In the O[[[-bfff education year, due to its inadequate number of students the
school was merged with the Kalfayan elementary school, which still continues its education
with the name ‘Kalfayan Elementary and Middle School’.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:a
Sm^S, a Patriarchate Academy and a girl school were also opened in Istanbul
(Somel, 89S:, p. :j). In Sma8, an Armenian middle school was founded
in the Kumkapı neighborhood of Istanbul (Somel, 89S:, p. :j).
Despite this progress, the actual milestone of Armenian communal
education was planted by the education reform of Selim III. In Smkj, Selim
III granted his non-Muslim subjects the right to establish their own community
schools apart from the seminaries functioning under the auspices
of the churches. With the new educational regulation, the 1irst known of-
1icial Armenian community school was established by Amira Mgrdich
Miricanyan6 in Smj9 in the Kumkapı neighborhood of Istanbul (Tekeli and
İlkin, Sjj:, p. :a). This initiative was followed by the establishment of
schools for boys and girls in Pera neighborhood of Istanbul by Takvaz and
Serope Minasyan, Surp Lusavoriç Church School in the Langa neighborhood
of Istanbul, Surp Hrltagabet Church School in the Balat neighborhood
of Istanbul, some other church schools in the Ortaköy, Kuruçeşme,
Samatya, Üsküdar neighborhoods of Istanbul and the Mesropyan School
in the Izmir province (Somel, 89S:, p. ^S). This new regulation not only
rendered the blossoming of community schools possible but it also
swiftly multiplied the number of all kinds of schools both in Istanbul and
Anatolia (Melson, Sjk8, p. a9^).
The expansion of the community schools in Istanbul and Anatolia was
procured by the 1inancial sponsorship of amiras and endorsed by their
involvement (Somel, 89S:, p. :j). In the Sk9:-SkS8 period Armenian community
schools started to offer free education in all neighborhoods of Istanbul
(Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. :a). In later years in Istanbul, in SkSk the
1irst modern divinity school, in Sk89 the 1irst vocational industry school
for girls, in Sk8k the 1irst nursery, in Sk8S Samatya Girls’ School followed
this wind (Somel, 89S:, p. ^S). Furthermore, in Sk8^, by a circular letter
Patriarch Garabet III of Balat7 asked the Armenian community in Anatolia
to establish schools in their communities (Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. :a). By
6 Մկրտիչ Միրիջանյան (Շնորհք ամիրան)
7 Պատրիարք Կարապետ Գ. Պալատեցի
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:r
the acceleration of this impetus, the Armenian community schools increasingly
emerged all over Anatolia. Church schools opened in Sk:^ in
the provinces of Adapazarı, Izmit, Merzifon, Manisa, Bafra, Kayseri, Eğin,
Erzurum could also be recalled in that regard (Somel, 89S:, p. ^S). According
to the records of the Patriarchate in Sk:^ the number of Armenian
schools reached S89 in Anatolia (Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. S9r). Slightly different
from the educational structures of church schools, modern education
methods only slowly penetrated into community schools and became
part of their education. One of the examples of these schools was
the Semerciyan Cemaran School8, which was established in Sk:k in the
Üsküdar neighborhood of Istanbul as the 1irst boarding academy. The
founder of the school, Amira Bezciyan, unconventionally banned beating
in the school which was a common practice in the pre-modern education
and accentuated the importance of speaking Armenian at all times
(Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. S9r).
Despite the refashioning of the edi1ice of the educational sphere, the
religious texture of the community schools did not alter colossally. Rather,
the education was designed to persist undergirding the precepts of
the Apostolic Church. As the authority of the Apostolic church was threatened
by the missionary activities of the Catholic and Protestant churches
in the Ottoman Empire, the community schools serving under the auspices
of the Apostolic church were equipped with the task of forging the
doctrines of the Apostolic church to inhibit the expansion of secular impact
of the Enlightenment ideas as well as missionary activities (Somel,
Sjj:, p. ^S). Thereby, at the beginning of the Sjth century, the Armenian
educational network was still relatively in the grip of the Patriarchate and
the amiras because of the religious authority of the former and the 1inancial
superiority of the latter.
However, at the beginning of the Sjth century the condensation of this
coalition over education was about to fall apart. Regardless of the ardent
involvement of the church in communal affairs, the exigencies and con-
8 Սէմէրճեան Ճեմարան Վարժարան
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:m
tingencies of the era led to the burgeoning of a new socio-political standing
in the Armenian community and begot an indelible transformation
for communal affairs. Armenian intellectuals who were inspired by the
Western science and democratic values challenged the coalition of the
clergy and amiras and waged a war against the legitimacy of amiras until
their resignation in Sk^S (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. S8). When
the aforementioned educational reforms of Selim III were introduced,
these reforms bolstered the restructuring of the educational sphere
which was on the verge of a metamorphosis as a result of the increasing
momentum of the Armenian renaissance. The 1lourishing of cultural activities
coupled with the introduction of community schools, and this led
to a new educational edi1ice to emerge.
The developments of the Sjth century bred a nurturing soil for the
Armenian community to undergo an enhancement in its economic status,
regrowth in its political assertiveness and blossoming in cultural activities;
which was later called as the renaissance of the Armenian community
(Melson, Sjk8, p. a9:). Along with its variegated aspects resulting in
economic, political or cultural rami1ications, the Armenian renaissance
brought about a substantial advancement of literacy in Armenian, elaboration
of the press, and multiplication of literary works in the vernacular
Armenian (Melson, Sjk8, p. a9^). Foregrounded as the literary language
of the community, the vernacular rebuffed the precedence of the classical
Armenian (գրաբար [krapar]), which was traditionally associated with
the clergy. Moreover, it carved a new space for the growth of national consciousness.
While the Armenian cultural revival eventually resulted in
the production of a national history and geography as well as the revival
of memories of Armenian dynasties, newly emerging literary works proliferated
by the printing of textbooks and expansion of an Armenian
school system (Libaridian, 89SS, p. jm). The awakening of national consciousness
found its place in literary movements, pervaded the Empire
with the establishment of schools, and manifested itself in the emergence
of associations promoting national awareness (Hovannisian, Sjrm, p. S).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:k
The 1lourishing of the Armenian press in the Skth century Ottoman
Empire was one of the buttressing factors that engendered this renaissance
(Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. mm). The spring of the Armenian
press was mainly initiated by the Mekhitarists9, an Armenian catholic
congregation which was founded by an Armenian priest from the Sivas
province, Mkhitar Sepasdatsi10. In SmSa, when the Mekhitarist Order 1led
from the Ottoman Empire and moved to Venice, the priests started to catalyze
the conditions for the Armenian awakening. The Roman church fostered
scholarly ventures of Armenians of the Ottoman Empire (Stone,
Sjk^, p. S8). The establishment of the Mekhitarist Order in SmSm in the San
Lazzaro Island near Venice bolstered the emergence of the Armenian
press (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. mm). While the Mekhitarist Order
kept its status under the patronage of the Latin Church, it became the
center of where signi1icant scienti1ic scholarship of Europe was translated
into Armenian, published and distributed to the Armenian world
(Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. :a). With its two bases in Venice and Vienna, this
movement vigorously contributed to the Armenian national consciousness
by their translations from European languages to Armenian, reprints
of former Armenian literary works and numerous important publications
among which the renowned dictionary of Armenian language
(Բառգիրք Հայկազեան լեզուի [Parkirk Haygazyan Lezui]) can be mentioned
here (Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. :a).
Since the printing press was not allowed in the Ottoman lands, the
Mekhitarists were not alone in their attempts to generate alternative
ways to publish and distribute books in Armenian. Due to the prohibition
of the printing press, approximately for two hundred years, the printing
bases of the Armenian clergy were installed in various cities such as Venice,
Livorno, Marseille, Amsterdam or other trade centers (Kevorkian and
Paboudjian, 89S8, p. mm). Their numerous publications could reach Minor
Asia and Armenian-populated areas and made a great contribution to the
development of schooling (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. mm). By all
9 Մխիթարեաններ
10 Մխիթար Սեբաստացի
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:j
means, the schooling was based on religious education trying to put forward
the Christian faith and Armenian identity in a predominantly Muslim
geography; however, these attempts also granted easier access to
publications, guidebooks and maps which promoted nationalism ideas
and introduced new perspectives for the newly emerging commerce
bourgeoisie (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. mm).
At the end of the Skth century, education reforms of Selim III provided
the appropriate conditions for the Mekhitarists to be able to amplify their
contribution to Armenian intellectual life and education. With the momentum
initiated by the Mekhitarists and the involvement of intellectuals
from Istanbul, the 1irst modern schools were founded in the Ottoman
Empire and they increasingly replaced religious schools over time
(Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. mm). Today, the Pangaltı Mkhitaryan
School11 which continues to offer education at preschool, elementary,
middle and high school levels, was founded with this spirit for male students
in Sk8a (Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p. :a). The wind that the Mekhitarists
started with their contribution to the Armenian press did not only accelerate
the establishment of Catholic schools or even undermine the monopoly
of the Patriarchate but it also ignited a broader impact on the society
by introducing secular ideologies of the West to the Armenian
community.
As I aforementioned, the secularization and modernization of Armenian
education was mainly considered with respect to the indelible impact
of the introduction and adoption of European Enlightenment ideas
on Armenian intellectuals. In order to accentuate the reasons why the
modernization of education was rapidly embraced by the public, Ortaylı
(Sjk:/89Sk) additionally underscores the socio-economic boiling points
of the era. Despite the demur of the ecclesiastics to a transition to secular
education, with the intensi1ication of relations with Europe and commerce
networks the newly emerging bourgeoisie called for a trans1iguration
in the educational sphere (Ortaylı, Sjk:/89Sk p. Sjr). Religious education
came to be regarded as not responsive enough in meeting the
11 Բանկալթի Մխիթարեան Վարժարան
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
^9
needs emanating from the modernizing world. On the other hand, the
consolidation of the new bourgeoisie class did not only transform the
realm of education by generating demand for Westernized education, but
also their increasing wealth and clout gave them the perfect opportunity
to ask for a say in the communal affairs. Beginning mainly with the Sk:9s,
Armenian artisans and craftsmen started to seek the ways to claim their
share in the administration of the community (Somel, 89S:, p. ^8). Instead
of amiras and religious authorities, Armenian artisans and craftsmen got
involved to 1inancially support the community schools (Somel, 899ab, p.
j:). Their involvement and increasing in1luence would further accelerate
the modernization process of the administration of the community and
secularization of the community schools in the following years.
When the European Enlightenment values penetrated into the public
and national consciousness became more widespread among non-Muslim
intellectuals, the political signi1icance of community schools soared
proportionally (Somel, 899aa, p. 8aa). In order to meet the new educational
standards and advance the quality of education students from the
Armenian community were sent for their education to Paris in SkS9, to
Moscow in SkSr, to Tbilisi in Sk8: and to other European cultural capitals
(Vahapoğlu, Sjj9, p. S9). The impact of the intellectuals who were educated
in Western universities and in1luenced by democratic values later
paved the way for the consolidation of modern educational institutions
(Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. S8). The inner structure and curricula
of the schools were progressively altered and the number of the schools
escalated dramatically (Özdoğan et al., 899j, p. Skr). However, up until
the Sjth century we could talk about the emergence and existence of Armenian
schools almost exclusively in Istanbul; only in later years, with
the push factors of missionary activities the community schools expanded
to the cities of Anatolia where the number of the Armenian population
predominated (Somel, 899ab, p. j:). As a part of the Yankee pietism,
the missionary schools increasingly entailed Armenian Apostolic,
Armenian Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches to amplify their educational
efforts in order to compete with missionary schools (Stone, Sjk^,
p. m9). With the expansion of missionary schools in the Balkans, Anatolia
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
^S
and in Arab-speaking provinces, enlightenment ideas in1iltrated into
non-Muslim populations which eventually increased the number of the
schools in those regions (Somel, 899aa, p. 8aa). Threatened by the secular
and Westernized education of the missionary schools, the establishment
of modern and national Christian and Jewish community schools which
would be equipped with modern curricula including foreign language education
appeared as the solution to emulate missionary schools that
were eager to receive students from those communities (Ortaylı,
Sjk:/89Sk, p. Sjr). The long term and diverse contacts that the Armenian
community built with the West enhanced their educational situation in
the course of time as opposed to the other subject peoples of the Ottoman
Empire (Stone, Sjk^, p. :j).12 The missionary movement led to the establishment
of the Academy at the Armenian Patriarchate in Sk8m in order to
train clergy, which would plant the seeds of the Armenian Evangelical
Church in the following years (Arpee, Sj:r, p. Sa9).
In a nutshell, in additional to the global context unraveling around
them two important complementary factors propelled the Armenian
community to re1ine its education system; the values that largely American
Protestant missionary schools promoted and the political competition
within the Armenian community that resulted in the leverage of a
new class over communal affairs (Somel, 899aa, p. 8ra). Evidently, this
process went hand-in-hand with the modernization reforms of the Ottoman
Empire snowballing mainly after the Imperial Rescript of Sk:j and
proliferating into different realms of political, social and cultural life of
the empire. While the edi1ice of the Armenian community began its irrevocable
restructuring, the Ottoman state was about to introduce momentous
regulations that would result in the incorporation of the Western
12 In fact, in his notes on the history of the missions of the American Board of Commissioners
Foreign Mission (ABCFM) published in Od^b the American minister Rufus Anderson
described the educational situation of the Armenian community in the Od\fs as
“The Armenians were found to be well supplied with spelling books, reading books,
arithmetic and grammars in the modern languages, also with works on geometry and
trigonometry. There was, therefore, much less preparatory work to be done for them in
the way of education than was supposed.” (p. OfO).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
^8
standards into the education system. In order to paint a picture of the
Ottoman context when the Armenian educational infrastructure was consolidated
with the adoption of regulatory institutions and the increase of
the school numbers, in what follows I will pithily mention certain reforms
and regulations regarding the modernization of education in the Ottoman
Empire. The reforms regulating the realm of education in the Ottoman
Empire did not only alter the conditions for the education of Muslim
populations. As they were designed with an Ottomanist ideology to bring
various constituents of the Empire to a shared denominator, they also intended
to regulate and audit the community schools with the objective of
promoting this ideology. Therefore, I suggest that reviewing reforms
which refashioned the surrounding conditions around the community
schools can help us grasp the ways the educational networks of the community
were built and sustained.
§ T.T Reform Period and the Modernization of Education
In this section, a dispute about the prior discovery on the history of the
modernization or secularization of education in the Ottoman Empire is
not my intention. Such a large objective would be beyond my research
interests. There are already many comprehensive works written on this
subject (Cevat, Sj88; Atuf, Sj:S; Ergin, Sj:j; Ünat, Sjr^; Koçer, Sjm9; Kodaman,
Sjk9; Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:; Deringil, Sjjk; Fortna, 8998; Sakaoğlu,
899:; Somel, 89Sj) including some work focusing particularly on the history
of non-Muslim community schools (Vahapoğlu, Sjj9; Ertuğrul, Sjjk;
Deri, 899j; Young, 899S). Considering the broadness of the subject, I also
do not purport to summarize these works to explain the Ottoman context
of the Armenian schools. Rather, I will pinpoint some of the important
events that mark a noteworthy change in the administration of the Armenian
schools and regulate their affairs. As much as looking at the in1luences
of altering intra-community dynamics on educational affairs, this
section aims to pay regard to the con1iguration of educational institutions
and networks that brought about new measures for the community
schools in the Ottoman Empire.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
^:
At the turn of the Sjth century, the Ottoman Empire was still a force
to be reckoned with that could not be pushed aside, and at the time same
it was the ‘sick man of Europe’ in 1inancial crises resulted from the penetration
of Western interests and that was why whose demise was expected
any moment (Deringil, Sjjk, p. :). As the Ottomans had been
aware of the new winds started by the Western European ideas since the
French Revolution, Europe became a source of emulation for the enlightened
autocracy whose values should be transplanted into the empire
starting with the Tanzimat reforms (Deringil, Sjjk, p. 89). When the Sk:j
imperial rescript Tanzimat Fermanı was declared with the purpose of the
reorganization of the administrative realm, the modern state, as we understand
it today, was started to be constituted with the introduction of
mass schooling, a postal service, railways, lighthouses, clock towers, lifeboats,
museums, censuses, birth certi1icates, passports, armies or bureaucracies
(Deringil, Sjjk, p. j). Later, the proclamation of reform edict
Islahat Fermanı became a key step towards the implementation of the
Tanzimat Edict, as it promised equality for non-Muslim communities as
long as they owed allegiance to their Ottoman identity (Mardin,
Sjj8/899a, p. km). The Islahat Edict demysti1ied the Tanzimat Edict by
introducing regulations for communal affairs of non-Muslim communities
and reforms in variegated areas from education, judiciary, religion,
to security. The legal equality of Muslim and non-Muslim, the rule of law
and the state’s assurance to protect the lives, property and honor of its
subjects were a new departure from the familiar edi1ice of the earlier periods
(Deringil, Sjjk, p. j). Perhaps not so surprisingly, this new departure
upset certain fragments of the communities. As much as the Muslims
who interpreted these reforms as the loss of their superior status, the
non-Muslim religious leaders also demurred to the legal reforms being
afraid that those reforms would undermine the existing hierarchy in their
respective communities and destabilize their control in communal governance
(Göçek, 89Sa, p. jj).
The imperial rescripts resulted from a need to prevent the possible
dissolution of the Empire while bringing various communities of the Empire
together under an overarching Ottoman identity (Koçak, Sjka, p.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
^^
^kr). At the beginning of the Sjth century, the Ottoman bureaucracy presumed
that by these series of administrative, legal and economic reforms
numerous cultural subunits of the Ottoman Empire could be dissolved
into an Ottoman identity (Mardin, Sjj8/899a, p. S8). Secularizing the millet
system which was largely based on religious differences, this new Ottoman
identity was believed to offer the means to override religious identities
and create a powerful common ground to bind various constituents
of the Empire together (Bayır, 89Sm, p. ^k). One of the ways to promote
this new identity was to pave the way for the involvement of laymen into
communal affairs and that is why decrease, if possible eliminate, the in-
1luence of clergymen on their respective communities (Bayır, 89Sm, p. ^m).
Thereby, the secular edi1ice which was based on modern bureaucracy
and a shared Ottoman identity could equip the Empire with novel technologies
of governing. Adoption of Western values and standards not
only could help the administrative structure of the Empire be secularized
but also could provide the means to inculcate the youth with the patriotic
fervor of the Ottomanist ideology. With this motivation, along with administrative
and legal reforms the Ottoman state adopted a systematic
program of education to mold its subjects with an Ottoman identity into
citizens (Deringil, Sjjk, p. j:).
In the long run, they failed to achieve this objective. The elimination
of the clerical authority resulted in unforeseen consequences and led to
the adoption of secular ethnic identities, which later crystallized the
boundaries among these communities even stronger than before (Somel,
899a, p. jr). However, by these reforms many Western institutions, including
a new education system, were introduced to the Empire (Mardin,
Sjj8/899a, p. S8). Although prior to the Tanzimat era, reformists endorsed
a noteworthy educational progress to meet the pressing needs of the era,
only after the Tanzimat reforms modern education started to burgeon
(Erdoğdu, Sjja, p. m). With the opinion that the power of the state could
only be reinstated by educational reforms, in the Mahmood II period education
started to be modernized as primary education became mandatory,
schools for medicine, military and military music education were
opened, students were sent to Europe for education, the medicine school
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
^a
embraced French instruction, the chamber of translation was constituted,
the publication of Takvim-i Vekayi was initiated, and junior high
schools (rüşdiye okulları) were opened (Erdoğdu, Sjja, p. m, k). With the
Tanzimat reforms, the modernization of the armed forces and administration
carved a space for modern education to 1lourish in the Ottoman
Empire, where religious education used to predominate separately in
each community before (Ortaylı, Sjk:/89Sk, p. Sj9). In the course of time,
dissolving the authority of the clergymen over their communities would
contribute to the modern schooling to outstrip religious education in
those communities and European values gradually to penetrate into the
Empire, albeit on different scales.
Educational reforms introduced as a segment of the larger reorganization
reforms were inspired by and even based on Western European
models. However, the establishment of educational institutions did not
solely depend on a straightforward appropriation of Western values and
institutions. On this matter, Deringil foregrounds the misconception towards
the rescripts which were accepted almost entirely as the joint outcome
of Western pressure and the fervor of the grand vizier Reşid Paşa,
and addresses the scholarship unraveling inner dynamics within the Ottoman
ruling circles to challenge this perspective (Sjjk, p. ^a). Focusing
on Abu-Manneh’s work (Sjj^), Deringil accentuates the input of the
young Sultan Abdülmecid and his close circle of tutors and advisors into
the background of the Tanzimat Edict (Sjjk, p. ^a). Thereby, he provides
a more sophisticated perspective to discuss the context of the reforms,
which also help us grasp the condensation of variegated factors at play in
their emergence.
In this respect, it is signi1icant to reckon that in addition to external
push factors, the reforms were the outcome of various reasons and cumulative
weight of the economic trends of the era. While the empire developed
ways of cohabitating Western values with its conventional approaches,
the paradigm shift in economic structures surfaced a larger
need for the adoption of new measures and methods. The demand for a
new education system also emanated from the political-economic shift in
the Ottoman Empire. Particularly towards the end of the Sjth century,
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
^r
when the establishment of factories, railroad projects and urban infrastructure
companies elicited the emergence of a new working class, new
economic activities and the transformation of the class structure required
new measures to be taken in the educational realm (Tekeli and
İlkin, Sjj:, p. am). The steps taken for the introduction of a new education
system was a response to the needs of the era. These new demands initially
led to the establishment of vocational schools. Therefore, the 1irst
civil modern schools in Istanbul were vocational schools, which were established
in Sk:j primarily with the objective of training public servants
with desired quali1ications to be hired in the newly emerging administrative
structure (Somel, 89Sj, p. ^a). Moreover, this drive was further accelerated,
when the need for educated persons in commerce led trade notables
to invest in secular education 1lourishing outside the domination of
the religious authorities (Tekeli, Sjka, p. ^ak).
Up until the Tanzimat era, there was no momentous change in the educational
sphere and particularly until Sk^a there was no organization to
coordinate educational matters in the Empire (Erdoğdu, Sjja, p. k). In order
to centrally oversee the schools now extending in communities and
varying in regions, the Ottoman state saw a need for the formation of a
central educational council. In parallel with the modernization efforts of
the Tanzimat era, in Sk:k the Of1ice of Public Works (Meclis-i Umur-ı
Na1ia) was established as an initial step to procure a modern structure
for educational regulations (Erdoğdu, Sjja, p. Sk). As the establishment
of more schools, education materials, advancement of curricula, audit of
teachers and schools increasingly became a requirement, so as structurally
more sophisticated councils were needed; chronologically in Sk:j the
Of1ice of Junior High Schools (Mekatib-i Rüşdiye Nezareti), in Sk^S the
Council of Public Education (Meclis-i Maarif-i Umumiye), in Sk^a the
Temporary Council of Education (Muvakkat Meclis-i Maarif), in Sk^r the
Permanent Council of Education (Daimi Meclis-i Maarif), and in Sk^m the
Of1ice of Public Schools (Mekatib-i Umumiye Nezareti) were established
(Erdoğdu, Sjja; Maarif Vekilliği, Sj^9).
Later years with the Skar reforms, in addition to privately administered
schools all communities of the Empire were granted the right to
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
^m
open their own community schools under the supervision and inspection
of a central education council (Büyükkarcı, Sjjr, p. ::). As secular education
was already a part of the lives of Muslim populations since the Sk:j
reforms, the Skar reforms addressed educational issues mainly for non-
Muslim populations such as practices of cultural autonomy, right to establish
modern community schools or access to public schools (Kodaman,
Sjk9, p. ^S). After Skar, the opening of new non-Muslim community
schools was swiftly increased throughout the Empire. In response to the
expansion of the schools opened by communities and missionaries, the
Ottoman Empire felt the need both to keep up with those developments
to modernize its education by advancing curricula and to launch a central
education council to conduct administrative and educational affairs of
those schools by Western standards (Erdoğdu, Sjja, p. ^r).
The capacity of the Mekatib-i Umumiye Nezareti was regarded as inadequate
to surmount the new challenges of founding new schools all
over the empire or monitoring their affairs (Erdoğdu, Sjja, p. ^r). There
was a need for an advanced council to monitor newly emerging bureaucratic
edi1ice. In Skam, the Ministry of Public Education (Maarif-i Umumiye
Nezareti) was presented with this objective. Regarded as the nucleus of
the Ministry of Education later founded in the Republic of Turkey, the
Maarif-i Umumiye Nezareti was a manifestation of the state’s propensity
to concomitantly handle educational and cultural affairs and to abandon
its so far concessive demeanor towards decentralized education (Kodaman,
Sjk9, p. ^8). In this way education had not only been acknowledged
as signi1icant in perpetuating the Ottoman existence vis-a-vis the Western
powers, but educational affairs started to be regulated by modern
bureaucracy (Kodaman, Sjk9, p. ^8).
With the consolidation of the right to establish community schools,
the schooling in non-Muslim communities became subjected to the regulation
and audit of the state. In order to monitor this new educational
sphere, the Skar reforms saw a need to additionally incorporate another
council whose members were composed of representatives from Muslim
and non-Muslim communities (Somel, 89Sj, p. rj). Having one representative
from each Muslim, Rum, Armenian, Catholic, Protestant and
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
^k
Jewish communities, the Council of Mixed Education (Meclis-i Muhtelit-i
Maarif), was founded in the same year with Maarif-i Umumiye Nezareti
and was subject to its audit to centrally monitor educational affairs in the
Empire (Somel, 89Sj, p. rj). This council was in charge of regulating the
quality of schools, developing curricula, selecting teachers or miscellaneous
matters including registration or transfer of students (Akyıldız, Sjj:,
p. 8^m). With the same spirit, for the promotion of an Ottoman identity,
Turkish language classes became a compulsory part of the curriculum in
non-Muslim schools (Ortaylı, Sjk:/89Sk, p. SSj), and the selection of their
teachers was left to a state-mandated commission (Büyükkarcı, Sjjr, p.
:r).
Reshaped by the educational reforms, the schooling in the Ottoman
Empire was constituted based on two main pillars; public schools
(mekatib-i umumiyye) and private schools (mekatib-i hususiye).
Whereas the state monitored both the management and supervision of
the former, it only audited the latter and left their management and establishment
to individuals or religious communities (Alkan, 8999, p. ^).
Unlike public schools, private schools varied in their organization and design.
There were both Muslim and non-Muslim private schools, and non-
Muslim schools further differed from each other according to their
founders and funders (Alkan, 8999, p. ^). The schools that were founded
by communities and patriarchates, by individuals, and by foreigners composed
almost all the private schools in the Empire (Alkan, 8999, p. ^).
By and large, the education system was shaped as a three-staged
structure; primary schools (sıbyan mektepleri), junior high schools
(rüşdiyeler), and vocational schools (Somel, 89Sj, p. rj). Whereas public
schools were established by the state and offered education for all communities
at the secondary and tertiary stages, primary education was at
the disposal of religious authorities separate for each community and the
instruction was in the native language of each particular community
(Somel, 89Sj, p. rj). Thereby, albeit the variety of schools and introduction
of modern ones, local neighborhood primary schools (sıbyan
mektepleri) remained a signi1icant aspect of education for a long while,
be it in Muslim or non-Muslim communities. These local schools were an
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
^j
important source of religious education because of their extensive numbers,
and they were educational centers to teach religious practices and
the Holy Scripture in its original language (Alkan, 8999, p. a).13 As long as
primary education stayed outside the jurisdiction of educational councils,
the in1luence of medrese did not disappear (Kodaman, Sjk9, p. :m).
That was why, the coexistence of religious and secular education continued
for a long time in the Ottoman Empire.
In Skrm, an educational reformer, French Victor Duruy advised the
Sublime Porte on the matters of establishing mixed schools open to the
registration of students from all communities, a university, vocational
schools as well as public libraries (Somel, 89Sj, p. mm). After this consultation,
the Regulation for National Education (Maarif Nizamnamesi), which
would stay in effect for a long time with minor alterations, was issued in
Skrj to consolidate the modern educational structure and to further append
national aspects into the education system.14 Based on the Western
principles and the French national education model, by this regulation
the Sublime Porte integrated educational affairs into state affairs, and incorporated
all educational reforms that were introduced since the start
of the modernization period into one code of practice (Büyükkarcı, Sjjr,
p. 8^). The objective of this regulation was to design a rationalized and
13 In addition to the fact that modern schooling was often mentioned with respect to the
adoption of secular Western European models in the literature that I use here, religious
and modern education were not mutually exclusive in the Ottoman Empire and did not
conWlict with each other. Rather, education in the Ottoman Empire subsumed aspects of
religious and secular teaching simultaneously for a long time. In that regard, Somel
(bfO[) refuses to explain religious and modern education through an incompatible dichotomy,
and suggests to see Islam inherent to intellectual life of the era until Od^f (bfO[,
p. bO). Likewise, Fortna argues that disregarding the continuities in the relationship between
religion and modern learning resulted in histories of the region to be narrated in
a way further perpetuated the belief that Islam and modern learning were mutually exclusive
(bffb, p. O).
14 Somel states that in order to regulate additional matters, the Od[P Ordinance was later
issued (bfO[, p. Ob\).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
a9
centralized public education system and to take responsibility for the education
of all subjects of the Empire (Fortna, 899a, p. S^r).15 The administration
and audit of all schools in the empire -public schools, private
schools, non-Muslim community schools or missionary schools- fell under
the jurisdiction of this regulation (Somel, 89Sj, p. S8:). It was a detailed
proposal to form a network of schools reaching out to every corner
of the empire and to disperse the schooling to provinces (Fortna, 899a, p.
S^r).
The regulation made primary education compulsory. It brought
standards to designate places of new schools in accordance with the population
of the settlements and assigned the 1inancial sustainability of
these schools to their local communities (Ortaylı, Sjk:/89Sk, p. Sj^). Despite
its emphasis on centralization, the state refrained from taking any
1inancial responsibility in the realm of primary education (Ortaylı,
Sjk:/89Sk, p. Sj^). The costs of primary schools would be covered by the
local population of neighborhood and villages, and of junior high schools
by education funds that were collected by the public (Ortaylı, Sjk:/89Sk,
p. Sj^). A permanent committee of inspectors was employed to audit all
of the schools, whereas the only exception to this audit mechanism would
be religion classes in non-Muslim community schools (Somel, 89Sj, p. S89,
S8S). While primary education remained within the administration of
communities, the curricula were substantially common to all schools,
which only allowed the language of instruction and the content of religion
classes to differ among schools (Somel, 89Sj, p. 8Sa). The regulation
also introduced certain control mechanisms over missionary teaching
which required all missionary schools to submit their curricula and their
teachers to be audited by public inspection, although general surmise is
that these measures were not quite implemented (Deringil, Sjjk, p. SSr).
Furthermore, the regulation subsumed certain aspects to foreground a
common Ottoman identity. While the instruction in public schools was
15 Fortna interprets the Maarif-i Umumiye Nizamnamesi as the ofWicial blueprint of educational
strategy towards the bfth century, although, he says, in later years the Abdulhamid
II regime effectively altered the educational strategy, substance of the schools and
raison d’etre of schooling (bffc, p. \c).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
aS
designed in Turkish, in non-Muslim community schools Turkish classes
and Turkish teachers became a part of the curriculum and teaching respectively
(Ortaylı, 89Sk; Sjk:, p. Sj^). The S8jth article of the regulation
speci1ically addressed community and missionary schools as the graduation
certi1icates of teachers to be hired in those schools, the list of the
classes to be taught, and the materials to be used in classes were subjected
to the approval and con1irmation of the education council, Maarifi
Umumiye Nezareti (Kocabaşoğlu, 8998, p. j9).
Introducing a new education system to answer the demands of the
economic trans1iguration, the reforms took its cue from Western European
technologies. In such a context, establishing a network of modern
schools, Western missionary schools were a strong competition for the
Empire. As the Skar Reforms granted the freedom of religion for everyone,
the Ottoman state of1icially had allowed missionary activities and
thereby Christian missionary schools to be established in the empire
(Deringil, Sjjk, p. jS). Being the biggest challenge to the Ottoman education,
the American Board Commissioners of Foreign Mission (ABCFM)
provided educational institutions often far better than those the Ottoman
state could ever furnish, which further undermined the stability of the
government and intensi1ied hatred towards missionaries (Deringil, Sjjk,
p. S8j). Given the extent of the international pressure, it was impossible
for the Ottoman authorities to expel missionaries; instead, they did all
they could do to keep track of missionary activities (Deringil, Sjjk, p. S8m).
The only thing that the Ottoman authorities could do was to compete
with them by improving the quality of Muslim schools (Deringil, Sjjk, p.
S:S).
The domino effect of the missionary schools started initially within
the non-Muslim communities and later expanded to Muslim populations
(Fortna, 899a, p. ma). Not only did the missionaries open the 1irst modern
schools in the provinces, but they also set the standards for modern education
in the Ottoman Empire (Fortna, 899a, p. ma). Intimidated by their
in1luence over their communities and threatened by the values they promoted,
as much as the Ottoman bureaucracy, Armenian clergy and ruling
class viewed those schools as abrasive towards their authority and did
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
a8
everything in their power to deter their communities from attending to
American schools, their meetings or reading their publications particularly
from Sk:S to Sk^r (Kocabaşoğlu, 8999, p. aa).16 However, in the progress
of time secular education pervaded, secular world-views spread
around, and religious communities started to dissolve (Ortaylı,
Sjk:/89Sk, p. S88). Therefore, every church in the Empire was to comply
with secular values and embrace a nationalist ideology that these secular
values promoted (Ortaylı, Sjk:/89Sk, p. S88). As the leverage of the clergy
diminished in their communities, communal assemblies constituted by
secular lay members increasingly took over their place (Ortaylı, 89Sk;
Sjk:, p. Skj).
The reverberations of the reforms and in1luence of missionary
schools slightly varied in the communities as the modernization of their
schooling followed different paths. The reforms failed to create harmony
among communities or could not prevent communities from developing
different agendas throughout their progress. The standing of Muslim
schools was not so bright at the beginning of the Sjth century in comparison
to non-Muslim schools. The large part of the problem was regarded
as emanating from the lack of interest of the Ottoman wealthy and intellectual
to be involved in carving out a modern educational network
(Fortna, 899a, p. S99). This also might be regarded as one of the reasons
why the Ottoman public schools could not attract students from non-
Muslim communities. The number of non-Muslim students was limited
in those public schools and multi-communality stayed restricted to
higher education such as high level vocational schools or the Imperial
School (Somel, 89Sj, p. :8).
On the other hand, the competition that American missionary schools
started led the Armenian schools to advance their education. They could
successfully step up their education and form educational networks. Un-
16 In a way, as a response to these circumstances, the American missionaries developed a
new strategy with the help of Britain and led the establishment of the Wirst Protestant
church in OdlP in Istanbul (Kocabaşoğlu, bfff, p. cc).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
a:
dergirded by private initiatives and 1inancial support of their own communities,
like Mithat Pasha had once envisioned for the entire education
system of the empire, non-Muslim education became much more extensive
(Göçek, 89Sa, p. S9^). With the decentralization of power in establishing
and administering their schools up until the centralization of national
education in the Ottoman Empire, non-Muslim communities could develop
successful education models not only for children but also for
adults (Göçek, 89Sa, p. S9^). As the pedagogy non-Muslim schools adopted
became more engaging and participatory, vast qualitative differences appeared
between the schooling patterns of non-Muslim and Muslim communities
(Göçek, 89Sa, p. S9^). During the Sjth century and especially during
the Hamidian period, Ottoman civil servants noticed the superiority
of non-Muslim community schools over public Muslim schools (Fortna,
899a, p. S99). This superiority mainly stemmed from the ability of non-
Muslim communities to keep up with scienti1ic progress in the West and
their capacity to develop an educational network comprehensive enough
in its magnitude, 1inancial stability and organizational consistency, reaching
out even to small villages (Fortna, 899a, p. S9S).17 For that reason as
non-Muslim schools were always regarded with extreme suspicion, their
activities were allowed as long as they con1irmed the regulations of the
Ministry of Education (Deringil, Sjjk, p. S9a).
While the schooling in the Armenian community got sophisticated
throughout the years and the number of the schools increased and
spread to provinces, a communal organization to monitor educational affairs
appeared as a need. Until the Sjth century, as the main authority of
17 The reasons why the intellectuals or notables of the Armenian community were so vigorously
interested in introducing and spreading modern schooling in their community
could be found in the ways they engaged with Western ideologies, intellectual movements,
the authors they followed or the books they read and translated. I suggest that
looking at the intellectual history of the Armenian community, the networks these intellectuals
built over the years or their long term visions can reveal the nuances for us
to understand why education and schooling was such an important project for Armenians.
In Chapter c, with the purpose of comparing communal dynamics now and then I
further discuss how and why intellectuals of the community successfully accelerated
the spread of modern education.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
a^
the community the Patriarchate was responsible for governing the communal
affairs either earthly or celestial. However, with the dissolution of
the power of religious authorities in the Sjth century, the administration
of civil matters was increasingly pulled away from the monopoly of the
Patriarchate. Following the constitution of a council of notables to assist
the Patriarchate in Sk^S, in Sk^m the administration of communal affairs
was split between the jurisdiction of two assemblies; one for civil and the
other for ecclesiastical matters of the community (Karpat, Sjm:, p. kj).
Thereby, the structure of the Patriarchate became two-fold consisting of
an ecumenical synod and a corporeal council, when combined composed
the mixed council (Bebiroğlu, 899k, p. S::). An education council was also
a part of this corporeal council and with its numerous supervisors and
members it was equipped with responsibilities of selecting educational
materials and textbooks, preparing curricula of community schools, hiring
teachers, administering the schools and opening new ones with the
budget approved by the mixed council (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8,
p. kS).
As I explained earlier in this chapter, with the increasing involvement
of artisans and craftsmen and the contribution of intellectuals in1luenced
by the Western values, democratic principles and nationalist thoughts,
the authority of the religious class and notables over education faded out.
Aware of the fact that their community administrations were stagnant,
corrupt and nondemocratic, the new generation of Armenians who were
imbued with Enlightenment ideas and Western values and still members
of their community challenged religious institutions (Somel, 899aa, p.
8ar). Their involvement in communal affairs triggered a change in the
status quo. This change became substantially visible with the introduction
of a communal educational council. In Ska: when the Council of National
Education (Maarif Komisyonu) was founded in line with the bureaucratic
developments in the Ottoman Empire, community schools
were of1icially released from the control of notables and patriarchate, and
put under a relatively secular and centralized control in accordance with
communal standards and measures (Özdoğan et al., 899j, p. Skr). This
step consolidated the progress of modern education as it permanently
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
aa
incorporated classes of Western science and foreign language education
in curricula and installed a secular mechanism to perform the standards
centrally stipulated by the bureaucratic reforms. With these developments,
the curricula of modern schools would be designed in such a way
that included classes of history, geography, mathematics, natural sciences,
law, business knowledge, health sciences, political economy, philosophy
and language classes of Armenian, Ottoman Turkish and French.
After this date, Armenian schooling entered into a new phase as the
school numbers in provinces of the Empire soared fast. In addition to the
strategy of the education council to expand the education network, Armenian
cultural awakening also contributed to this end. In that regard,
Somel accentuates the impact of nationalist tendencies on the growth of
the schooling networks as in the rural parts of the Empire these attempts
were bolstered by local populations (89S:, p. ^m). Another momentous
factor that paved the way for the abrupt increase in the school numbers
in provinces was the setting that the Armenian constitution groomed.
The power gap that the Skar reforms created by the dissolution of church
oligarchies over Christian communities allowed the communities to prepare
their own charters between the years of Skr8 and Skra (Somel,
899ab, p. j9). While these charters accelerated the role of secular members
of communities to be involved in the administration of their communities,
their main objective was to submit a code of conduct in writing
for communal affairs. With this objective, after a couple of drafts, 1inally
in Skr: the Armenian national constitution18 was approved by the Sublime
Porte.
The novelty of this set of code of conduct was its analogous nature to
Western legal standards. It was based on an explicit framework of separation
of powers in governing community affairs and consolidated the
secular edi1ice in every aspect of community administration (Koçunyan,
89Sr, p. mr). The constitution divided the settlements into church districts
according to their population where the members of the local community
18 In Armenian: Ազգային Սահմանադրութիւն Հայոց [Azkayin Sahmanatrutyun
Hayots]; in Ottoman Turkish: Nizâmnâme-i Millet-i Ermeniyân, نظامنامھٔ ملّت امر نیان
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
ar
were responsible to take care of local communal affairs, govern churches
and schools, aid the poor, facilitate disagreements, aggrandize churches,
put effort to establish new schools and lend a hand to families in need
(Bebiroğlu, 899k, p. SaS). The pious foundations that were founded and
sustained by 1inancial contributions of the public became the authorized
institutions to administer communal affairs including quotidian needs of
churches, schools or cemeteries. The majority of community schools
would be established by these pious foundations and administered by
them. Since latest developments laid further stress on educational affairs,
the constitution also replaced the former education council with a larger
one (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. kS). Introducing a new regulation,
this educational council attempted to standardize the schooling and
prepared a common program to be followed in all Armenian schools in
Istanbul and Anatolia particularly after Skj: (Tekeli and İlkin, Sjj:, p.
S9m).
By the rati1ication of the constitution, the secularization process of
administrative, educational and legal affairs was completed and they
were considerably disassociated from individual and religious in1luences.
Expectably, these developments led to disparity and even certain
skirmishes between amiras and the public, and divided the public between
supporters of the status quo versus of reforms (Bebiroğlu, 899k, p.
S8^). In that regard, Göçek underscores the unequal distribution of
emerging bene1its of modernity within the Armenian community and argues
that modernity resulted in intra-Armenian polarization as the religious-
secular and the urban-rural divides became increasingly crystallized
(89Sa, p. S88). In sharpening of these divides, the impact of
educational matters and the schooling rates was momentous. With the
rati1ication of the constitution, the schooling rate in provinces was further
increased albeit the rather slower progress rates in the Armenian
Highlands (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. kS). This led the urban-rural
divide to become even more distinct in the progress of time.
As the constitution prompted alternative ways for the communal administration
to be systematically conducted by secular constituents of
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
am
the community, emerging civil organizations became a noteworthy feature
of the expansion of the schooling attempts that were signi1icant also
in contributing to Armenian cultural awakening. In Skmr the Araratyan
Armenian Association (Արարատյան Ընկերություն Հայոց [Araradyan
Ingerutyun Hayots]), in Skmk the Eastern Pro-school Association
(Դպրոցասիրաց-արևելյան Ընկերություն [Tbrotsasirats-arevelyan
Ingerutyun]), and in Skmj the Giligyan Association (Կիլիկյան
Ընկերություն [Giligyan Ingerutyun]) were founded with the aim of establishing
schools and spreading enlightenment ideas within Armenianpopulated
settlements. In Skk9, by the merge of the Araratyan Armenian
Association, the Eastern Pro-school Association and the Giligyan Association,
the Union of Armenian Associations (Միացյալ Ընկերություն
Հայոց [Miatsyal Ingerutyun Hayots]) was constituted. The objective of the union
was to centrally collect donations, standardize the curriculum of the
Armenian schools and specify minimum education standards for quali-
1ied education (Somel, 899aa, p. 8rr). During their active years, these associations
contributed to the establishment of modern Armenian schools
in the Empire and made a considerable effort to spread schooling to Armenian-
populated rural places.
In Skmj, the Armenian Patriotic Women Association (Ազգանուէր
Հայուհյաց Ընկերությունը [Azkanver Hayuhyats Ingerutyunı]) was founded
by Zabel Sibil Asadour19 particularly for the education of girls.20 The main
19 Զապէլ Սիպիլ Ասատուր
20 As women opened up new spaces and started to partake in the public sphere with the
developments of the era, the socio-political transWiguration supported by the reforms
led to the establishment of educational institutions for women. The education of women
in the Armenian community walked a similar path to the overall atmosphere in the Ottoman
Empire. The quality of education for women was advanced throughout the O[th
century. The emergence of primary level educational institutions for women was followed
by the adoption of teacher training institutions (Kurnaz, O[[[). In that sense, the
establishment of a women's teacher-training college (Dar-ül Muallimat) in Od^[ was a
signiWicant step in educational history (Akyüz, O[[[). Considering the fact that the education
of women remained limited with the private tutoring of upper-class women and
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
ak
purpose of the Association was to recruit and train women as teachers
while raising their consciousness as Armenians (Kaprielian-Churchill,
Sjja, p. S98). In that sense, Sjth century developments marked an important
step in creating access to education for women. It was a renaissance
period also for women through which intellectual and professional
women claimed their place and visibility in the community, and even further
reinforced their positions as a result of the establishment of modern
educational institutions and the schooling of Armenian girls (Özdoğan et
al., 899j, p. :mj). From the Skr9s onwards modern education elicited a
new Armenian female intelligentsia to 1lourish (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. SS).
As these women were shaped by the nationalism’s inherently gendered
reasoning, they started a press, opened schools and built associations to
reproduce women as scienti1ic homemakers, patriotic mothers and educated
wives of the nation (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. SS). Even so, they could
reclaim their representational rights in return for their contribution to
the national project and establish charitable organizations, educational
institutions, girls’ schools and teacher training schools which would
leave a feminist legacy for women activists of the coming years (Ekmekçioğlu,
89Sr, p. SS, a^) However, the unful1illment of the emancipation
of women never ceased to be one of the main problems despite all the
struggle given in this speci1ic area (Özdoğan et al., 899j, p. :mj).
In Skmk, in order to train teachers for new schools and advance the
quality of education in already established schools, in the Van province a
teacher training school was launched; however, it could only last for :
years and shut down in SkkS (Somel, 89S:, p. ^m). In Skkr, the Central Armenian
College, which is today’s Getronagan High School21, was founded
foreign governesses or with barest rudiments of religious education with no further future
prospects until the late O[th century, these advancements were momentous steps
(Kandiyoti, O[[O, p. bd). Later years, the increasing number of female students in the education
system and the escalation of their educational level up to high school would
pave the way for the emergence of a new occupational group of women teachers
(Ortaylı, O[d\/bfOd, p. bc^).
21 Ազգային Կեդրոնական Վարժարան
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
aj
in the Karaköy neighborhood of Istanbul. In Skja, in the Beyoğlu neighborhood
of Istanbul the Esayan School22 was established as a junior high
school, which also continues its education today at different levels from
preschool to high school. In later years, these schools would become a
prominent academic scene and graduate renowned Armenian intellectuals.
§ T.U Educational Refashioning in the Hamidian Regime
The rapid development of the Armenian intellectual awakening was
about to slow down at the end of the Sjth century when the Ottomanist
ideology adopted more Islamic nuances with the ascent of Abdülhamid II
to the throne. In Deringil’s words, different from the end of the Sjth century
when the Ottoman statesmen increasingly endorsed an imperial supranationalism
in the form of Ottomanism, during the reign of Abdülhamid
II the Ottomanist ideology underwent a shift to foreground more
Islamic aspects of this identity as opposed to ostensibly supra-religious
tone of the Tanzimat reforms (Sjjk, p. ^r). However, while Abdülhamid
II attempted to imbue his subjects with Islamic values, he at the same
time adopted the Western style, a bureaucratic system, an advanced military
organization and an educational system (Mardin, Sjj8/899a, p. Sa).
The objective of Ottoman higher educational institutions established in
that period was to train a loyal and competent state elite who would be
inculcated with the values of the center (Deringil, Sjjk, p. jr). In that regard,
the Islamism of the Abdülhamid period was inherently modern because
it was an attempt to fuse the pre-existing values with new energy
while favoring modern methods (Deringil, Sjjk, p. rr; Ocak, Sjj^, p. S8:).
Despite the conservative tone of the directives of the period, Deringil accentuates
the realistic perspective of the curriculum as it had practical
considerations from primary schools to higher education while including
22 Էսաեան Դպրոց եւ Վարժարան
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
r9
courses such as cosmography, general and Ottoman geography, economics,
geometry or agricultural science in addition to the preponderance of
Qur’an reading or superiority of religious studies (Sjjk, p. jk).
In addition to the attempts to promote Islamic values in the form of
the Ottomanist identity and keep educational affairs more in tone with
Islamic nuances, the methods and mechanisms that the Abdülhamid
reign embraced came to standardize the education system in a manner
that education would be referred with respect to surveillance, audit and
inspection. During his reign, a twofold inspection system in the educational
sphere, which is also an integral part of the national education today,
was designed. The 1irst group of inspectors was liable to make provisions
against the type of materials or demeanors that might menace the
adherence to political and moral principles that the Abdülhamid II regime
would like to aggrandize in public schools, whereas the second
group was responsible to audit the schools administered either by non-
Muslim communities or by foreigners (Fortna, 899a, p. S8m). Emphasizing
the fact that non-Muslim schools were not inspected by the state before,
the Ministry of Education foregrounded the fact that the Ottoman state
did not know what was going on in non-Muslim community schools
(Fortna, 899a, p. S8m). The state was oblivious of the curricula, education
materials, moral values or behaviors of the teachers in non-Muslim and
foreign schools, and this indifference could be detrimental for the integrity
of the state (Fortna, 899a, p. S8m). Thereby, an institutionalized inspection
mechanism was presented as an answer to these predicaments.
In Skkr, non-Muslim community schools, which so far stayed outside the
zone of the state intervention or inspection, were audited for the 1irst
time by a special group of inspectors (müfettiş-i mahsusa) (Kodaman,
Sjk9, p. jr).23 The inspection visits to non-Muslim community schools initially
started as limited to the Istanbul province (Fortna, 899a, p. S8m). In
later years, as the bene1its of these inspection visits were concurred with
23 The Minister of Education Münif Paşa issued a memorandum on the requirement for
the inspection for non-Muslim and foreign schools (Fortna, bffc, p. Ob^; see İrade MM
\cdf, bd Recep O\f\ (b May OddP)).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
rS
by the government, the ministry appointed inspectors for the non-Muslim
and foreign schools in other provinces and rural areas (Kodaman,
Sjk9, p. jr).
Moreover, in Skjr by a set of instructions explaining the standards
that the inspectors needed to follow in provinces and rural areas
(Vilâyat-ı Şâhane Maarif Müdürlerinin Vezâi1in-i Mübeyyin Talimat), the
central government not only explained the duties of educators and responsibilities
of inspectors, but did also give detailed instructions for the
establishment of non-Muslim community schools (Büyükkarcı, Sjjr, p.
^a). The instructions required the community schools to submit every
detail regarding education to the Ministry and they were reminded that
the rules and practices in the schools were up to the approval of the Ministry.
It instructed inspectors to take notes of the names of the schools,
their place, any information about their degree of education, educators
and administrators, and send their curricula and programs, textbooks or
graduation certi1icates of teachers to the Ministry for approval and audit
(Büyükkarcı, Sjjr, p. ^a). Examining the content of schoolbooks was also
a signi1icant part of the educational inspection. The Hamidian government
put a great deal of stress on the preparation, arrangement, inspection
and even prohibition processes of schoolbooks (Fortna, 899a, p. 8rr).
During this period, only the content in state-approved schoolbooks was
allowed to be taught in schools (Somel, 89Sj, p. 8r). In that regard, schools
lost the liberty of choosing their educational materials and became more
standardized to update their curricula in accordance with new nuances
that the government would like to emphasize.
These new measures to regulate the realm of education should also
be considered with respect to the government’s concerns to keep the
population in control. As the impact of nationalist movements became
more palpable in the Empire, non-Muslim community schools came to be
regarded as inimical to the political aims of the Empire. In addition to
portraying non-Muslim communities’ endeavor and devotion to advance
their educational institutions as good examples to emulate, the Ministry
accentuated the need to accommodate these schools to the Ottomanist
ideology (Somel, 89Sj, p. S:8). In that regard, one of the signi1icant steps
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
r8
towards the standardization of education in the Empire was to establish
local educational administration of1ices while intensifying measures of
surveillance in places far away from the capital. In SkkS, as the Ministry
expressed its intention to keep a close watch on community schools, it
recommended two measures to be implemented by these local of1ices; to
1inance these schools and to effectively regulate them (Somel, 89Sj, p.
S:8). Without these measures, the ministry believed that the intellectual
capital that these schools had to offer would be lost (Somel, 89Sj, p. S::).
By the same token, the adoption of local administrative of1ices was
not the sole means of the disciplinary mechanism in the realm of education.
The uni1ication of language through the teaching of Turkish language
was also regarded as one of the primary means of blending the
population (Deringil, Sjjk, p. jj). From approximately the Skk9s onwards,
the Ministry decided to appoint Turkish language teachers to non-
Muslim schools whose salaries to be covered by the Ministry budget
(Somel, 89S:, p. Sk). In Skk8, since the central government regarded communal
cultural associations as disruptive towards its objectives, it requested
these associations to be listed and mapped out, only for later to
be shut down between the years of Skja-Sj9k (Seropyan, Sjj^, p. Sk^). To
the same end, in Skkr, the Inspection Of1ice for Foreign and Non-Muslim
Schools (Mekatib-i Ecnebiye ve Gayrimüslime Müfettişliği) was established
with the purpose of inspection of the schools, and starting in the
year of Skj^ Turkish language education became of1icially mandatory in
community schools (Özdoğan et al., 899j, p. SjS).
Although the declaration of the Skmr constitution furnished the Armenian
community with the instruments to expand the education network,
during the reign of Abdülhamid II it was almost impossible to open new
schools (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. k^). As the activities of the
Armenian education council were not welcomed by the Ottoman statesmen,
actively functioning educational institutions were subjected to
strict audit mechanisms and the government was not hesitant to shut
down schools based on the slightest excuse it could 1ind (Kevorkian and
Paboudjian, 89S8, p. k^). The tone of the Hamidian regime was further riARMENIAN
SCHOOLS
r:
gidi1ied towards non-Muslim populations and their educational and cultural
activities after the Congress of Berlin in Skmk. The condensation of
repressive precepts in governing particularly Armenians not only led to
Skj^-Skjr massacres, but also wreaked the destruction of many educational
institutions (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. k8).
As Göçek describes, the 1irst incident of violence which initiated these
massacres occurred when the central state ordered the closure of some
Armenian schools on the grounds that they vehemently provoked uprisings
by fostering Armenian racism and keeping alive the memory of old
Armenian kingdoms (89Sa, p. S8a). The Armenian protests against the closure
of schools later became a justi1ication for violence to burst out in
Armenian-populated areas. However, despite the catastrophe and economic
debacle, the Armenian community found ways to replenish the
cultural and educational scene. In order to shelter numerous children
who lost their parents and relatives and to ardently restore the educational
network, Armenians collectively opened :^ orphanages (Kevorkian
and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. k8). With the leadership of the Patriarchate
of Mağakya I. Ormanyan of Istanbul24, a team including a few government
of1icials appointed by the Sublime Porte created schools for r9,999 orphans
and created a 1inancial aid system for the families whose property
had been looted or destroyed (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. ra).
§ T.V Towards the End of Empire
After the dismantlement of the Abdülhamid II regime by the Young Turk
revolution, the Ottoman identity his reign fostered increasingly gave way
to a Turkish-Islamic discourse. The declaration of the second constitutional
era resulted in momentous changes in the political structure. However,
the framework applying to community schools did not quite change.
The 1irst political agenda of the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat
ve Terakki Cemiyeti), which was published in Sj9k in the of1icial journal
24 Պատրիարք Մաղաքիա Ա. Պոլսեցի Օրմանեան
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
r^
of the committee Şura-yı Ümmet, established Turkish as the formal language
and its education mandatory in public schools in order to cement
national authority and consolidate national unity (Yıldız, 899S, p. m^).
With the inauguration of the 1irst Turkish parliament in Sj9k, when educational
reforms became a part of the agenda of the new government, the
government decided to allocate funds to non-Muslim schools from the
budget of the Ministry of Education just like the Ministry met 1inancial
needs of public schools (Somel, 89S:, p. Sj). When the implementation of
this decision started a year later in Sj9j, the Ministry stipulated that community
schools must be inspected in return for these funds (Somel, 89S:,
p. Sj). The inspection mechanism was not so different from the earlier
period. As a matter of fact, it was rather mostly given to the oversight of
the communities. The patriarchates would decide the curricula of the
schools, send them for the approval of the ministry as long as there were
changes in curricula, check the validity of graduation certi1icates of teachers,
and inspect the schools (Somel, 89S:, p. 89). This new regulation allowed
community schools to hire foreign teachers only until quali1ied
teachers were eligible to be hired (Somel, 89S:, p. 89).
Within this new system, the ministry did not prevent the establishment
of community schools; however, expected them to be fused with
values accentuating a Turkish identity. All the themes and aspects that
con1licted with this Turkish identity were sorted out and replaced by values
promoting Turkishness (Yıldız, 899S, p. k9). With this spirit in Sj9j,
the Ministry of Education had a goal of designing the schooling fully in
Turkish and that is why forced all schools to adopt a Turkish curriculum
(Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, o. k^). Later, this plan manifested itself
in community schools through the teaching of Turkish culture classes, as
we would later start to refer, and expressively summed up the judgment
of the government towards non-Muslim populations, which would also
prevail in many ways in the Republic. In SjSa, the Regulation on Private
Schools (Mekatib-i Hususiye Talimatnamesi) was issued with a similar
objective. By this regulation, literature, history and geography classes in
non-Muslim schools would be entirely taught in Turkish language and by
Turkish teachers who would be appointed centrally by the Ministry itself
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
ra
(Büyükkarcı, Sjjr, p. ^r). Furthermore, the regulation was also an expressive
manifestation of the state’s control over non-Muslim education
as it limited the number of schools to be opened and non-Ottoman teachers
to be hired in those schools (Ertuğrul, Sjjk, p. jj).
When it came to the beginning of the 89th century, while Armenian
schools were incorporated to the Ottoman education system through certain
mechanisms of adjustment or audit, their ubiquity in the Empire was
salient. The existing literature on the Armenian schools in the Ottoman
Empire points out different numbers from various resources. That is why
the number that we have is a rough estimation. The documents presented
to the foreign affairs of Great Britain note the number of Armenian
schools in provinces excluding Istanbul as k9: in the Sj9S-98 education
year (Toynbee et al., Sjmj, p. rr8, rr:). In their comprehensive study,
Kevorkian and Paboudjian give an estimation of the Armenian schools
based on the documents archived by the Armenian Patriarchate (89S8).
According to the inventory of the Patriarchate, in SjS:-S^, there were S,jjr
Armenian schools in provinces and r^ Armenian schools in the capital,
although this inventory is also regarded as incomplete (Kevorkian, 89SS,
p. 8m8-8mk; Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. k8). To this number, they
also add ^a8 Protestant Armenian and a99 Catholic Armenian schools.
They extrapolate from the sum of these numbers that before the Armenian
genocide, there were around : thousand Armenian schools and :99
thousand Armenian students from every sect in the Empire.25 However,
the rack and ruin of the genocide would cripple the Armenian cultural
25 The results of the Wirst Ottoman census attempt in Odll recorded the number of Armenians
in Anatolia as around b million (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, bfOb, p. c^). In an introduction
book on the Ottoman Empire in OdP^, which was prepared for the Paris World
Fair for advertisement purposes, the number of Armenians in Asia Minor was noted as
b million in the Ottoman lands and in Europe as lff thousand (Salaheddin Bey, OdP^, p.
bOl-bO^). Based on the information in the Od^d Yearbook, in Od^d the Patriarchate released
the number of Armenians as \ million (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, bfOb, p. cd).
According to the demographical data provided by Mağakya I. Ormanyan in O[Ob Armenians
living in Istanbul were OPO thousand and according to the O[Ol Ottoman census this
number was dl,f[\ (Köker, bffc, p. Ob[).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
rr
and intellectual life and led the number of the schools to plunge dramatically.
When in the spring of SjSa the Young Turk government targeted Ottoman
Armenians by implementing several decisions which later resulted
in the destruction of the Armenian existence to a great extent, what made
those massacres genocidal was the fact that the abstract category of
group identity was attacked in a profound way (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS,
p. Sra). While 8,j99 Armenian settlements (villages, towns, neighborhoods)
were depopulated and the majority of their inhabitants were
killed, the main objective of those killings was cultural obliteration (Üngör
and Polatel, 89SS, p. Sra). In this sense, the Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire did not only strive for their physical survival but also for their
cultural existence. The elimination of the Armenian population involved
ways of exterminating Armenian intellectual and cultural identity including
its cultural symbols and continuous history (Balakian, 89S:, p. ra).
The Committee of Union of Progress (CUP) targeted Armenian intellectual
and cultural leadership through which the public voice of the Armenian
community would be silenced (Balakian, 89S:, p. ra). That was why
on 8^ April SjSa when the 1irst systematic victims of the genocide were
Armenian intellectuals, the cultural existence of Armenians was in peril.
On the night of 8^ April which marked the start of the genocide, not only
Dashnak, Hınchak or Ramgavar political activists were targeted, but also
Istanbul’s Armenian intellectuals including journalists, writers, lawyers,
doctors, school principals, clergymen and merchants were affected by
round-ups (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. 8aS).
The incidents were culturally motivated also because they brought
destruction for daily life activities and customs in Armenian-populated
settlements. The quotidian practices, customs, dialects, songs and lullabies
and many other little details of cultural life were buried with the
thousands of people who died during the genocide or who relinquished
their identities for their physical survival. When the survivors of the genocide
took refuge in other countries or in silence hoping to 1ind safer
homes, social, cultural, and intellectual lives of Armenians writ large had
come close to an end in the Ottoman Empire. As looting and usurpation
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
rm
prevailed in Armenian-populated settlements, the schools and cultural
spaces became open targets. Some of them were shut down, abandoned
and eventually seized by the local population or the Turkish state.
Adopting Lemkin’s conceptualization on cultural aspects of the genocide,
Balakian revisits the Armenian Genocide as a continuum of political
and cultural events expanding through a lengthy period of time from the
mid-Skj9s to the approximately aftermath of the World War I and discusses
cultural aspects of the destruction (89S:, p. rS). He describes the
violence in razing churches, torture of people with cruci1ixes, the mass
killing of intellectuals, forced conversion practices to Islam from the Skj^-
Skjr Hamidian massacres to the Sj9j Adana massacres and to SjSa
through the period of genocide as embedded in cultural destruction (Balakian,
89S:, p. rS). Over two decades the Ottoman government and later
continuing in various ways during its incipient stages the Turkish Republic
were of the opinion that the extermination of Armenians was tied to
both calculated and spontaneous processes of Armenian cultural obliteration
by the systematic destruction of the art and cultural heritage as
well as the con1iscation of most especially communal properties (Balakian,
89S:, p. r8). As an illustrative example of cultural destruction of the
Skj9s period, Balakian reminds us of the burning of a cathedral in the
Urfa province in Skjr (Balakian, 89S:, p. rk). Reminiscent of the ways
used in Hamidian massacres, in addition to violence and economic catastrophe,
cultural havoc was a segment also of the Sj9j Adana massacres
as notables were arrested, schools, churches were destroyed or people
were forced to convert (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. S9m). Similarly, during the genocide,
statistics disclose the destruction of cultural properties, intellectuals
and artists, belief and value systems, historical lands and their identi-
1ications (Balakian, 89S:, p. r8). All but a handful of S,jjr Armenian
schools, 8,a:k churches, ^aS monasteries, which were documented by the
census of the Armenian Patriarch Ormanyan in the SjS8-SjS: period, were
plundered, appropriated, burnt, demolished, or razed (Balakian, 89S:, p.
r8).
Although the deportation decision on :9 May SjSa and the secret order
issued immediately after on S9 June SjSa to give detailed information
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
rk
regarding the implementation of the decision included clauses on the
protection of the properties left behind or returning their net value to
deported Armenians, on a later date by the temporary law of 8m September
SjSa on “the abandoned properties, debts, and credits of the population
who were sent elsewhere” the government actually paved the way
for the con1iscation of Armenian properties and exhausted the ways for
their preservation (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. ^^, ^r). The law not only
legalized the plunder of properties but also regulated their transfer. The
law stated that the properties of the Armenian foundations were to be
registered by the Directorate of Pious Foundations; however, the bylaws
for the settlement of migrants abolished this regulation by its decision to
allocate Armenian properties to migrants free of charge (Üngör and Polatel,
89SS, p. ^r). In addition to the 8m September law, on k November SjSa
by a new regulation it was decided for the registration of all existing
goods of the churches and the transfer of the usage rights of school and
monastery materials to the Ministry of Education (Üngör and Polatel,
89SS, p. ^m). Thereby, as the regulation clearly indicated the expropriation
of educational means, Armenian communal properties were of1icially
con1iscated.
For example; the schools of the Erzincan’s Armenian quarter were pillaged
(Kevorkian, 89SS, p. :9j); in Bitlis 89m Armenian schools were torn
down (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. ::j); in Sivas the schools were con1iscated by
the military authorities to be used as barracks (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. ^:9);
in Trebizond one of the Armenian school buildings were burned down
even before the deportation order was issued (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. ^rk);
as Adana became a site of massive seizure, its Armenian schools and
churches were usurped by the authorities (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. ajr) and
the Armenian community of Adana lost its eight churches and schools
spreading a territory of S^,899 m8 (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. SS^), and in
the Ayntab and Antakya provinces all non-Turkish schools were relayed
to authorities (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. r9m).
Later, with the order of the Interior Ministry to assign educational institutions
and their materials to Turks, Armenian educational institutions
were almost entirely appropriated which eventually translated into
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
rj
the end of Armenian educational life in those cities (Üngör and Polatel,
89SS, p. m9). The decision was an open warrant for the seizure of all Ottoman
Armenian schools and their conversion to Turkish schools as materials
including school benches, blackboards, book cabinets were transferred
to incoming Muslim migrants (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. m9).
When the genocidal destruction came in full force, the Muslim settlers
were on their way for their settlement in the emptied Armenian villages
(Üngör, 89SS, p. 8jj). Right after the deportation of Armenians, Muslim
migrants as well as Kurdish tribes were settled in those villages (Onaran,
89S:, p. aj). On 88 June SjSa the Tribal and Immigrant Settlement Of1ice
ordered Muslim migrants be placed in the emptied settlements of Aleppo,
Adana and Urfa (Onaran, 89S:, p. r9). In a cipher telegram sent to the
Commission of Abandoned Properties in Adana, Aleppo and Maraş, to the
provinces of Adana, Erzurum, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Aleppo and Hüdavendigar
and to local governors in Maraş, Kayseri, Karesi, the requirement to
allocate the schools of Armenian villages to Muslim migrants was stated
(Onaran, 89S:, p. r9). In his well-known book, Akçam shares the below
excerpt from one of the cables sent by the Tribal and Immigrant Settlement
Of1ice to local of1icials to describe the gravity of the situation:
“It is necessary the schools in towns and villages evacuated by the
Armenians be allocated as schools for the Muslim immigrants who
are to be settled there, while amount of educational tools and
equipment and value that comprise [a part of] the buildings are to
be recorded, along with the present value of the buildings, in registries
and put separately in the general ledgers.”26
Having said that, the state and the army were still the largest recipients
of con1iscated Armenian properties as these properties were converted
into prisons, police stations, meeting halls, schools, hospitals, or
many other state buildings (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. k8). For instance,
26 Coded telegram from the Interior Ministry’s OfWice of Tribal and Immigrant Settlement
to the presidents of the Commissions on Abandoned Properties of Adana, Aleppo, and
Marash; to the Provinces of Adana, Erzurum, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Aleppo, and Hüdavendigar;
and the Provincial Districts of Marash, Kayseri, and Karesi, on bb June O[Oc.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
m9
in May SjSr the Interior Ministry granted access to provincial of1icials to
employ Armenian buildings as prisons, if there is such a need; the money
collected and kept in the Commission for Abandoned Properties to be devoted
to the construction of new schools (Akçam, 89S8, p. :rj). With the
Interior Ministry’s permission to choose from Armenian property buildings,
various ministries bene1ited from this con1iscation and used the
buildings as their of1ices (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. k:). In that respect,
the Ministry of Education had prioritized access to regional education infrastructure
to be used for the education of Turkish students (Üngör and
Polatel, 89SS, p. k:). In order to expand its educational system as a means
of promoting Turkish nationalism, the Ministry of Education appropriated
school buildings and transferred them into Turkish public schools
(Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. k:). Perhaps, one of the most striking examples
accentuating this historical rupture which wreaked damage on Armenian
cultural and educational life is the story of the renowned Sanasaryan
College27. Established in SkkS by Mgrdiç Sanasaryan as a higher
educational institution and boarding school, Sanasaryan College continued
education until its closure and con1iscation in SjSa. Marking the end
of the empire, the school building was employed as the meeting site of
the Erzurum Congress in SjSj, which was regarded as the keystone of
molding the national identity of the forthcoming republic.
When the armistice was signed ending the WWI, violence and usurpation
of the genocide had already orphaned many Armenian children.
Bereft of communal infrastructure, schools and churches, the orphans of
the Armenian community were in urgent need. In SjSr, there were 8,a99
orphans collected from various regions while the number was increasing
daily (Akçam, 89Sk, p. S:j). Hardly unwittingly, Ottoman authorities had
already been in the process of seeking solutions for the sheer number of
orphans. Initiating their attempts in SjSr to open one large orphanage in
Sivas, at the end the Ottoman government developed a solution to send
the orphaned children to various provinces (Akçam, 89Sk, p. S:j). By a
cable sent on j August SjSa, the allocation of Armenian orphaned children
27 Սանասարեան վարժարան
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
mS
to Muslim villages was ordered (Onaran, 89S:, p. 89a). As Istanbul was
designed as a desired destination for orphans only from its surrounding
provinces, ultimately children were mostly sent to orphanages in Konya,
Izmit, Balıkesir, Adapazarı as well as Istanbul (Akçam, 89Sk, p. S:j). There
was no doubt, those orphanages were designed by the government in a
way to assimilate Armenian women and children (Balakian, 89S:, p. mS).
Many Armenian orphans were settled in Turkish Muslim orphanages
where they were converted to Islam and remade into Ottoman Muslims
with the change of their name, religion, and language (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr,
p. :^).
On the other hand, since Bolsahays (Istanbulite Armenians) had not
experienced violence same as the rest of the population, they could immediately
help those in need with the infrastructure of their churches,
schools, orphanages, charitable organizations, or hospitals considerably
intact (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. 8^). As well as putting around a total of
S99,999 orphans under its care, the Armenian Patriarchate initiated a relief
effort for the incoming refugees (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. maj). By this relief
initiative, the Committee for Orphan Relief and the Central Committee for
Deportees were founded, which later together created the National Relief
Mission (Kevorkian, 89SS, p. maj). In SjSj as the fundraising and the costs
of the relief work was standardized, the operations of these committees
were covered by a monthly tax to be paid by the members of the whole
community with a source of income (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. 8m). By this
committee alone 1ifteen orphanages were opened in Istanbul in SjSj-Sj89
(Kevorkian, 89SS, p. maj). The orphanages in Istanbul housed about ^,999
orphans right in the aftermath of the war (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. 8k). Beyond
providing a safe haven for orphaned children along with other orphanages
in Istanbul which were established at an earlier date, these orphanages
also ful1illed their mission as educational institutions for those
children. Thereby, orphanages became an important segment of the educational
structure of the Armenian community.
The modern education which many Armenians could take with them
into exile enabled them to resettle and reestablish educational instituHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
m8
tions in places they went (Stone, Sjk^, p. SkS). Towards the end of the Ottoman
Empire, the status of community schools that could live through
the catastrophe of the turn of the century was reduced to minority
schools (Somel, 89S:, p. ^). On Sm February Sj89 when the national pact
was passed in the parliament, non-Muslim populations came to be mentioned
of1icially as minorities (Bayır, 89Sm, p. j:). The political ideology
based on a Turkic-Islamic discourse was strongly effective in the alteration
of this discourse in Sj89 (Somel, 89S:, p. :). From that time onwards
as the Republic of Turkey agreed to keep Armenian schools through their
minority status protected in the Lausanne Treaty, the history of the
schools came to be told differently through a nationalist education narrative.
However, the con1iscation of the school buildings continued during
the new republic. In Sj88, the Mersin police force appropriated all
seats and tables of Armenian Catholic schools and handed some of them
over to the Ministry of Education (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. S8a). In the
Adana region there were no Armenian schools left at the beginning of
Sj8: (Üngör and Polatel, 89SS, p. S8a). In Sj8m, the governor ordered con-
1iscation of all Catholic Armenian property including its educational infrastructure,
churches, rectories, shops, lands and houses (Üngör and Polatel,
89SS, p. S8m).
§ T.W Republican Period and National Education
When in Sj8: the Treaty of Lausanne was signed at the end of the peace
talks concluding the WWI and settled the con1lict between the Ottoman
Empire and the Allied powers, it marked the dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire and of1icially announced the transition from the Ottoman Empire
to the Republic of Turkey. The borders of the new Republic were designated
by the treaty as it instituted various issues such as the territorial
setting, national sovereignty, public debts, the exchange of populations,
properties and rights of populations, legal affairs or administration of
justice of the new Republic. The treaty was also an acknowledgment of
non-Muslim communities through their legal status as minorities. The
section on the protection of minorities enclosing articles from :m to ^a
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
m:
explained this status and addressed the rights of non-Muslim minorities.
In the section overall, the articles use a rather general term, non-Muslim
minorities. However, in practice the rights that were acknowledged by
the treaty have referred to cultural rights almost exclusively of Jewish,
Armenian and Rum populations of the Republic while excluding the others.
The article :m of the treaty explicitly spells out that the stipulations
described in the relevant section are acknowledged as fundamental
rights by the treaty and under no circumstances can be interfered with
or con1licted by legal action. The articles from ^9 to ^8 speci1ically address
the aftermath of community schools, which would be called thereafter
of1icially as minority schools. According to these articles, the Turkish
state acknowledges the equal rights of non-Muslim minorities “to
establish, manage and control at their own expense, any charitable, religious
and social institutions, any schools and other establishments for
instruction and education, with the right to use their own language and
to exercise their own religion freely therein” (Article ^9). In the districts
where there is a considerable non-Muslim population, the minorities are
eligible for the equitable share of the public funds to be used for adequate
facilities that can ensure instruction in the medium of their own language
(Article ^S). However, the right to education is not applicable to regions
where non-Muslims living spread out (Somel, 89S:, p. 8a). While the Turkish
state grants full protection of all religious establishments, the authorization
of all facilities is left to the pious foundations, religious and philanthropic
institutions of non-Muslim minorities (Article ^8). From that
time onwards, cultural and religious establishments have been administered
separately by their individual pious foundations that these establishments
were hierarchically founded under.28 Here, I will not go into the
28 Although these pious foundations are separate legal entities, they fall into the category
of Mülhak VakıWlar (appendant foundations) established before the adoption of the civil
code, which run administratively under the tutelage of the General Directorate of Foundations
(Özdoğan et al., bff[, p. bb[; Hatemi, O[d\). The name came from the fact that in
the Ottoman Empire these foundations were not founded by the Sharia law and, that
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
m^
details of how the legal framework around the community foundations
have been historically shaped or the precarity that the community foundations
experienced. I will address this issue thoroughly in the next chapter
when I talk about the ways the law and legality have been framed to
govern minorities.
In other words, the Lausanne Treaty was the con1irmation of certain
cultural and religious rights of the minorities in the new republic.
Whereas it includes some stipulations regarding communal establishments
of speci1ied minorities and the way cultural and religious rights to
be monitored, it does not subsume any clause stating that the constitutions
regulating intra-communal affairs be abolished (Koçunyan, 89Sr, p.
Sj). However, from that time onwards, the communal constitutions -being
the Skr: Armenian Constitution one of them- de facto ceased to exist.
Despite the articles on the protection of minorities in the treaty, cultural
and educational affairs of the non-Muslim minorities have not been regulated
in the domestic law. According to this new edi1ice, the Armenian
Patriarchate has continued its role as the spiritual authority over Armenians
and as a destination to be consulted on any communal matter in
practice; however, it was not acknowledged as a legal entity or having any
institutional capacity. The communal organizations continued to exist,
however, in a form of individually administered foundations that had the
authority to oversee cultural and religious affairs in their districts.29 Furthermore,
the arrangement in the treaty meant the minority schools to
be administered and funded by their pious foundations whose board
was why, were not in the same category with pious foundations in the traditional sense
of the Islamic law. They were only given this status by the edict of the sultan and accepted
as such later by the law. With the perpetuation of this status by the Lausanne
Treaty, their ambiguous status caused legal problems and insecurities in the long run.
29 Exceptions to this rule are the Armenian national foundations whose board members
are elected by the whole community instead of members of local districts. These are the
pious foundations of the Surp Prgiç Hospital, Getronagan High school and Surp Krikor
Lusavoriç Church, Kalfayan Primary and Secondary School, Karagözyan Primary and
Secondary School, and Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School as well as Dirasular Foundation,
Gümüşyan Foundation and Turkish Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers Solidarity
Foundation.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
ma
members would be elected by the local population living in the predesignated
election district of the foundation and to be regulated on every educational
matter by the Ministry of Education as they were now incorporated
to the national education system.
Writ large highlighting its rupture from Ottoman education notwithstanding,
the educational program of the republican bureaucrats did not
fall far from the educational strategy of the Ottoman Empire (Fortna,
89S8, p. 88). This new educational policy aspired to expand the education
system largely along the lines that the Ottoman state set by the Regulation
of National Education in Skrj and it was modeled on a rather secularized
curriculum lavishly blended with Islamic morality and religious
instruction (Fortna, 89S8, p. 88). The proclivity to equip the education system
with these values stemmed from a rather pressing need on the
agenda of the governing elite. The reformers believed that for the survival
of the state, they needed to secure the consolidation of a homogenous
and uni1ied nation and that is why to unload the ambiguities and the relative
inclusiveness that characterized the earlier reform measures (Kasaba,
Sjjm, p. 8m). In this understanding, all kinds of ethnic, ideological,
religious and economic variation in the population were regarded as detrimental
to unity and progress of the new nation as these differentiations
could bring about instability (Göle, Sjjm, p. k^). With the Turki1ication
policies adopted for a national homogenization, pious groups, non-Turkish
speakers or non-Muslim communities landed onto “the others” category
and their demands based on ancestral, linguistic, religious or ethnic
indicators were overlooked by the regime (Yıldız, 899S, p. Sk). The vision
of the reformers was to follow a well-articulated, linear path towards
modernization through which the experience of the whole nation would
be akin and simultaneous as they lead towards a militantly secular and
ethnically homogenous republic analogous to Western nations (Kasaba,
Sjjm, p. Sr). In this sense, Keyder interprets Turkish nationalism as an
outcome of the continuity between Ottoman reformers and republican
nationalists, which bred a nurturing soil for the lack of popular fervor
among the masses who remained as the passive recipients of the nationHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
mr
alist message mounted by the modernizing elite (Sjjm, p. ^:). Nevertheless,
the idea behind this nationalist message was ostensibly to decouple
the new state from its Ottoman past and exhibit it totally different from
its predecessor (Tunçay, 89Sa, p. 8:j).
The schooling could offer the perfect venue to accentuate this 1ictional
rupture and for the nationalist message to be conveyed while the
nationalist principles were instilled into the youth through education.
Endorsing the educational impetus along the lines of the nationalist principles,
the schooling must also be undergirded by the school textbooks.
That was why the republican state paid high regard to the preparation of
curricula and schoolbooks which would con1irm the nationalist precepts
and emphasize the glory of the republic. As the school textbooks became
the apt symbols which were meticulously designed in accordance with
the values the Ministry of National Education wanted to foreground and
were conducive to create uni1ied as well as unifying education (Fortna,
89S8, p. r9). In such a context, the attempts of the Turkish national education
system to transform its citizens into a Sunni, Muslim, and Turkish
homogenous mass resulted in non-Muslims living in Turkey being forced
to face slightly different educational regulations from those that they
were subjected to during the Ottoman Empire (Oran, 899^, p. SSS). Altering
political agendas throughout governments would gravely impact the
ways of governing the minority schools in the following years.
Right after the treaty, the Ministry of National Education which was
introduced with the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly
during the years of the national struggle in Sj89 became the national and
central authority for monitoring educational matters, when the republic
was of1icially declared in Sj8:. Following these developments, decentralized
education systematically came to an end with the introduction of the
law on the uni1ication of education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu) in Sj8^, as
the minority schools irredeemably lost the last pieces of their autonomous
status (Somel, 89S:, p. 8r). For the republican bureaucrats, the law
was a way of in1licting the state’s monopoly over the educational realm
and installing its radical republican educational intentions, while it also
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
mm
intended to dissolve the diversity in the schooling of which Islamic theological
colleges (medrese) had a considerable share (Fortna, 89S8, p. 88).
Thereby, the law did not only unify education under its umbrella and perennially
end decentralization in the schooling, but also detached the minority
schools from the authority of the patriarchates by putting them
under the sole control of the Ministry of National Education. The Education
Commission which operated under the authority of the Armenian
Patriarchate to regulate the Armenian schools in the Turkish Republic
became nulli1ied and eventually ceased to exist (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p.
mk). The minority schools among the others became fully integrated into
the national education system monitored by the ministry, with the exception
that their expenses and funding to be provided by their foundations
like the schools which were established by the missionaries, later became
pro1it-making institutions and named as foreign schools in the Republic.
Furthermore, the Law on the Uni1ication of Education intensi1ied the
skepticism among government cadres towards the minority schools as
these schools were portrayed as centers for political propaganda and a
threat to national security (Bali, 89Sm, p. Skr). By law, all schools in the
republic were to follow the same curricula and there was no further need
to continue non-Muslim education or keep the minority schools (Bali,
89Sm, p. am). According to the government, in fact, the auspicious solution
would be to shut down these schools and transfer their teachers to Turkish
public schools (Bali, 89Sm, p. am). Hence, the minority schools entered
a rather arduous period. Although the schools were not closed and education
was not interrupted, the conditions of their monitoring became
stricter re1lecting the psyche of the new age in the republic.
In Sj88, the Ministry of National Education noti1ied the Alliance Israélite
Universelle that although the already established alliance schools
could carry on their educational activities, they were not welcomed to
open new schools (Bali, 89Sm, p. Skr). In Sj8:, the ministry legislated the
requirement of all classes in the minority schools to be taught by teachers
with Turkish citizenship and Turkish culture classes -Turkish language
and literature, history, and geography classes- to be held in the Turkish
language and by the Turkish teachers who would be appointed by the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
mk
ministry itself as opposed to the teachers hired by the school administration
(Bali, 89Sm, p. Skr). According to the orders of the ministry, the salaries
of the Turkish teachers were set at higher rates in comparison to
their colleagues working in the same schools, and paid from the own resources
of the schools, which had no say in the recruitment of those
teachers (Bali, 89Sm, p. Skr). In a circular note prepared by the ministry in
Sj8a, the ministry sanctioned its earlier practice and Turkish culture
teachers became a permanent aspect of the curricula as the weekly
course hours of these classes were 1ixed (Vahapoğlu, Sjj9, p. Sa:). In another
circular letter published in Sj8m, additional criteria for teachers
working in the minority schools were introduced; teachers were expected
to be native-Turkish speakers, graduates of either Dar-ül Muallimin
or Dar-ül Fünun and to pass a Turkish pro1iciency exam that would
be held by the ministry by the end of the year (Bali, 89Sm, p. SjS). All these
measures resulted in the number of students attending minority schools
to gradually diminish over the years and the schools to close one by one
due to the inadequate number of students. When it came to the Sj8^-8a
education year, there were S:k minority schools left in Turkey (Kaya and
Somel, 89S:, p. S8). The legal framework applying to minority schools was
still bound to be further shaped. As a result of the political and even
global developments waiting ahead, the number of minority schools did
not remain the same. A series of developments would impact their aftermath.
Later years, a new position in the minority schools was introduced;
Turkish vice principals. In order to ensure that students at the minority
schools were inculcated with Turkish customs and values, vice principal
positions would be 1illed with Turkish teachers by the central appointment
system of the ministry (Bali, 89Sm, p. :9m). Since the ministry took
this issue very seriously, the schools were informed that in cases when
they were reluctant to follow ministerial instructions or to have an ethnically
Turkish vice principal on board, they would be shut down based
on failing to follow the standards sanctioned by the ministry (Bali, 89Sm,
p. :9m). In Sj:m, this rule was legislated and Turkish principals were
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
mj
acknowledged as the legal authority in their appointed positions to inspect
the state-curriculum and to audit administrative and 1inancial processes
in their compatibility with the centrally determined criteria of the
ministry (Özdoğan et al., 899j, p. Sja).
The measures taken towards narrowing down the cultural autonomy
of the minority schools or the standards they were asked to follow were
akin to rules applying to the schools established by the foreigners. Bureaucratic
elites regarded the minority schools as in the same category
with the foreign schools and treated them as such. As a manifestation of
this understanding, in Sjra, the law no r8a on private education institutions
was written to regulate the affairs in the schools which were outside
the domain of public education and that was why considered private in
any regard.30 The minority schools were included into this category and
became contingent upon the same regulations and laws written for the
foreign schools. Throughout the years, the minority schools would be
boxed in this category, and the laws regulating their affairs would lump
them with the foreign schools and the private Turkish schools whose
numbers would skyrocket mainly after the Sjk9s.
The requirement for Turkish vice principal positions was renewed in
the law no: r8a. Although the law clearly addressed the appointment of
Turkish vice principals to the schools established by foreigners, the relevant
article (Article 8^/8) was applied also to the minority schools whose
founders, administrators and teachers were Turkish citizens (Oran, 899^,
p. j^). By the relevant article, these vice principals were required to be
“of Turkish origin and of the Republic of Turkey descent” which were basically
alternative words for Turkish ethnicity (Oran, 899^, p. j^). Albeit
certain amendments, the law no: r8a remained in force until 899m when
the new law on private educational institutions was issued.31 Roughly
clarifying their realm of authority and the rules regarding the establishment
and the administration of private, foreign and minority schools, the
30 OfWicial Gazette No: ObfbP published on Od June O[Pc
31 OfWicial Gazette No: bPl\l published on d February bff^. Also see relevant regulation to
clarify the implementation of the law (OfWicial Gazette No: bPdOf published on d March
bffd).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
k9
law no: r8a banned foreigners from establishing new schools or having
additional school buildings (Article a). This rule also applied to the minority
schools in practice at varying degrees. The disputes over additional
buildings for the schools have waxed and waned over the years in
accordance with the altering political climate. Albeit the articles of the
Lausanne Treaty, the procedures of opening up a new school were always
contingent upon additional correspondence, special permits or legal processes
stretched over a long time span and never regulated in the domestic
law. Despite its unpredictability, this period witnessed the establishment
of a few minority schools.
In Sja^ in the Yeşilköy neighborhood of Istanbul, the board of trustees
of the Surp Istepanos Church32 Foundation wrote a petition to the Istanbul
Directorate of National Education and requested a special permit for
the opening of an Armenian school in the estate of the Kapamacıyan Elementary
School which had been opened in Skmk and shut down in Sj^8
(https://yesilkoyermeniokulu.kS8.tr). As the directorate replied to this
request af1irmatively, education started at the preschool level in the same
year. Later, in Sjam the school added facilities for primary level education.
Similarly, Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School33 which was closed down after
the establishment of the Republic in Sj:8 was reopened in Sja: with the
personal initiative and special request of the then Archbishop Karekin I
Haçaduryan of Trabzon34 (http://www.surphaclisesi.kS8.tr). However,
what was unique with this school was the fact that it was reopened as an
Armenian clergy school with the objective of training clergy to be recruited
in apostolic Armenian churches in Turkey. The school sustained
this feature until the Sjr9s when theology education was ended by the
sanction of the Ministry of National Education, and the school became a
high school. Later years, when the socio-political atmosphere was relatively
more apt, two more schools were added to this list. The Imroz Rum
School in Çanakkale province, which was shut down in Sjr^ during the
escalation of the perpetuated con1lict between Turkey and Greece over
32 Սուրբ Ստեփանոս Եկեղեցի
33 Սուրբ Խաչ Դպրեվանք Վարժարան
34 Գարեգին Ա. Տրապիզոնցի Խաչատուրեան
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
kS
Cyprus, was reopened in separate buildings as a primary school in 89S:
and as a middle school and high school in 89Sa (Agos Newspaper, 8k September
89Sa). The establishment process of new minority schools in the
republican period also brought novelty to the earlier practice. Finally in
89S^, following everlasting requests of the Assyrian community in Turkey
whose educational rights were not acknowledged till that date, an Assyrian
preschool was established with the name of Mor Efrem Süryani Preschool
in the Bakırköy neighborhood of Istanbul (Agos Newspaper, 88
September 89S^).
From the Sja9s up until the build-up of their current legal framework,
it was a rough path for the minority schools. The escalation of the con1lict
between Turkey and Greece from mainly the Sja9s onwards resulted in
stricter measures to be implemented in governing the minority schools.
As the new measures were adopted to intimidate the Rum population of
the republic, the altering conditions in the administration of the minority
schools also directly in1luenced the governing of the Armenian schools. I
explained the psyche of that time period and some regulations introduced
in the administration of the minority schools including the aforementioned
law no: r8a thoroughly in the next chapter. For the comprehensiveness
of my historical background, I will also mention here a
couple of others, some of which overlap with the measures I described in
the next chapter nonetheless. In Sjr^, the practice of morning prayers in
Rum schools was banned by a circular letter, even though this ban was a
breach of the Lausanne Treaty (Oran, 899^, p. S^a). In Sjrm, albeit with
certain exceptions, the opening of pious or philanthropic foundations in
support of a particular community was prohibited by law (Bayır, 89Sm, p.
Sk:).35 This ban had an impact on the Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers
Solidarity Foundation, which was established in Sjra as the 1irst Armenian
foundation in compliance with the Turkish Civil Law. The 1irst
chair of the foundation was the renowned intellectual Hermine Agavni
35 See Turkish Civil Law (TMK) Article OfO
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
k8
Kalustyan36, who was also one of the former principals of the Esayan Armenian
High School. Since the law did not allow a foundation to be established
to solely contribute to the educational affairs of a particular community,
the name of the foundation was later changed into Turkish
Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers Solidarity Foundation (TEAOV).
While the Foundation is still active, it continues to support teachers
working in Armenian schools through trainings, workshops in addition
to conducting publication and editorial processes of Armenian literature
and schoolbooks.
The adoption of new regulatory measures addressing the minority
schools continued without losing its pace throughout the years. In that
regard, the political atmosphere of the distressing years of the Sjr9s onwards
was overwhelming for the minority schools as well as their foundations.
In Sjrk, for the registration of Rum students to the Rum schools,
the ministry required the students 1irst to apply for the con1irmation of
the ministry and in Sjrj the ministry requested the transfer of Assyrian
students from minority to public schools (Kaya, 89S8, p. aS-a:).37 In SjmS,
by the decision of the Court of Cassation the landed properties of pious
foundations were seized by the state.38 After SjmS, religious education for
Christian communities was categorically inhibited by the closure of seminary
schools (Oran, 899^, p. SSa). From Sjk9 onwards following the military
coup d’état and the new constitution rati1ied by that intervention,
the milieu framing the minority schools intensi1ied its Turko-Islamic
tone. Overriding the authority of the principals in practice, the Turkish
vice principals became the actual position of authority in the minority
schools including managing school affairs, conducting correspondence
with the ministry, approving payrolls or keeping professional records of
teachers (Oran, 899^, p. S^r). Starting mainly in that period, it was extensively
surmised that the Ministry strategically appointed Turkish culture
36 Հերմինէ Աղաւնի Գալուստեան
37 The majority of the Assyrian students in the minority schools were registered in the
Armenian schools. By the transfer of these students, the law also undermined the Armenian
schools since their student numbers plunged all of a sudden.
38 I extensively talked about this process in the following chapter.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
k:
teachers who were the most fervently patriotic Turks to the minority
schools (Göçek, 89Sa, p. 8j9). The registration of students to Armenian
schools whose mothers were not Armenian was denied by the ministry
(Oran, Sjj^, p. S:-88).39 Later in Sjj:, the Ministry of National Education
even intervened with the basic tenets of the Armenian schools and prohibited
Armenian as the language of instruction; however, as a result of
public reactions the prohibition would be lifted shortly (Oran, 899^, p.
S^r).
As the Sjk8 Turkish constitution which was the byproduct of the military
intervention into the politics promoted a certain kind of civic nationalism,
the state abused this concept to ban the practice of differences
stemming from different identities, cultures, religions or languages and
compelled the public to dissolve their differences in a national culture
that was in fact composed of values of one dominant culture (Bayır, 89Sm,
p. 88). Accentuating its secularism and incarcerating religion in the private
sphere, the state buried the inequalities emanating from religious
differences and designated the proper content of the private and public
spheres by framing the spheres of social organization (Mahmood, 89Sa, p.
:). In such a context, although the measures and policies that the minority
schools confronted with were portrayed as nonaligned treating everyone
equally, the state intended to reproduce its power by pushing aside
anything non-Turkish or non-Muslim.
The regulations introduced in the Sjm9s and Sjk9s largely stayed intact
up to the present day. However, after the 8999s the milieu of the minority
schools was about to get relatively liberal in practice mainly by the
measures adopted in the EU integration process and the in1luence of the
neoliberalization of education initiated by the Justice and Development
Party (AKP) government. The constitutional amendments issued in 899S
and in 899^ and seven reform packages introduced in 8998-899: during
the EU integration process ameliorated the conditions for minorities in
39 This rule was later removed in bffl, and children of mixed marriages became eligible
for registration to the Armenian schools.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
k^
Turkey (Oran, 899^, p. SSm-S89).40 Yet, these measures did not prevent the
minority schools from closing down one by one over the years as the student
numbers plunged over the years. In the 89SS-89S8 education year,
there were 88 minority schools in total (Kaya and Somel, 89S:, p. S8).
When this chapter was written in 898S, this number was 8^, being 8: in
Istanbul and S in Gökçeada (Imroz) island of the Çanakkale province.41 Sr
of these minority schools are Armenian schools and all of them are in Istanbul
(See Figure 8.S). Of these Sr Armenian schools, a of them are high
schools and : of them provide education at all K-S8 levels (See Table 8.S).
In those Sr Armenian schools, there are 8,k8k students registered in the
8988-898: education year; of these students a8j students have education
at the preschool level (K), j9r students at the primary school level (S-^),
mja students at the middle school level (a-k), and ajk students at the high
school level (j-S8).42 My 1ieldwork reveals that the number of students
registered in the Armenian schools is roughly about half of the student
population of the community; the rest is estimated to be registered in
private and foreign schools in Turkey. Albeit some 1luctuations, the overall
number of the students attending Armenian schools stays the same
40 More speciWic examples could be Wirst; the abrogation of O[\P Declarations by the Article
l of the law No:l^^O within the third reform package issued on \ August bfbb, which gave
the community foundations the right to ownership and dispose of property in cases
these foundations either have foundational certiWicates or not and second; by the fourth
European Union Integration Package issued on b January bfb\ aka the Copenhagen Criteria
the transfer of authority to certify the property acquisition of the community foundations
from the Cabinet to the General Directorate for Foundations.
41 Gedikpaşa Hrant Dink School, which is established for the students whose families migrated
from Armenia and has Eastern Armenian as its language of education, is not included
in this number. The status of the school is not a minority school. Although its
students receive structured education and follow the curriculum in Armenian, they cannot
receive a certiWicate of graduation based on the absence of diplomatic relations between
Armenia and Turkey.
42 The source of the statistics is the Turkish Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers Solidarity
Foundation (TEAOV).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
ka
over the last 1ive years.43 The number of teachers who are hired by the
school administration on contract-base is :j: in the 8988-898: education
year.44 This number does not include Turkish culture teachers who are
appointed centrally by the Ministry of Education and whose salaries are
paid by the ministry.
In the present context, those 8^ minority schools are regulated by the
Ministry of National Education and subjected to the Law No: aak9 on Private
Educational Institutions issued in 899m45 and its Regulation on Private
Educational Institutions issued in 89S8 with a series of amendments
in the following years.46 Although the schools sustain their status recognized
in the Lausanne Treaty as minority schools, they are to follow rules
and regulations written for private and foreign schools, which are forpro
1it institutions. In recent years, through an ad hoc committee the minority
schools submitted their request for a regulation written speci1ically
on the minority schools that could clarify the codes of conduct in
those schools; however, the ministry has not yet issued any regulation.
The absence of a regulation addressing the status or conduct of the
schools creates certain ambiguities in their governing as the matters regarding
the minority schools are frequently addressed with improvisational
measures and uncertainty often prevails in their regulatory processes
or operations. In addition to the standards centrally sanctioned by
the Ministry for all public, private, foreign, minority or other schools under
its jurisdiction, the minority schools are allowed to have their instruction
in a language other than Turkish and expected to follow certain
43 According to the statistics of the Turkish Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers Solidarity
Foundation (TEAOV), the number of students registered in Armenian schools in the
bfOP-bfO^ education year is b,[ll; in the bfO^-bfOd education year \.fcf, in the bfOd-bfO[
education year \,fOP, in the bfO[-bfbf education year \,fO\, in the bfbf-bfbO education
year is b,dP[, in the bfbO-bfbb education year is \,fOP, and Winally in the bfbb-bfb\ education
year is b,dPc.
44 The source of the statistics is the Turkish Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers Solidarity
Foundation (TEAOV).
45 OfWicial Gazette No: bPl\l on Ol February bff^.
46 OfWicial Gazette No: bdb\[ on bf March bfOb. For amendments see OfWicial Gazette No:
b[fcO on c July bfOl, OfWicial Gazette No: b[lfP on l July bfOc.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
kr
measures such as hosting Turkish culture teachers and a vice principal
appointed by the ministry, as I mentioned above shortly before.
The Turkish culture teachers is a broader category that refers to Turkish
literature, Turkish history, geography teachers in high schools; Turkish
language and social science teachers in elementary schools.47 These
teachers are hired on tenure track and assigned to their positions according
to a professional scoring system centrally by the Ministry of National
Education. Their seniority and professional development are monitored
by the Ministry. As well as Turkish culture teachers, a Turkish vice principal
is also appointed to the minority schools by the Ministry of National
Education48, with the purpose of administering legal and disciplinary
processes in the schools, sometimes as the sole authority. In this sense,
the recruitment and disciplinary processes of Turkish culture teachers
are different from their colleagues, and unlike the others their salaries
are paid by the Ministry. The other teachers working in the minority
schools, who are not Turkish culture teachers and thereby not appointed
by the Ministry, are hired by the decision of the school principal and the
board members of the school foundation. As their employer is the school
foundation, their salaries are paid by the school budget supplied by the
1inancial resources of the pious foundation. These teachers work contract-
based and their contracts are issued by the school foundation. Although
these teachers are professionally audited by the Ministry and its
provincial institutions, the school foundation has the authority on recruitment
and discharge of these teachers.
47 The law no. PcdO issued on b^/fc/O[cc, it was ruled that Turkish culture classes would
only be taught by teachers appointed by the Ministry of Education. Their job descriptions
and periods in ofWice are regulated by Law No: PcdO and by Article bd of the Regulation
on Private Educational Institutions. According to the relevant article of the regulation,
one of the Turkish culture teachers appointed to the minority school is assigned
to a vice principal position.
48 In O[\^, the Board of Education issued a regulation on the appointment of Turkish deputy
principal to minority primary schools, and head deputy principal to minority high
schools. Although this regulation was suspended during the years O[ld-O[l[, it was reintroduced
in O[Pb. For further information on regulations on minority schools see
Chapter \.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
km
During our interviews, the school principals explained that in recent
years certain advancements regarding the incumbency of Turkish culture
teachers working in minority schools were introduced. In 89Sa, a circular
letter prepared by the Ministry of National Education instituted certain
changes in the law49 and regulation50 on Private Educational Institutions
that led the authority of school principals to be expanded.51 This expansion
of authority brought along certain changes regarding the process of
reassignment of Turkish culture teachers and their incumbency period.
By these changes, following the authorization of designated governorships
and with the request of school principals to open a position for the
assignment of a Turkish culture teacher, Turkish culture teachers who
want to work in that particular minority school can apply for the position
to be shortlisted and later suggested by the principal for the 1inal authorization
of the governorship and directorate of the Ministry of National
Education. In other words, if school principals are persuaded by the suitability
of the candidate as a result of a recruitment process, they can request
from the designated governorships the speci1ic candidates to be
appointed to their schools. Although the 1inal decision is up to the governorships,
requests by the principals are usually approved with a few exceptions.
According to the same circular letter, principals of the minority
schools are also warranted the authority to prolong the incumbency period
of Turkish culture teachers year by year as long as the administration
of the school is satis1ied with the quali1ications of the appointed
teacher, whose incumbency period was limited to 1ive years maximum
49 The Law No: ccdf on Private Educational Institutions published in OfWicial Gazette
no:bPl\l onOl February bff^.
50 The Regulation on Private Educational Institutions published in OfWicial Gazette
no:bdb\[ on bf March bfOb.
51 Circular Letter No: OP[OcfPd-Of-E.PPl[ccd on bd June bfOc.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
kk
before. Later in the same year, these amendments introduced in the circular
letter became part of the Regulation on Private Educational Institutions.
52
The aforementioned law no: aak9 in effect also speci1ies the basic tenets
of registration to the minority schools (Article 8). The eligibility criteria
for registration to the Armenian schools are to be a citizen of the Turkish
Republic of Armenian descent. However, the problem in this
de1inition stems from the mechanisms deciding the Armenian descent of
students as there is no litmus test for being Armenian. After some notorious
practices of the Ministry of National Education in deciding the eligibility
of Armenian students, the role to decide on the eligibility of the
students was given to the school principals in 89Sa (Agos Newspaper, S9
August 89Sa). They collectively agreed upon some standards, although
their decisions are subjected to the audit of the Ministry (Agos Newspaper,
S^ August 89Sa).
On another note, since the minority schools are only open to citizens
of the Turkish Republic, the schools cannot accept any Armenian students
who migrate from another country. Although with the in1low of migrants
from Armenia education is a signi1icant need to be immediately
addressed, those students cannot access the Armenian schools. Herein, it
is worth to remind what Parla (89Sj) accentuates in another context; that
Turkey is one of the signatories of the Convention of the Rights of the
Child and that is why it must ensure all children can access primary education
regardless of their legal status (p. S88). However, as the Ministry
requires an ID number for the registration process to be completed, students
from Armenia cannot be enrolled in the Armenian schools, even
though they can sit in as guest students.
52 In bf/f^/bfOc with the regulation published in the OfWicial Gazette No.b[lfP , the Ministry
of National Education Regulation on Private Schools Article bd(a) was amended.
With this amendment, Turkish culture teachers are reappointed with the request of
school principals and authorization of the designated governorships. Before the amendment,
the school principals had no authority to request for their prospective teachers.
See the regulation on amendment:
https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/bfOc/f^/bfOcf^fl-\.htm
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
kj
As these schools are regarded as private schools and of1icially called
as private, they do not have any access to public funds, salaries of the
teachers are not paid or their building expenses are not covered by the
ministry like in public schools. Building expenses, school maintenance as
well as teacher salaries are all funded by the pious foundation which that
particular school is af1iliated with as well as by the 1inancial endowments
the school can raise throughout the year. That is why the capabilities of
the schools or the opportunities that they can offer to their students are
restricted by the budget of their foundations. Although the Lausanne
Treaty clearly spells out that the minority schools could enjoy an equal
share from the public resources, the schools are not regarded as eligible
to have a share from the budget of the Ministry of National Education. In
fact, most recently during 8988 budget meetings, the MP Garo Paylan’s
motion to allocate a share from the ministry’s budget was denied by the
Committee on Planning and Budget (Agos Newspaper, a November 898S).
On the other hand, their special status as minority schools does not
hinder those schools from fully being integrated into the education system
in Turkey. As much as graduation certi1icates of students allow them
to continue their education in any other school as parents of the student
wish, upon their requests the students can also be transferred to public,
private or foreign schools in accordance to their preferences. Since Armenian
schools follow the same state-curriculum with public schools,
school transfers do not demand additional requirements. On the same
note, their graduation certi1icates make them eligible to take high school
or university entrance exams; thereby, Armenian high school graduates
can proceed their education in public or private universities without any
predicament.
I already mentioned that the minority schools are to follow a centrally
prepared state-curriculum. However, as the Armenian schools are entitled
to have the entire curriculum, with a few exceptions that I will address
shortly, in the Armenian language, they are expected to translate
this state-curriculum into Armenian and cover the same topics in a pedagogical
manner approved by the ministry. As the curriculum is common
in all schools, students are responsible for these course subjects in the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
j9
centrally held high school and university entrance exams that are conducted
fully and only in Turkish. Although the Armenian schools have the
liberty to choose their language of instruction, the school administrations
can also prefer the classes to be taught in Turkish. Today, considering
particularly the pressure that the central exams create on students,
the schools with a few exceptions prefer to teach the classes almost exclusively
in Turkish. Whereas at the preschool level Armenian reserves
its place as the language of the classroom as well as instruction, in the
following years it is displaced by the preponderance of Turkish and at the
further classes in high school as the central exam preparation dominates
education, the instruction becomes fully Turkish. I will discuss this matter
thoroughly in the following chapter while visiting the neoliberalization
dynamics of the educational realm in Turkey.
When adopting the state-curriculum, the Armenian schools keep
their right to integrate Armenian language and Armenian literature classes
into the curriculum and to replace the content of religion & ethics
classes with the tenets based on Christianity and Armenian customs.
When preparing the program of the Armenian language, Armenian literature
and religion & ethics classes, the teachers still have to follow the
guidelines provided by the Ministry for Turkish language, Turkish literature
and religion & ethics classes respectively and create course material
analogous to those prepared by the Ministry. The weekly course hours of
those classes should be equal to their analogous Turkish classes. For instance,
if the curriculum has ^ hours of Turkish language classes, ^ hours
of Armenian language classes can be added to the program. However, as
the decision is the school’s to make, sometimes the administration ends
up decreasing Armenian language or Armenian literature classes to not
overwhelm the students with so many extra course hours. The content
and teaching materials of these classes are designed by the teachers of
the classes. There are already Armenian schoolbooks which have been
approved by the Ministry to be used as course materials in Armenian language
and Armenian literature classes. However, the paucity of these
books makes it necessary for the teachers to prepare additional course
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
jS
materials. The rest of the classes in the curriculum, which are not Armenian
language, Armenian literature or religion & ethics classes, can be
taught in Armenian only on the condition as I mentioned earlier, that the
school follows the state-curriculum sanctioned by the Ministry. However,
the preparation of any course materials for classes held in Armenian is
the responsibility of the schools. The Ministry distributes Turkish schoolbooks
compatible with state-curriculum to all schools in Turkey including
the minority schools. The Armenian schools can use these books as
their course materials as they wish or provide supplementary Armenian
course materials if they teach the class in Armenian.
Last but not the least, the status of the minority schools allows them
to celebrate religious holidays and take the days off by informing the Ministry
at the beginning of each school year. Since the schools follow the
yearly schedule of the Ministry, this situation elicits the taking of days off
for both Muslim and Christian religious holidays as well as national holidays
which are common to all schools.
Ending this chapter on these remarks, my intention throughout the
chapter was not only to paint a clearer picture to describe the current
context of the Armenian schools but also, as I expressed my intentions
earlier, to show the factors forging the ambiguity of the minority schools.
Beyond this descriptive picture, in the following chapters I intend to explain
the ways these dynamics work in practice and to unravel the network
of relationships engul1ing the Armenian schools by bringing some
examples from my 1ieldwork. On these remarks, I argue that the milieu of
the Armenian schools will be more salient to discuss their predicaments
as well as their value and virtue for the Armenian community.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
j8
FIGURE 8.S Armenian Schools in Istanbul in 898: (each red pin represents one school)
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
j:
Location by Neighborhood
Koca Mustafa Paşa, Fatih
Moda, Kadıköy
Kumkapı, Fatih
Bomonti, Şişli
Bakırköy
Taksim, Beyoğlu
Karaköy, Beyoğlu
Üsküdar
Şişli
Topkapı, Fatih
Feriköy, Şişli
Pangaltı, Şişli
Koca Mustafa Paşa, Fatih
Üsküdar
Ortaköy, Beşiktaş
Yeşilköy, Bakırköy
Level of Education
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle, high
High school
Pre-school, elementary, middle (boarding)
Pre-school, elementary, middle (boarding)
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle, high
Pre-school, elementary, middle, high
High school (boarding)
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Pre-school, elementary, middle
Year Of Establishment
OdPd
Od^\
Od\f
Odfd
Odll
Od[c
OddP
OdPP
O[Ob
Od\l
O[Ob
Odbc
Od\O
O^fP
O^dc
O[cl
School Name
Anarad Hığutyun Armenian Elementary
Aramyan Uncuyan Armenian Elementary
Bezciyan Armenian Elementary
Bomonti Armenian Elementary
Dadyan Armenian Elementary
Esayan Armenian Elementary and High
Getronagan Armenian High
Kalfayan Armenian Elementary
Karagözyan Armenian Elementary
Levon Vartuhyan Armenian Elementary
Merametçiyan Armenian Elementary
Pangaltı Armenian Elementary and High
Sahakyan-Nunyan Elementary and High
Surp Haç Armenian High
Tarkmançats Armenian Elementary
Yeşilköy Armenian Elementary
TABLE 8.S The list of Armenian Schools in 898:
SOURCE Türkiiye Ermenileri Patrikliği www.turkiyeermenileripatrikligi.org
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
j^
ja
#
Governing Armenian Schools Through Ambiguity
s a part of my larger project ruminating the liminal characteristics
of the Armenian schools in Turkey, my initial goal is to unfold the
ways the Armenian schools and their quotidian practices are governed.
This chapter serves this initial aim and tries to delineate the quotidian
domain of legality with respect to the Armenian schools in the terrain of
a whirlwind of political changes in governance emerging predominantly
from the neoliberal shift of Turkey. Despite the preponderance of earlier
studies on the ethnic and religious minorities of Turkey that sees the
state as an agent and elucidate its actions with respect to a raison d’état
(Aktar, 8999; Akçam and Kurt, 89Sr; Bali, 8999; Bayır, 89Sm; Kirişçi, 8999;
Yeğen, 899m) or descriptive studies on the minority schools explicating
the minorities at an impasse as a result of a repressive state (Barış, 89Sj;
Kaya, 89S8; Yazıcı, 89Sa), this chapter presents a perspective at odds with
the prevailing understanding of a state that calculates its moves as a comprehensive
unity. Taking certain studies such as Feldman (899k), Yonucu
(89Sk) or Parla (89Sj) as its vantage points, the chapter unfolds the Armenian
schools with respect to their tenuous domain of everyday practices
and accentuates legal ambiguity in governing the schools. Considering
the paucity of analysis probing tenuous domains or ambiguous ways
of governing in Turkey, this chapter offers a novel way to understand how
A
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
jr
ambiguity governs the minority schools as the schools are held in abeyance
and the tenacity of government is perpetuated with political shifts
emanating from neoliberalism.
Against the general surmise that there is a nation state which is actively
involved in the control of the minorities or their schools, this chapter
hunts down governmentality around the Armenian schools, which is
historically shaped by Turko-Islamic precepts reigning the political and
socio-cultural context from the later periods of the Ottoman Empire to
today, and argues that the relationship between the state and the Armenian
schools is not as straightforward as it is claimed conventionally. Although
it is largely told that the Armenian schools in Turkey have been
governed strategically by an evil raison d’état, this chapter asserts that
this explanation is rather insuf1icient in addressing the issue comprehensively
and is not quite supported by the empirical data in the sense that
it is rather possible to 1ind contrary examples to this argument. The chapter
delineates that while reshaping itself on different occasions and yet
presenting its image as a comprehensive and all-encompassing whole,
the Turkish state actually governs its minority schools by preserving legal
ambiguities and instrumentalizing these ambiguities as spaces of maneuver
in accordance with its political agenda. That is why instead of resorting
to an explanation of a meddling state which controls and rules
over every detail regarding the Armenian schools, I assert the Turkish
state as a meandering state whose actions are not so straightforward but
rather meandering with reforms and improvements, although its desire
to subdue the minorities perseveres.
Instantiating the current situation of the Armenian schools, the objective
of the chapter is to foreground both continuity and rupture in governing
the minority schools in particular. The chapter argues that sovereignty
is undergirded by legal ambiguity and combines with discipline
and technologies of self-government. Governance subsumes Turko-Islamic
precepts that constructed the authority and image of the state; and
thereby, the rupture that altered the political domain with neoliberal precepts
coexists with continuity and is conducive to the perpetuation of
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
jm
sovereign power and its image. In other words, although the chapter underscores
governmentality and the political shift in governance as opposed
to the state as a subject, it still prefers to use the concept meandering
state because the sovereignty which is historically constructed and
derived from Turko-Islamic ideology does not wither away; on the contrary,
it can be sustained under the auspices of governmentality.
With the purposes of illustrating the trans1iguration process of governance
of the Armenian schools, I outlined this chapter in a way to capture
different examples of the altering dynamics in the socio-political
context. The outline of this chapter is organized under three main titles.
First, while building on the insights of scholars theorizing the state and
governance, I elucidate what the concept “meandering state” connotes in
this particular case and the reasons why I prefer to use it. Later, I delineate
the way the 1ield of education altered substantially with the whirlwind
of changes emanating from the introduction of neoliberalism in
Turkey and how these changes can be read in the context of the Armenian
schools. Lastly, I explicate my main argument by explaining the way legal
ambiguity is instrumentalized to govern the minority schools by holding
them in abeyance. In this regard, the former two sections serve a purpose
of explaining the dynamics and context entailing the conditions to govern
the minorities by ambiguity.
With the purpose of not perturbing my participants, during my 1ieldwork
I did not use any recording device and instead preferred to take
notes when appropriate and possible. Most of the school administrators
and teachers were initially timid to invite me to their schools and classrooms
because of their professional identities. Due to their accountability
to their own institutions as well as to the Ministry of National Education,
they eschewed expressing their thoughts about the current legal
situation of the schools. Although they were more open and even candid
about sharing their own experiences, their reluctance and weariness
were salient when talking about the daily predicaments of the schools
and the way they were governed. This auto-censorship, I believe, tells us
a lot about the atmosphere engul1ing the Armenian schools today. ThereHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
jk
fore, in order to both acknowledge their experiences and show my familiarity
with the legal context applying to the minority schools, during our
conversations I often brought up particular topics and issues including
the legal predicaments to probe on. In this sense, I have to say that my
participants were not completely free from my channelization to certain
topics or accentuation on certain issues. However, I can con1idently say
this did not inhibit them from expressing their thoughts and experiences.
They skipped the topics that they did not want to talk about and brought
up new topics and perspectives when they wanted to.
When sharing their experiences and thoughts since the participants
indistinctly mentioned regulations, articles, rules and practices, for the
purposes of presenting content-wise consistent and extensive examples,
instead of quoting my participants directly or sharing the incidents exactly
as they told, I preferred either to 1ind those regulations, articles,
documents with reference to their publication information on the Of1icial
Gazette, or track down those facts, cases or events on the newspapers
and relevant academic studies, and share them throughout the chapter to
re-narrate the story in its comprehensiveness and historicity. Although
all the information shared throughout this chapter were drawn from my
1ieldwork and the interviews I conducted, I explicate phenomena delineating
the current context of the schools by frequently adducing evidence
from various resources and preferred not to share excerpts from my interviews.
§ U.Q ReshufYling Perspectives towards the Turkish State
Statist approaches (Norlinger, Sjkm, Sjkk; Skocpol, Sjmj; Krasner, Sjmk; Evans
et al., Sjka) decipher the state as an autonomous entity and a system
of decision making whose actions cannot be shaped by forces in society
(Mitchell, SjjSb, p. k8). The state is presented as a disembodied ideality
integrated with national interests (Mitchell, SjjSb, p. kr) and described
with respect to its tendency to be an expression of the pact of domination
and act coherently as a corporate unit (Skocpol, Sjka, p. ^k). With its esARMENIAN
SCHOOLS
jj
sential unity, the state stands apart from society as a set of original intentions
or preferences, and its con1licts between different parts of the state
apparatus are regarded as secondary and internal to this larger unity
(Mitchell, SjjSb, p. kk). With the purpose of explaining contradictory and
incoherent forms of state action, more current accounts theorizing political
authority argue that the state subsumes complexity and multiplicity
of actors and institutions, and yet they undergird that the state signi1ies
forms of power that differ from institutions that cannot be explained by
concepts such as governmentality or governance (Morgan and Orloff,
89Sm, p. Sm-Sk).
In line with statist approaches, the preponderance of earlier studies
regards the Turkish state as a hegemonic nation-state characterized with
a nationhood that is based on the ethnicity, religion and cultural identity
of one majority group (Yeğen, 899m, p. S8r; Ergil, 8999, p. ^:). In building
the dominance of this majority group and promoting itself as a homogenous
nation state, the state denies the existence of multi-ethnicity and
multiculturality of the country as Turko-Islamic precepts are conducive
to the production of its sovereign power (Kirişçi, 8999, p. S). Among other
studies, the studies on minorities as well elucidate the socio-political
context with reference to a repressive Turkish state as it coherently acts
as a system of decision-making (Akçam and Kurt, 89Sa; Bayır, 89Sm; Turan
and Öztan, 89Sk). Cognizant of the prevalence of such studies and narratives
in the domain of everyday, during my 1ieldwork, it was not perplexing
for me to see that the narratives of my participants were structured
in a way that the state was depicted with reference to its rational calculations,
preferences and desires as a meddling state, as I name it, meticulously
controlling legality and scrupulously manipulating quotidian details
of the everyday life.
In order to accentuate the coherence among the state apparatuses
which makes this meticulous intervention possible, Bayır (89Sm) argues
that as legality and judicial bodies cover up nationalist tendencies promoting
Turko-Islamist values, they actually act in coordination with the
nationalist agenda of the state (p. ^9m). She furthers that judicial bodies
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S99
never act as against the political status quo; rather, they disregard requests
to promote differences within the political and legal system and
deny pluralist characteristics of the society (Bayır, 89Sm, p. ^9m). While
locking the public space within the framework of language, culture, history
and values of one speci1ic majority, the state abuses the concept of
civic nationalism to ban the practice of differences stemming from different
identities, cultures, religions, languages, and compel the minorities to
dissolve their differences in a national culture that is in fact composed of
Turko-Islamic precepts (Bayır, 89Sm, p. j, 88).
Historically constructed Turko-Islamic ideology as the constituent element
of the sovereign power of the Turkish state equally resonates with
the minority schools and the legal framework applying to them. The edi-
1ice of the minority schools was recon1igured by concomitant socio-political
shifts with the establishment of the Turkish Republic. With the Lausanne
Treaty, which is largely accepted as the founding treaty of the
Republic, the minorities reserve their rights to manage and control any
charitable, religious and social institutions, any schools and other establishments
for instruction and education of their communities.1 However,
as my research con1irmed the 1indings of earlier studies and research
projects (Kaya, 89S8; Oran, 899^, 89Sk; Özdoğan and Kılıçdağı, 89SS) that
although Armenians reserve the group-right to preserve their schools
and enjoy their cultural rights as indicated in the Lausanne Treaty, like I
already explained in the former chapter the articles are not implemented
without any reservation or setback as it is often speci1ied by the public
discourse. Article ^S of the Treaty says that “the Turkish Government will
grant in those towns and districts, where a considerable proportion of
non-Muslem [sic] nationals are resident, adequate facilities for ensuring
1 Here, I refer to the non-Muslim minorities as it was speciWied in the Lausanne Treaty
and address to Armenian, Rum and Jewish populations whose cultural rights were legally
recognized in the Lausanne Treaty. Here onwards, whenever I use minority, minority
schools, or minority foundations I refer to these three populations. Throughout the
text, I use minority schools and minority foundations interchangeably with community
schools and community foundations respectively.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S9S
that in the primary schools the instruction shall be given to the children
of such Turkish nationals through the medium of their own language.”
Although Article ^S explicitly speci1ies that the non-Muslim minorities
are entitled to enjoy an equitable share in the public funds for educational,
religious, and charitable purposes, the Armenian schools cannot
bene1it from any 1inancial contribution; rather, they are abandoned to the
fate of their individual foundations. The Armenian schools, like the other
minority schools, are funded by their community foundations, and preserving
their facilities or covering any other expenses to sustain these
schools stay within the responsibility of the particular foundation that
each school is attached to. Exceptions to this rule are sporadic bene1its in
kind by a few municipalities. In such a context, the schools whose foundations
are not wealthy and resourceful enough to secure their funding
1ind themselves at an impasse at every education year. In some schools
that I visited, many participants brought up this issue as thwarting their
very existence.
Although legal experts interpret Article ^a of the Lausanne Treaty on
the rule of reciprocity as a clause on parallel responsibilities for both Turkey
and Greece, it is often instrumentalized as a leverage at the international
disagreements between Greece and Turkey and seen as collateral
or could be abrogated in case of a breach by one party (Oran, 899^, p. jm;
Tarhanlı, 8998, p. :m). From the perspective of legal obligations, the rule
of reciprocity seems like it does not refer to the Armenians in Turkey.
However, as skirmishes between Turkey and Greece bear legal consequences
for the Rum schools, the reworking and revisions taking place in
the governing of the Rum schools reverberate in the Armenian and Jewish
schools, because they are all tied by the same laws and regulations as
they all are put under the category of the minority schools. In this regard,
international agreements or disputes between Turkey and Greece shaping
the state of the Rum community in Turkey are also signi1icant in framing
the context around the Armenian schools and any political development
at the international arena between Greece and Turkey begets
drawbacks in the Armenian schools eventually. A series of regulations
which were issued after the exacerbation of the Turkish-Greek dispute
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S98
over Cyprus after the Sjr9s in particular can be mentioned in this context.
Regarding these developments, Oran (89Sk) gives a thorough description
of the general framework and Kaya (89S8) gives a very comprehensive list
of these regulations and legal modi1ications which were introduced by
either the Ministry of National Education or Istanbul Directorate of National
Education starting mainly after the Sjr9s.
Some of these legal modi1ications were repeatedly raised by my participants
during our interviews in order to delineate the overall atmosphere
of the time period. Here, I would like to focus on my 1ield data and
mention a couple of examples re1lecting this mindset; in Sjrr the Ministry
of National Education banned books which were published outside of
Turkey to be used in the community schools2, in Sjm9 the Ministry of National
Education appointed Turkish vice principals in the minority
schools to become the sole authority in receiving and signing all of1icial
documents sent to the schools; in SjmS Istanbul Directorate of National
Education sent an of1icial document and requested the schools to ask for
permission for every event, theater performance or show taking place in
the schools, and their Turkish translations to be sent to the Istanbul Directorate3;
and in Sjm^ Istanbul Directorate asked the minority school administrators
to send Turkish translations of all exam materials including
their answer keys4 (Kaya, 89S8, p. aS-a:).
Furthermore, the Law No: r8a on Private Educational Institutions5,
which was issued in Sjra and stayed in force up until its replacement with
the new law in 899m, shows us how the nationalist agenda of the state
speaks towards non-Muslim citizens. Throughout the articles of the Law
No:r8a the term foreign schools6 also refers to the minority schools and
compels them to follow the same regulations that foreign schools are
2 Ministry of National Education Document No: \OO-b[lO on bP July O[PP
3 Istanbul Directorate of National Education Document No: cOf/P\ on bc August O[^O
4 Istanbul Directorate of National Education Document No: c\O-l^ on bb August O[^l
5 RatiWied in OfWicial Gazette No:ObfbP on Od June O[Pc
6 Here, in accordance with the Law on Private Educational Institutions (OfWicial Gazette
No: bPl\l on Ol February bff^), the foreign schools refer to the schools which were established
by foreigners.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S9:
obliged to follow in their operations. These regulations include the requirement
to appoint a Turkish vice principal from among the Turkish
culture teachers working in the same school.7 Even further to that requirement,
in the relevant article it says that “in the absence of Turkish
culture teachers [suitable to be appointed to this position], a branch
teacher, who is a Turkish citizen of Turkish descent, can be appointed to
this position” [emphasis added] (The Law No: r8a Article 8^)8.
Until very recently, these vice principals, who are appointed by the
Ministry of National Education, were also the chiefs of records in their
schools, the sole disciplinary authority keeping and assessing disciplinary
and professional records of Turkish culture teachers.9 The school
7 The mindset behind this requirement is to have a Turkish speaker in the administrative
board of the foreign school to monitor the regulations and rules, so that the foreign
school would not have a bureaucratic problem especially with the Ministry of National
Education. Özel Öğretim Kurumları Kanunu [The Law on Private Education Institutions]
No: Pbc Article bl. Although this position was created with the Decision No:[/b[f on OP
November O[\^, it was abolished in O[l[ (Circular Letter [\/b-bcPc published in Milli
Eğitim Bakanlığı Tebliğler Dergisi [The Ministry of National Education Bulletin] No: cl\
on O August O[l[), and re-brought into force in O[Pb (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Tebliğler
Dergisi No: Obfd Vol: bc published on Od June O[Pb, Circular Letter No: cdd^ sent on bd
April O[Pb).
8 The Law No:ccdf on Private Educational Institutions (OfWicial Gazette No: bPl\l ratiWied
on d February bff^). Although this article was not included in the recent law on private
educational institutions in bff^, the relevant article took place in the regulation in bffd
but with a difference this time that the phrase “of the Turkish descent” was abolished
(Article \c of the Regulation on Private Educational Institutions (OfWicial Gazette No:
bPdOf ratiWied on d March bffd)), and the recent regulation on private educational institutions
issued in bfOb took over the same article (Article bd of the Regulation on Private
Educational Institutions (OfWicial Gazette No: bdb\[ issues on bf March bfOb)). The community
schools are still obliged to include a vice principal appointed from among the
Turkish culture teachers working in their schools, who are appointed by the Ministry of
National Education through a central appointment system.
9 Ministry of National Education Document No b\P.O-b\cd sent on O July O[Pl. In the other
schools, I mean the schools except for foreign schools, the authority to keep the disciplinary
records of the teachers belongs to the school principal.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S9^
principals I talked to stated that this situation used to undermine the authority
of the principals, and cause dualism between principals and vice
principals in the schools since it was the vice principals who had the exclusive
authority to audit the work of Turkish culture teachers despite
the higher rank of the principals. By a directive prepared by the Ministry
in 89S9, the situation slightly changed for the better and the authority of
school principals was relatively recognized in the disciplinary processes.
10 With this amendment, the school principals became the chief of
records and disciplinary authority in the school for the teachers who
were hired by the school administration, whereas for Turkish culture
teachers the vice principals became the primary and the school principals
the secondary disciplinary authority and chief of records, secondary
being higher in the rank. By this change, the school principal had some
disciplinary authority over Turkish culture teachers, which was entirely
absent before.
As I already explained in Chapter 8, only citizens of the Republic of
Turkey of Armenian descent can be registered to an Armenian school.11
Until very recently, the Ministry of National Education decided whether
the students were eligible to be registered in the Armenians schools12
and monitored this process during which the parents of students were
asked to submit their applications to a committee assigned by the ministry
to request the registration of their children to an Armenian school and
seek an approval from the Ministry which allegedly made a decision
10 Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Özel Öğretim Kurumları Genel Müdürlüğü Yönergesi No: bl[f
sent on bl March bfOf. However, Turkish culture teachers are still audited Wirst by the
vice principals unlike their colleges in the same school, and vice principals are still only
audited by provincial and district directorates of national education and relevant governors,
not by their principals although they come Wirst higher in the organizational
chart. The school principals who are supposed to rank highest in the hierarchy in their
schools, lack the authority to audit their vice principals.
11 Article c/c of The Law on Private Educational Institutions No: ccdf ratiWied in bff^.
12 The document no b\c/Od sent by the Istanbul Directorate of National Education to the
District Directorates of National Education on d August O[[O. This procedure also means
that the Ministry had the authority to decide on the Armenianness of its citizens;
whether or not to accept their Armenian identity.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S9a
based on its registration database. During my conversations with the
school administrators about the bureaucratic dif1iculties that the schools
had experienced in the past years, this subject was poignantly raised to
instantiate the disagreements between the schools and the Ministry.
They particularly shared some instances when the parents had trouble in
registering their children, and even more tragic, in proving their Armenianness
so that their children can be registered in an Armenian school.
In 89S:, it came out that since the establishment of the Republic, the
civil register of1ices actually kept a record of ethnicity of the population
and even coded them in accordance with their ethnic identity (Agos
Newspaper, S August 89S:).13 While this situation found relatively large
coverage in the media and started a controversy, it also created frustration
and indignation in the public. It is not comprehensively known exactly
with which purposes the state used this information. However, one
of the known facts is that the Ministry of National Education used this
database to approve registration requests of parents by matching the racial
codes of students with the particular community schools that the students
want to be registered in. After the public indignation with the racial
coding came into open, 1inally in 89Sa, with an amendment on the Law on
Private Educational Institutions, the 1inal decision on the criteria for registration
to the minority schools was given to the school principals - alt-
13 This procedure came into the open when the parents of a student applied for the permit
of the Ministry of National Education to be able to register their child into an Armenian
pre-school. The Istanbul Directorate of National Education sent a letter to Şişli (District)
Directorate of National Education and requested an eligibility check on the racial code
of the family in their identity registration documents, having number “b” referring to
Armenianness. (See Agos Newspaper. O August bfO\. [f yıldır ‘soy kodu’ ile Wişlemişler.)
Following this occasion, the Ministry of Domestic Affairs stated that this record keeping
is solely for the purposes of education and deciding the eligibility of students for their
community schools. (See Agos Newspaper. b August bfO\. İçişleri Bakanlığı: Soy durumları
Milli Eğitim Bakanlığına veriliyor.) However, the interview by a journalist with
a head of registry ofWice showed that minorities who had no schools also had registry
codes for categorization (See Radikal Newspaper. b August bfO\. ‘Soy kodu’ Osmanlı’dan,
Süryaniler l numara.).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S9r
hough this does not mean that the decisions of the principals are not audited
(Agos Newspaper, S9 August 89Sa).14 The coding system was allegedly
removed from the databases of the Directorate General of Population
Affairs with the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.15
Following this amendment, a group of school principals, board members
and representatives of the Patriarchate came together and agreed on the
standards for the eligibility of students to be registered in the Armenian
schools (Agos Newspaper, S9 August 89Sa). According to the 1inal decision
given by this committee of representatives, as a requirement for the registration
and to judge the eligibility of students, the principals would look
for the certi1icate of baptism of the prospective students in either the Apostolic
or Catholic Armenian church or for the certi1icate showing the
membership of the child in the Protestant church (Kuyumciyan, S^ August
89Sa). Today, the school administrators follow these standards by and
large.16
As my research shows and the school administrators af1irm; a considerable
number of the aforementioned enforcements are rather loosely or
sometimes nominally in practice now. In operation, the processes run
more conveniently and sometimes are 1lexible enough to provide adequate
solutions to the problems of the schools. However, for example the
ban on books published outside of Turkey is still in practice. For the minority
schools, which have a prevalent trouble in producing and 1inding
education materials in their language of education, this kind of measures
does not make their work easier, and, what is more, restraining education
within the limits of school textbooks in a global world where information
is shared transnationally exceeding national borders does not seem very
much pedagogically convenient.
14 The document No: OP[OcfPd-Of-E.PPl[ccd sent by Directorate General of Private Educational
Institutions to Istanbul Directorate of National Education on bd June bfOc.
15 The Minister of Internal Affairs expressed only verbally that the practice of racial coding
came to an end in the databases of the Directorate General of Population Affairs (See
Agos Newspaper. bc February bfOP. Soy kodu ‘şifahen’ kalktı.).
16 I will further probe these standards in the following chapters within the context of identity
and religion.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S9m
Discussing the content and extent of history textbooks used in public
schools, and how Turkish nationalism and myths around the Turkish
identity produced through these textbooks do not fall into my subject of
research. However, in order to present the comprehensiveness of the situation,
I would like to say a few words about the subject as these matters
were largely speci1ied during my interviews. In every school under the
auspice of the Ministry, the guidelines of the Ministry within the framework
of a national curriculum cover everything regarding the operation
of the schools from the content of textbooks to classroom sizes or to
events organized in the schools (Kancı and Altınay, 899m, p. a8). Education
in Turkey is comprehensively and tightly de1ined and controlled by of1icial
policies of the Ministry of National Education from the center
through state-imposed guidelines (Kancı and Altınay, 899m, p. a8). As a
result of this state-centric curriculum development and textbook production,
textbooks in Turkey which are distributed to schools by the Ministry
of National Education are regarded as the major means of nationhood
and the promotion of Turkish nationalism (Kancı and Altınay, 899m, p. a8).
The minority schools in general and the Armenian schools in particular
are not exempt from these regulations. Like their counterparts, from the
earlier periods of the Republic their functioning as well hinged on this
centralized national curriculum system. While the minority schools were
obliged to stay within the limits of this national curriculum and follow
the guidelines provided by the center, they were also not allowed to include
Armenian history into their curriculum. At present, the Armenian
schools still cannot add Armenian history classes in their curriculum or
teach Armenian history either as a separate class or in Armenian language
classes. The national discourse does not only regard Armenian history
as not pertaining to the history of the Republic, but also perceive
teaching it as inconvenient and even damaging against national integrity.
As opposed to Armenian history classes, like I mentioned in the previous
chapter the schools include Armenian literature classes to the curriculum
on the condition that the syllabus of these classes corresponds fully with
Turkish language and literature classes whose syllabuses are also determined
by the Ministry.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S9k
In Turkey, school textbooks are distributed to students free-of-charge
by the Ministry. In the Armenian schools, the same rule applies. However,
since the Ministry only publishes and distributes textbooks for the classes
in Turkish, the designation of textbooks and teaching materials for
the classes held in Armenian and the classes that are not included in the
national curriculum stay under the responsibility of the schools and the
purchase of teaching materials under the responsibility of the parents.
Abruptly in 89S9, the Ministry of National Education made a gesture to
the Armenian schools, and published and distributed textbooks of mathematics
and life sciences classes in the Armenian language, which were
previously translated into Armenian by the initiative of the Armenian
Teachers Foundation without any monetary gain (Barış, 89Sj, p. 8ja).
Again, for the 1irst time in the 89Sa-89Sr academic year in the religious
culture and morality section of the high-schools entrance exam (TEOG)
organized centrally by the Ministry, students attending the Armenian
schools were asked questions about Christianity in Armenian.17
Additionally, in the context of the upturn of events with the EU integration
process and the reform packages following it, there have been
quite a number of improvements with regards to regulating the minority
schools among other reforms ameliorating quotidian practices of the ethnic
and religious minorities in Turkey. Whereas the minority schools
could not gain much on the legal ground as their special status still did
not receive a legal acknowledgement in the domestic law or they did not
acquire equal access to public funds or resources, in the quotidian domain
the lawyers and school administrators I interviewed underscored
concrete improvements especially after the Justice and Development
17 A large set of questions were prepared by the Patriarchate and sent to the Ministry of
National Education, and the Ministry chooses questions for the exam by an automation
system from the pool of questions. With this practice, Armenian religious culture became
part of the central examination system and acknowledged as a complimentary
part of the society. However, this step in itself refers to the fact that Armenian culture is
regarded within the boundaries of religion and still not quite accepted as a component
of a shared art, literature and history constituting an important segment of the Ottoman
past.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S9j
Party came into power in 8998 and mainly after the negotiations of the
EU membership accelerated in about the same period.18
What I am saying is that the aforementioned examples could have
been merely analyzed and explained with reference to a repressive state
as a coherent system of decision making, and could be substantive examples
to a meddling state that meticulously controls the functioning of the
schools with its legal means. According to these examples, we can argue
that the law which is at the monopoly of a Turko-Islamic state almost always
has worked for the depredation and even ravage of non-Muslim cultures.
The narrative of my participants as well present the state with its
essential unity characterized with its national interests and a Turko-Islamic
synthesis doctrine as they vehemently depict the condensation of
a meddling state in their daily lives. However, in addition to legal reforms
through which I could track down developments in the legal status of the
schools, throughout my interviews especially with the school principals
and teachers, I learned that mainly after the early 8999s, the situation of
the schools considerably ameliorated, despite occasional deteriorations.
I argue that the statist approaches fail to explain these recent changes,
reforms and developments in the situation of the minorities in general
and the minority schools in particular. Moreover, they fall short in explaining
the enhancement of quotidian practices in the life of the schools,
albeit the tenacity to keep the legal framework as it is in some areas. I
argue that such a perspective is not suf1icient and is not undergirded by
empirical examples and there is a need for more 1inely-tuned analysis to
capture these oscillations. These oscillations in the political authority
18 One of the striking examples of these improvements, which was also largely expressed
by the principals and journalists I talked to, is the registration methods and processes
of the community schools. The legal regulations in bffb, bff\, bffd and bfOb following
the reform packages within the framework of the EU integration process brought some
alterations for the regulation on the acquisition of landed properties of minority foundations,
and recognized their right to acquire properties registered under their legal
entities. (Information acquired from an interview with a legal expert.) First one of these
regulations was in bffb when the clauses were added to the Article O of the Law on Foundations
No: b^Pb issued on c June O[\c (OfWicial Gazette No: bldlO on [ August bffb)).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
SS9
urge us to pursue the political shift in Turkey that begets certain changes
for governing the minority schools.
With the objective of explaining these oscillations cognizant of a political
shift, I prefer to use the term “meandering state” which subsumes
both forms of sovereign power and governmentality, both precision and
ambiguity, both continuity and rupture. I argue that not only does the
sovereign power of this meandering state that is historically constructed
on a Turko-Islamic synthesis doctrine not entirely surrender, but it also
encompasses new forms of governance through legal ambiguity. I also argue
that governing through means of legal ambiguity couples with the
technologies of self-government in the domain of education which became
possible with the emergence of the new individual introduced substantially
with the neoliberalization of education in Turkey.
In order to capture this meandering state, I propose that shifts in political
authority require us to think through the lenses of governmentality.
Today as a result of the internationalization of economies and changes
in productive structures, the state undergoes a metamorphosis (Hibou,
899^, p. 8). As Jessop captures, the state in the new neoliberal context is
a qualitatively new political con1iguration; therefore, we need the urge to
alter our frames of analysis to analyze these new state forms (Sjjj, p.
:kS). Instead of presenting the state as the supreme holder of power
which deploys that power to dominate and rule, by thinking through the
means of governmentality we can decipher the dispersal of power across
social institutions and individuals, and thereby transcend our conventional
de1initions of the state (Sharma and Gupta, 899r, p. 8a). In this new
frame of analysis, we can elucidate the way the rule is secured, sometimes
in tenuous ways, and the way power is exercised in society by governmentality
that offers a variety of not necessarily coordinated methods
(Sharma and Gupta, 899r, p. 8a).
Foucault asserts that as government has a 1inality of its own, it significantly
differs from sovereignty (Foucault, SjjS, p. j^). Unlike the statist
approaches, looking through the lenses of governmentality, Foucault argues
that the state has no essence, no inherent propensities (Gordon,
SjjS, p. ^). Foucault rejects to see the state as a single uni1ied body; rather,
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SSS
he sees it as a composite reality subsumed by a dispersed range of powers
that penetrate into our everyday routines and practices (Joseph, 899:,
p. Smj). For Foucault, unlike sovereignty which represents a top-down,
uni1ied form of power exercised from a central point, in modern societies
power does not refer to a 1ixed property which is at the possession of
someone or something; on the contrary, power emerges as multiple, strategic
and dispersed (Joseph, 899:, p. Smm). Instead of seeing it as the vertically
highest institution where power inheres, the new form of government
offers us the ways to see power through a horizontal network of
institutions and individuals (Sharma and Gupta, 899r, p. 8a). With the aim
of explaining this aspect of modern societies, Foucault conceptualizes the
term of government as ‘the conduct of conduct’ which works through certain
‘techniques of power’ that are designed to shape, guide, monitor or
affect the behavior of individuals as they take part in social and economic
institutions such as the school, the factory or the prison (Gordon, SjjS, p.
8, :).
However, the emergence of new forms of political authority does not
necessarily mean that power altogether takes over the place of sovereignty.
Despite the distinction between sovereign power and governmentality
that he accentuates, Foucault acknowledges that these two forms
of power can coexist in variegated ways (Butler, 899^, p. a8). Sovereignty
is not eliminated by the emergence of a new art of government; on the
contrary, it is perpetuated by governmentality (Foucault, SjjS, p. S9S). For
this reason, the state cannot be identi1ied merely either with the acts of
sovereignty or with the 1ield of governmentality, since they both act in
the name of the state and compose it as contemporaries (Butler, 899^, p.
a^). Instead of eliminating sovereign power or denying the precepts of its
raison d’état, governmentality works in various ways to enhance and
even to perfect it from within (Foucault, 89Sa, p. 8a).
In the light of these insights, I 1igure the aforementioned examples remind
us that reading social and political domains of Turkey requires us
to include variegated lenses. For this reason, I aim to follow the scholars
that carve out a new space for analyzing forms of governance. In that reHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
SS8
gard, I 1ind The Making of Neoliberal Turkey (89Sr) is a very helpful vantage
point to rethink the Armenian schools as the schools face new challenges
with the neoliberalization of education in Turkey. The authors
foreground that as the post-Sjk9s Turkey witnessed both the decentralization
of power and the uni1ication of power under certain state apparatuses
at the same time, Turkey underwent a political shift substantially
through a neoliberalization process (Erol et al., 89Sr, p. :, m). The neoliberal
shift refers to a new political authority that also begot a new form of
society as it created new assemblages around the idea of the market (Türem,
89Sr, p. ^S). Based on this perspective, they argue that this con1iguration
refashioned our conceptual tools to understand socio-political dynamics;
and therefore, propose a fresh analytical perspective based on
the incorporation of the dual concepts of neoliberalism and governmentality
as opposed to state-centered analyses of Turkish society (Erol et al.,
89Sr, p. :).
Similarly, Küçük (89Sm) contends that particularly during the governance
of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the political power performed
a change with the restructure of administrative, 1inancial, and judicial
state apparatus by a corporate mentality. Describing the
differentiation of the AKP period from the incipient stages of neoliberalism
in Turkey, Küçük and Özselçuk (89Sa) accentuate the dual transformation
in the mentality of governance and in the societal body politics
with reference to the corporatization of the governing mind (p. Sr8).
However more speci1ically, they draw attention to the ways the transformation
of governance engages with the national identity. They argue that
in this new form of society, the governing mind attempted not only to underpin
and oversee neoliberalism but also to obviate the “disrupting” effects
of the politicization of social strati1ication by reconstructing the national
identity (89Sa, p. Sr8, Sr^). In doing so, it eliminated gridlocks of
nationalism and redressed its dysfunctionalities by rearranging social
differences through a partial recognition politics instead of denying them
completely as it did before (Küçük and Özselçuk, 89Sa, p. Srk). While this
partial recognition perpetuates the con1lictual, unstable and dialogic
struggle between parties, it also further consolidates the dominance of
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SS:
the majority by interfering with the apt means and methods to demand
rights, status or equality (Küçük and Özselçuk, 89Sa, p. Srk).
For the reasons of grasping the transformation of governance, I see a
need to revisit neoliberal transformation that multiplied and decentralized
power in Turkey in the particular context of the Armenian schools.
Taking studies on how recon1igurations of power produce new variants
of the modern as an inspiration (Erol et. al., 89Sr; Fujitani, Sjjr;
Mahmood, 89Sa; Wedeen, Sjjj), the further objective of this chapter is to
couple the sovereign power with disciplinary technologies of governmentality,
and show how these variegated aspects of the modern alter
contextual dynamics that the Armenian schools in Turkey reside in today.
With the purpose of painting a picture of the context of the Armenian
schools roughly after the Sjk9s but predominantly after the 8999s, I will
delineate in the next section the neoliberalization of education in Turkey.
§ U.T Emerging New Social Forces with the Neoliberal Shift
In her reading of Navaro-Yashin (8998), Özyürek (899m) probes the argument
that the idea of the state is still intact and vibrant because it is
reproduced by daily practices of certain groups staying outside the central
domain of the state, and criticizes Navaro-Yashin (8998) for not questioning
the reasons why power is reproduced outside the domain of the
state at that very historical sequence (p. :m). I believe the same question
applies to my research, albeit in a different way. In order to understand
the changing dynamics governing the Armenian schools, it is signi1icant
to comprehend the transmogri1ied domain of education, because substantially
with the intensi1ication of competition and new de1initions of
success, the lives of the students in the Armenian schools and their parents
revolve around values emanating from the market. In that regard, I
argue that with the neoliberalization of education the state no longer
needs to control certain areas of the Armenian schools in their quotidian
practice; rather, as the schools embody neoliberal precepts through various
means, power working at the level of practice produces individual
subjectivities as apt citizens of the state.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
SS^
Introducing a theory of political economic practices, neoliberalism
has in1iltrated into our ways of thought; and therefore, had effects on how
we interpret, live in or understand the world as it became a hegemonic
discourse (Harvey, 899a, p. 8. :). In his seminal work, Harvey describes
neoliberalization as ‘the 1inancialization of everything’ referring to the
predominance of 1inance over all areas from economy to the state apparatus
and to our daily lives (899a, p. 8j). As this trend became hegemonic
mainly after Sjk8 with the impact and central signi1icance of the IMF and
the World Bank, free market fundamentalism and neoliberal orthodoxy
have been increasingly regarded as necessary and even natural for the
regulation of the social order (Harvey, 899a, p. 8j, ^S). With competition
represented as the primary virtue by neoliberalism, individual success or
failure has predominantly started to be scored with respect to their market
values (Harvey, 899a, p. ra).
Chevier argues that during the shift in the mode of production the
state loses its privileged position and stops to be the master of collective
recognition (899^, p. 8a:). This shift marks a weakening of the articulation
of national discourses, disciplinary apparatuses including educational
ones (Yudice, Sjja, p. ^). However, this does not allude to weakening
of the state; rather, the state is recon1igured as the global dispersal of
new forms of organization, consumer culture or information technologies
occupy the space left by a national discourse (Yudice, Sjja, p. ^).
Thereby, by refashioning the political domain, neoliberalism rede1ines
the public sphere and promotes new ways of recon1iguring the social domain
(Atasoy, 899j, p. 88).
As neoliberalism has become the hegemonic economic political structure,
compatible with global changes Turkey followed a similar path in
the recon1iguration of its economic and political realm. Following global
trends of neoliberalization mainly after the Sjm9s, Turkey liberalized its
national economy by introducing the market mechanism with January 8^
Sjk9 measures to integrate with global capitalism (İnal and Akkaymak,
89S8, p. xiv). Later, this process was solidi1ied with socioeconomic and political
conditions promoted by the Sjk9 military coup (Kurul, 89S8, p. k^).
However, it was after the 8999s the readjustment of the political domain
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SSa
in accordance to the market values was increasingly intensi1ied with the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) came into power. As the political
economic conjuncture marked a movement away from a state-led developmentalizm,
the program of the current ruling AKP was to recon1igure
the society based on a synthesis constituted in between a neoliberal discourse
and a Muslim cultural orientation (Atasoy, 899j, p. m, j). There are
many important studies on the neoliberalization process of Turkey unfolding
how the political space has been rede1ined and the social space
recon1igured with neoliberalization and how the notion of private and
public spheres has been altered (Adaman et al., 89Sm; Akça et al., 89S^;
Atasoy, 899j; Balkan et al., 89Sa; Erol et al., 89Sr; Gökay, 898S; İnal and Akkaymak,
89S8; Kandiyoti and Saktanber, 8998; Önder, 89Sr; Rutz and Balkan,
899j; Navaro-Yashin, 8998). A dispute about prior discovery is no
part of the intention of this chapter; however, for the objective of this
chapter and to be able to unpack the daily predicaments of the Armenian
schools, I 1ind it necessary to pithily present the neoliberalization of education
in Turkey building on the insights of some of these authors.
After Turkey declared its commitment to neoliberal policies and suppressed
social opposition with the military coup of Sjk9, the marketization
of the education system came later in the 8999s particularly in the
AKP period (Özmen, 89S8, p. ^m). The AKP considered the education system
responsible for several problems of Turkey and foregrounded the necessity
for a structural reform in the education system that would be in
line with the neoliberal values promoted by and achieved with the guidance
of the World Bank, the IMF and the EU (İnal and Akkaymak, 89S8, p.
xiv). The main objective of this structural reform was to adopt a neoliberal
discourse while changing the national stance of education into a
global one and to produce the labor force desired by the market economy
(İnal and Akkaymak, 89S8, p. xv). When the AKP presented the neoliberal
education program which was introduced mainly after 899^ as the only
way to overcome the failure of public education while accentuating quality,
competition, standard and governance in education, it also instrumentalized
education to increase human capital (İnal, 89S8, p. Sj, 89). The
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
SSr
educational change was heavily oriented to the marketization of education,
as the main objective was to educate students in accordance with
the market economy and to supply a new workforce for the highly globalized
markets (İnal and Akkaymak, 89S8, p. xv; İnal, 89S8, p. Sk).
The marketization of education connoted the change of school curricula
in line with new expectations of the neoliberal global structure and
even casting different roles for the youth from different socio-economic
level families. Özmen explicates that the neoliberal policies had an in1luence
initially on the curricula and correspondingly on the textbooks and
auxiliary materials addressing sixteen million students in the formal education
system (89S8, p. ^m). In addition to revisions on the curricula and
textbooks, the reforms introduced Total Quality Management (TQM) and
performance assessment of teachers, abolished the laws restricting religious
education, and increased the number of Koran courses in line with
conservative agenda of the government (İnal and Akkaymak, 89S8, p. xv).
With the 899^ Primary School Education Reform oriented neoliberalism
in the education system, the textbooks became a source leading students
towards 1ields of production, marketing, advertising, consumption and
entrepreneurship as the market economy necessitated (Koşar-
Altınyelken and Akkaymak, 89S8, p. r^).
In this transformation, the collapse of public education going hand in
hand with interventions into the public budget further expedited the
marketization and commodi1ication of education at every level in Turkey.
Although the budget allocated to education under the AKP government
increased, the share in educational funding decreased gradually over the
years (İnal, 89S8, p. 88). Whereas the budget of the Ministry of National
Education for educational investment was Sm.Sk% in 8998, it regressed to
^.am% in 899j, and parents were expected to cover increasing educational
costs (Eğitim-Sen, 898S). The gradual withdrawal of the state from public
services eventually commodi1ied education (Rutz and Balkan, 89Sa, p. r:).
Despite the increasing number of students, the schools received disproportionate
shares of educational allowances which eventually resulted in
crowded classrooms, de1iciencies in education equipment, paucity of
teachers partially due to unattractive salaries, deterioration of the quality
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SSm
of education, insanitary schools without water, heat or security, and more
importantly decreasing con1idence in public schools and teachers (Kurul,
89S8, p. kj; Rutz and Balkan, 89Sa, p. :m).
While almost every 1ield of public education has been privatized and
marketed, the lack of public investment in schools paved the way for private
schools and tutoring institutions to emerge as alternatives (İnal and
Akkaymak, 89S8, p. xv). The preference of parents and students for the
transition from public schools to private ones became even more salient
as the number of private colleges and tutoring institutions towered up
gradually (Yücesan-Özdemir and Özdemir, 89S8, p. SS). The number of primary
and secondary private schools increased from jrS in 89SS to ^,::: in
8989, and private high schools from kka in 89SS to :,kk8 in 8989 (Eğitim-
Sen, 898S).
The features of private schools which make them signi1icantly differ
from public schools are worth mentioning here to be able to present a
clearer picture of the education environment in Turkey. Whereas the
class sizes of public schools can go up to r9 students depending on supply
of the number of schools in the region, private schools have to keep their
class sizes 89 students for pre-schools, :9 students for primary and secondary
schools, and 8^ to :9 students for high schools depending on the
type of the high school.19 Private schools are famously known for their
competitive foreign language education that are often provided by the
professional expertise of native speakers. Unlike their public school
counterparts, private schools also have evaluation tests that are usually
held monthly to evaluate the performance of their students. Since their
budget allows, private schools also equip their classrooms with technology
devices ranging from computers, equipment for visual learning,
smart boards, and devices for science classes to sport equipment or art
supplies. With the opportunities of these equipment, they can also provide
extracurricular activities for their students which can develop their
19 Ministry of National Education Private Educational Institutions Regulation Article ld
(OfWicial Gazette No:bdb\[ on bf March bfOb).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
SSk
social, cultural, physical as well as artistic skills, or create room for student
clubs which are usually presented as improving organizational and
leadership skills of students. In this picture, public schools are most of
the time regarded as less preferable because of the inadequacy of opportunities
that they can offer. Additionally, public schools are also perceived
as less stable because they are in1luenced most by the ever-changing and
oft-renewed regulations and policies.
Furthermore, with the penetration of market values into non-market
spheres, community-based ideals left their space to those of individualism
blended in the social policy regime of the ruling AKP (YücesanÖzdemir
and Özdemir, 89S8, p. SS). This meant the deepening of competition
among schools to undermine solidarity and to solidify inequalities
among students (Kurul, 89S8, p. j8). This transformation deepened the
gap among students from different socio-economic levels. Whereas middle
income families could imagine social mobility for their children, the
youth from low and lower-middle class families were deemed worthy of
jobs in 1lexible job markets (Bulut, 89S8). Rutz and Balkan underscore
that when neoliberal values, which stand for the individualization of responsibility
and destiny, heated up competition strategies especially
among the new middle class families, these decisions additionally in1luenced
the children of socio-economically disadvantaged families by
deepening the inequality among students. (89Sa, p. Sm, Sj). However, Rutz
and Balkan do not mention how other students who were thrusted to the
peripheries of the educational domain have been in1luenced by these
processes. Like their counterparts, the Armenian schools, which essentially
persevered to sustain Armenian cultural values and communal solidarity,
adhered to competition and market values promoting individual
success at the expense of ravaging the cooperation among the schools
which have been largely acknowledged as key to cultural continuity. My
research unfolded that success as it is de1ined by the market values pit
against cultural sustainability in the Armenian schools. I will further discuss
this phenomenon in detail by visiting the perspective of the parents
while I discuss their parts in the larger Armenian family in the next chapter.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SSj
In addition to the marketization of education, as aforementioned
brie1ly, the examination event itself also plays a distinguishing factor
among the young generation of Turkey. The emergence of the central examination
system as a momentous event in the lives of students was one
of the concomitants of the neoliberal transformation. In Sjm^, the Inter-
University Student Selection and Replacement Center was established to
operate the ways of acting together of universities in the processes of entrance
examinations.20 In SjkS, one year after the military coup d’état and
as a result of the changing political conjuncture, this center was nationalized,
and put under the regulation of the Council of Higher Education
(YÖK) as the Center for Assessment, Selection and Replacement (ÖSYM,
n.d.). With the nationalization of this center, a central examination for the
selection of prospective students for universities was put into practice
and the process started to be regulated structurally from one center. Similarly,
high school entrance examinations, which were initiated in the
Sjr9s, were centralized by the Ministry of National Education in Sjk:.
This examination system brought along some implications, and
played its part to alter the education environment drastically. This overly
competitive measurement process brought about high school education
has been fully centered on the examination event, and has become for all
intents and purposes dysfunctional (Gök, 89S9, p. S). Since the main concern
of students and parents is now to enter a prestigious high school and
thereafter a university, which is highly regarded as the initial step on the
way of a successful career, the schooling path that brings students all the
way up to the university has been instrumentalized, lost its education
component, and mainly focused on instructive elements. In this new context,
the meaning of knowledge was altered, and it referred to answering
multiple choice questions as fast and as accurately as possible (Rutz and
20 In order to overcome the problem of excessive surplus of candidates, starting with the
O[Pfs universities initiated entrance examinations through which they could decide on
desirable students suitable for their curriculums. Later, this trend paved the way for the
formation of an inter-university council to manage the process, and operate ways of acting
together.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S89
Balkan, 89Sa, p. S:j). As the central examinations dominated the classrooms
and displaced the role of teachers, the exam dynamics compelled
teachers to 1ixate on certain prede1ined topics and methods in the employment
of central exam preparation (Rutz and Balkan, 89Sa, p. 89^). In
this environment, the value of educational institutions was measured by
their prospects in preparing students for the central exams as well as
their replacement listings. Competition and success measured by multiple
choice questions consolidated its place in the educational culture in
Turkey in the 8999s, and has reinforced its own place since then. I believe
the statistical data of the gap between the number of applicants and quotas
can paint a clearer picture to realize the severity of the situation. In
Sjmm, while :r9 thousand students entered into the university entrance
exam, quotas could only let r9 thousand students be accepted to universities.
Mardin (Sjj8/899a) delineates this situation as that the remaining
:99 thousand students were obliged to work in low paid jobs where their
future prospects were not so bright (p. 8kS). Today the situation has not
changed, only deteriorated over the years. In 8988, according to statistics
of the Council of Higher Education, :.8^:.::^ students applied for the university
entrance exam, whereas the quotas only let ka9.r^S students to
receive higher education (Yükseköğretim Kurulu, n.d.).
As nationally conducted central examinations emerged as the access
points to best high schools and universities, they became the sites where
middle class competition and privilege could be best observed (Rutz and
Balkan, 89Sa, p. 8r). Today, the central examination system dominates the
daily life of every student as well as every parent in Turkey, and paves the
way for almost obligatory changes in the Armenian schools. My research
unpacked that the central examination system and the marketization of
education dramatically in1luence the situation of the Armenian schools
today. During our interviews, the teachers over and over underscored the
fact that not only they were obliged to cover the topics included in the
central exam word by word without any 1lexibility, but also, they were
limited by merely covering these topics and not bringing additional topics
to the classrooms. During my visits, I could observe 1irsthand how the
concerns stemming from the central examination event dominated the
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S8S
classes, as the teachers focused on delivering a curriculum targeting the
central examination as comprehensive as possible.
Moreover, since students have to answer the questions in state exams
in accordance with the curriculum prepared by the Ministry, which reproduces
and con1irms the national history, education is tied with the
strings of this narrative. It is often regarded as not practical to bring different
perspectives to the classroom, because it serves no purpose for the
central exam. In such a context, Armenian language and culture is challenged
by the dynamics of this examination event because it does not
meet a practical need and it struggles to 1ind its place in this grand carnival
of central examination.
In the following chapter, with reference to my interviews I decipher
in length how the central examination and the neoliberalization of education
have shifted the internal dynamics of the schools. For the purposes
of this chapter, I will not probe this subject further, and con1ine myself to
argue that the neoliberalization of education has been a breaking point
for the Armenian schools in that they found themselves in a conundrum
that challenged them to 1ind a balance between neoliberal values and cultural
sustainability. While Armenian literature and language could not
1ind any place in standardized skills and knowledge that the market demands,
the school administrators that I talked to said that the Armenian
schools have undergone certain processes to relinquish the cultural aspects
that they primarily wished to preserve. In that regard, they gave
examples from the simpli1ication of materials of Armenian language and
literature classes to their preferences of holding the classes in Turkish
instead of Armenian because it was more convenient for the exam preparation.
With neoliberalization altered social dynamics in the 1ield of education
permanently, disciplinary power governing the Armenian schools
has started to work within. When neoliberalism rede1ined the political
domain, sovereign power that we used to refer to as the negative, constraining,
exterior power gave way to internal, productive power (Mitchell,
SjjSb, p. j:). Neoliberalism gave birth to disciplinary power that, unlike
sovereign power, works at the level of detail and produces actions of
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S88
individuals instead of constraining them (Mitchell, SjjSb, p. j:). In the
age of neoliberalism, governance does not pursue straightforwardly
shaping collective behavior anymore; rather, it aspires for the production
of a certain kind of mentality that can eventually bring desired practices
(Lemke, 89Sa, p. :9).
The emergence of neoliberalism marks a macroeconomic shift that
elicits new individual subject positions (Türem, 89Sr, p. ::). Governing
extends its meaning, and refers not only to how we exercise authority
over others but also to how we govern ourselves, our own bodies, personalities,
and inclinations (Dean, 89S9, p. 89). Governmentality constructs
the modern individual as an isolated, disciplined, receptive and
industrious political subject (Mitchell, SjjSb, p. j:). This modern individual
constructs themselves as an enterprise in competition who has to acquire
as much as possible to get ahead of others (Türem, 89Sr, p. ^a). In
our case, the conduct of conduct 1inds its meaning here in the domain of
education when individual subjectivities of students are produced in accordance
with neoliberal values and when students desire success as de-
1ined by the market. With the neoliberalization of education the students
in Turkey perceive competition as essential to survive in the education
and labor system. Students are expected to be entrepreneurial to create
and polish their distinction among their peers. Moreover, the parents,
who regard their children as their individual projects to be gradually developed,
turn into entrepreneurial families while proceeding their constant
competition with other families (Rutz and Balkan, 89Sa, p. 89).
In this new era, the government does not need to oversee the daily
practices of the minority schools any more. Instead of dealing with the
schools as a negative, exterior power, it institutionalizes the schools to be
integrated into the mainstream education system in a way that they can
nurture the market. The state acts as an institution nourishing neoliberal
values by constituting and ensuring competition in variegated realms
and levels (Türem, 89Sr, p. ^8). As the central examination, foreign language
acquisition, acquiring and developing organizational and leadership
skills that the market demands dominate the education system, the
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S8:
Armenian schools spend all their energy to meet these demands. The individuals
produce acquiescence themselves by embodying competition
as the education system teaches them. The schools are now governed
from within with the active involvement of students, parents and teachers
as competition predominates in the domain of education.
Mitchell deciphers the condensation of new techniques governing
quotidian practices of our lives as “enframing" (Sjj9). According to his
conceptualization, by their intangibility and impersonal nature, technologies
of power present themselves as non-particular, non-material and
unchanging frameworks, which enframe actual occurrences (Mitchell,
Sjj9, p. arj). These practices of this sort, he continues, create the effect
that as if they transcend the dimension of reality, although they are constituted
like the rest of the social world (Mitchell, Sjj9, p. arj). The new
modes of power create the common effect of enframing and appear to
stand outside actuality, outside events, outside time, outside community,
outside personhood and outside reality (Mitchell, Sjj9, p. arj). Their effect
stems from their local in1luence, regularity and repetitive uniformity
(Mitchell, Sjj9, p. amS). The central examination system in Turkey creates
this common effect of enframing in the realm of education. All the constituents
of the education system in Turkey take the central examination
system and competition that it entails as a transcendental dimension of
reality, something as non-particular and non-material.
The Armenian schools as well are not off the grid. They share the
same framework with the other schools since new techniques of governing
profoundly impact their operation. For that matter, the destruction
emanating from the neoliberalization of education carries variegated
meanings for the Armenian schools as they frequently end up in a position
requiring them to relinquish certain aspects of their identities. Today,
although the Armenian schools are enframed by tight curricula and
expectations shaped by a central examination system, they are often analyzed
solely with reference to an external all-encompassing state. However,
as I described above oftentimes, the state does not intensively pursue
tedious strategies to subdue minorities; rather, governmentality
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S8^
produces acquiescent individuals as the schools play their role to be incorporated
to the marketization of education. On the other hand, visiting
the tools of governmentality does not suf1ice to analyze and comprehend
how the Armenian schools are governed. The marketization of education
couples with legal ambiguity to govern the Armenian schools as these
two phenomena feed the illusion of the state as an all-encompassing entity
to be promoted.
§ U.U Protracting Ambiguity as a Governing Mechanism
At the beginning of the chapter, in order to emphasize the multiplicity of
ways governing the schools, I suggested analyzing the environment surrounding
the Armenian schools, their experience and predicaments with
reference to a meandering state which encompasses tools of both sovereign
power and disciplinary power. I use this concept in a way referring
to both continuity and rupture in the political power in the governing of
the Armenian schools as I argue that the state meanders through sovereign
power and disciplinary power and embraces both of them. In order
to probe the concept of this meandering state further and talk more
about new strategies of the sovereign power, I paint a picture with cases
from the 1ield to describe how the governance of the schools performs
through legal ambiguity. I contend that these cases illustrate that ambiguities
are undergirded by the coexistence of sovereignty and governmentality;
they build on the continuity of Turko-Islamic precepts of the
sovereign power and the rupture from the constraining power of the previous
political authority.
In spite of the fabricated contrast between modernity and ambiguity,
ambiguity is indeed a signi1icant part of the modern state by which the
state can govern its population without comprehensively dictating collective
action or scrupulously demarcating realms of interaction. The
modern state pioneered to create a new type of power which was pervasive
as it was never experienced before. While delegitimizing and dissolving
local self-government mechanisms of communities and undermining
social foundations of their traditions and lifestyles, the modern state had
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S8a
to mingle with the government of these social practices and design them
(Baumann, SjjS/8989, p. Sa9, SaS). In the course of this design, it supported
certain forms that promote similarity whereas effaced the others
by assimilating them into uniformity (Baumann, SjjS/8989, p. SaS). The
assimilation of these features, which meant either to weaken or to eliminate
competitive resources of local powers, performed as an entry ticket
to a world released from the sense of otherness, but actually threw its
victims into a trap of chronic ambivalence, because they could never be
fully part of the desired outcome (Baumann, SjjS/8989, p. S^k-Sa:).
The objective of modern practice, says Baumann, is not the conquest
of foreign lands; rather, it seeks to 1ill the gaps for a complete picture, because
modern practice has no tolerance for uncertainty (SjjS/8989, p. 8S).
Building an order means dissolving the ambiguous, and in the political
sphere this objective corresponds to the categorization and expulsion of
the foreign, the de1inition of the legitimate and the illegitimate in the domestic
sphere, and the elimination of legal gaps by de1ining them (Baumann,
SjjS/8989, p. ^:). Based on Baumann's explanation, we would expect
the Turkish state to de1ine the legal sphere so concretely and
explicitly that the legal framework applying to minorities to be meticulously
prepared without leaving any legal gaps. However, the case with
the Armenian schools21 is far from pre-speci1ied with rigid laws and regulations
where there is no room for uncertainty. Because of the lack of
laws and regulations which should have been written speci1ically for the
community schools to de1ine their status, rights and regulations, these
schools are governed in a state of ambiguity, and this ambiguity gives
birth to modern forms of governing by holding the schools in a state of
abeyance and abandoning them to mercy of the political agendas. Although
the modern state seems like it cannot endure ambiguity, it actually
embodies a network of possibilities stemming from ambiguity.
21 I use minority schools, community schools and their subcategory Armenian schools interchangeably,
because the legal framework applying to the Armenian, Rum and Jewish
schools is the same. In the legal documents, regulations and laws the schools are legally
called minority schools.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S8r
Paul Veyne demurs to see political life as something gravitating
around the poles of spontaneity or constraint which consistently keeps
people under control; rather, he foregrounds it as something taking subordinate
needs sporadically into account (Sjj8, p. :Sa). Similarly, although
I agree with the studies (Barış, 89Sj; Kaya, 89S8; Yazıcı, 89Sa) arguing that
the desire of the Turkish state to subdue the minority schools prevails,
this does not mean that governing the Armenian schools is so straightforward.
Instead, it includes enhancement and reforms of the legal framework
and practice. As strategies of sovereign power couple with governmentality,
these strategies are not based on 1irmness, but uncertainty. I
argue that legal ambiguity is used as a strategy to govern the Armenian
schools by sovereign power, while variegated forms of governmentality
already perform by means of the marketization of education.
My argument is based on studies that center ambiguity as a tactic of
sovereign power. Freitag depicts Ba’athist ideology in Syria as intentionally
performing vaguely with the purpose of embodying disparate groups
(SjjS). As her book captures the elusiveness of power in daily life in contemporary
Syria, Wedeen illustrates that the actual experiences of both
domination and resistance cannot be analyzed by the coherence of
power, but its ambiguities (Sjjj). Feldman portrays incapacity and the
dynamic of abeyance as a tactic to maintain the rule in Palestine (899k).
Parla describes ‘uncertainty as an instrument of sovereign power’ to hold
migrants in legal abeyance (89Sj). She additionally underscores the fact
that as hope is embraced by migrants to resist immobility and marginalization
for legal inclusion, it performs as a tool of governmentality (89Sj,
p. Smm).
While both governmentality and sovereign power apply law as a tactic,
Butler asserts that this mechanism works either by employing law in
accordance with the interests of the state or suspending it to an instrumentality
of the state (899^, p. k8). She further explains that the acts of
the suspension of law should give us insights about the reintroduction of
sovereignty as it contorts law to its own uses (899^, p. a^, aa). In addressing
the selective nature of law in Turkey, Belge argues that the Constitutional
Court of Turkey acts selectively in using its clout to protect some
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S8m
values while suppressing others (899r). In her work on anti-terror law,
Bargu underscores the ambiguity and contestation of the de1inition of
terrorism and describes the discourse of terrorism as a product of ideological
con1licts resulting in ‘de1initional ambiguities and the political
stakes of these ambiguities’ (89S^). As Biehl characterizes the asylum system
in Turkey with inde1inite waiting, limited knowledge, continuous inquisitions,
unpredictable legal status, restriction of movement and ambiguity
of laws, she describes this system with the concept of ‘protracted
uncertainty’ which has a powerful governing effect by containing, demobilizing
and criminalizing asylum seekers both in a temporal and spatial
sense (89Sa). In a similar vein, Sarı and Dinçer as well de1ine the asylum
system in Turkey as constituted by ambiguities and uncertainties as ‘improvisation,
unpredictability and irregularity’ characterized the system
(89Sm). Yonucu uses the term ‘absent present law’ when capturing the
contradictions of the rule of law and the anti-terror law while she describes
it as both functioning and not functioning selectively (89Sj). She
argues that ambiguity and unpredictability create the effect law to be experienced
as an inconceivable and elusive power over individuals (89Sk,
p. mSk).
Unfolding the complexity of governing in Gaza, Feldman pays attention
to how continuity and rupture, stability and crises, contradiction and
connection, regularity and exceptionality perform in bureaucratic practice
as a governing dynamic which is both tenuous and effective at the
same time (899k, p. S8, S:). While exploring the conditions of rule, she sees
authority as not simply constituted by ‘clearly stated regulations or minutely
plotted jurisdiction’; rather, she depicts its formations as dispersed
and pervading throughout (899k, p. Sa). She says authority is not
steady and constant; it is produced through practice (899k, p. Sa). Furthermore,
she argues that by looking only at the daily practice in its historical
speci1icity, we can understand how diverse and contradictory
techniques work together in governance and the perpetuation of tenuous
governments (899k, p. 88^). By giving attention to practice, we see the
authority of tenuous governments is produced through reiteration of
mundane details (899k, p. :) and consolidated through interactions
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S8k
among those who participate in governing (899k, p. rS). It is the practice
of government services that makes things work, albeit tenuously, and
renders the authority opaque by incorporating multiplicity of governing
bodies, practices and participants (899k, p. Skk).
!.!.# Ambiguity in Legal Framework
At the initial steps of my research, in order to grasp the practical level
of the legal framework applying to the Armenian schools, I interviewed
lawyers working on cases that were relevant to the lack of a legal entity
representing religious minorities, landed properties of community foundations
or problems resulting from lack of regulations on the community
schools. Due to their professional expertise, they were knowledgeable
enough to explain dynamics of communal disagreements substantially
emanating from the lack of umbrella institutions that could manage communal
affairs and ensure dialogue between parties. Although some of
them directly pointed to de1iciencies of the legal framework in addressing
operations of the Armenian schools, our conversations heavily centered
on more general and collective problems of the Armenian community,
such as the lack of a legal entity handling communal matters at a
larger scale or troubles pertinent to landed properties of the community
foundations. These issues may seem like falling outside the interests of
this research. However, I will show that the legal and 1inancial precarity
of the foundations has a straightforward disruptive impact on the schools
and plays a role in holding them abeyance.
As customary and aware of the fact that I am not a legal expert, the
lawyers I talked to initially had the propensity to start unpacking the legal
framework applying to the minorities by articulating the relevant articles
of the Lausanne Treaty.22 Soon after they foregrounded the fact that
there is no correspondence of the section on the protection of the minorities
in the Turkish domestic law. For me, it was another con1irmation of
22 The section on the protection of the minorities (Articles @A-CD)
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S8j
the words of Baskın Oran, the prominent professor of law, who throughout
his studies extending over years captures the cases and issues that
the religious minorities of Turkey have to bear. What was startling to me
in one of these meetings was when one of the attorneys brought me
Oran’s seminal book Minorities and Minority Rights in Turkey: From the
Ottoman Empire to the Present State (89Sk) from her library and told that
all the answers I was looking for were already in that book. Besides the
fact that I already read the book, my curiosity did not end there and I proceeded
to ask my questions to be able to compare and contrast the
knowledge about the legal framework with comments of school principals
and teachers on the practice of legality.
Oran stresses the limits of the domestic law addressing the minorities
in Turkey, and highlights the fact that there is no written legislation on
the protection of the minorities (899^, p. k:). In fact, the existence of the
conferences23 on the subject of the legal entity and representation question
of the non-Muslim minorities organized in Turkey tells us a lot about
the ubiquity of the knowledge towards the problem. The book, Yok
Hükmünde (Koptaş and Usta, 89Sr), composes papers that lawyers from
the 1ield submitted in one of these conferences and presents a comprehensive
framework on the subject. Like Oran (899^, 89Sk), while capturing
the lack of legal entity representing the religious communities and
legal vacuums in the domestic law, the authors of the book share examples
of how legal ambiguity is perpetuated throughout years and governments.
Being also one of my interlocutors, Bakar underscores the lack of the
rule of law as the basis of legal and practical problems of the Armenian
community (89Sr, p. S9k). As a result of the absence of precise regulations
addressing the legal entity of religious communities in the relevant body
of law, Zonana foregrounds the fact that these communities are obliged
23 Religious Minorities in Turkey (OO October bfOb, Galatasaray University); Non-Muslims
and their Legal Entity: Problems and Rights I (O\ May bfO\, Ankara University); Non-
Muslims and their Legal Entity: Problems and Rights II (\f January bfOl, Istanbul Bilgi
University).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S:9
to engage in activities indirectly through their foundations and associations
(89Sr, p. jS). Vingas reminds that Srk minority foundations are consumed
because the elections for board members cannot be held due to
the absence of regulation on the elections of community foundation
(89Sr, p. Sa).24 Aslangil connects this legal gap to issues of the community
schools and stresses the requirement to redeem school affairs from the
laws governing the foundations (89Sr, p. S:S). Since the schools are under
the rubric of their foundations, the laws governing the foundations also
envelop the schools and further undergird ambivalence. The schools are
held in abeyance in a status that is subjected to regulations of both the
Ministry of National Education and General Directorate of Foundations.
Continuing on this note, we can see the same pattern in the legal status
of the community schools. Although the right to manage and control
the schools by their respective communities is perpetuated in the Republic
in accordance with the Treaty, today there is still no regulation specifically
written for the management of the minority schools.25 Following
the constant demands of the minority schools to have a regulation which
can respond to their special status and needs, 1inally in 89S8 a new regulation26
was issued. However, as the principals and lawyers I interviewed
highlighted, this regulation is far from meeting the requests and needs of
the minority schools as it brought nothing new to the legal realm regarding
their functioning. The regulation was basically another version of former
regulations applying to the minority schools; it did not change or
24 With the abolishment of relevant articles in the Regulations of Foundations in bfO\ (Of-
Wicial Gazette No:bdc\\ on O[ January bfO\), the board elections of the community foundations
could not be held until June bfbb, when the Regulation on the Elections of the
Community Foundations was issued (OfWicial Gazette No:\Od^f on Od June bfbb). The
elections were held in October, November and December bfbb.
25 Kaya (bfOb) and Özdoğan and Kılıçdağı (bfOO) mention the Regulation on Armenian
Schools and Regulation on Armenian Secondary and High Schools issued in O[^P. However
these regulations are not in use, and according to the statements of my interviewees
they are outdated to address the current problems of the minority schools.
26 Ministry of Education Regulation on Private Schools (published in OfWicial Gazette
No:bdb\[ on bf March bfOb).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S:S
acknowledge the minority schools as a separate category. In order to 1ind
a permanent and substantial solution to this problem, a committee of
school principals and board members prepared a document pointing out
the situation and rooms for advancement for the minority schools. Nonetheless,
their efforts could not bring any solution to their legal uncertainty.
Still at this point, not only communal affairs are regulated de facto,
but also the school affairs are governed on ad hoc solutions often subjected
to tools of improvisation. Therefore, when unraveling the legal basis
of the minority schools, my conversations with the legal experts and
school principals centered on the uncertainty prevailing in the governance
of the schools.
However, this should not mean the incapacity of the state in providing
a legal basis for communal affairs. The legal experts, board members, academics
and school principals showed their enthusiasm many times
throughout the years to point to legal uncertainties undermining the
functioning of the schools through their statements in different venues,
as well as during my meetings with them. The absence of regulation could
have been surmounted through their input. Moreover, the Ministry of National
Education is a self-supporting and self-suf1icient institution to be
able to ful1ill educational needs of the society inclusively. However, laws
governing the minority schools continue to be characterized with unpredictability
and irregularity as a result of the lack of regulation. Therefore,
practices applying to the schools change from government to government
and the of1icers dealing with the minority schools are obliged to
learn the environment almost from the bottom up in their incumbency
periods and develop their own methods. This in itself multiplies the
problems of the administrators of the schools and entails them to develop
tools of improvisation when dealing with bureaucracy.
Before I started my 1ield study and visited the schools, I conducted a
pilot study to have a general idea of the setting and to get familiar with
names and procedures regarding the Armenian schools. During that
study, I met with my friends, colleagues, classmates or family friends to
acquire more honest opinions and hear some criticism of my study. In one
of these meetings, on a nice November evening in the cafe of the TurkishHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S:8
German bookstore I had the intention to ask my friend, who also happened
to my ex-colleague, about his personal experiences and high
school memories to perceive his viewpoint on the subject that somehow,
I have never been so curious about before. Carried away with more salient
problems of the Armenian schools, sharing his high school memories
made him tell the history of his high school. As an alumnus of the school,
in most general terms he told the tumultuous legal process of the school.
Later, with my keenness ignited in this conversation, I asked the school
principal further about it. Albeit some missing points and details, she
narrated the same story that I shared with you below. However, in order
to pay homage to the historical and legal details of the process and pronounce
the names accurately, I take the text written with the advisory of
legal experts and shared on the website of the school as my reference
point, and tell the story of the Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School27 to illustrate
one of the examples of how uncertainty and ambiguity are used as
tools to govern the schools.
Since the Surp Haç Tıbrevank High school was originally founded to
ful1ill educational needs of ecclesiasts, this example also signals the disputes
about the seminary and clergy schools in Turkey and gives some
insights about the way educational needs of of1icials working in non-
Muslim religious institutions are met through improvisation and irregularity.
Despite the right of religious communities to keep their religious
institutions intact, the vaguely constituted discourse of secularism has a
sanction against the sustainability of seminary and clergy schools. After
SjmS, clergy schools were shut down and the practice for the education of
ecclesiasts was interrupted.28 Today, there is no seminary or clergy
school in Turkey whose graduates can work and maintain customs and
traditions in their religious institutions. That is why religious authorities
of Christian communities develop alternative ways to bypass the problems
stemming from the absence of religious education and send their
27 Սուրբ Խաչ Դպրեվանք Վարժարան [Surp Haç Tbrevank Varjaran]
28 The Decision of the Constitutional Court on Ob March O[^O O[P[/\O E and O[^O/\ K (OfWicial
Gazette No:O\^[f on bP March O[^O)
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S::
potential candidates abroad for professional training and theological education.
The legal ambiguity that the Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School was
put in originated from those conditions.
In Srmk in the Üsküdar neighborhood of Istanbul, the Surp Haç Church
opened a religious school, later in Smm9 the structure of the school was
expanded, transformed into a seminary school and subsisted until Sj:8
when it was shut down and suspended education (tibrevank.com). In
Sja9, when Archbishop Karekin Haçaduryan29 was elected as the Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople, with his personal initiative and with
the permission of the Ministry of National Education, the school was reopened
as a boarding seminary school with secondary and high school
parts and additionally with a theology department with the name of
“Surp Haç Tıbrevank Armenian Seminary School”. In the following year,
in order to monitor the administrative affairs of the school, the Foundation
of Surp Haç Tıbrevank Armenian Seminary School was established
with the permission and acknowledgement of the Istanbul Governorship.
Again, in the same year, Istanbul Governorship acknowledged the legal
entity of the foundation and its right to acquire properties in accordance
with the Law on Foundations. Thereby, with the recognition of the Governorship
from Sja: till SjrS until the abolishment of the Committee of
Collective Management of Armenian Properties30, the foundation was
monitored like the other Armenian foundations by the Committee. In
SjrS, after the abolishment of the Committee, the foundation was recognized
as a community foundation by the Governorship with the decision
of Kadıköy Civil Court of General Jurisdiction31. In Sjrm, on the pretext
that the theology section of the school had inadequate number of students
to further theological education, the theology department of the
school was shut down and the school retained its educational facilities
only in its secondary and high school parts. In Sjrj, when the Ministry of
National Education strongly requested the school to renounce its semi-
29 Գարեգին Ա. Տրապիզոնցի Խաչատուրեան
30 Ermeni Malları Müşterek İdaresi Komitesi
31 Kadıköy Asliye Hukuk Mahkemesi Decision No: E:O[PO/Ofl K:O[P\/ld on ^ August O[PO
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S:^
nary education on the grounds that seminary education did not correspond
to principles of secularism, the school was transformed into a minority
school with the name of “Private Surp Haç Armenian School”.32
However, things got further complicated and became vague after that
date. Although the foundation renewed its board membership elections
every ^ year starting with SjrS with the permission of the Governorship
based on the Law on Foundations, the Governorship delivered their certi
1icates of election to board members every time without any complication,
and the Ministry of National Education inspected the foundation for
years, in Sjka the election of the board members was not approved by the
Governorship and their certi1icates of election were not delivered. The
decision was given on the allegation that the foundation did not have a
legal entity. The Governorship did not recognize the foundation’s right to
be established as a foundation and declared its legal existence null and
void (Güreh, 8^ April 89S8). During the period of time that the Governorship
perceived the foundation void, not only did the school stay in education,
but also the Ministry of National Education continued to
acknowledge the school as legitimate enough to assign Turkish culture
teachers and vice principals to employ there.
Even further, in Sjjj based on the decision of the Secondary Commission
of Minorities (Azınlıklar Tali Komisyonu)33, the Ministry of National
32 Having said that, in the next year, the number of Imam-Hatip Schools (Imam and
Preacher Schools), which were established in accordance with the Article l of the Law
of UniWication of Education in O[bl with the objective of training religious experts,
swiftly increased and reached ^b (Aşlamacı and Kaymakcan, bfO^, p. bdO, bdb). These
schools were later transformed from vocational schools into mainstream educational
institutions, which gave their graduates the right to pursue university degrees in religious
as well as non-religious Wields (Hendek, bfO[, p. Of). The principles of secularism
which the Turkish state was so eager to follow were perceived highly vulnerable vis-avis
the education of clerics, but kept their resilience in the presence of Islamic education
and the public countenance of its institutions.
33 In bffl the document abolishing the Secondary Commission of Minorities ofWicially
proved that the Commission was secretly established by a presidential precept in O[Pb
to oversee minority affairs. The members of the Commission included representatives
from the National Security Council, the National Intelligence Service as well as the Turkish
General Staff (See Küçükşahin, bl February bffl).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S:a
Education alleged that the foundation was approved as a minority foundation
by mistake and in fact had no legal entity to acquire properties.
Therefore, its properties should be identi1ied and transferred to the
Treasury. In the document sent by the Ministry of National Education Directorate
of Private Educational Institutions on S9 September Sjjj says
that
“According to the decision of the Secondary Commission of Minorities,
in concern with all landed properties including the building
of the school registered under the name of the Foundation of the
Surp Haç Armenian High School, which was treated as a minority
foundation by mistake, it is necessary to 1ile a court case by the
Ministry of Finance. Until the court case is 1inalized, (..) the school
is required to be administered by an appointed trustee according
to the (...) court ruling. ”34 (Özuzun, 8: March 899:)
In the following years, a court case against the foundation was 1iled,
and in the petition of the lawsuit it was stated that “As it is understood,
the Surp Haç Armenian High School, which was in service since Sja: in
Üsküdar, was opened to education in accordance with the law No: r8a The
Law on Private Educational Institutions; however, later the school administrator
misguided the authorities into presenting the school as a foundation
and acquired properties from Armenian citizens through the means
of bequeath or endowment.”35 (Özuzun, 8: March 899:).
The legal abeyance predominating and undermining the legal status
of the high school continued up until the improvements in the area introduced
by the reforms with the EU integration process gained pace in the
34 "Azınlık Tali Komisyon kararına göre, azınlık vakfı olarak sehven işlem gören 'Surp Haç
Ermeni Lisesi Vakfı' adına tescilli okul binası da dahil bütün gayrimenkuller ile ilgili
olarak Maliye Bakanlığı'nca dava açılması gerekmektedir. Dava sonuçlanıncaya kadar,
(...) okulun (...) yargı kararıyla kayyum sıfatıyla yönetilmesi gerekmektedir."
35 "O[c\ yılından beri Üsküdar'da faaliyet gösteren Surp Haç Ermeni Lisesi'nin Pbc sayılı
Özel Öğretim Kurumları Kanunu uyarınca açıldığı daha sonra okul idarecilerinin, yetkili
kurumları yanıltmak suretiyle, okulu bir vakıf gibi göstererek Ermeni vatandaşlardan
vasiyet ve bağış yoluyla mal iktisap ettiği anlaşılmıştır."
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S:r
8999s. Nevertheless, the legal existence of the foundation was not approved
and the foundation was left without any board members to monitor
its administrative affairs up until 89S8, when its status was 1inally
(re)recognized by the General Directorate of Foundations.36 The legal
process and the predicaments this everlasting process gave birth to were
overly political and predominantly shaped by the political agendas of the
time. However, the means and tactics used during this process were not
peculiar either to the time period or to the Foundation of the Surp Haç
High School. This was not an individual case where ambiguity was used
as a mechanism in governing the non-Muslim population in general or
the Armenian schools in particular. In fact, we can see a similar logic applying
to all minority foundations and leaving them bereft of their landed
properties, and thereby 1inancial security. I will cover this topic comprehensively
later in this chapter where I talk about the 1inancial insecurity
of the schools as one of the root causes of their problems of uncertainty.
Despite the absence of regulation speci1ically written on the minority
schools, the legal area is not completely deprived of legal regulations and
there are certain laws and legislations regulating school affairs. However,
these regulations are rather limited to peripheral issues of the larger puzzle.
In addition to the problems stemming from the absence of a regulation
written speci1ically on the minority schools, the quotidian practices
of the schools are complicated by irregular status of the schools. Having
a vague legal status, the minority schools are subjected to the same legal
framework with private and foreign schools, whereas neither of these ad-
36 TC Başbakanlık VakıWlar Genel Müdürlüğü, VakıWlar Meclisi [Republic of Turkey Prime
Minister’s OfWice Directorate General of Foundations Council of Foundations], Document
No: B.fb.O.VGM.f.fc.ff.ff/bPd and No: bO[ and Document No:
B.fb.O.VGM.O.bc.ff.fb.(b[).O\f/\Pl\ sent by TC Başbakanlık VGM İstanbul b. Bölge
Müdürlüğü [Republic of Turkey Prime Minister’s OfWice Directorate General of Foundations
Istanbul b. Regional Directorate].
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S:m
jectives refers to the minority schools in any context. The schools are regulated
by the Law on Private Educational Institutions37 and its corresponding
regulation38 that was originally designed for foreign schools,
driving schools, training centers and other private educational enterprises
constituted outside the realm of public education. That is why in
most of the cases the minority schools are left in a state of legal ambiguity,
in which their individual problems and needs require additional exchange
of petitions between public authorities to explain that they fall
outside the category. The uncertainty prevailing in the legal domain of
the minority schools is further consolidated with being placed in a category
where the schools are expected to ful1ill standards as their pro1itmaking
counterparts. As a result of this conundrum, the schools undergo
a series of predicaments on a daily basis.
The minority schools have to employ Turkish culture teachers who
are appointed and inspected by the Ministry of National Education and
to submit a candidate among these teachers to be a vice principal for the
approval of Governorship.39 Whereas this regulation does not apply to
private schools and only selectively apply to foreign schools as only their
vice principals are appointed by the Ministry, it is very unremittingly
practiced in the minority schools whose administrators and teachers are
almost exclusively Turkish citizens.40 While the minority schools are subjected
to this regulation, their legal counterparts (foreign and private
schools) have the liberty to hire their teachers through competitive
mechanisms.41 Another example on the same subject is pertinent to the
37 Law No:ccdf on Private Schools (published in OfWicial Gazette No:bPl\l on Ol Feb bff^).
38 Ministry of Education Regulation on Private Schools (published in OfWicial Gazette
No:bdb\[ on bf March bfOb).
39 Article bd of the Regulation on Private Educational Institutions (OfWicial Gazette
No:bdb\[ on bf March bfOb).
40 The exception to this situation is English language teachers who are employed because
they are native speakers.
41 Until bfOc, the minority schools could not choose the Turkish culture teachers working
for them. However, this regulation has changed, and now the schools can go through an
employment process and submit their preferred candidates to the Ministry for the Winal
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S:k
Law on the Turkish and Turkish Culture Teachers of the Minority
Schools42. As the name implies, the law regulates the appointment of
Turkish and Turkish culture teachers to the minority schools. Although
there is no regulation on the administration of the minority schools, the
Ministry shows its urge to regulate the areas when the minority schools
step in the boundaries of national discourse. The Ministry primarily and
even essentially designs these areas and regulates the incumbency period
of teachers working in the minority schools and yet tenured in the
central system of the Ministry. In other words, as the regulation addresses
appointment procedures of Turkish culture teachers and vice
principals to be employed in the minority schools on behalf of the Ministry,
it does only acknowledge the special status of the schools when contacting
its bureaucracy, but does not address why they are in particular
subjected to this procedure through an external appointment.
!.!.7 Irregularity in Quotidian Practices
The ambigious legal framework brings us to unfolding the sui generis
characteristics of the minority schools. Aware of the legal basis, I pursued
the ways to highlight distinctive features of the minority schools during
my visits, and particularly asked questions to the principals to unriddle
the subject. Nevertheless, the answers I received were not so complex
or perplexing; my participants basically underlined the fact that the regulation
overlooked the main reasons for the establishment and maintenance
of the schools. The minority schools were essentially established
to meet educational needs of their communities and endure their existence
as charitable institutions in charge of education, no matter whether
the family of the student could afford this education or not. The minority
schools do not function on a registration-fee system, where the education
is provided as a service in exchange for a fee. Rather, with their communal
approval and appointment. Although the principals have the right to suggest their candidates,
the Winal say is the Ministry’s.
42 The Law No: PcdO on Turkish and Turkish Culture Teachers in Minority Schools (published
in OfWicial Gazette No: [fO\ on bf May O[cc)
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S:j
responsibility, they are obliged to provide education to children of the
community. Regardless, the law and regulations governing the schools
place them into a category of revenue-generating institutions as in the
case of private or foreign schools.
I had the chance to probe this topic through my meetings with different
parties and listened to the practical problems from different angles
including board members and principals. At each meeting I gained more
insight and learned more examples to tell. In one of these meetings at an
elementary school, the principal opened the topic with an example of
problems stemming from the tuition fee system. Every academic year,
private schools are asked to inform the Ministry of National Education
about their tuition fees for their 1inancial audit, and this requirement also
applies to the minority schools. That is why each year the principals of
the minority schools send an informative letter to the Istanbul Directorate
of National Education explaining that they are not private educational
institutions but minority schools without any objective of pro1it
generating, and therefore, do not function on a tuition fee system. By
sending this explanatory document, the minority schools ask to be exempted
from this procedure consecutively every academic year. The ambiguity
of status begets a situation in which the minority schools have to
ask for an exemption on a yearly basis, almost seems like a one-time favor,
instead of having their status meticulously de1ined, which can set the
rule for permanent predictability. The lack of a regulation speci1ically addressing
the minority schools does not only put these schools in a position
where there is confusion and ambiguity about their status, but also
it leads to extra measures to be taken for the management of their practical
daily affairs. It goes without saying that the way and extent of how
these extra measures are taken is very well contingent upon the improvisation
and thereby arbitrariness of public servants and authorities.
In a state of bureaucratic ambiguity, the administrators of the minority
schools have a never-ending burden and obligation of explaining
themselves and why they are called private although they are externally
and obscurely integrated into the public education system. Administrators
described that certain institutions, even some public institutions,
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S^9
presumed that they were private schools by simply looking at the adjective
of “private” before their legal institutional names. This situation
caused them to have dif1iculties in matching with the accurate bureaucratic
of1ice while communicating with public institutions and 1inding accurate
respondents to their petitions and applications sent to public of-
1ices. Being confused with private schools also hinders the Armenian
schools from seeking 1inancial contribution from external institutions
and foundations. Since the donations and endowments made to the Armenian
schools categorically seem like registration fees in accordance
with the legal framework they are tied to, this situation derives a tax obligation
for the schools.43 The schools are liable to pay VAT by reducing
this amount from the donations and endowments they receive, although,
I emphasize, they are not revenue-generating institutions.
During our conversations, administrators also raised issues of noneligibility
to public funds and services. The minority schools are not eligible
to receive public funds and use public services because of their “private
school” status. Whereas the Ministry of National Education provides
sanitation and cleaning services for public schools, the minority schools
are left out of these public services44, and expected to meet their own
needs with their own resources. For the same reason, the salaries of the
teachers working on a contract-base are not covered by the Ministry, unless
these teachers are Turkish culture teachers on tenure track. On top
of that, the Ministry of National Education Private Educational Institutions
Standards Code, which regulates the physical condition of private
educational institutions, brings standardized quali1ications to be followed
and de1ines lowest common denominators for private institutions,
43 The General Communique on Institutional Tax (OfWicial Gazette No:bPldb, issued on \
April bff^) Section b.l considers the minority schools as private enterprises separate
from their foundations, and requires them to pay taxes for their incomes. However, although
the schools are not income-generating institutions, the donations they receive
are regarded as their income.
44 The inadequacy of the sanitation and cleaning services that the Ministry of National Education
provides for the public schools is a burning issue and has broad repercussions.
However, I make a comparison here between the public and minority schools in terms
of legal regulations.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S^S
applies to the minority schools as well. The minority schools are asked to
follow the Standards Code, and adjust their buildings and facilities in a
way that they can offer privileges that private schools are obliged to tender.
However, for the minority schools, which bear up against their physical
boundaries as they dwell in their historic, century-old buildings,
meeting these standards and providing laboratories, gyms or certain facilities
that these standards ask for can be very challenging and costly.
Because of their controversial circumstances, these topics 1ind coverage
in the newspapers reporting about Armenian communal affairs or any
development that might interest the community among other daily news.
With the purpose of keeping up with the updates on the subject and seeing
it from another perspective, I talked to one of the journalists who was
reporting on communal issues in a Turkish-Armenian bilingual weekly
newspaper. Based on his observations, he summed the issue brie1ly as
below:
“The criteria, such as gym, laboratory, science class, which are expected
in practice from private schools, are expected [to be ful-
1illed] by these schools as well. As a requirement to receive a 1inancial
incentive, the Ministry of National Education expects
these standards to be met. The community schools used to take
advantage of this 1inancial incentive; however, since now the Ministry
of National Education expects the school to meet all of the
standards, the Armenian schools cannot take advantage of a 1inancial
incentive anymore.”45 46
45 Citation from the interview I conducted with a journalist in June bfO[.
46 Hereby, aforesaid Winancial incentive is the state incentive, which was initially designed
in bfOl to be given to the private schools per student attending them in the wake of
shutting down all private teaching institutions, which were established to give complimentary
classes for the preparation of students for the central exams. Although the minority
schools could beneWit from this incentive in the academic years of bfOl and bfOc
on the basis of the fact that they were tied by the law on private educational institutions,
but mainly as a result of a gesture following a personal incentive of lobbying with the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S^8
Along with their legal ambiguity, the content of the law and regulations
that these schools are tied to lack comprehensiveness in the sense
that the law does not address speci1ic needs of the schools and even fails
to bring written regulations and roadmaps in presenting the rules that
administrators of the schools are expected to comply with. The issues regarding
how to register endowments and donations, how to develop curriculum
in the Armenian language, how to train contracted Armenianspeaker
teachers, how to develop materials for courses in the Armenian
language, or even how to open a new minority school can be counted
here. All these matters are done by ad hoc solutions and measures. Instead
of recognizing the exclusive status of the minority schools in a written
form and issuing a law and regulation uniquely suited for these
schools, the state would rather dissolve their special status in ambiguity
and in this way does not disrupt its meticulously designed national integrity
while preserving the monolithic self-envisagement. The principals
and administrators whom I had a meeting with as my interlocutors laid
stress on the culture of precedents and customs in their relations with
the public institutions. The of1icers are often not familiar with the legal
structure and requirements around the minority schools because there
is no document for reference. For instance; the administrators are very
well aware of the fact that of1icers may not be informed about the special
status of the minority schools, and that is why especially school principals
have to explain and remind their irregularity and why they are exempt
from certain things such as in the cases of the Standards Code or
the breakdown documents of their 1inancial records. In such cases, public
of1icers and administrators either have to transfer practical information
towards new members or they develop their own ad hoc solutions to
daily matters.
In addition to the inaccessibility to public services and bureaucratic
impediments stemming from uncertainty, the schools are also bereft of
Ministry of National Education, in bfOP this procedure was largely interrupted and incentives
stopped (Milliyet Newspaper, d October bfOl; Agos Newspaper, bb September
bfOP).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S^:
the bene1its of central capacity development. The Ministry of National
Education does not deliver any service to the minority schools, but is only
interested in the inspection of them. However, certain needs which can
only be delivered and ful1illed with the help of a structured central system,
reliable 1inancial resources, pool of professionals and a functioning
bureaucracy with a special expertise on education, cannot properly be
met with individual endeavors of the Armenian schools. For instance; the
Armenian schools are entitled to teach all classes, beside Turkish culture
classes, in Armenian on the condition to follow the same curriculum with
public schools and teach the same content. However, the lack of Armenian
education materials including pre-designed syllabuses is one of the
major impediments to sustaining education in the Armenian language.
Whereas the Armenian schools have a very speci1ic need of Armenian
curriculum development for K-S8 levels, the Ministry of National Education
is reluctant to form a committee to address this need, appoint professionals
who have the intellectual resources to tackle the provisions
that curriculum development might require, or allocate a share from public
resources. Considering curriculum and materials corresponding to
this curriculum are prepared in Turkish by a large cohort of professionals
employed on behalf of the Ministry, the Armenian schools hold no chance
on keeping up with the pace and comprehensiveness of the work done by
the Ministry and its subordinate institutions. By implication, teachers in
the Armenian schools are compelled to teach their classes in Turkish
whose materials and syllabuses are already provided by the Ministry as
opposed to an Armenian curriculum and teaching materials.
At this juncture, while Armenian language and literature classes already
create a burden that the Armenian schools are reluctant and incapable
to bear on their own, the Ministry requires the curriculum and class
plans designed for Armenian language and literature classes to overlap
with the curriculum of the Turkish language and literature classes which
are developed by the Ministry itself and taught as a requirement in public
schools. Moreover, the Ministry gives the responsibility to prepare course
plans and 1ind teaching materials for Armenian language and literature
classes to the Armenian schools and their teachers. Although Armenian
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S^^
language teachers, who voluntarily have to take the responsibility of Armenian
curriculum development for their classes, do not possess the resources,
expertise or simply the time to take the challenge, they collaboratively
develop curriculum and individually prepare their own teaching
notes and materials.
In order to overcome problems stemming from the lack of a central
authority or institution monitoring secular affairs of the Armenian community,
sometimes the foundations work as the administrative and executive
organs of communal affairs. In cases when these networks are not
enough to address the problems, the matters can be brought to the attention
of the Patriarchate to seek for guidance. However, in the domain of
education, the multiplicity and ongoingness of the needs required another
solution to pursue means to support the functioning of the schools
and provide a platform where teachers can stay in dialogue and support
each other in various ways. The Turkish Armenian Minority Schools’
Teachers Solidarity Foundation (Türk Ermeni Azınlık Okulları Öğretmenleri
Yardımlaşma Vakfı) was founded with this spirit.47 The objective of
the foundation was to encourage solidarity among Armenian teachers
working in the Armenian schools, offer professional training for them
and produce Armenian teaching materials for the schools. Thereby, uncertainties
in the domain of education tried to be diminished by collective
work of a civil initiative. However, being a small-scale initiative, the foundation
has its own limits and does not have the capacity to resolve longlasting
and recurring problems of the schools such as preparation of
teaching materials for K-S8 levels.
47 In O[PO the Armenian Teachers Association was established, and in O[P\ a foundation
was added to its structure. The foundation, which was formed with the objective of addressing
distinctive needs and predicaments of Armenian teachers was not approved
on the grounds that it was regarded as conWlicting with principles of inclusivity and secularism.
That is why later the name of the association was changed into Turkish Armenian
Minority Schools Teachers Solidarity Foundation (TEAOV). Here onwards, referred
to as Armenian Teachers Foundation.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S^a
Besides, the hardships of generating teaching materials elicit some
additional drawbacks in teaching Armenian language and literature classes.
Since the preparation and publication of new textbooks fall into abeyance
as a result of lack of professionals on this subject, and books published
outside Turkey cannot be assigned as textbooks by law, the only
option left for teachers is to assign formerly published books that received
their approvals from the Ministry. However, as expected, in comparison
to altering curricula and more importantly emerging demands of
the new era, these books fall behind educational and pedagogic necessities
as they linger in the past they were written. As examples to those
books which are still largely in use; Թանգարան [Tankaran] which was
written mainly as an introduction book for social sciences and literature
by Hrant and Zabel Asadur48 (Sibil) in SjSS and renewed for a couple of
times throughout their lifetime, Նոր Քերականութիւն [Nor Keraganutyun]
which was written by Hovhannes Kazandjian49 as an Armenian
grammar book in Sj9m, can be mentioned here among a few others. Although
the books are considered adequate in terms of the sophistication
of the language by Armenian language teachers, they also remark on the
fact that the books cannot keep pace with contemporary needs and education
methods of the present. In addition to these books, Armenian
Teachers Foundation (TEAOV) additionally publishes literature books to
be used especially in primary schools, a monthly journal Ժպիտ [Jbid] for
pupils, and republishes new editions of formerly written literature books
with the purpose of meeting the need for complementary reading materials.
It goes without saying that the lack of professional networks for curriculum
development or limited educational materials cannot be the primary
reasons behind the disappearance of the Armenian language in
classrooms. The root causes of this phenomenon touch upon many issues
from the political climate of Turkey past and present to socio-economic
48 Հրանդ եւ Զապէլ Ասատուր
49 Յովհաննէս Գազանճեան
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S^r
components of the Armenian community. Remaining faithful to my research
subject, I try to mention a few of the causes of this phenomenon
throughout the chapters. Here, I will raise another component of this issue
without digress from my topic. As a consequence of the lack of resources
and inaccessibility to public institutions, the professional training
of Armenian language and literature teachers emerges as one of the
challenges that the Armenian schools have to face today. The lack of Western
Armenian language and literature departments in the universities
obliges the schools to develop alternative ways and ad hoc measures in
training their Armenian language and literature teachers, and in improving
Armenian language skills of their subject matter teachers so that they
can be 1luent enough to teach their classes in Armenian while they catch
up with an up-to-date terminology in their areas.
Having no educational departments on the subject matter, for Armenian
language and literature classes the schools have no chance but to
hire graduates who have their diploma from any department of the faculty
of education and happen to master the Armenian language on account
of their personal endeavors. In cases where these two qualities do
not overlap, the schools opt for hiring graduates, who have bachelor’s degree
in other departments of universities without any form of teacher
training or pedagogy education but again 1luent in the Armenian language,
with the title of quali1ied/expert instructor instead of teacher.50
This category contorts the law so that a temporary solution to the problem
can be found. Although not very often, the schools prefer this method
to add people with competitive Armenian language skills into their cohort
of teachers. Among the one-to-one interviews I conducted outside
the schools, I had two interviews with people who worked with this title.
Notwithstanding he did not work as a teacher any more, one of these interviewees
explained the reason for this category to be introduced in
these words:
50 Article \d of the Regulation on Private Educational Institutions (OfWicial Gazette
No:bdb\[ on bf March bfOb)
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S^m
“The state does not establish Armenian language education departments
to give teacher training [on this subject]. Now, there is
[the category of] quali1ied instructor; if experts lack in one subject
area, these quali1ied instructors without receiving any teacher
training can be hired [to 1ill the expertise gap]; however, they cannot
work in administrative jobs [in the schools].”51
The responsibility of training teachers and educators working in the
Armenian schools are at the liability of the schools and their foundations.
These schools are compelled to deliver this task in a state of uncertainty
where resources, means, procedures or actors are not legally and bureaucratically
very well structured. For the same reasons, in order to contribute
to the professional and academic development of teachers and quali-
1ied/expert teachers, the schools with a suf1icient budget reserved for
academic development also send their teachers to summer courses held
by institutions usually either in Armenia or in Europe. Considering these
points, we can say that education in the Armenian language and of the
Armenian language is left to its own devices of improvisation in a state of
ambiguity where probabilities and prospects change from time to time
or from person to person in authority. Under the circumstances, ambiguity
does not only act as the means to discipline and govern the community
schools by keeping them in gray zones of bureaucracy, but it also is the
producer of arbitrariness in favor of political agendas.
While the problems emerging from the absence of a legal basis are
resolved by exceptions, ambiguity manages to stay as the prevailing rule
and these exceptions do not distort unpredictability. In order to analyze
the mechanisms of how ambiguity rules, we need to pay attention to the
lapses and understand how they do not taint the rule of unpredictability
or irregularity. Although these exceptions seem like sporadic events, in
managing the minority schools these exceptions constitute a rule; a rule
of exception (Agamben, Sjjk). The rule of exception, which most of the
time refers to a set of alternative measures and temporary solutions for
the community schools, does not only address legal gaps left unattended
51 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former teacher in August bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
S^k
on purpose, but also it becomes the way of governing the Armenian
schools by creating the practice of it. As Agamben puts it, in this regard
the rule applies to the exception in no longer applying, but in withdrawing
from it (Sjjk, p. Sk). That is why instead of regarding the exceptions
as an external realm, it would be more helpful for this case to think of
them as a part of the larger rule because they are permanent parts of governing
the schools instead of being anomalous individual cases. On such
occasions, this rule refers to a common knowledge through which people
can address their troubles to be settled by state authorities on one-shot
occasions.52 Through this rule of exception, despite individually initiated
processes, social networks, personal favors, goodwill gestures or endeavors
of a certain group bringing a one-time solution to a problem, the status
quo can be kept intact. In governing the Armenian schools, the state
authorities sporadically give one time favors with the request and facilitation
of in1luential persons of the Armenian community.
In my meeting with one of the board members, in the context of explaining
how responsive the Directorate of National Education was to the
problems of the minority schools, he narrated how their request to replace
a professionally incompetent Turkish language teacher was met.
Although he told the story to explain to me that state institutions do genuinely
care about the predicaments of the Armenian schools, this story
gave me the insight that instead of reporting this teacher through bureaucratic
ways, the board members of the school chose to call upon an intermediator.
Another example could be the 1inancial incentive given by the
state to private educational institutions as I brie1ly mentioned earlier in
this chapter. Although the incentive was originally designed to be granted
to private schools, following a one-to-one meeting with the Ministry of
National Education the minority schools could also bene1it from this incentive
as a goodwill gesture of the Ministry to support their 1inancial
52 Butler argues that as much as precarity is used as a tool by a more powerful other, people
develop creative responses to deal with relations of domination as they create
spaces of negotiation and maneuvering (bffl, p. O\\).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
S^j
stability.53 These acts did not change the rule or create a procedure to
support the schools 1inancially; however, the meeting warranted a favor
accepted as an exception instead of an entitlement that can set a precedent
for future cases.
!.!.! Precarity in Financial Durability
This discussion brings us to address another aspect of ambiguity governing
the schools; their 1inancial insecurity. Having no state funds or
public resources available to the schools and having no income through
a registration-fee system, the maintenance of the Armenian schools almost
entirely depends on either revenue coming from the landed properties
of their foundations or sporadically given endowments. In a state
of inadequate revenues, the schools often call for donations and endowments
of philanthropists or parents up to a point that they could afford.
That is why detrimental impacts on their landed properties limit the capacity
of the schools with sporadic endowments and further deepen the
uncertainties about the maintenance of the schools. Having these dynamics
in mind, I will tell the following example thoroughly with the objective
of explaining the root causes of deepening the 1inancial insecurity of the
schools. This example does not only show how ambiguity becomes a segment
of the legal mechanism governing the landed properties of the minority
foundations, it also aims to show how legal uncertainty gives rise
to circumstances intensifying the 1inancial insecurity and thus ambiguity
of their 1inancial resources.
International dynamics of the Turkey-Greece dispute over Cyprus resulted
in substantial consequences for the Rum population of Turkey.
Rums did not only become a target of the governments that toned up
their national discourse, but this discourse also resulted in some legal
53 Since the schools are under the rubric of the Regulation of Private and Foreign Schools,
they are ofWicially regarded as private schools and they are evaluated under this category
as I explained throughout the chapter. However, following the principles of the Standards
Code is a prerequisite in order to be eligible for this Winancial incentive. Although
the minority schools are not capable of meeting the principles of this code, by this good
gesture they could beneWit from the incentive for a limited period of time.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sa9
drawbacks that directly had impacts on quotidian practices of all minorities.
As the vagueness of the legal existence of the minority foundations
was instrumentalized to govern minorities, their landed properties fell
into jeopardy through legal ambiguity. These legal processes still carry
weight with the Armenian schools today. The Armenian schools, whose
parent foundations lost landed properties through con1iscation, had to
deal with problems stemming from 1inancial unpredictability.
One of the root causes of current problems of the community foundations
stems from the fact that the formation of non-Muslim foundations
goes back to the Ottoman Empire. Since non-Muslim foundations fell outside
the jurisdiction of Sharia courts, their formation was slightly different
from Muslim foundations (waqf). Instead of an approval from a Sharia
court, verbal orders of the sultan were accepted as the foundational
certi1icates of non-Muslim foundations (Polatel et al., 89S8, p. :9; Ekşi,
89SS, p. S:). However, those foundational certi1icates did not prevent Muslim
or non-Muslim foundations to have problems in registering their
landed properties up until SjS: when the concept of legal entity was introduced
(Polatel et al., 89S8, p. :8). For their land and property registration,
foundations used ways of 'muvazaa' according to which properties
were registered either under the name of a person who were known and
trusted in the community (nam-ı müstear), or under the name of a saint
or an ave such as Mary, Jesus (nam-ı mevhum) (Davuthan, 8998; Ekşi,
89SS). In SjS:, with the regulation of the legal area54, the legal ground was
ultimately designed for all Ottoman legal entities to acquire property de
jure (Ekşi, 89SS).
The Lausanne Treaty warranted the legal basis for the preservation
of non-Muslim foundations in the Republic of Turkey. Later, following the
Civil Code enacted in Sj8r, in order to establish a comprehensive legal
framework with regards to foundations, the Turkish state enacted the
Law No: 8mr8 on Foundations in Sj:a.55 With the objective of regulating
54 O\bd Eşhar-ı Hükmiyyenin Emval-i Gayrimenkuleye TasarruWlarına Mahsus Kanun-i
Muvakkat.
55 The Law No: b^Pb on Foundations ratiWied on c June O[\c (OfWicial Gazette No. \fb^, O\
June O[\c).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SaS
properties of all non-state entities, the law asked all foundations to declare
their scope, sources of income and properties, which caused these
declarations later to be known as Sj:r Declarations (Polatel et al., 89S8, p.
a9, Ekşi, 89SS, p. 8S).56 With the Law on Foundations enacted in Sj:a, legal
entities of the minority foundations, which were granted them back in
SjS8, were of1icially registered. According to Reyna and Zonana, this law
made the minority foundations gain their legal statuses on the condition
that they would declare their immovable properties appropriated up until
that day and register under their names (899:, p. ^8, ^:). By this law,
Directorate General of Foundations accepted the declarations as the
foundational certi1icates of minority foundations (Oran, 899^, p. S9a). In
later years, it turned out that these declarations did not acknowledge the
right to acquire property; however, put these foundations in an ambiguous
legal status. This ambiguity creates the main difference between the
minority foundations and the foundations that were established after
Sj8r in accordance with the Civil Code (Reyna and Zonana, 899:, p. S^r).
Up until a decision in SjmS, the legal basis constituted by the Law on
Foundations was preserved and the minority foundations enjoyed their
legal entity in acquiring landed properties (Reyna and Zonana, 899:, p.
^:). With the escalation of the Turkey-Greece dispute over Cyprus, the
decision of the Court of Cassation initially in SjmS57 by the civil chamber,
and later in Sjm^58 by the assembly of civil chambers undermined the legal
entity of minority foundations and their right to accumulate landed
properties (Oran, 899^, p. S9m, S9k). According to this decision, the Sj:r
declarations of the foundations were accepted as their foundational certi
1icates. However, since these declarations did not have any clause on the
acquisition of additional landed properties, it was decided by jurisprudence
that the minority foundations could not appropriate landed properties.
By this decision, it was ruled that the properties which were not
claimed by the foundations in their Sj:r declarations have to be handed
56 Article ll of the Law No: b^Pb on Foundations
57 Court of Cassation Civil Chamber No:b Verdict No: lll[ E, l\[[ K on P July O[^O.
58 Court of Cassation Assembly of Civil Chambers Verdict No: O[^O/b-dbf E, O[^l/cfc K on
d May O[^l.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sa8
back to their former owners, if their former owners are not eligible, to
the public treasury.59 As the minority foundations had legal impediments
in acquiring landed properties starting in the Sjr9s as an impact of the
tension between Turkey and Greece, the decision in Sjm^ and the jurisprudence
following it abolished the right of the minority foundations to
acquire property and discarded their acquired properties as void (Bakar,
8998, p. 8rj). From that period onwards the con1iscation of properties of
non-Muslim foundations started, if not accelerated, and all landed properties
acquired from Sj:r to Sjm^ were transferred either to the Treasury
or to their former owners.
During my conversations with legal experts, we also talked about this
legal process. One of the legal experts was also a lawyer working on these
cases of con1iscation. In fact, at the time of our interview, she was working
on a new case regarding the restitution of landed properties of one of
the Armenian foundations. When asked how the con1iscation of landed
properties impacted the Armenian schools in terms of their 1inancial sustainability,
she explained that after Sjm^ the Armenian schools were impoverished
considerably since their foundations lost their resources of
income to be able to sustain the schools 1inancially and to keep them
competitive with foreign language education and new education technologies.
Moreover, as a result of the legal impediment against acquiring landed
properties either through purchase or through endowment, the schools
undergo a grueling process to invent alternative ways to raise a budget
for their maintenance. My research showed that the schools became
largely dependent on voluntarily given registration fees and occasionally
given endowments. That is why their maintenance became bound up
59 Decision d May O[^l number O[^O/b-dbf rule and O[^l/cfc K decision; “O[\P beyannamesi
vakWiye olarak kabul edilmiş ve bu vakWiyede yeni taşınmaz mal iktisabına dair
hüküm olmaması nedeniyle cemaat vakıWlarının yeni taşınmaz mal edinemeyecekleri
hakkında içtihat oluşturularak bu cemaat vakıWlarının yeni taşınmaz mal edinebilmeleri
yolu kapatılmış, O[\P Beyannamelerinde bildirilmemiş gayrimenkullerin de eski sahiplerine
iade, eski sahiplerinin ölmüş olması ve mirasçılarının bulunmaması halinde
hazineye intikalleri yolu açılmıştır.”
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sa:
with arbitrary donations of wealthy members of the community. In order
to raise a budget for their maintenance, the schools largely rely on annual
endowment dinners. Not to be constrained with these endowments, the
foundations sometimes opt for registering their properties under the
name of a board member or a notable from the community. However,
these kinds of methods may create even further problems. When I asked
a teacher who is also familiar with the management of the boards, she
vehemently expressed her frustration on this subject. With no pun intended,
she summed up the matter in a couple of sentences by giving
names and speci1ic examples. I share here a part of her conversation
without mentioning any names or concrete examples:
“The troubles created by the state serve well for the bene1it of certain
people. Since it was forbidden before by law for [a minority]
foundation to acquire landed properties, the property of the foundation
was given to a board member so this person could administer
the legal process [regarding the property]. Once the persons
received [the legal ownership of] the property, they never returned
it.”60
This legal deadlock lasted roughly till 899:, when reform packages
were passed in the wake of Turkey's concurrence to the Copenhagen Criteria
with respect to its EU integration process. Starting with the accession
process, but mainly from 8998 to 899a, the state adopted political
reforms to ful1ill the EU accession criteria some of which were focusing
on the minorities (Baç, 899a, p. Sk), and made some amendments on the
Law on Foundations61 including the immovable properties of the minority
foundations. Although the democratization process did not occur
solely by a linear relationship through which the EU imposed its conditionality,
the form and timing of the change were intricately related to the
accession process (Tocci, 899a, p. k8). In these developments, the AKP
60 Citation from the interview I conducted with a teacher in November bfO[.
61 Two laws can be mentioned mainly; on \ August bffb “Çeşitli Kanunlarda Değişiklik
Yapılmasına İlişkin Kanun”, and on b January bff\ the reform package for the concurrence
to the Copenhagen Criteria (see Kurban and Hatemi, bff[; Polatel et al., bfOb).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sa^
government’s portrayal of itself as the party which aimed to revive the
liberal and multicultural legacy of the Ottoman Empire could also be
taken into consideration as an impact of its neo-Ottomanist vision harnessed
in its regional standing at the international sphere and on the discourse
of its domestic politics (Wastnidge, 89Sj, p. 8:).62 The AKP government
began its term with the promise of democratization and recognition
of the equal status of religious and ethnic minorities in Turkey with its
attempts to value positively a particular kind of neo-Ottomanism. However,
articulations of neo-Ottomanism did not bring democratization in
the long run and inequality persisted between various groups with a lack
of liberal, multicultural, and democratic principles which also characterized
the Ottoman Empire (Wastnidge, 89Sj, p. 8^).
Within a framework of reform packages and under the sway of neo-
Ottomanism attempts, 1inally in 899k Law No: am:m on Foundations regranted
the minority foundations the right to acquire landed properties
without any further condition.63 However, this new law failed to address
the issue of con1iscated properties of the minority foundations. With the
introduction of the right of individual application, some minority foundations
appealed their cases to the European Court of Human Rights
62 The Welfare Party (RP), the AKP’s parent party, suggested the promotion of multiculturalism
and its practices as a new social model for Turkish society in its electioneering
for O[[l parliamentary elections (Özyürek, bff^, p. [[). Later, the AKP followed its path
and used the same discourse as it presented its program standing against oppressive
policies and practices of the former regimes.
63 Article Ob of the Law No: c^\^ on Foundation ratiWied on bf February bffd (OfWicial Gazette
No: bPdff published on b^ February bffd). Article \ of the Law deWines the community
foundations as “The foundations, which acquired their legal entity according to
the Law No:b^Pb regardless of having foundational certiWicates, and whose members are
citizens of the Republic of Turkey, belong to non-Muslim communities in Turkey [“Vak-
Wiyeleri olup olmadığına bakılmaksızın b^Pb sayılı VakıWlar Kanunu gereğince tüzel kişilik
kazanmış, mensupları Türkiye Cumhuriyeti vatandaşı olan Türkiye’deki gayrimüslim
cemaatlere ait vakıWlar”].
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Saa
(ECHR) for the restitution of their properties64, and acquired compensation
for the violation of their rights (Ekşi, 89SS). One of the lawyers I interviewed
was among the cohort of lawyers who submitted the ECHR the
1irst application regarding the landed properties of an Armenian foundation.
She explained that although they opened many cases against the decision
and con1iscation cases coming after it, no good came out of the lawsuits
and neither the decision nor practices of con1iscation were revoked.
However, she said, after the exhaustion of domestic remedies the right of
individual application to the ECHR opened a new way for the court case.
With their individual application to the ECHR, a building that was registered
as the property of the Treasury at the time was given back to the
foundation. This case decision later started the process to change the domestic
law by serving as a precedent. On 8m August 89SS, following the
rulings of the ECHR as precedents, a temporary decree was enacted, and
paved the way to start a legal process for minority foundations to reclaim
their seized properties in a limited period of twelve months.65 Although
some of the foundations were able to bene1it from the legal readjustment,
and reclaimed their properties from the Treasury, the legal process for
the foundations whose properties ended up in third parties has been
challenging and ongoing.
This long process of governing the minority foundations through ambiguity
and unpredictability did not only impoverish the Armenian community
by depriving it from its own resources, but also created irrevocable
consequences for the Armenian schools and undermined their selfsuf
1iciency. I am not saying that this is the case for all Armenian schools.
There are still resourceful schools that can offer near costless education
for their students almost effortlessly, and there are others who did not
64 See some of the cases; Özbek and Others vs. Turkey; Yedikule Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital
Foundation vs. Turkey; Samatya Surp Kevork Armenian Church, School and Cemetery
Foundation's Steering Committee vs. Turkey; Fener Rum Boy's High School Foundation
vs. Turkey; Fener Rum Patriarchate vs. Turkey; and Bozcaada Kimisis Teodoku
Rum Orthodox Church Foundation vs. Turkey.
65 See No: c^\^ Law on Foundations temporary article OO (Resmi Gazete, No.bdf^O, O October
bfOO)
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sar
have any property to start with. However, it is important to acknowledge
that the cases of con1iscation distorted the communal structure and deprived
the Armenian community from its own resources. As much as this
example shows how the vagueness of the legal basis is perpetuated to be
used as a mechanism against the minority foundations, it also points out
a meandering state which trans1igures from period to period with altering
dynamics while employing both governmentality and sovereign
power with changing rates.
!.!.? The Meandering State
In order to emphasize the pervasiveness of ambiguity, Agamben underscores
its lack of content. He attracts attention to the point which
might interest us very well regarding our point:
“For life under a law that is in force without signifying resembles
life in the state of exception, in which the most innocent gesture
or the smallest forgetfulness can have the most extreme consequences.
And it is exactly this kind of life that Ka1ka describes, in
which law is all the more pervasive for its lack of content, and in
which a distracted knock on the door can mark the start of uncontrollable
trials.” (Agamben, Sjjk, p. a8)
Based on his insights among other authors I referred to, I argue that
the legal framework around the community schools draws its strength
not from carefully and delicately designed regulations and laws which
desire to leave no room for maneuver. On the contrary, its strength is hidden
in an in1inite number of possibilities which can only 1lourish in ambiguous
spaces and more importantly can serve the agenda of the governing
mind very well. Harboring these in1inite number of possibilities
and unsteadiness in its texture, the state presents itself as an all-encompassing
and comprehensive entity through its imagined effects that exhibit
the state as not tolerating and contradicting with ambiguity.
This state effect, I argue, is produced in sites where governmentality
and sovereignty coexist in governing the minorities. As ambiguity, unpredictability,
and irregularity prevail as the tools in governing the Armenian
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sam
schools, these means become further instrumental when incorporated
into an education system performing with the rules of the market. The
reiteration of bureaucratic drudgery, quotidian practices, central examination
systems or constant renewal of curricula, all collectively produce
the state effect, and create the perception that as if the state is a coherent
separate entity over the society.
In order to be able to address the spaces of ambiguity, Mitchell suggests
to think of the state as an object of analysis which appears both as
a material force and an ideological construct; both real and illusory
(SjjSa, p. mr). These two aspects of the state make it possible for the ideological
construct of the state to have a coherent public image, although
its material substance that is composed of variegated institutional arrangements
and political practices is ambiguously constituted (Mitchell,
SjjSa, p. mr). Similarly, Migdal accentuates two contradictory forces of
domination and suggests analyzing the state on the one hand as a uni1ied
construct expressed in its image, and on the other as a dispersed entity
accommodating contradictory practices and alliances of disparate
groups (899S, p. 88).
Despite its dispersed and contradictory aspects of the material force,
the state is illustrated as a comprehensive whole. In fact, everything that
seems to be inherent to the state including ‘its organization, goals, means,
partners and operative rules’ constantly changes in accordance to its altering
alliances and opponents (Migdal, 899S, p. 8:). Mainly based on this
framework, I preferred to use the term ‘meandering state’ to describe altering
attitudes towards the Armenian schools. However, in these processes
the imagery of the state stays 1ixed. It is presented in a way that it
is a dominant, integrated, autonomous entity that controls all rulemaking
in a given territory either directly through its own agencies or indirectly
by sanctioning authorized organizations such as businesses, families,
clubs and so on (Migdal, 899S, p. Sr). The work of many scholars give insights
us about this subject as they argue that: the state as an entity above
society does not exist in the phenomenal world, but a 1iction of the philosophers
(Radcliffe-Brown, Sj^9); the state is not a thing and does not
exist, but a number of particular institutions produces its reality
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sak
(Miliband, Sjrj); the state is a fetish (Taussig, Sjj8); the state is not a reality
behind a mask but the mask itself preventing to see the political
practice as it is (Abrams, 899r). Foucault denounces the state as a mythicized
abstraction, and yet underscores the tactics of government in producing
it:
“But the state, no more probably today than at any other time in
its history, does not have this unity, this individuality, this rigorous
functionality, nor, to speak frankly, this importance; maybe, after
all, the state is no more than a composite reality and a mythicized
abstraction, whose importance is a lot more limited than many of
us think. . . . It is the tactics of government which make possible
the continual de1inition and rede1inition of what is within the
competence of the state and what is not, the public versus the private,
and so on; thus the state can only be understood in its survival
and its limits on the basis of the general tactics of governmentality.”
(Foucault, SjjS, p. S9:)
Then in my case, if the state is no more than a composite reality and
is an ambiguously de1ined political authority, then how does the sum of
institutional practice manage to illustrate the public imagery of the state
as 1ixed, coherent and all-encompassing? On this matter, Bourdieu elucidates
that the state produces itself constantly and executes its symbolic
power by embodying itself in objectivity in the form of organizational
structures and in subjectivity in the form of mental structures and categories
of perception and thought (SjjS, p. ar,am). He describes the state
as nothing but a word, undergirded by collective belief that upholds the
existence and unity of its scattered and divided ensemble of organs of
rule (Wacquant, Sjj:, p. ^S). The idea of an autonomous state cannot exist
without the af1irmation and execution of bureaucratic action of its own
teleology (Herzfeld, Sjj:, p. :m). The bureaucratic authority does not outlast
unless everyday practices are repeated to constitute this coherent
core (Sharma and Gupta, 899r, p. S:). The effect of the material reality of
the state depends on its constructed notion to be reinvented in everyday
practices (Navaro-Yashin, 8998, p. S:a). Moreover, Mitchell argues that
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Saj
one answer to this question lies in the phenomenon of the national project,
through which the state acquires its unity at the level of ideology and
articulates a national project that passes the imagined unity of the state
onto society (SjjSa, p. kk). That is why throughout the text, I repeated
that the forces of governmentality are based on a historically constituted
Turko-Islamic synthesis doctrine. Based on this doctrine, the Turkish
state is constantly rei1ied by the means of; a coherent depiction of law
(Mitchell, SjjSa), ‘press and everyday speech’ (Migdal, 899S), ‘ordinary
life practices and processes’ (Navaro-Yashin, 8998), ‘routine and repetitive
procedures of bureaucracies’ (Sharma and Gupta, 899r), and/or reiteration
of mundane details in bureaucracy (Feldman, 899k). For the
purposes of my chapter, I illustrated examples from the legal mechanism
and procedures of bureaucracy in the domain of education. In governing
the minority schools, whereas all regulations and laws of the Ministry of
National Education applying to the minority schools paint an image that
it is normative and detached from daily con1licts and negotiations, the
state presents itself as the grand product of its national project, in fact its
very meaning is reproduced by these daily negotiations.
It is possible to multiply the examples and perspectives to support the
argument that although the Armenian schools are governed through
tools of ambiguity, unpredictability, limited knowledge and improvisation,
the public imagery of the state is not dis1igured or even compromised.
It proceeds to abide as a detached comprehensive unity. Therefore,
we can understand how the Armenian schools are governed only
when we pay attention to the state not as an actual structure, but as the
powerful effect of practices (Mitchell, SjjSb, p. j^). These effects, as
Mitchell describes as structural effects, create the illusion that displays
the state as an apparatus apart from society (Mitchell, SjjSa, p. kj).
The education system enframing the minority schools, or the law applying
to the schools appear in a way that as if they are structures with
an independent existence of the people who actually composed them.
Hereby, by discovering how ambiguity plays a role in governing the minority
schools, we can distort the illusion of the unity of the state, because
the state does not seem like a perfectly functioning entity in this context
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sr9
any more. Rather, it meanders between the forces of governmentality and
sovereignty while governing the Armenian schools through ambiguities
when necessary and the market values when applicable, albeit preserving
its image as a coherent Turko-Islamic state.
SrS
$
Recovering Spaces of Familial Culture
s I planned it, my 1ieldwork was designed to visit the Armenian
schools, participate in their daily functioning, and interview all constituents
of the schools as much as possible. However, during the course
of the 1ieldwork, the themes that were opened up along the way inspired
me to get involved in further spheres of communication. In addition to
my semi-of1icial visits to the Armenian schools and my interview-based
ethnography in the schools as the school principals welcomed me as their
guest, people also invited me to their homes, of1ices or other personal
spheres to share their experiences taking place in or regarding the
schools. The information, stories or direct quotations I share throughout
this chapter were acquired thanks to these meetings. I scrupulously
stored and analyzed the information I procured through these interviews
and tried to share them throughout the chapter at times when I think
pertinent to the points that I want to foreground regarding my discussion.
However, I have to say that as I am privy only to pieces of stories or
information that my participants shared with me, addressing these topics
in the current context was highly challenging for them. Therefore, my
participants, and I assume all the others, are prudent in accepting a
stranger into their schools, their homes, or other semi-personal spaces
which they do not usually share with a researcher. Thankfully, I was very
lucky in that regard. I could overcome this challenge largely thanks to my
A
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sr8
family friends, personal contacts or my af1iliation with credible institutions.
Coming from a context where uneasiness is not an unusual feeling
to have, with a concern that describing my participants may reveal their
identities, I disallowed portraying my participants throughout the text
and instead brie1ly mentioned their role in the larger context. With the
same concern, from time to time instead of sharing their comments or
direct quotations, I preferred describing the situations that they explained
more broadly without necessarily pointing to concrete examples
or names.
During my research, while unraveling the issues around the Armenian
schools, my initial aim was to grasp the empowering networks
which may help the Armenian culture and identity endure as opposed to
a Turko-Islamic nation state and its cultural hegemony in the larger society.
I did not necessarily plan to associate empowerment, solidarity or
supportive networks of communication within the Armenian community
with a symbolic representation of the family. When I 1irst started interviewing
people from different backgrounds with different titles to have a
general idea about the school affairs, I did not put an effort into 1inding
the links of familial relations between various members who were connected
to the schools in numerous ways. However, after I proceeded further
with my research and got acquainted with more people, I found myself
knowing different members of the same families, who were actually
associated or somehow connected with the schools in different ways.
These meetings opened me up to new areas where I saw the private
sphere of the family overlapped with the space of the schools. This experience
led me to think of the Armenian community as a family not only
because with respect to the Armenian schools the space of Armenianness
harbors close family ties in its functioning and durability, but also, because
familial culture reigns within the community, and collaborative
networks of communication is a signi1icant factor of the con1iguration of
the Armenian community clustering around the community schools. I realized
that it is not possible to differentiate the private sphere from the
communal sphere of which the schools are a part. That is why I argue that
to the extent that the forms of intimacy of the modern nuclear family are
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sr:
analyzed, it is possible to delineate the Armenian community as a family,
and even further the dynamics regarding the private sphere of the family
also have an in1luence on the edi1ice of the Armenian community.
It goes without saying that it will not be the 1irst time that the Armenian
community in Turkey has referred to its familial culture. Since religious,
ethnic and cultural spaces of communal belonging provide paramount
means to sustain the existence of the Armenian community in
Turkey despite the cultural hegemony of the Turkish-Islamic values, the
Armenian community in Turkey create a conceptual space of cultural belonging
by drawing the lines of its communal boundaries (Komşuoğlu
and Örs, 899j, p. ::8). There are already works analyzing how the family
allegory was employed to accentuate togetherness and unity in the Armenian
community. These works scrutinize the family allegory by looking
at the supportive networks of relationships, familial practices, the
sense of togetherness or a gendered division of labor among its members
(Merguerian & Jafferian, Sjja; Manoogian et al., 899m; Kalayjian et al.,
89S9; Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr; Suciyan, 89Sk; Barış, 89Sj). In this regard, while
discovering the current dynamics of the Armenian community in Turkey,
this chapter follows the earlier studies on the subject in that it breaks
down constituents of this family allegory in the context of the Armenian
schools, and contribute to the literature by unraveling the relationships
around the schools that is also a part of the larger familial culture. While
discussing this familial culture, my aim is also to address this space of
Armenianness as a momentous unit of governmentality, and argue that
through a family allegory we can understand the governmentality in and
around the schools. Instead of romanticizing the Armenian community
with respect to its family-like traits, throughout the chapter I show that
scrutinizing the Armenian community in terms of its familial culture
could only make sense if this family is regarded in its totality referring to
hegemonic discourses at play. That is why throughout the chapter as I
stay loyal to my focus on the Armenian schools in Turkey, I present a picture
where it is attainable to exhibit the space of Armenianness with reference
to a larger discussion on spaces of family and the nation-state or
spaces in between them.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sr^
The family is an often-used allegory to describe the nature of the relations
between the citizen and the state, and the nationalist discourse
frequently employs the allegory of the family to paint a picture of a national
family. Özyürek (899m) attracts attention to the fact that during the
Sjth and 89th centuries nationalist ideologies describe the relations between
the nation and the soil or between the nation and the state as familial
relations because these ideas justify the power of the nation state
over its people (Sommer, SjjS; Malkki, Sjja; McClintoc, Sjja; Shryock &
Howell, 899S) (p. jr). Describing the ways society became the subject of
the new life process as a substitute for the family, Arendt explains how
organic theories of nationalism are based on an identi1ication of the nation
and the interaction between its members with the family and family
relationships (Sjjk, p. 8ar). While explaining race, blood, and kinship as
the natural symbols of the state ideologies, Herzfeld (Sjj:) remarks that
the ideas of social symbolism of family, local groups, and the sacralized
rhetoric of blood serve state ideologies well to induce cohesion and obedience
(p. SS). With this perspective, he elucidates that while portraying
the nation, the nationalist ideas employ the metaphors of blood, lineage,
family, motherland/fatherland to legitimate the rei1ication of culture
(Herzfeld, Sjj:, p. mr). Under the auspices of the nation state, this family
affect is often absorbed through educational systems for the purposes of
national solidarity (Herzfeld, Sjj:, p. :S). In the depictions, the national
family appears as a spatial entity, eternal and timeless (Herzfeld, Sjj:, p.
Srm). The idea of kinship is harnessed, as famously used by Anderson
(Sjk:), for the imagining of the larger, national community where it becomes
the nexus, the direct link from the body to the polity while it
bridges culture and blood and melt them in the same pot (Herzfeld, Sjj:,
p. mr). Weber explicates this direct link from the body to the polity with
respect to bureaucracy and asserts that bureaucracy does not tolerate
any social grouping regardless of its scale, because it might come between
the individual and the state (Sj:r cited in Herzfeld, Sjj:, p. m^).
For the purposes of this chapter, I would like to underscore the modernization
process of the Republic of Turkey as a salient example of the
above arguments, and remind that the Armenian schools have been part
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of the context that is similar to what is described above. While constructing
the new nation state, the republican regime in Turkey tried to eliminate
forms of community-based social structure and aspired to efface
connections between the individuals and their kinship, ethnic and religious
ties, and produce them as the standardized members of the modern
national society (Baban, 899a, p. a:). The Kemalist elite saw the communitarian
system of the Ottoman society as a serious obstacle standing on
its way to modernization, and sought to dismantle the structure of the
communitarian system by introducing a series of reforms (Mardin.
Sjj8/899a, p. mr; Baban, 899a, p. a^, aa). The newly modernizing elite
group of Turkey marked group-based memberships as one of the biggest
obstacles standing against creating a socially integrated, homogenous
modern and national community (Baban, 899a, p. a^). 1
Having said that, although the aforementioned arguments foreground
the point that the individual is straightforwardly associated with the
state by imagining itself as a distinctive part of the national family, they
do not further talk about the space between the individual and the state
where the community stands in this larger framework, or the sense of
belonging that the individuals owe to their communities. This chapter
seeks to unravel this space in-between, and aspire to make sense of the
Armenian community in a terrain where no social grouping is tolerated
between the individual and the state, and to discuss where we seek
power when an intermediary structure that governmentality might appear
in different forms is included in the picture. Having these remarks
in consideration, this chapter adds the Armenian community into the
larger picture as a space and unravels its internal components to help us
understand forms of governmentality regarding the Armenian schools.
1 From a different angle Mardin (O[[b/bffc) attracts attention to the fact that although
the absence of intermediary structures between the state and the individual is read as
one of the root causes of eastern despotism by Montesquieu, the situation of the Ottoman
Empire does not exactly meet this description in that the religious communities in
the Ottoman Empire serve as intermediary structures and constitute building stones of
a quasi-civil society (p. lb).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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In order to unfold this space and explicate the familial culture that I
ascertained as a signi1icant feature of this space, I visit Sirman (899a)’s
analysis of “familial citizenship” which further captures this theme cognizant
of familial relations and culture. Proceeding on a similar note with
Herzfeld (Sjj:), Sirman (899a) argues that as the national sovereign state
is built as a speci1ic kind of polity, the discourses of the national identity
construct the identity of the desirable citizen, and this particular form of
citizenship can be depicted as familial citizenship (p. S^k). The forms of
intimacy pertaining to the nuclear family that are intrinsic segments of
the apt citizen is actually what make the citizen the subject of the modern
nation-state; therefore, to the extent that it is plausible to analyze the
family as a gendered construction so is to discuss the gendered nature of
the citizenship and describe it as familial (Sirman, 899a, p. S^j).
There is a large body of work arguing that the new models of the family
provide content for imagining a new model of the community as a nation
(Jayawardena, Sjkr; Phillips, Sjkk; Yuval-Davis and Anthias, Sjkj;
Enloe, Sjj9; Chatterjee, Sjj:; Göle, Sjjm; Abu-Lughod Sjjk). The family,
the nation and gender share the same loci where power is constituted in
the sense that nationalism acts as the producer of the relations between
members of the family, and between families and the state (Sirman, 899a,
p. Sa:). As gender and family are central units of the new system of government,
Sirman underscores the need to look at the process of the production
of subjectivities that are gendered and national at the same time
to discover how the nation and power are in1iltrated into the subject as
they produce it (Sirman, 899a, p. Sa8, Saj).
Building on the insights of Sirman (899a), in addition to seeking gendered
constructions at the communal level that she argues as intrinsic to
both the family and the nation state, I mainly read her analysis from rather
a larger framework. I take the family in Sirman’s analysis as the
larger Armenian family where certain forms of intimacy and gendered
division of labor that are inherent in the nuclear family are sustained.
While using this family allegory, in addition to visiting the space of Armenianness
as a gendered construction, I also present a certain number of
components exemplifying various forms of intimacy that are constitutive
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elements of Armenian familial culture. In order to present this familial
culture, I incorporate quotidian intimate relations that are usually reminiscent
of a family into the analysis while portraying the nuances which
construct this communal space as a safeguarded internal space. Therefore,
with reference to Sirman (899a), I argue that the forms of intimacy
pertaining to the nuclear family is actually what makes Armenians the
subjects of the Armenian communal space clustered around the Armenian
schools.
While Sirman (899a) connects the family and the state through a concept
of familial citizenship, she does not mention how communities can
be positioned in this framework and how we make sense of these spaces
when the family, the nation and gender are linked in a way where the
power is constituted. As the new model of the family is opened up as a
space and a central unit of governmentality as a result of modernity, the
state wishes to penetrate into this space. However, the communities, of
which the Armenian community is presented as an example here, emerge
as spaces that have different forms of governmentality and require the
state to develop idiosyncratic ways to penetrate into. Although the nuclear
family is often read as an important segment of the newer forms of
government, the space of Armenianness keeps its ambiguity in that manner.
That being said, the larger objective of this chapter is to show how
we can make sense of the Armenian schools that have different forms of
governmentality as parts of a communal space between the individual
and the nation state.
When describing the sovereignty of anticolonial nationalism in his
oft-quoted book The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial
Histories, Chatterjee (Sjj:) formulates the world of social institutions
and practices by two domains: the material and the spiritual (p. r).
Whereas the former refers to the domain of the ‘outside’, where the West
had an undisputed superiority in the economy, statecraft, science and
technology, the latter pertains to an ‘inner’ domain bearing the essential
signs of cultural identity (Chatterjee, Sjj:, p. r). When I apply this framework
to my case and try to reimagine what I have learned during my research
with these categories, the frontiers of these domains do not seem
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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to be 1irmly in place -although I prefer to read the inner domain with the
help of a family allegory. Before I started to write this chapter, I was more
con1ident talking about the frontiers of the domains of the inside and the
outside of the Armenian community; however, as writing this chapter I
1ind myself asking borders of the inside/outside or material/spiritual.
Although looking at the Armenian schools through the looking-glass of a
family allegory makes it seem like the disparity between the inside and
the outside to become clearer, it is possible to challenge and recurrently
rede1ine these frontiers while reformulating the inside and the outside
concurrently. In that sense, whereas this chapter tries to de1ine the inner
domain of the Armenian community with respect to the Armenian
schools in particular, it also alludes to certain points to unveil the opacity
of these spheres.
Corresponding to Chatterjee’s formulation (Sjj:), in order to differentiate
the relations of power with respect to the Armenian community,
Ekmekçioğlu (89Sr) describes the spaces of the Armenian community in
terms of the existence of the intensity of the state’s interference. Armenian
families are considered as “the in-side”, the home space where Armenians
can connect with other Armenians free of state’s scrutiny,
whereas schools are regarded as “the mid-side'' as spaces under statesurveillance
where they can connect with other Armenians only by the
presence of the law and regulations (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. S:). Bearing in
mind Ekmekçioğlu’s categories, by presenting the Armenian schools with
respect to their familial culture, my aim is to indicate the junctures where
the in-side and the mid-side intermingle. Instead of seeing these areas
mutually exclusive, I ask the reader to see them in connection with one
another where they share certain characteristics and similar forms of engagement
with the nation state, if not as interpenetrating with one another
where it is no more viable to see which aspects belong to the inside
and which to the mid-side. Only in this way I believe we can have an
idea on the circumstances enclosing the subjects of the Armenian
schools, or how strong the structure in which these subjects reside.
Although the framework that this chapter offers may appear like the
space of Armenianness is tantamount to a space to which the state cannot
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penetrate, acknowledging the cultural awareness of the Armenian community
as a form of empowerment through a family affect does not necessarily
mean that I underestimate the strength of power structures.
Throughout the chapter I mention how different mechanisms and networks
of solidarity contribute to sustaining the Armenian culture or
identity; however, I also acknowledge that the Armenian community is
not exempt from ideas or discourses that are inscribed by the educational
institutions of the Turkish state into its citizens. In such a context, it
would be not plausible to argue that the Armenian community can escape
from governmentality penetrated into the family, media or educational
institutions. Rather, the space of Armenianness tries to 1ind its place in
this larger framework between the individual and the state or between
the family and the state, while bearing certain values of the nuclear family
and positioning itself as opposed to a national family where it is not possible
to refrain from the structures of the nation state.
Unlike the secular viewpoint which regards that there are only two
mutually exclusive options available; either an agent representing and asserting
herself or a victim as a passive object of chance and cruelty (Asad,
899:, p. mj), in this chapter I try to reveal ways in between. I take into
consideration what Asad suggests; the suffering emanating by the state
oppression may also be regarded as an active state since it is not passively
received (899:, p. mj). Having this in mind, I show how the schools and
people who are engaged with these schools in one way or another are not
simply recipients of state practices. Although they participate in those
practices, they also generate provisional measures to sustain the culture
and the community. I argue that by creating networks through a familiar
culture, the schools actively endure instead of being mere victims, and
this endurance is not necessarily a passive state.
§ V.Q Nuclear Family in Familial Culture
As I talked to people with different points of views during my 1ieldwork,
it was almost perplexing for me to see that all the participants share more
or less a common understanding when it comes to their expectations
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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from the Armenian schools. The schools are mostly regarded as one of
the few places where students can improve their Armenian language
skills and reinforce cultural practices, if not get acquainted with them in
the 1irst place. My participants generally view the schools as the spaces
providing a foundation for the generational continuity of Armenian values.
It is also largely agreed that the schools are among the most
equipped places to be able to create a ground for students to develop
ways of discovering self-meaning towards their ethnic and religious identity.
The Armenian schools provide a ground for cultural practices and
self-meaning of the community to be carried over to the next generations.
They also function as a physical space to bring the members of the community
together where social solidarity among the members of the community
becomes possible.
According to the 1ield survey conducted with 88k participants in SS different
neighborhoods of Istanbul by Komşuoğlu and Örs (899j), attending
an Armenian school is regarded very important as it is seen as one of
the rare opportunities to learn the Armenian language and come together
with other Armenians (p. ::k). As my research con1irms these 1indings,
my participants consider Armenian schools to have such a crucial role in
the Armenian community because the schools are among the few institutions
which have the institutional capacity and capability to accumulate
knowledge, provide a space throughout years where the Armenian language
can be practiced as opposed to its near absence in the wider public
space, and where cultural norms can be transferred, if not renegotiated
by the members of the community.2 In that regard, their importance
comes from the fact they keep the communal memory intact in times
when other forms of communicative networks are thwarted. That is why
I illustrate the schools as the fortresses of the Armenian culture keeping
the Armenian cultural existence physically apparent and viable with the
2 I also would like to mention the Armenian press in this discussion. Although it is categorically
different, Armenian newspapers are considered as established means to talk
about Armenian history and communal affairs. As Suciyan (bfOd) argues, since teaching
Armenian history is strictly forbidden, Armenian newspapers in Turkey have been the
sole means of communication to narrate Armenian history (p. b\).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
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help of their institutional memory and towering their walls when the socio-
political context of Turkey becomes precarious or even detrimental
towards multiculturality of the society and narrows down spaces for Armenian
culture to be sustained.
In order to visit each school, every time I 1irst contacted the school
principals and had a preliminary meeting with them to have a general
idea of individual characteristics of their schools. To an extent that the
school principals shared a perspective regarding the role of the Armenian
schools within the community, they also proudly emphasized the glorious
past of the schools going a long way back to the Ottoman Empire and
their contributions to the intellectual development of the community and
of the larger society. The schools owe their signi1icance to their institutional
existence from the times of the Ottoman Empire, which render the
transfer of cumulative knowledge possible, and keep the memory of the
past in its historicity through language and religion classes in particular.
As Ekmekçioğlu (89Sr) elucidates the post-genocide period, the signi
1icance of the schools also stems from their role of maintaining the
identity after the catastrophe that ravaged the Armenian intellectual production.
Especially in the post-genocide period, the Armenian Apostolic
Church put equal emphasis on churches and schools as special sites in
which Armenians could exercise self-determination (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr,
p. S8^). Like the churches, the schools had to be perpetuated at all costs
because they were the legal and traditionally accepted way of maintaining
identity and recovering Armenianness (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. S8^). In
the current context, we see the re1lections of this understanding as the
schools are regarded as the guardians of the extended past of the Armenians
persevering throughout generations. One of our meetings, while
describing the role of the schools, a high school principal pithily put into
words how the social solidarity that these schools encourage keeps the
Armenian identity and values intact while reproducing self-meaning for
its members:
“Schools are the places that keep us together. We would be assimilated
into the wider society without our schools. Thanks to our
schools, social networks can be maintained. The youth can learn
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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more about their community. They can connect to their past. Only
by these schools, the [Armenian] social environment can be impactful
on the individual.”3
Although the schools are powerful references to understand cultural
transfer and sustainability in the community, they are not the sole actor
in such processes.4 The school administrators and teachers share the fact
that even when they push boundaries and try their best to teach the language
and cultural codes -however they perceive them- to their students
there are many different dynamics, including family, as a crucial component
of self-meaning production and acquisition. During our conversations
I realized that in unraveling the surrounding environment of the
schools, the families played an integral part in the mental structure producing
subjectivities. That is why I 1ind it necessary to discuss the role of
the nuclear family, and furthermore how it plays a role in con1iguring the
structure enclosing the Armenian schools.
Although I did not anticipate the parents to be the majority or even a
signi1icant group among my participants, during my conversations with
teachers and school administrators they were frequently mentioned regarding
their preferences or expectations from their schools. With a few
exceptions, my acquaintance with the parents is limited to the parents
who currently or at some point in their life have been actively involved
with the schools as teachers, school administrators, board members of
their foundations or through other roles actively participating in the
functioning of the schools. Stemming from their active roles in the
schools, they already have a certain perspective towards other parents
who do not prefer to register their children to Armenian schools, but
mostly those who have requests that sometimes con1lict with the objec-
3 Citation from the interview I conducted with a high school principal in March bfO[.
4 It goes without saying that the expressed prominence of the schools in this context also
comes from the fact that my questions particularly swirled around the schools when I
tried to understand their signiWicance and meaning. My participants gave various examples
of other factors that are also effective in maintaining the identity, and even that may
annul the aforementioned explanation entirely.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
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tive of the schools as the bearers of Armenian culture. Although the majority
of my parent-participants perceive the schools as exclusive places
of cultural production and as places for proper pedagogical education
and intellectual development, the parents who are described by my participants
in this section refer to those who predominantly focus on the
larger neoliberal educational structure. In that regard, the picture that I
draw in this chapter to depict the parents is not so neat, rather there are
nuances among the parents.5 The reason why I foreground a certain
group of parents in this section is because of the fact that I want to show
their additional palpable impacts on the educational dynamics in the Armenian
community.6
Whereas the nuclear family shapes the dynamics in the schools as the
schools take into consideration expectations and concerns of the parents,
the family as well is constructed by the impact of communal dynamics;
and therefore, these processes are better to be read as bi-directional. The
political context surrounding Armenians had a respectable amount of in-
1luence on the edi1ice of the Armenian families. Zeitlan (Sjja) attracts attention
to the fact that since the land of the Armenians was divided and
the nation was dispersed, the family is assumed as having an idiosyncratic
role in ensuring protection and survival for the Armenian culture
(p. km). After mass atrocities, Armenians rebuilt their families while becoming
an extended family (Kalayjian et al., 89S9, p. 8jj). Under the conditions
that preclude the expression of Armenianness within the political
realm, cultural practices by kin-keeping become indispensable for the
preservation and protection of the Armenian identity (Bilal, 899m, p. ak).
That is why Armenian families and community members are encouraged,
5 While these parties are not necessarily mutually exclusive or separated from each other
with clear boundaries, I also do not mean to say that there are two parties. Rather, concerns,
viewpoints and expectations of the parents are very diverse.
6 By describing requests or viewpoints of the parents, I do not actually attribute agency
to them in that regard, because they are not the sole decision makers in this context;
rather, they try to create the conditions that their children thrive in. In that regard,
throughout this section I want the reader to keep in mind that the parents are almost
oblivious carriers of the changing dynamics of Turkey into the schools.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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even expected, to go to church, marry other Armenians, gather for special
occasions, and most importantly teach the Armenian language to the new
generations (Kalayjian et al., 89S9, p. 8jj).
Today, with my research I saw that these practices are still potent. Armenian
families in Turkey are largely viewed as the spheres where the
Armenian language, as a signi1icant part of the Armenian identity, is introduced
to the new generations through kin-keeping and family practices,
that is why the standpoint of the family towards the Armenian identity
and culture would tell much about how the identity of the child would
be shaped in the following years. Broadly speaking, usually the expectation
from families is to give a comprehensive introduction to the Armenian
cultural identity for their children; thereby, the children can develop
belonging to their culture. According to teachers, students’ capability to
pursue talking in Armenian language depends largely on their bearing
and background. They expressed their perspective on seeing the family
as signi1icant since it shapes the competence of the child in the Armenian
language and the rate of involvement in learning and reproducing Armenian
culture. The general view among the Armenian language teachers is
that Armenian language education starts at the household where it is introduced
as the mother tongue and the language of communication. They
believe this introduction most of the time encourages the child to go further
in learning and discovering the cultural dynamics of their community.
In that regard, the teachers I had a conversation with frequently
raised their concerns about the inadequate Armenian language skills of
newer generations of students. An Armenian language teacher highlighted
the fact that individual cases sometimes have larger repercussions;
when the family could not or did not introduce the language to the
child, this situation also hinders the language development in the classroom
by affecting other students, and put teachers, who struggle to 1ind
a balance in the classroom, in a position to simplify the curriculum so that
students in the same classroom can meet at a common denominator:
“In comparison to previous years, we have less students competent
in the Armenian language when they start school. In the past,
since students were competent in the language, we could add on.
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However, we now have students starting school without any
knowledge of Armenian. That is why we had to simplify language
education, without even transferring cultural practices. Since students
have a limited vocabulary, we tend to teach less sophisticated
stuff.”7
In other words, competency in the language and knowledge of cultural
practices obtained in the household have an impact on classroom
dynamics. Teachers also foregrounded the role of the family in the cultural
development of the child, and how this in turn affected the success
of the schools in ful1illing their objectives. From this perspective, if students
develop an awareness of the Armenian identity in their families by
being introduced to the Armenian language as a start, then in the long
run this awareness can be reinforced in the schools and thin down the
possibilities of the deterioration of commonly shared cultural aspects.
That is why the schools believe that the most important part of education
starts in the household. As a closer observant to familial affairs and progress
of their students over time, a school counselor working in a high
school explained the overall tendency as following:
“Cultural sustainability and cultural transfer are ensured through
the institutional capacity of schools and churches. Although the
cultural transfer between generations is stronger during the primary
school years, students develop an interest towards the
mainstream society in their high school years. Gradually, the Armenian
language competency fades away. On the other hand, in
cases where the language of the household is Armenian, then the
competency could abide in the school as well.”8
During our discussions about the impact of the family on children,
mixed marriages between Armenians and non-Armenians were also ap-
7 Citation from the interview I conducted with an Armenian language teacher in May bfO[.
8 Citation from the interview I conducted with a school counselor working in a high
school in March bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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proached from a similar perspective with respect to the cultural development
of the student and as well interpreted as an in1luence on the texture
of the Armenian community. With the purpose of illuminating the root
causes of endogamy that is still predominant in the Armenian community
in Turkey, in her book, Ekmekçioğlu (89Sr) crisply explains why endogamy
is treasured among the Armenians in Turkey. She states that as a result
of the persistence of patrilineal descent rules and “the legacy of long
centuries of the Ottoman state meddling in who could marry out and who
could not, endogamy has largely remained as the norm among Armenians
in Turkey to this day” (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. S9). Similarly, Dagirmanjian
(899a) describes the commitment to in-marriage as one of the significant
aspects ensuring the preservation of the distinctive Armenian
culture against the forces of assimilation (p. ^^a). While endogamy is accepted
as a crucial means to preserve the Armenian identity, by the larger
community mixed marriages are regarded mainly as resulting in assimilation
(Özdoğan et. al., 899j, p. :am).9 My interviewees widely expressed
that in combination with other socio-political factors mixed marriages
mostly led the Armenian language in the household to cease to exist, and
leave its place to a fully Turkish-speaking family. Thereby, they mostly see
mixed marriages as one of the reasons why the Armenian language dissolves
over generations. Although mixed marriages cannot be suf1iciently
the reason why the child does not fully adopt the Armenian culture10,
most of the time these families are perceived to fall short in giving an introduction
to Armenian culture, and enkindling a light of curiosity for the
Armenian cultural heritage.11 Albeit the paramount function attached to
9 According to the research conducted by Özdoğan et. al. (bff[, p. \c^), Armenians exhibit
negative attitudes towards mixed marriages. Although the rate of mixed marriages is
estimated to be high around cf% by the Patriarchate, according to the results of the
research and its future projection mixed marriages seem to be unwelcomed by the Armenian
community.
10 Especially when we consider the desire that the family decide to enroll the student to
an Armenian school so that the student can learn and experience Armenian culture.
11 Whereas mixed marriages are regarded as one of the reasons of cultural dissolution,
there are exceptions to this argument that there are many Wluent Armenian-speakers
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
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endogamy, in recent years with the changing patterns of socialization this
custom seems to be interrupted. According to the research conducted by
Komşuoğlu and Örs (899j), the interviewees see mixed-marriages as
more common because of the changing patterns of daily life in which
members of the new generation spend more time on their education and
jobs in comparison to traditional Armenian families (p. ::m).12
In such a context where cultural traditions are highly treasured, social
events organized in the schools are largely regarded as building blocks
for cultural continuity especially of the students who cannot experience
certain cultural events at their households or who live in boarding
schools far from their families. These social events are ardently appreciated
not only because they are entertaining and dynamic means to introduce
cultural and social norms to students but also because for some students
whose families do not maintain or are not familiar with cultural
traditions, school events are the only places where students can encounter
certain cultural practices. As my participant observation reveals, such
practices include food making and sharing events, decoration for religious
holidays, narration of religious traditions, presentation of traditionally
performed songs and tales, bake sales where traditional Armenian
foods can be found or introduction to important public 1igures and
stories. Unfortunately, the timing of my research did not overlap with all
the social events organized by or with the help of school administrations,
their foundations or alumni, but I came across quite a number of them. I
visited Christmas sales for the bene1it of the schools a couple of years in
a row. Since the timing of my 1ield visits coincided with Easter, I encounwhose
parents are not competent in the Armenian language, and yet who have found
their way through it, and became accomplished speakers with their wide knowledge on
cultural codes.
12 On this particular topic, Beylunioğlu and Kaymak’s (bfbO) book offers a comprehensive
discussion to understand how mixed marriages are perceived by people at different age
groups in Greek, Jewish and Armenian communities and further to see an analysis on
the way societal dynamics and concerns are embodied in individuals and thereby inWluence
the private sphere.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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tered a couple of social traditions and customs of Easter. I distantly participated
in the exchange of Easter greetings between school administrators
and teachers, and learned that every Easter the school which I visited
at the time gives Easter sweet yeast bread to students as a gift. In most of
the primary schools this time of the year also witnesses decoration of the
school for Easter of which painting eggs is a common custom. In addition
to the celebration of holy days, social gatherings also include events recapturing
the cohesiveness of the community. During one of my visits, I
also encountered a lunch given by a benefactor in the honor of a deceased
member of the community preceding with a short ceremony of prayers.
The purpose of this food giving event, hokicaş, is to distribute food for the
soul of the deceased person. Although it might not appear as such to people
who are already familiar with the event, at that time the lunch itself
seemed to me as a very candid and sincere moment of a communal tradition
because it portrayed a moment of unity in a non-private sphere.
§ V.T Where Familial Culture and Educational Policies meet
Coming back to the topic regarding the parents, I will leave the matter
of cultural continuity and the spaces to sustain it here and to capture the
link between nuclear families and the schools I will continue with the
reasons why parents prefer to register their children to the Armenian
schools. At the beginning of my 1ield study when I had this question in
mind, as a conversation starter, initially I asked the parents a very simple
question: why do they prefer their children to attend Armenian schools?
The initial answers I received were unanimous as if the parents were in
some kind of an agreement to give the same response; that they wanted
their children to learn the Armenian language and be accustomed with
Armenian cultural practices. Although these answers may seem satisfactory
enough for a newcomer, as I found out later, they cannot go beyond
wishful thinking. The application of these expectations is slightly different
from the statement.
When I went deeper into conversations, I had to come up with two
follow-up questions that could unravel what these parents actually told
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
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me; to what extent and at what expense do they want their children to be
competent in the Armenian language; and what does Armenian culture
really refer to in this context? Since in the former chapter I already talked
about the implications of the neoliberal education system that was introduced
mainly after the 8999s and how this transformation paved the way
for almost obligatory changes in the Armenian schools, I will not repeat
the altered dynamics of the education environment in Turkey here. Rather,
in this chapter as an addition to the former discussion I will further
elaborate on how the central examination system that dominates the
daily life of every student as well as every parent in Turkey shapes the
decisions of the parents, and thereby begets some repercussions for the
familial culture that I delineate.
Armenian students are not exempt from the harsh competition that
the central examination system along with the free-market economy
brings for them. In the era of commodi1ication of education, Armenian
parents want to offer the best possibility to their children and this also
means seeking opportunities outside the Armenian community. Whereas
the parents want to prepare their children in accordance with the requests
of the new global structure and its job markets, the Armenian
schools are not exempt from the broader developments taking place in
the Turkish education system and have to compete with other schools
promising to prepare the students in the best competitive way to lead
them to success and to increase their value in the labor market. In that
regard, the teachers whom I had a conversation with frequently stated
that the parents set private schools as an example for the Armenian
schools and expected them to adjust their objectives accordingly.
The literature needs a lot of contribution to fully address the impact
of the neoliberal shift in Turkey on the Armenian identity and discussions
around it. This subject de1initely needs further research; however, by delivering
my share I address this gap within the context of the Armenian
schools. As my research shows through the example of the parents, Armenian
families have turned towards the desires that global capitalism
might offer for new middle and upper-middle classes in the transformed
societal structure. I argue that the Armenian schools oscillate between
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sk9
the two phenomena as the parents have two-fold requests that lead the
Armenian schools to end up integrated into the education market.
In the current context where curricula are prepared in accordance
with the prospects of free market economy and language acquisition targets
higher mobility for international corporate networks, language
learning is perceived to have a value to an extent that that language
serves well for the market value of the individual. In this market it is regarded
that the Armenian language has not much practical return because
the 1ields and disciplines that have no market-value are deemed
worthy to shrink, if not vanish. In that sense, while the Armenian language
dies down in the process of cultural globalization, the Armenian
identity as well pays its share when it encounters market dynamics and
is challenged by them. The Armenian schools experience a double bind.
The impacts of cultural globalization leave no room for certain cultures
to be sustained. In Turkey, education is standardized and centralized
where the curricula are not given enough 1lexibility to address cultural
richness of the society. In a highly centralized education system where
the standards of educational and eventual life success are set at state
schools, it becomes more dif1icult to sustain non-Muslim schools (Göçek,
89Sa, p. 8km).
This situation can be regarded as a minor implication of an identity
crisis arising from a fall-out from an intense restructuring of capitalism
that has challenged experiences of cultural belonging (Moran, 89Sa, p.
SSa). While the scope and pace of global integration resulted in the acceleration
of 1lows and linkages between nations, the exposure to shared
identities of globalism makes it dif1icult to preserve cultural identities intact
as the social life becomes mediated by the global marketing and identities
become detached from their context (Hall, Sjj8, p. 8jj, :98). As regards,
this particular example in the context of the Armenian schools
should make us consider whether the forces of globalization associated
with the transition to post-Fordist and neoliberal capitalism disrupt expressions
of identity, where cultural identities become increasingly unstable
and fragmented by the forces of global capitalism (Moran, 89Sa, p.
SSa). In our case we may argue that preserving the Armenian cultural
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SkS
identity intact is challenged by global marketing, and individuals become
prone to embracing identities of globalism as a result of global integration.
That is why while the Armenian schools try to sustain Armenian cultural
values and promote them in opposition to larger impact of the
global integration on the daily life of Armenian students, they also go
against private schools that adopt certain measures as an endeavor to be
articulated to global capitalism and adjust their curriculums to teach the
skills to integrate their students to global labor market as the private
schools also multiply in number almost overnight.
What is more interesting that although identity politics considerably
shifted political paradigms in a global context mainly after the Sjm9s and
Sjk9s, it did not create an impact as expected on the Armenian community
in Turkey. Although with the construction of the Armenian Genocide
Memorial in Armenia in Sjrm an awareness towards the Armenian identity
and a shared sense of belonging were replenished and collective consciousness
among Armenians scaled up, Armenian identity politics could
not come into sight and become visible in the political arena in Turkey.
There is no doubt that many explanations can be given here if we delve
into the socio-political reasons why Armenians in Turkey have to seek
shelter in silence. However, as a small anecdote what I want to argue here
is that the potential of identity politics clashed with the changing dynamics
of the society with the introduction of neoliberalism and was swallowed
by them.
Referring to research on the changing patterns of Armenian family life
conducted in Paris, London and Cyprus, Pattie (Sjja) talks about a similar
phenomenon. She attracts attention to the fact that in the modern times
the life of Armenian families has started to revolve around the needs and
demands of the job while focusing on the individual rather than the family,
where the collective “we” lost its emphasis (Pattie, Sjja, p. S^S). In that
regard, we are to acknowledge the unique character of neoliberalism that
it in1iltrates every room of the education system and does not leave any
other option to outlast. As neoliberalism promotes competition among
students, teachers, administrators, parents and schools, not only the solidarity
in the schools is undermined but also the main purpose of the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sk8
schools is locked on exam preparations (Kurul, 89S8, p. j8). I explicated
the neoliberal transformation and central examination system at great
length in the former chapter, because empowerment and solidarity in the
Armenian schools are pertinent to those dynamics. Despite the incontestable
sway of capitalist economy, I still think that the community affect has
not resigned its position completely and its impact is still observable at
different scales today in the Armenian community. That is why while I
discuss the transformation of the Armenian schools, I still persist to portray
Armenians associated with the schools as members of a family and
give certain examples that capture this discussion.
Knowing the dynamics of this ambivalent situation, in the schools that
I visited I learned that the school administrators invite parents to their
prospective students’ days at every registration period where they 1ind
the chance to explain their own perspective, objective as well as achievements
to parents, and attract them to choose their school over the others.
In those prospective students’ days, parents usually tend to bargain over
subjects that they want to see changed. During our meetings, many teachers
explained that most of the time the main topic of discussions in parent-
teacher meetings swirls around issues of having classes in Armenian,
the intensity of foreign language classes or introducing extracurricular
activities as much as the budget of the school allows.
In the couple of schools that I visited, teachers shortly mentioned the
reasons for their disagreement with the parents on these subjects that
are worth mentioning here; adopting the Armenian language as the medium
of instruction. Later, I also learned that in a couple of other schools
the teachers had similar kinds of debate with the parents. Although with
a few exceptions the majority of the Armenian schools hold their classes
almost entirely in Turkish, I can say that this discussion is still relevant in
the schools. In that regard, the general concern of the parents stems from
the assumption that if the classes are held in Armenian, the students
might not understand the content of the class entirely and cannot follow
the lesson. That is why sometimes the parents might act reluctant in registering
their children into the school that wants to keep the Armenian
language as the language of instruction entirely or for certain classes, and
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sk:
consider other options that might offer the students more competitive
skills.
As teachers narrate, most of the time parents request classes to be
held in Turkish so that the students are not at a disadvantage in comparison
to other students attending non-Armenian schools. School administrators
and teachers told me that at times like this they tried to convince
parents that holding classes in Armenian would not impede exam preparations
of students or give them a disadvantage. In order to simply describe
the situation, one of the teachers who put a great effort to keep
holding her classes in Armenian stated that:
“It became very dif1icult to sustain the Armenian culture because
now the students and parents do not care about it; they just want
to graduate as soon as possible, mind their own business, go to
university and start to work.”13
In such a context, teachers say that they see themselves as intermediaries
1inding ways of satisfying parents, while they struggle to keep the
objectives of the Armenian schools.
It also needs mentioning here that the focus of discussions between
parents and teachers alters from school to school. Based on the composition
of students and parents but mainly on preferences of the boards, the
schools decide their priorities. Sometimes making Armenian the language
of instruction does not sit high on the list of these priorities. In
other schools that I visited, the reason why the parents acted hal1heartedly
in registering their children to that school stemmed from the fact
that the parents believed that their children could not receive English language
education well enough in comparison to other schools, and requested
the school administration to take action on that regard. In another
school, the heat of the discussion was on extracurricular activities
and student clubs that the school was expected to offer which might introduce
students organizational and leadership skills. That is to say, what
13 Citation from the interview I conducted with a math teacher in March bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sk^
I argue here is the fact that to the extent that education is commercialized,
and becomes a product to be bought, the parents become customers
who see making requests to the schools as their entitlement. It goes without
saying that the Armenian schools in Turkey are not exempt from
these dynamics, although they are funded by community foundations.
During our one-to-one meetings, I also talked to teachers about their
future projections regarding the schools. So many of them shared their
concerns about the durability of the schools. As we talked about the
transformation of the Armenian schools, a school counselor I interviewed
stated that as teachers and administrators, their uneasiness
stemmed from two main points. Will the Armenian language vanish? Will
the schools be shut down as a result of inadequate numbers of students?
These issues are not something that the parents are not aware of. They
as well are very familiar with the predicaments and the context surrounding
the schools. Since the parents know very well the fact that the
schools desperately need students to sustain their existence in a time period
when the population of the schools is on the decline, they may use
this leverage to alter the condition in favor of their own preferences, and
even ask their personal suggestions to be ful1illed.
Going back to my initial question in this regard; the answer to the
question to what extent the parents prioritize their children to learn the
Armenian language is to the extent that this language learning would not
set their children back from the competition of answering as many multiple-
choice questions as possible and learning the languages which
could carry them higher in the ranks of the job market. As I already emphasized
above, while the parents seem to be indecisive and ambivalent
regarding their preferences, they actually value bonding with the Armenian
community via the Armenian schools. However, they also make sure
that this commitment does not trouble their children’s articulation to the
global world. They prioritize the achievement of their children, which
most of the time translates into the af1luence of opportunities for furthering
an undergraduate or graduate education abroad or employment in
the promising countries with higher life standards.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Ska
In order to paint a picture of the prevalence of circumstances, some
of my participants gave a rough number about the student population attending
non-Armenian schools. According to their estimation, half of the
student population of the Armenian community attend non-Armenian
schools, almost all of which are private schools. My participants also further
explained that the motivation of the other half of the student population
attaining to Armenian schools cannot entirely be explained by
their commitment to cultural identity or values. Some of the parents prefer
the Armenian schools because they want their children to be educated
in a safe place where their children do not have any discriminatory experience
because of their ethno-religious identity and where they can further
familiarize themselves with the community and cultural values.
My 1indings also disclosed the fact that providing quali1ied education
for free of charge or for lower charges than private schools played an important
part in the decision-making processes of the parents. In the education
year of 8989-898S whereas the net minimum wage is 8.8:^ Turkish
liras, annual tuition fees for primary and secondary schools change in a
price range roughly from Sr thousand Turkish liras to S99 thousand Turkish
liras and for high schools from 89 thousand Turkish liras to Srm thousand
Turkish liras not including transportation and catering services.
Considering high tuition fees of private schools and colleges, it is very unlikely
for lower-middle or lower class families to afford the costs of these
schools. According to teachers I talked to, that is why those who cannot
afford to enroll their children to a private college opt for Armenian
schools. In addition to their accessibility, the schools provide certain
things that can only be found in private schools, such as small classroom
sizes, student assessment procedures or psychological counseling sessions.
In addition to offering competitive means for future job prospects,
private schools are often exhibited as the social tokens of reputation
among parents who want to reimagine their class positions within the
larger society. The entrance into quali1ied high schools and universities
that have high scores in the ranking lists of the examinations is acknowledged
as a momentous source of social mobility and reproduction of the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Skr
class (Kandiyoti, 899:, p. 8:). As regards, private schools are not only perceived
as gatekeepers for students to be able to access high-paid jobs
while climbing the social ladder, by parents they are also regarded as a
must for a desired social location. While the Armenian schools try to keep
up with the new technologies of education such as new learning and
teaching methods, and to offer tailored-made solutions for their students,
they also endeavor to compete with private schools and colleges, and
more importantly to assure the parents that choosing an Armenian
school is equally prestigious. As my research showed, as a result of the
disagreement between teachers and board members of the school foundations
this endeavor can sometimes be easily misled into a situation
where the concerns of the board members for the brand value of the
school clash with the concerns of the teachers for pedagogic and intellectual
development of students.
The reasons why the Armenian schools transformed and became constitutive
parts of the overarching education system can be read in such a
context that the Armenian schools put a great effort not to fall behind in
the market of education. Rather than merely focusing on cultural elements
which make them unique among their counterparts, they as well
refresh their objectives and adjust their means- although not all of them
could afford the means to be able to enter such a competition. As it can
be imagined, keeping a balance between serving the requests that the neoliberal
transformation of education requires and ful1illing liabilities of
an Armenian school trying to withstand against culturally disruptive
challenges like popular culture that global integration dictates is not an
easy work in a context where the Armenian schools are expected to deliver
both of these objectives even in times when they are in con1lict with
one another.
Having said that, the schools are exhibited as places where the familial
culture of the Armenian community is sustained and intimate relations
become quotidian part of the communal life. But this familial culture
is interrupted, since the schools are instrumentalized as the means
to govern this communal space by neoliberal educational policies. As the
schools are the meeting points between the body and the polity or the
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Skm
individual and the state (Herzfeld, Sjj:), the governmentality promoted
by the neoliberal education policies penetrate into this familial culture.
At times when the schools are reluctant to embrace this neoliberal transformation
at the expense of their role as cultural carriers, the parents
keep them on track who are governed by the idea that their children can
only prevail as competitive beings embracing the new success models of
the era.
The schools serve as the places, where students are introduced and
produced as neoliberal beings as parts of the larger education system
which was constructed with the sole purpose of promoting the idea of
the state. They still preserve a certain role for the Armenian community
with some nuances that endorse some kind of variety among them. On a
closer look the schools differ from each other considerably. In this difference,
not only the 1inancial capabilities of the schools are signi1icant, also
their diverse institutional objectives and missions are distinguishing and
bring about different options to their target audience. These differences
and visions understandably have an in1luence on the parents and students
who make their preferences in accordance with the objectives and
opportunities that each school is capable of offering. After talking to a
considerable number of parents and teachers, I came to an understanding
that the preferences of parents have some nuances in picking the
right Armenian school for their children. Whereas some schools are chosen
for their rather intensive Armenian language practices, which becomes
only possible by the determination of their school principals, some
others are preferred for their boarding facilities or all-inclusive free-ofcharge
education that they can offer thanks to their physical capabilities
or larger budgets. I have seen that the school being the alma mater of the
parents can also be regarded as one of the reasons why parents decide to
register their children to a particular school. Based on the information
that I gathered from my participants, I also learned that the location of
the school emerges as a signi1icant factor having an impact on the decision-
making processes of parents. Considering the fact that the Armenian
population of Istanbul is largely concentrated in older neighborhoods of
the city where Armenian churches and schools subsist, parents usually
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Skk
prefer registering their children to the schools that are in or closer to
their neighborhoods.
That is to say, there are many factors mentioned during my 1ieldwork
in1luencing decision-making processes of the parents when they conclude
to the right school in accordance with their preferences and the
needs of the student. In that sense, I can say that the reasons I underlined
above are the most referred ones during our conversations and those that
appear as a pattern. Deliberations of whether or not to choose an Armenian
school is also a part of these decision-making processes. As I brie1ly
discussed earlier in this chapter these processes have rather different dynamics,
since deciding on registering the student either for an Armenian
school or a private school hinges on rather more material reasons of
which the income-level of the family appears as a crucial one.
Although the Armenian schools differ from each other based on their
objectives, student composition, 1inancial sustainability or opportunities
they could offer, I will repeat what I underlined above; the schools predominantly
speak to a certain income level. During my 1ieldwork, the
school principals I talked to already stated that the students came predominantly
from low or middle income levels of families. After I paid my
visits to the schools, I had more chances to think about this topic and with
the hope of receiving additional comments on the subject I conducted additional
one-to-one meetings with people from different backgrounds. In
those meetings, I asked targeted questions on the student compositions
of the schools to my participants. One of these participants was an alumnus
of an Armenian school who was also working as a teacher’s aide in
one of the Armenian primary schools at the time. He explained to me that
with the accelerating pressure of the central examination system, relatively
wealthier families turned to private schools for the future prospects
that they could offer, and this made the socio-economic class divide
between the students of Armenian and private schools get even
sharper than before. This phenomenon brings about the perception that
Armenianness gradually comes in the possession of lower and middle social
classes and becomes almost their relic that they need to preserve:
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Skj
“After the change in the central examination system, parents who
can afford [private schools] started to prefer and send their children
to private schools, and Armenianness became class-based.”14
From this perspective, I assert that while the schools seem to be reserved
for a particular socio-economic class, the Armenian culture and
Armenian language happen to address a certain social class.
As a result of the altering dynamics of the education environment in
Turkey driven mainly by the central examination system and neoliberal
transformation, the texture of the Armenian schools becomes appealing
particularly to a speci1ic socio-economic level of parents, composed
mostly of low or mid-income families.15 The income level of the parents
is a determinative factor of student compositions of the Armenian
schools. Although this does not necessarily mean that upper class families
almost never prefer Armenian schools, as my research reveals they
only appear as an exception in those schools. It is fair to say that there are
also high-income families who opt for Armenian schools because they
want their children to grow up in a culturally and religiously familiar environment.
However, the number of these parents is not an overwhelming
majority. On the contrary, most of the time they are perceived as an
exception to this end by the larger community.16
14 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former student in November bfO[.
15 The socio-economic composition of parents may also considerably vary from neighborhood
to neighborhood; whereas the schools in wealthier neighborhoods have students
mainly from mid-income families, the schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods, where
the income level of its residents are low, have students from families with comparatively
lower income levels.
16 Contrary to what I learned from these meetings and contrary to the general view, I also
encountered two schools that are not fully in line with this explanation. Although these
two examples do not signiWicantly invalidate the argument above, they do not explicitly
conWirm it either in the sense that it is rather difWicult to argue that wealthier families do
not prefer these schools. The schools as being located in relatively prosperous neighborhoods
of the city appeal to families from various social classes. In that, the fact that
the socio-economic levels of families in the neighborhood overall are relatively higher
and the schools are managed with certain objectives and certain measures that put
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sj9
I am well aware of the fact that delving into the relationship between
the middle class and ethno-religious identity requires a thorough analysis
including discovering the historical background of the identity production
and emergence of the middle class in the Armenian community.
Although unraveling the in1luence of the Armenian middle class on the
production and preservation of the Armenian identity is a larger subject
going beyond the limits of my study, cognizant of the importance of the
social class I try to present a smaller part of this subject and exhibit as
many points as possible from my interviews within the purposes of my
research. In addition to brie1ly visiting the literature on the emergence of
the Armenian national consciousness in chapter S where I gave a historical
background on the Armenian schools, I will also show in the next
chapter that people from different social positions impact processes of
identity production in the schools by instrumentalizing their means and
social capital.
The perception that Armenianness is becoming a relic of low and midincome
families is merely based on the perception of my participants.
There is no quantitative research on the income levels of the parents who
enroll their children in the Armenian schools. In addition to discovering
the root causes of the perception of why people think this way, a couple
of questions which need to be asked in this context can be the following;
whether the ethno-religious identity of Armenianness is engendered by
the low and mid-income families or this role is assigned to them, and
what kind of outcomes these historical processes lead to. The limits of my
research and the extent of my study did not allow me to answer these
questions. Let’s hope that the particular temporality and dynamics of the
emergence of the Armenian national consciousness will encourage further
research on the subject. In order to be able to present some nuances
in that regard, in chapter a I will show how agendas of different actors
shape the state of affairs within these schools and how we can make
them in competition with private schools are inWluential. But again, these two examples
are not strong enough to support the above argument I presented or do not overrule the
general view, yet again I Wind it necessary to mention here.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
SjS
sense of this phenomenon, and in chapter r I will articulate some key aspects
to address Armenian language and culture in their current context.
§ V.U Familiarity in Familial Culture
Apart from the material and practical reasons I mentioned above, I
would also like to remind societal dynamics reigning in Turkey for such
a long time now and elaborate more on what parents understand by Armenian
culture when they raise it as one of the reasons for their preference
to enroll their children to Armenian schools. Consolidated with the
genocide, the imperial legacy of the Ottoman Empire took its shape
mainly in the Sjth and 89th century, and has built a body of sui generis
sociopolitical structures in the Republic of Turkey (Suciyan, 89Sk, p. 8S).
Legal, political, cultural, economic and physical violence that prevailed in
the last years of the Ottoman Empire have shaped the state and society
of Turkey perennially (Suciyan, 89Sk, p. ^9). In her inspiring book, Suciyan
(89Sk) unravels the impact of the genocide on the societal dynamics in
Turkey and describes Turkey’s post-genocide habitus of denial.
In such a context, seeing Armenians as “foreigners and betrayers'' is
not only restricted to the state discourse, this understanding is also
widely accepted by the wider Turkish society (Özdoğan and Kılıçdağı,
89SS, p. 8k). There are many incidents recounted demonstrating the explicit
prejudice and discrimination in public schools where at times it
takes a more complex form as teachers single out non-Muslim students
(Göçek, 89Sa, p. 8j9). As a result of the Turkish nationalist rhetoric embraced
and taught at schools marginalizing other religions and ethnicities,
students especially of non-Muslim and non-Turkish origin are discriminated
against (Göçek, 89Sa, p. 8kj). Up until October 89S:, in public
and primary schools students were asked to take an oath which started
with the line “I am Turk”17, and non-Turkish students are still reminded
17 Following the bundle of democratization reforms declared on \f June bfO\, with an
amendment on the relevant regulation the oath that was supposed to be read at the
beginning of every school week was abolished on d October bfO\. Turk Eğitim-Sen
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sj8
of their non-Turkishness on many other occasions (Ekmekçioğlu, 89S^, p.
rm:). I will quote Ekmekçioğlu’s words where she subtly describes the
paradox:
“Historically, many were reminded of their difference when they
would have rather forgotten it, and found their difference overlooked
when they would have preferred it be recognized.” (89S^,
p. rm:).
In order to refrain from discrimination and maltreatment resulting
from the negative image of Armenianness in the wider society, the Armenian
community endeavors to remain concealed (Özdoğan and Kılıçdağı,
89SS, p. ::). While the Armenian community in Turkey still has to face discriminatory
practices targeting the cultural as well as physical existence
of the community, the continuing trauma of the past along with the experiences
of today keep the concerns of the community alive. Inevitably,
parents try to 1ind safe havens, sheltered environments for their children
to protect them as much as possible from the hostile discourse of the
broader society as well as the predicaments their children have to face
on a daily basis. When I asked the motivation behind the parents’ preferences
in choosing Armenian schools, a chemistry teacher working in a
high school put this situation very neatly as: “Parents opt for Armenian
schools, because they want their children not to be bullied in other
schools, or feel uncomfortable about their identity.”18
Although what Armenian culture stands for in today’s context is a
very loaded and dif1icult question, from my interviews with parents and
teachers, I come to the conclusion that it mainly refers to a safer place
opened a court case against this amendment and the practice was reinstated in bfOd by
the majority of votes of the Council of State dth Chamber. However, the Ministry of National
Education objected to this initial decision. In bfbO the case was Winalized by the
decision of the Plenary Session of Administrative Law Chamber and the student oath
was abolished as I was writing this explanation. See
https://www.bbc.com/turkce/haberler-turkiye-cPlb[ffl (Retrieved on d April bfbO).
18 Citation from the interview I conducted with a high school chemistry teacher working
in a high school in March bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sj:
where the student is surrounded by other Armenian students and families
who share similar concerns, and most vitally who perceive things in
a similar manner. During our conversations, when I asked about the cultural
aspects of the schools, the teachers illustrated the schools as environments
of Armenian cultural values. These cultural values most of the
time refers to a particular lifestyle, modus vivendi. The schools are primarily
described as places where students are educated in an environment
surrounded by their peers who are from a similar background or
family culture. This environment allows them to be taken care of by the
teachers who know their parents in person, and even have personal relationships
with them. A school counselor who is a parent herself explained
the currents of the situation with these words:
“The reason why parents prefer to send their children to an Armenian
primary school in particular is to be able to raise their children
in an Armenian cultural environment. Low classroom sizes,
one-to-one communication and care, and knowing other parents
in person are the main reasons.”19
In this sense, the stories that they shared with me tell that speaking
the same language does not necessarily refer to speaking the Armenian
language in this context. It means that people share similar concerns and
perceptions while trying to keep their children within the imaginary but
secure borders of the community. What parents understand by Armenian
culture is by and large social networks and environments where Armenian
religious practices are familiar to its members, where the marginalized
identity can nest, and where solidarity among members of the community
is not only likely but also encouraged.
Furthermore, I would also like to mention separately in this context
the motivation of Anatolian Armenian families sending their children to
boarding schools in Istanbul. Slightly different from Bolsahays, Istanbulite
Armenians, Anatolian families see the Armenian schools as the only
19 Citation from the interview I conducted with a school counselor working in a high
school in March bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sj^
chance for their children to meet the wider community, adopt cultural
practices, and most importantly learn the Armenian language. Since in
Anatolia there is no school left and the Armenian population is so low in
number, they lack places that can sustain cultural practices. The school
counselor whom I quoted above also added that the Armenian boarding
schools were often regarded by those parents as the only option for their
children to meet their identity:
“Students coming from Anatolia prefer boarding schools. Families
who have dif1iculties in sustaining their culture and language in
their cities send their children to boarding schools, so that their
children can be familiar with the Armenian community.”20
Additionally, as the teachers and counselors working in the boarding
schools described, some Anatolian families also consider the Armenian
schools as a great opportunity to access educational facilities in Istanbul,
especially when the income level of the family does not allow the child to
receive promising education, or procure daily essentials for the continuation
of education. Since boarding schools cover the everyday essentials
of their students, families are eager to take that opportunity and ensure
quali1ied education for their children at least until they enter a university.
Despite the Armenian schools being regarded as opportunity providers
by these families, the families might act hesitant in sending their children
to Istanbul at younger ages. The school administrators of boarding
schools whom I talked to explained that sometimes incoming students
come to Istanbul later years in their education after completing initial
two or three years in their hometowns. In these cases, after completing
initial years of their primary education, usually in a public school, students
are transferred to an Armenian school without any knowledge of
the Armenian language. This in turn often causes some problems for the
receiving schools which makes it very challenging to hold the classes in
20 Citation from the interview I conducted with a school counselor working in a high
school in March bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sja
Armenian, or sometimes impossible if one or two students have no competency
in the language. In order to overcome these drawbacks Armenian
language teachers develop ad hoc solutions, and provide one-to-one
tutoring to close the gap between students. However, as those teachers
expressed, in some cases these kinds of measures were not suf1icient to
keep the curriculum in Armenian. In order to describe the situation of the
Anatolian parents in a nutshell, the school administrator of one of the
boarding schools I visited summed up the perspective of Anatolian parents
as such:
“Those families, who cannot seek Armenian language education
for their children in Anatolia, or those who are in Istanbul but economically
challenged, send their children to boarding schools.
And this pattern undermines cultural production in boarding
schools. The moment a student has a connection to Armenianness,
her or his parents send the child to one of the boarding schools,
because they desire to seize the opportunity that these schools
can offer; free of charge education and security.”21
In this regard, I invite the reader to consider the Armenian community
composed of families who are in relation to one another. When I suggest
visiting the Armenian community as a family, my only reference
point is not the sole fact that these families share similar concerns and
desires and that is why they form a larger family. Rather, I suggest discussing
the dynamics of the Armenian community with respect to familial
culture, because of its idiosyncratic governmentality. This idiosyncratic
governmentality I believe is bolstered by two main sources;
whereas the schools endeavor to be in line with the whirlwind of changes
that neoliberal education policies demand, they are also obliged to be vigorous
in ensuring the tenacity of Armenian culture and providing a safe
environment that is tantamount to a familial culture. This familial culture
unveils the complexity of the relationships in a communal space which
has its own particular ways of governmentality.
21 Citation from the interview I conducted with a school administrator in April bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sjr
§ V.V Familial Culture as a Safe Space
Durkheim depicts the family as a complete society whose in1luence extends
its borders and impacts on numerous areas from economic activity
to religion, politics or science; therefore, everything we do outside the
home that has any importance has repercussions upon the family whose
members share their existence (Sj::/Sjjm, p. xliv). When we talk about
the family, we often refer to a shared destiny and history where joy and
pain are experienced in collaboration. When people have a shared history
of traumatic experiences, the perception that members of the family
share the same past can even be stronger. Volkan states that every large
group which suffered loss in a con1lict share the mental representation of
that traumatic past event; in this way, all members share the mental representation
of the tragedy of the past through sharing a “chosen trauma”,
which link members of the group across generations together (89SS, p. km,
kk). The mass trauma, which is signi1icant and constitutive to relations
and dynamics of that particular group, enhances the feeling of togetherness
by producing intergenerational mental structures. That is to say, by
dealing with transgenerational impacts of the Armenian genocide, we
can actually gain some insights in imagining the impact of the traumatic
past on the feeling of the togetherness in the Armenian community in
Turkey.
Without delving into the dynamics of the genocide and especially of
the post-genocide Turkey, studies trying to understand currents of the
Armenian community cannot be complete or comprehensive. Knowing
that there is an entire corpus of literature on the impacts of the Armenian
genocide on individuals and societal dynamics, coping mechanisms with
the past, and resilience of Armenians as well as oral history studies
through which we can read experiences and narratives (Alayarian, 899k;
Balancar, 89S8a, 89S8b, 89S:, 89Sa; Beukian and Graff-McRae, 89Sk; Bilal,
899r, 89Sj; Haladjian, 8989; Kalayjian, 899j; Kalayjian and Weisberg,
8998; Kalayjian, et al., Sjjr; Kalayjian, et al., 89S9; Kupelian, et al., Sjjk;
Miller & Miller, Sjj:; Neyzi and Kharatyan-Araqelyan, 89S9; Smith, Sjkj;
Suciyan, 89Sa; Yacoubian, 899j; Zeytinoğlu, et al., 89S8), I will not further
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sjm
discuss it and say that analyzing generational and continuing effects of
the mass trauma in post-genocide environments is beyond the scope of
this chapter. However, as a minor contribution to the literature, I will
brie1ly show how my research in the Armenian schools contributes to
discussing the sense of togetherness in a space whose constituents delineate
it as an internal space fortressed against what is described as the
outside, a non-Armenian space.
In a political conjuncture, where ‘us’ and ‘them’ discourse is exacerbated
by national discourse, and where the predicaments and problems
experienced by a group can almost never make it through the national
level and stay only as pertained to that particular group, not very unpredictably
these groups build their own endogenous formations with the
purpose of establishing or multiplying “safe” spaces. Suf1ice to say that
the hostile and exclusionary environment built by the wider society easily
brings about its response in its surrounding groups, and results in
these communities to reproduce their inside arenas in various forms. For
many years, as hostility towards Armenians either by the state or by the
society became both complementary and an integral part of the Turkish
identity (Özdoğan and Kılıçdağı, 89SS, p. 8r), it is not perplexing to see the
way communal spaces are fortressed, and this not only applies to Armenians
in Turkey, but to many communities that feel excluded because they
do not “1it” into this 1ictitious category of Turkishness.
Considering the discriminatory discourse promoted by institutional
practices, and the historical position taken on by the state institutions towards
the Armenian schools, I was prepared to see that the schools might
act very protective against visitors trying to explore the inner dynamics
of the Armenian schools. However, I want to foreground that this reaction
by itself tells so much about the political climate of Turkey; the uneasiness
that Armenians feel in Turkey, in their homeland. These reactions
emanate from the context where Armenians in Turkey were forced to
leave the social sphere of Turkey vis-a-vis exclusionary and discriminatory
policies in the post-genocide period, and to maintain their existence
by a re1lex of withdrawing as a voiceless community (Özdoğan et. al.,
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
Sjk
899j, p. 8a). The devaluation they experience results in dissociating
themselves from the wider society.
During my research many of my participants expressed the feeling of
sorrow and grief that was something to be shared only by Armenians because
these feelings were inherent to their common past. They were dealing
with the sorrow of the past by addressing these feelings from a “we”
framework. This was what Kalayjian, et al. (Sjjr) described as a coping
mechanism that became inherent to Armenian culture. In order to share
the pain and suffering experienced in the past, Armenian culture adds
value and emphasis on togetherness as a coping mechanism (Kalayjian
et al., Sjjr, p. j8).
In a rather small sampling size of students who were randomly contacted
during my 1ieldwork, my research con1irmed that Armenian culture
emphasized togetherness when dealing with the past and expressing
past events of collective loss. Through similar expressions, I realized
that the students regarded themselves as witnesses to a common past
and fellows of shared sorrow, and saw the rest of the society as in a way
outsiders to this feeling who could not possibly imagine how it felt to
carry the burden, and shared it over generations. Especially in a country
where denial of the genocide reigns over societal dynamics, it did not perplex
me to see Armenian citizens to feel marginalized and undervalued
because measures of reconciliation are not introduced to tackle with the
trauma. That is why it should not be startling to read what a high school
student shared during a conversation with a group of students when they
were talking about dealing with the past atrocities: “No one but Armenians
can understand us because only an Armenian would know how it
feels [to be the outcast].”22 This feeling is one of the many which bring
people together and give the idea that they all share something in common,
even if there are fractions and different perspectives among Armenians
across boundaries of social class, gender or age.23
22 Citation from the interview I conducted with a high school student in August bfO[.
23 I do not argue that the trauma of the past is the only aspect which keeps Armenians
together today or Armenian cultural traditions to ride out in different settings; however,
it is an important one.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
Sjj
The collective past and shared narratives of this past is not the only
source carving out a space for the familial culture. This familial culture is
also undergirded by the physical spaces breeding a nurturing soil for solidarity
and communal cognizance. My observation shows that while the
physical accessibility and proximity of members empower the feeling of
togetherness and create its own arenas of communication, in a school environment
this accessibility also allows teachers and school administrators
to actually know their students individually. In my interviews, the
teachers and school administrators frequently expressed that they could
keep up with the individual development of each student, since the
school population and school culture encouraged them to do so. This also
means that if a student has a problem at home, academic dif1iculties or
learning disorders, experiences peer pressure, is bullied or has any form
of problem in or outside the school environment, it is very unlikely that
these problems go unnoticed, or are not taken action against. The teachers
and the school administrators very much have a sound grasp of the
details of their students’ lives. One of my participants who works as a
high school principal brie1ly described this situation as:
“In this school, each student is known by each teacher. It is next to
impossible for a student to get lost in the crowd here. It is a very
secure social environment. In a way, it is like a closed 1ish glass but
at least students spend their most fragile years here. After graduation,
they miss the attention they have found here.”24
These support mechanisms can even be stronger when the student
has teachers who are also a relative, neighbor, friend of a family, or even
a parent. The schools embody a familial culture where intimacy is cherished
as a part of daily life interactions. This situation often blurs the line
between private and communal spheres. My 1ield visits show that it is not
very uncommon that immediate or distant family members share the
same school environment, or the students attend schools where their rel-
24 Citation from the interview I conducted with a high school principal in April bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
899
atives or immediate family members work. This situation can be observed
even more vividly especially when the teacher works in the same
school with their child.
I further argue that the feeling of safety expressed by the students and
teachers does not only stem from the fact the Armenian schools are reserved
for a community whose borders are well-de1ined, but also because
of the familiarity enjoyed by all constituents of the schools while
these constituents are connected to each other in many different ways in
their private or public spheres. Having familiar faces around, and a strong
sense of safety in the schools, the students and teachers state that they
feel at home. During our conversations, many times my interviewees
mentioned that they felt at home while referring to their presence in their
schools as teachers or students, whereas they described outer venues of
Armenian institutions or communal spaces as unknown and unpredictable
places to be, substantially detached from their personal relationships.
One of the school counselors that I already quoted above shared her experience
of entering these rather unknown spaces when she was
younger, and how this made her feel:
“In the Armenian schools, students are in a closed environment. I
was challenged during the time when I went to a private teaching
institution for the central exam preparation and when I started
university. We feel like a bird 1lying out of her cage for the 1irst
time.25
My interviews reveal that this feeling is very familiar and shared by
others:
“In the past years, we had a couple of gifted students with high IQlevels
in our school. However, their parents did not want to take
their children and register them to a school for the talented and
gifted, because the students feel at home here.” 26
25 Citation from the interview I conducted with a school counselor in March bfO[
26 Citation from the interview I conducted with a math teacher working in a primary
school in May bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
89S
“We [as teachers] can be in the school with our family members.
On the other hand, we do not want to enroll our children to the
same school where we work, because when the teacher is from
the family circle of the child, the student has dif1iculty in seeing
that person as a teacher. Here, we are not co-workers, we are family-
friends.”27
“When our students graduate from the university, they come back
here [as teachers]. This does not happen because of some practical
reasons; rather, they have a bond of affection, and they want to
come here and give back what they have gained here. Instead of
thinking that it is rather dif1icult and not preferred to work at
other schools, we see them as coming back to their homes.”28
During my interviews, alumni also expressed that the feeling of being
safe and at home sometimes caused them to be very eager to come back
to their alma maters and work there as teachers or administrative of1icers.
The piece I quoted below from one of my teacher participants describes
the general framework of how she missed to be in a familiar environment
and how otherwise she felt like she lost her identity:
“Throughout the university, the competency in the Armenian language
suffers from erosion. After I graduated from the university,
and started to work in an Armenian high school, my cultural development
continued to be enriched. The schools have a particular
sense of cultural foundation, and wherever you go, you seek for
it. I wanted to come back to teach here both to enrich myself culturally,
and to serve my community.”29
27 Citation from the interview I conducted with a group of teachers in the teachers’
lounge in an Armenian primary school in May bfO[.
28 Citation from the interview I conducted with a group of teachers in the teachers’
lounge in an Armenian high school in April bfO[.
29 Citation from the interview I conducted with a math teacher working in a high school
in March bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
898
Needless to say, the students, teachers or alumni feel at home in the
schools not because this environment is shared with family members,
relatives or close friends, but because familial culture is inherent in the
nature of relationships replenished in the conceptual con1ines of the
schools. The main reason behind this feeling is the fact that people consider
communal spaces as highly safeguarded. In the schools, the students
and teachers are not marginalized because of their ethno-religious
identity as opposed to the larger society in Turkey.
I further saw that the feeling of being at home was shared more powerfully
in boarding schools where students shared every moment of their
daily lives together. As aforementioned, Anatolian families mostly prefer
to register their children to boarding schools because there is no school
with Armenian language education in their cities. In addition to Anatolian
Armenians, some Istanbulite Armenians also prefer boarding schools for
their children’s education. These schools offer large bene1its at times especially
when the parents have 1inancial challenges to afford the educational
expenses of their children. During my 1ieldwork, I visited one primary-
middle and one high school with boarding facilities. I happened to
see that beside the exhaustive guidance of teachers and administrators,
the students additionally had the chance to develop more intimate relations
with alumni, who often provided external 1inancial support and assisted
the students with their central exam preparations or tutoring.30
The boarding schools are isolated places providing a fully preserved
surrounding for their students. The teachers mentioned that as one of the
shortcomings of this high protection, the students felt more insecure
when they were outside of these protected havens and when they entered
environments where Armenian culture was not familiar to people
or not welcomed by them. One of the many examples I learned during my
1ield study that can describe the state of uneasiness of the students is that
the students often prefer to use pseudonyms when they are outside of
30 Although these support mechanisms provided by the alumni are also functional in day
schools, it would not be inaccurate to claim that this feeling is relatively more intense in
the boarding schools where the students are physically detached from their immediate
families and spend more time in the school.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
89:
the safe borders of the Armenian community. They try to stay away from
the spotlight which may result in creating uncomfortable situations in
their new environment. The students and alumni stated that in the private
training institutions that they attended to get prepared for the central
exams, they preferred to use pseudonyms to refrain from receiving
questions like “Why is your name so different?”, “Where are you from?”,
“Did you come from Armenia?”. In her article, Bilal (899m) gives an extensive
selection of these questions that Istanbulite Armenians hear in their
everyday encounters. She explains this pattern as an obligation to constantly
rearticulate belonging in different forms of everyday resistance
against invisibility (899m, p. aj). Even a non-Armenian chemistry teacher
working in a high school said that she could easily observe the discomfort
engul1ing the students when they were outside their safe environments:
“Outside, students use pseudonyms; they only feel comfortable when
they are with their friends.”31 Having experiences and practices like this,
the students develop a strong sense of distinction between what is inside
and what is outside. These experiences undergird the understanding of
the inside and edge the salient boundaries of these domains.
My conversations with the students and the alumni also showed that
“feeling at home” in the school environment does not always create desirable
outcomes. Especially in cases, where immediate family members
work and study at the same school, it might bring about undesirable outcomes
for each party. The teachers and the parents said that they often
prioritized physical proximity to their neighborhoods when they decided
on the schools both to work and enroll their children. Having a low number
of Armenian schools, usually there are not many options in neighborhoods
or even in districts. This limited supply frequently results in teachers
and their children attending the same schools, and compels them to
share the same environment. According to the parent-teachers I talked
to, this situation often narrows down the elbow room, or realm of freedom
one might say, of the student.
31 Citation from the interview I conducted with a chemistry teacher working in a high
school in March bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
89^
I witnessed some diverse experiences in this regard. Some students
cherish the comfort of attending the same school where their parents
work. However, some others experience this status contrariwise. They
are put under scrutiny by their parents even harsher than their peers because
their parents want to feel certain that their children are not favored
as a result of having their parents around. Throughout the chapter, I keep
repeating that the spheres of family and school intertwine. For these students
the in1luence of this intertwinement is even more prescriptive and
evident. Although my interlocutors experiencing the latter situation see
it as not fair to their children at all, they accept that it is often their kids
who make a compromise on keeping a low pro1ile in comparison to other
students.
Being in a familiar environment where members of the community
know each other from many different occasions results in vanishing anonymity.
Although the students live in a very big city where mingling in
the crowds is very easy and keeping someone’s identity obscured is effortless
to achieve, for Armenians it is not a very attainable option. The
students as well as the teachers are very much in the limelight and almost
public 1igures as a result of this network of intimate relationships. In that
sense, buttressing networks of solidarity and multiplying moments of intimacy,
the familial culture works as the catalyzer of practices of rumor
mongering, gossiping, whistleblowing or comparing peers which function
as control mechanisms pressuring members of the community just
like a family.
Especially the teachers I talked to expressed that the network of intermingled
relations oftentimes created pressure on teachers and school
administrations. The teachers and principals have already-established
relations with parents as neighbors, friends, relatives, church-goers or
schoolmates, and know each other in different ways. In those cases, they
do not meet for the 1irst time in the schools as parents and teachers. The
personal relationships and network of communication developed outside
the school environment create the perception on the side of the parents
that the schools are areas in which they can be actively involved with
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
89a
their requests. At times when the parents have close personal relationships
with the teachers, they feel comfortable enough to ask teachers on
a daily basis to alter things according to their suggestions. During our interviews
many teachers shared their discomfort and concerns about this
pattern. They shared that instances to these requests included requests
for the decrease of the intensity of speaking Armenian, the lessening of
homework loads, or the reevaluation of grading results. The teachers
think that, although the parents could not even imagine making these requests
in a private school, they are not timid about insisting in the Armenian
schools where the teachers are regarded as easily approachable.
As now the schools are in a competition with private schools, the
teachers believe that this situation gives more leverage to the parents.
Some teachers mentioned during our interviews that the parents demanded
certain student clubs to be introduced, school excursions to be
planned or even the curriculum of some courses -Armenian language in
particular- to be simpli1ied so that students were not challenged in areas
where there was no practical return for the central exam. As they expressed,
this intervention caused in some cases the teachers to go cold
on their educational methods or even the education profession itself. In
almost all of the interviews that I had with teachers, this subject came up.
The below excerpt from an interview I had with an Armenian language
teacher explains her exhaustion on the larger matter of parent-teacher
interaction:
“The pressure on teachers and school administrators is a lot; we
are too easily accessible by parents. We live in the same neighborhoods,
and go to the same vacation places. They can easily come
to me, and complain about anything. They can send long
WhatsApp messages in the middle of the night. This pattern of behavior
hinders us to be the educators we want to be, to do what
we think is right. These schools are like a family; we take care of
every student one by one. This is an advantage, but parents interfere
with everything. They constantly demand things, and this
turns the whole situation into a disadvantage for us. Since they
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
89r
know very well that we want to keep these students in the Armenian
schools-and since the Armenian population is low in number
in Turkey, this is crucially important- they take the liberty to interfere
in many things.”32
As I was privy to the stories of participants, they raised certain other
aspects intensifying the sense of togetherness experienced in the Armenian
schools that is worth mentioning here. Channels of communication
and networks of solidarity grounded in the historical edi1ice of the community
were also mentioned as practices cementing the familial culture.
These networks were often mentioned with respect to personal and communal
initiatives that made the operations of the schools durable and attainable.
Since speci1ic needs of the Armenian schools are not addressed
or provided by the Ministry of National Education or its district directorates,
the schools are obliged to ful1ill their needs and provide the
means with their own resources. The school administrators I talked to
during my visits underlined the fact that since there was no commission
dealing with the educational needs and recurring needs of the Armenian
schools, administrators of the schools and school foundations had to develop
their individual solutions, such as preparing curriculum for Armenian
language and literature classes, providing professional Armenian
language training for their teachers or developing course materials as I
concisely described in the earlier chapter. Especially the Armenian language
and literature teachers I conversed with attracted attention to a
need for the transfer of knowledge and expertise from experienced
teachers to overcome the inadequacies of teaching materials and content
development in Armenian in accordance with the altering pedagogical
needs of the last decade. With this purpose, the schools create intraschool
academic advancement mechanisms to equip their teachers with
the experience of their seasoned teachers. Whereas some schools encourage
master-apprentice relationships, which also provide the ground
for the accumulation of resource materials, in some schools experienced
32 Citation from the interview I conducted with an Armenian language teacher working in
a primary school in May bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
89m
retired teachers visit schools on a regular basis as advisors for the
younger generation of teachers.
The absence of a commission of education also necessitates educational
materials to be prepared by individual initiatives of teachers33 or a
cohort of them. During my 1ieldwork, I encountered one of the clear instances
of this situation. Whereas the curriculum of the Turkish language
and literature classes are renewed by scrupulously designed commissions
composed of teachers working in the tenure positions of the Ministry,
for the Armenian schools this task is assigned to the schools itself that
have no 1inancial or academic resources to manage this process. At the
time when I conducted my 1ieldwork, since the Ministry of National Education
renewed the curriculum of Turkish language classes, the Armenian
schools were expected to alter the curriculum of Armenian language
classes in line with those changes. However, without providing any 1inancial
or intellectual resources for the formation of a task force, the Ministry
expected this alteration to be implemented by the ardent initiatives of the
teachers. Ultimately, the teachers prepared the curriculum cognizant of
the fact that was the only solution available to them.
Within the same framework, when I asked how the schools found solutions
that required the involvement of a rather central organization to
address their recurring needs, some of their answers pointed to the Turkish
Armenian Minority Schools’ Teachers Foundation (T.E.A.O Öğretmenleri
Yardımlaşma Vakfı). As long as its area of expertise allows, the foundation
works like a hub in bringing the teachers together on different
occasions, promoting their professional development by offering ad-
33 Although Turkish course-materials are provided by the Ministry of Education, minority
schools are expected to prepare their own materials and books in the Armenian language,
and publish them following a long process of auditing. The Armenian materials
are also expected to be the exact translations of Turkish materials. Similarly, the curriculum
of the Armenian language and literature course is obliged to be the translation or
adaptation of the curriculum of the Turkish literature course. Considering the fact that
there is no committee appointed for this position, the development of such a curriculum
often requires the teachers from each school cluster, and form a task force ad hoc.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
89k
vanced Armenian language classes, and keeping the archival and statistical
data regarding the schools. Since the teachers of the Armenian schools
work on contract-base, they are not entitled to the retirement bene1its
that the Ministry offers to its tenured teachers. In such a climate, one of
the objectives of the Foundation is also to develop certain mechanisms
that may assist retirement plans of the teachers or support them when
needed with emergency funds that become possible by membership fees.
In addition to the support mechanisms of the Foundation, with the
objective of bolstering the professional development of its teachers, the
schools launch ad hoc measures. The schools with a suf1icient budget reserved
for academic development send their teachers to summer
courses. Most of the time, the academic development of teachers is supported
by organizations administered by the 1inancial and intellectual
support of Diaspora Armenians. In addition to language advancement,
these courses also offer new learning techniques and trends for alternative
education modules. Regarding this subject, the teachers also highlighted
the fact that as the means of communication and transportation
become accessible, the frequency and intensity of cooperation with the
educational and academic institutions in Armenia increase. That is why
instead of regarding these processes as contributions to the professional
development of the teachers, it is also crucial to evaluate them as networking
events bringing Armenian teachers, educators, academics from
different backgrounds and geographies together.
In addition to seeking support mechanisms for their professional development,
some of the schools also seek 1inancial assistance from benefactors
to be able to sustain their physical existence. When they need 1inancial
support, the schools go to the one who is able; their board
members, their alumni, or businesspersons within the community for
their individual donations, who are well-known as benefactors and who
happen to be almost always the same handful of people.34 In addition to
34 In order to have a clearer picture, it may be helpful to state here that while schools vary
in their objectives and methods, they also massively vary in their Winancial resources. In
this regard, which school needs donations from the wealthier few may depend on the
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
89j
ad hoc calls for endowments, the schools organize fundraising dinners,
known as madağ, to bring the notables and potential benefactors of the
community together with the school administrators and teachers. For
some schools, these events are the only means to raise an additional 1inancial
budget to be used for their year-long expenditures. However,
these donations most of the time pave the way for an exchange of powers
through which the benefactors get involved with educational decisions.
By making donations, on certain occasions benefactors buy their say on
the table, and the right to intervene into school politics. I will talk about
the role of benefactors and boards of the foundations in school affairs
further in the following chapter.
Last but not the least, the schools promote the values that breed a
nurturing soil for the sense of togetherness among its students and
alumni by undergirding their alumni associations as integral parts of
their cultural continuity. The majority of my participants coming from
different age groups, occupations and schools shared their memories
from social gatherings and described the events they organized in the
meeting places of alumni associations when they were still students or in
later years after their graduation. However, I did not hear anyone talking
about currents of these associations. Although today they were regarded
as off the boil, alumni associations were described as having their palmy
days predominantly till the 8999s.35 In this regard, I have to state that the
8999s marked a turning point on many occasions.
Bilal points to a fact that might be explanatory for this context as well.
Starting in the Sjj9s with an intellectual and activist opposition against
properties of the foundation the school is attached to. Although the schools whose foundations
have enough properties cover school expenses and create additional facilities
for students, how these properties are managed can also turn into a controversial issue
in these foundations because it is always the board members who decide to whom these
properties are rented to.
35 According to the statement of interviewees, the impact of the popular culture and assimilation
to Turkish society are heavily felt after the bfffs mainly. In this sense, popular
culture is interchangeably used for the assimilation to Turkish popular culture.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8S9
the nation state, globalization and various grassroots movements introduced
a new concept that was already circulating in the global scale; multiculturalism
-that fashioned a new discourse towards the minorities in
Turkey by presenting the minorities as “vanishing colors of Anatolia” (Bilal,
899r, p. m^). Although this discourse portrayed, and still does, the minority
culture as an object of desire almost as nice to have souvenirs, it
also made the public sphere a “safer” place for various identities to socialize
outwardly. Additionally, dynamics of the socio-political context
were altered with the AKP coming into power and the reform packages
introduced with the acceleration of the EU integration process dictated
certain advancements for ethno-religious minorities in Turkey. As I understand
it, the 8999s marked all of these changes for my participants by
which Armenians started to incorporate daily cultural practices into
spaces located outside the communal spaces.
One of the school counselors who was at her :9s at the time of our
meeting described her viewpoint by giving an example from her times of
being a member:
“We used to attend the parties organized in alumni associations,
because they were the only places our parents would let us go. But
it has changed now; popular culture is very dominant now. The
patterns of socialization have changed. Students do not need the
schools to socialize. They have social media. Yet they do not take
advantage of social media to connect to students in other Armenian
schools, or to build a network.”36
According to recollections of my participants, alumni associations
aimed to provide a space where the alumni and students could come together,
and collectively organize seminars, concerts, movie screenings as
well as game nights and parties. In order to encourage communication
and coordination among their students, the schools also have interschool
events and competitions or sport tournaments under different
36 Citation from the interview I conducted with a school counselor working in a high
school in March bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8SS
1ields and subjects. Apart from inviting alumni to be the integral part of
the schools, by offering extra-curricular courses for parents, the schools
additionally promote ways for the amelioration of the communal dialogue.
For its members, these associations not only ensure the transfer of
experiences, or inter-generational communication, but also support cultural
development of their participants by providing a venue to meet intellectuals
of the Armenian community. That is why I believe the alumni
associations, like many other communal spaces, should be read as important
cultural 1ields forti1ied for the continuity and preservation of intimate
networks which are usually peculiar to a family atmosphere.
Because of the restrictions on the reproduction of cultural materials
of different ethnic groups, for such a long time Armenians could not
openly express or embrace their cultural heritage in Turkey (Bilal, 899m,
p. aj). Therefore, they see the cultural 1ield as a space of resistance
against forms of assimilation (Bilal, 899m, p. aj). In such a context, the
alumni associations and many other solidarity networks that I mentioned
above were regarded as the crucial aspects of cultural and communal
resilience. The networks and spaces that the schools promoted
and preserved enhanced the sense of togetherness and undergirded intimate
networks of relations standing between the individual and the
state. They mediated the spaces between the body and the polity while
producing the individual as a familial subject. As the forms of intimacy
constituted the Armenian communal space, they also introduced a particular
way of governing for their familial subjects. People around the Armenian
schools are governed within this sui generis space, albeit cultural
resistance practices they collectively carved out.
§ V.W Teaching as a Gendered Division of Labor
As I introduced at the beginning of this chapter, one of the main reasons
why I prefer to use a family allegory to explain the culture engul1ing the
Armenian schools in Istanbul is to foreground the teaching profession
with respect to a discussion on gendered division of labor. Although the
teaching profession is more gender balanced in Turkey, with women
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8S8
making up ar% of teachers at all levels of education compared to m9% on
average across OECD countries (OECD, 89Sj), in the Armenian schools
this ratio is rather unbalanced for the favor of women teachers. In the
8988-898: academic year, of the total :j: teachers working in the Armenian
schools :a8 teachers are female whereas only ^S of them are male. 37
This means that while the Armenian schools are regarded as one of the
essential places of the preservation of Armenian identity, the cultural
sustainability is handed over to women with an overwhelming rate of
women teachers working in the Armenian schools (Kouyoumdjian, 8999,
p. 8999).
Why I approach the teaching profession with respect to its gender dimension
is not merely because of the overwhelming ratio of women
teachers. Rather, my argument hinges on the reasons why this role is regarded
as tailored for women, while the Armenian schools are seen as
carriers of Armenian culture. That is why before delving into the role of
women teachers as regenerators of the Armenian culture, I will present
the dynamics of the time frame when the new concept of woman was developed
in accordance with the articulation of the nation state, and show
how these two processes grew hand in hand in the context of Turkey.
As I already gave reference above to the oft-quoted book of Chatterjee
(Sjj:) with respect to his articulation of categories of the material and
the spiritual, the outside and the inside, I want to go back to that discussion
here and add some of his remarks that are relevant to the social construction
of gender and the role assigned to women during the times of
the national struggle when there is a crucial need for cultural sustainability
to survive against the daily forms of colonization. He asserts that
since during the times of the national survival, there is a vital need for the
spiritual essence of the inner core to persevere, the inner sanctum, the
home of the national culture, has to be fortressed against the penetration
of the colonizer (Chatterjee, Sjj:, p. S8S). The protection and preservation
of the inside, which is tantamount to one’s very identity, is constructed as
37 According to the data received from TEAOV (Türk Ermeni Azınlık Okulları Öğretmenleri
Yardımlaşma Vakfı) on January bfb\.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8S:
the domain of the female, and women become the representation of the
spiritual essence (Chatterjee, Sjj:, p. S89, S8S). Chatterjee summarizes
these domains very well as:
“Applying the inner/outer distinction to the matter of concrete
day-to-day living separates the social space into ghar and bahir,
the home and the world. The world is the external, the domain of
the material; the home represents one’s inner spiritual self, one’s
true identity. The world is a treacherous terrain of the pursuit of
material interests, where practical considerations reign supreme.
It is also typically the domain of the male. The home is its essence
and must remain unaffected by the profane activities of the material
world - and woman is its representation. And so, one gets an
identi1ication of social roles by gender to correspond with the separation
of the social space into ghar and bahir.” (Chatterjee, Sjj:,
p. S89).
While nationalism situated the women’s question in the inner domain
of its national culture, it actually kept it far removed from the political
contest taking place against the colonial state (Chatterjee, Sjj:, p. SSm).
However, this assignment did not necessarily mean the chances of the
woman going beyond the physical con1ines of the home were eradicated;
rather, a new image of woman was articulated in the world outside the
home as goddess or mother that would not threaten her femininity but
would erase her sexuality (Chatterjee, Sjj:, p. S:S).
Gender dynamics are regarded as one of the major forces in the historical
construction of the state (Connell, Sjj9, p. aSj). Taking into consideration
the hierarchical structure of the state, male domination in decision
making processes, male supremacy and female submission in the
internal operation of the state, and the arrangement of women sexuality
and labor, the nation state is described as a male institution in which
women play a pre-designed role as thought 1it for them (Nagel, 8999, p.
mj). The patriarchy as promoted by nationalism produced women with
certain social responsibilities and put them in a secondary position
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8S^
where the emancipation of women is dissolved in a narrative of national
sovereignty (Chatterjee, 8999, p. S8S).
Nationalist movements invited women to participate in the social life
as national actors; however, they also established the limits of culturally
acceptable behaviors and compelled women to articulate national interests
with a rhetoric provided by a nationalist discourse (Kandiyoti, Sjjr,
p. Srj). When I talk about the high rates of women teachers in the education
system, I read those numbers with respect to the roles tailored for
women in the articulation of the Armenian identity and aim to unfold the
interconnectedness between the individual, the community and the state
through the gendered division of labor in the particular context of the
Armenian schools.38 The objective of this chapter or of this project is not
to track down how the gender hierarchies in the Armenian community of
Turkey were constructed or replenished; however, touching upon this
subject brie1ly in the particular context of the Armenian schools is significant
to be able to make sense of the familial culture embodied in the
schools. With this purpose, I intend to explain the social context and practices
which have key impacts on the gendered construction of the teaching
profession in the Armenian schools along with certain momentous
points in the history of the Turkish Republic.
The processes of the construction of the nation and woman followed
a similar path in Turkey to what Chatterjee described (Sjj:). The emergence
of the nation intensi1ied the interest in women as it produced them
as mothers and protectors of the nation (Kandiyoti, Sjkj, p. S:a). Women
became constituent parts of the nation state with their role in reproducing
the national culture as the guardians and representatives of the sacredness
of this inner core. Sirman states that women were incorporated
38 Kandiyoti asserts that while the women are articulated as the privileged carriers of the
collective identity, the social construction of gender has a key importance in the expression
of cultural identity and distinctiveness, which is why she foregrounds the need to
analyze social institutions and practices to have a grasp of the way gender hierarchies
are constructed (O[[P, p. Odb).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8Sa
into the nation through the control of their bodies; the de1inition and control
of their femininity overlapped with the cultural boundaries of the nation
in which the correct form of femininity was portrayed as the virtuous
mother of the nation (899a, p. Sa9). There are many seminal works written
on the subject analyzing the Turkish state as the central institutionalization
of gendered power, and handling with the question of how the
role of the women was produced during these processes (Abadan-Ünat,
Sjmj; Altınay, 8999; Arat, Sjjm; Göle, Sjjm; Kandiyoti, Sjkj, SjjS, Sjjr, Sjjm;
Sirman, 899a; Tekeli, Sjmj).
Although with modernity initially it seemed like the rhetoric on
women was altered, the desired position and behavior of women were
designed in accordance with both the nationalist and Islamists motives
that did not threaten the “authentic” core (Kandiyoti, Sjjr, p. S^m).39
Women were invited to the public world of work and put in front of a
formal equality; however, “state feminism” that was promoted by the
Turkish nation state did not bring signi1icant changes in domestic division
of labor or sexual morality as primary roles of the women were continued
to be de1ined as enlightened motherhood and child rearing in the
nationalist rhetoric (Tekeli, Sjj9 in Kandiyoti, Sjjm, p. S8r). To this end,
Kandiyoti underlines the dual role of women as; on the one hand with the
modernization of nationalist projects women were invited to partake in
the public sphere of the new republic as equal citizens, on the other hand
they were burdened with the responsibility to preserve untainted national
culture (Sjjr, p. Sm). While the discourse of modernity had a grip
on family, sexuality and gender identities, it produced womanhood and
39 In order to give examples of the Turkish state as a patriarchal state, Arat (O[[^) gives
examples from the Civil Code where the husband is designated as the head of the family
(Art. Ocb/O), representative of the marriage union (Art. Ocl), the decision maker on
choosing the place of residence (Art. Ocb/b), and the provider for the family (Art. Ocb/b),
whereas the wife is expected to play a secondary role (p. Ofc). With these gender relations,
the state is constructed as patriarchal while endorsing and legitimizing its patriarchal
institutions of which the family, the media, and the education system become
most prominent in sustaining this gendered construction (Arat, O[[^, p. Ofc).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8Sr
manhood as the uncertainties of modernity were perceived to be situated
in the altering patterns of women behavior (Kandiyoti, Sjj:, p. Sm, 89).
As modernization required new means, women were regarded as
lacking behind, since uneducated mothers would not be considered as
suf1icient in providing the moral quali1ications that the Turkish reformers
would desire while the reasons of trouncing in the Balkan Wars were
regarded as situated in this insuf1iciency (Mardin, Sjj8/899a, p. ma). By
gaining the consent of radical conservatives based on the requirement of
educating new generations, the principle of the emancipation of women
was adopted during the Sjth century among the cadres of Young Turks,
who also did not hesitate to interrupt and downgrade those principles
whenever fell into political turmoil (Mardin, Sjj8/899a, p. ma). As the
number of women in the public sphere increased consistently and massively,
women were employed in “woman’s jobs” as public of1icers, secretaries,
telephone switchboard operators, nurses or teachers (Kandiyoti,
Sjjr, p. ^r).
When the country was at the incipient stages of a transformation from
a multiethnic empire to a nation state, the modernization project of Kemalist
reformers went far beyond modernizing the state apparatus, they
also got involved with the lifestyles, manners, behaviors, and daily customs
of people (Göle, Sjjm, p. k:). As the image of the ideal woman became
the symbol of Kemalist reforms and was presented as tantamount
to the nation’s progress, Kemalist feminism promoted taking off the veil,
establishing compensatory coeducation, acknowledging women’s suffrage
and social mixing of men and women as requirements for the participation
of women in the public sphere while creating a radical reappraisal
of what constituted the private and public realms (Göle, Sjjm, p.
kr).
While the state promoted the values for the public visibility of elite
women, the message sent to an increasingly large number of “other”
women was different (Arat, Sjjm, p. S99). They were expected to stay in
the physical con1ines of the private sphere by being housewives in the
Western style bringing order, discipline, and rationality to homemaking
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8Sm
(Arat, Sjjm, p. S99). Arat says that women were assigned with implementing
the task of modernization at home by using the methods of Taylorism
to housekeeping as a part of their national mission (Sjjm, p. S99). In such
a context, the image of the professional women was unidimensional excluding
different experiences and identities struggling to surface. Arat
describes the newly designed image of women as:
“These professional women perceived themselves as the representatives
of Turkish women, used in the singular without reference
to regional or other differences. A disregard and distaste for
difference was in harmony with the populist custom of the day,
which assumed all existing cleavages to have melted in the nationalist
pot.” (Sjjm, p. S99)
Meanwhile, the experiences of Armenian women were very much
similar, as they were regarded as the preservers of the internal domain in
an age when the preponderance of nationalism was widespread at the
demise of the Ottoman Empire. With reference to the internal domain as
the core of cultural values, in order to explain the signi1icant meaning of
the family in the Armenian culture, Pattie lays stress on the dispersion of
the domestic realm as a result of deportations or immigration establishing
the conditions for the future of the Armenian nation (Sjja, p. S:m).
While healing the losses, reconciling con1licts, manifesting identity, and
giving voice to deeply held beliefs, the signi1icant contribution of the continuation
of family rituals was the articulation of the boundaries of the
community; who was in and who was out (Imber-Black, 8998 in Manoogian
et al., 899m, p. amS). Especially after the post-genocide period, in spite
of the con1licting ambitions and desires within the community, the continuity
of central values passed on between generations remained constant
as the family stayed at the core of Armenian values albeit different
reinterpretation of the family with each new generation (Pattie, Sjja, p.
S^S).
To the extent that the familial culture became the means for the expression
of the collective identity grounded in history and culture,
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8Sk
women were burdened with the responsibility of kin-keeping as a cultural
necessity (Fiese et al., 8998; di Leonardo, Sjkm; Rosenthal, Sjka cited
in Manoogian et al., 899m, amS). Women became the bearers of Armenian
culture especially at times when the physical survival of the family became
an important matter as men were killed and transported away (Pattie,
Sjja, p. S:m). The Armenian women dedicated themselves to the national
welfare and cohesion of the community while preserving the
heritage of the Church as a national institution, despite cases of open discrimination
against women or subordination of equal justice for the sake
of solidarity with men (Zeitlan, Sjja, p. k:, km). That is why Zeitlan argues
that the concepts of family, nation and church became inseparable to uphold
the faith of the nation (Sjja, p. k:).
In accordance with this gendered division of labor, women were expected
to stay at home in charge of continuity and to pass on tradition by
telling the stories of the past, while men were encouraged to go out and
change the world (Bateson, Sjja, p. a). Ekmekçioğlu argues that the construction
of womanhood should be read as a gendered and age-conscious
legacy of the genocide which was itself a gendered and age-conscious
event (89Sr, p. S9). Whereas the nineteenth century discourse and practices
challenged men to keep pace with the era and change in the name
of “progress” and “modernity”, women were expected to continue their
roles as preservers of a national culture (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. S9). That
is why in the post-genocide period, gender was regarded as a key to the
survival of Armenianness after major catastrophes (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr,
p. j):
“The nationalists perceived women as the storage vessel for an inner
core, which made mothers constitutive elements and transmitters
of the nation’s critical difference, a common good otherwise
known as culture, constructed as a fortress against
penetration from the world.” (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. S9)
In the current context, the research conducted by Komşuoğlu and Örs
shows that the reproduction of the community culture is still mostly carARMENIAN
SCHOOLS
8Sj
ried by women who share common cultural values and practice communal
rituals by mostly staying within the con1ines of the community, while
men work outside the community and frequently have contact with non-
Armenians (899j, p. :^8).
As one of the caregiver duties, teaching had a crucial role for the Armenian
community trying to sustain its existence in a post-genocide context
where the continuation of culture mattered highly. Having the role of
the perpetuation of cultural practices mainly in the framework of their
family units, women were invested with an educational power as well
(Hovanessian, Sjja, p. S8:). Women as the heart of their families were expected
to spend their uniquely female energies conserving that which
made Armenians different; however, this conservation duty did not necessarily
chain women to home because teaching at Armenian schools remained
also equally desirable (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p.S88). Teaching was
regarded as the most suitable profession for educated women, because
this profession allowed them to take care of the house simultaneously
while working as teachers (Kouyoumdjian, 8999, p. 8jm). Armenian
women partook in the teaching profession as an extension of their role in
the preservation of the culture. The path brought them to this assignment
was very similar to what designed the role of Turkish women in the public
sphere.
My research con1irmed that the role of women as carriers of Armenian
culture still holds truth. The obstacles effacing gender normative expectations
and roles endures in the Armenian schools. Especially young
women professionals view the role assigned to women in the community
highly problematic because this assignment asks women to be passive
recipients as opposed to their male counterparts. As Bilal puts it, the
women feel a strong responsibility of sustaining Armenian identity and
culture (Aslan, n.d.). The community gives this duty mostly to women;
reproduction and regeneration of the community is regarded as the role
of women. Women are in a responsible position when it comes to preserving
Armenian culture and providing children with an Armenian education
(Kouyoumdjian, 8999, p. 8jk). During my interviews, many teachers,
man and woman, emphasized the perception within the community
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
889
that women were still regarded 1it for the teaching profession not only
because women were accepted as caregivers apt for the continuation of
Armenian culture, but also the working hours of the schools could give
women teachers enough time to take care of their households and children
that were regarded as their task to deliver. They also underlined the
fact that in the past years female students were encouraged to enter the
faculties of education in universities with the scholarships provided by
the school foundations. One of my participants who is a journalist and
editor summed up this pattern simply with a sentence: “In the Armenian
community, the women are asked to be teachers, because their husbands
only allow this.”40
Sirman’s account of familial citizenship (899a) is also suggestive here
to decipher the familial culture cognizant of gendered aspects of the
teaching profession in the Armenian schools. Women undertake the role
of teaching and raising the children of the community for the preservation
of culture. I argue that sustaining the gendered division of labor constructs
women as desirable citizens for both the state and the community,
since the role assigned to women by both the state and the community
overlaps albeit their diverse motivations. However, communal af1inities
do not only shape womanhood in a similar manner with the nation state,
but also intensify this gendered construction by repeating forms of
power constructed at the state level. The forms of intimacy pertaining to
the nuclear family does not only create the apt citizen as the subject of
the modern nation-state as Sirman asserts, but these forms also produce
them as the members of the community. Isn’t it precisely for this reason
that desirable Armenian women are depicted as those who commit themselves
to the preservation of the culture and regeneration of the community?
By being desirable Armenians, Armenian women become the subject
of not only the community but also the nation-state since this
assignment is not only relished by the community but also by the nationstate.
When we talk about the reasons why the emancipation of Arme-
40 Citation from the interview I conducted with an Armenian journalist in August bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
88S
nian women is highly dubious in practice, we have to look at the conundrum
encompassing women whose af1inity lies somewhere else other
than the nation-state. When I refer to a familial culture, I allude to loci
shared by the family, the nation and gender (Sirman, 899a). However, different
from Sirman I believe these loci where power is constituted are
also shared by the community. Thereby, nationalism acts also as the producer
of the interactions among the individuals, community and the
state. The power is in1iltrated into the subject not only by the nation-state
but both the community as well. Although these two spheres do not necessarily
overlap, they still have similar gendered constructions.
As the schools undergird the sense of togetherness and buttress the
gendered division of labor by keeping the teaching profession predominantly
female, they act as spaces where the private and communal
spheres meet in the form of a familial culture. Being vigorous members
of the community does not con1lict with gendered constructions in the
sense that forging the forms of intimacy pertaining to the nuclear family
in the communal space is actually what makes Armenian women the subjects
of the communal space. By maintaining their caregiver duties these
teachers continue to stay within the con1ines of the community, whereas
men work outside confronting external challenges. This role does not
con1lict with the expectations of either the state or the community in the
sense that as women ardently work and contribute to the regeneration of
the culture and the community, they stay within the boundaries of an extended
private sphere.
I argue that the Armenian communal space to which the state was not
quite sure how to penetrate has a different form of governmentality, because
it embraces familial aspects of Armenian nuclear families but at the
same time follows the expectations of the nation-state in certain areas.
Özyürek underscores the responsibility of teachers as so important for
the nation-state; for them to the extent that the Turkish army fought
against imperialists, the women teachers became crucial 1ighters struggling
against ignorance while embodying the principles of the educating,
disciplining and eyeing state (899m, p. a^). In a similar manner, women
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
888
teachers are crucial 1ighters for the continuation and preservation of Armenian
culture and linguistic existence while embodying the principles
of the educating, disciplining and eyeing state tailored for women.
§ V.\ Contested Spheres of Individuality
The schools sustain cultural practices by offering spaces for the reiteration
of these practices, and endorse communal empowerment by nourishing
cultural values of unity and solidarity. While we were talking about
the signi1icance of the Armenian schools for the Armenian community,
my participant who was an English language teacher captured the prevailing
understanding with the following words:
“By means of the Armenian schools, the youth can still keep a common
understanding; they feel a belonging to a particular place and
community. I felt very distant when I started university until I
came back to work in an Armenian school.” 41
In addition to approaching the schools as an internal space of the
community, I also want to present an alternative angle that manifested
itself during my interviews. As our conversations deepened, the participants
shared some experiences in which those support mechanisms had
certain detrimental impacts on subjectivity that individual voices got lost
in this unity. In this sense, I want to link this familial culture to renunciation
of personal tastes and distaste, and touch upon echoes of the communal
surveillance derived from solidarity networks. Although the
schools provide engaging, safeguarding and familiar environments for
their students, they are also seen as very isolated places by their constituents.
Thinking that this situation brings some predicaments for the students
in the long run, school administrators and teachers frequently
mentioned their efforts to open up the schools with the purpose of increasing
communication among different parties and to build channels of
41 Citation from the interview I conducted with an English language teacher working in a
high school in March bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
88:
inter-communal and intra-societal dialogue, but to no avail. These attempts
hardly make their way to success mostly because of the timidness
and reservedness that this familial culture endorses. When I asked a
Turkish literature teacher about her observations of working in an Armenian
school, she described the schools as an enclosed environment:
“The Armenian community is very reserved. Students go to school
from primary school to high school together. Even their teachers
graduated from the same schools. It is physically an enclosed environment.
It is not quite possible for the students in the Armenian
schools to compare themselves with other students in general.
That is why their imagination, dreams as well as ambitions
for the long run are very limited. That is why teachers develop a
new meaning for ‘successful’. Students need to widen their point
of view”42
Similarly, a Turkish history teacher who was working in a high school
at the time of my 1ield study described this enclosed environment by accentuating
that the students and teachers stayed within the physical con-
1ines of communal spaces while switching from one Armenian school to
another as they got older. As a matter of fact, this situation is even more
dramatic for the teachers because after their graduation from university,
they came back to the schools to work with their former schoolmates and
teachers. That is why, he furthered, this state of being together surrounded
by the same people left no room for the students to change, or
even to shift their perspectives. Sometimes this situation functioned like
a surveillance mechanism by which even the slightest change could be
noticed and tracked down:
“Students know each other from preschool years, because they
started to go to school together in preschool. Since they are always
around the same people, they could not 1ind a chance to change. It
is out of concern that parents want to protect their children and
42 Citation from the interview I conducted with a chemistry teacher working in a high
school in March bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
88^
keep them within the Armenian community. In the long run it affects
children in a negative way. Other students alter their appearances
and tastes when they are transferring from grade school to
secondary school, from secondary school to high school. They can
turn into totally different persons. However, it is not quite possible
here.”43
The protection of the inner core does not only produce the communal
space as a reserved area, it does also nurture the soil for an overwhelming
atmosphere for individuals, where it gets dif1icult to hear individual
voices or personal preferences as they melt in a communal pot. In some
occasions, familial culture expects individuals to forgo certain traits that
could engender their novelty. This can be regarded as the survival instinct
of the community in the surfeit of cultural dissolution that permeates in
everyday Turkey. In such a context, the individual can pursue self-expression
to the extent that their willingness to oppose customs of the community.
The individual carries an emotional burden trying to 1ind a balance
between going after personal choices and ful1illing responsibilities
towards the community. In this manner, my 1indings con1irm Bilal (899m),
as she explains that many Armenians consider it as their responsibility
not to leave Turkey so that they can protect the Armenian cultural heritage
and sustain it (p. am). I heard similar concerns during my 1ieldwork
especially from the younger generations, who embraced the role of protecting
Armenian cultural customs because they said that only a few people
were willing to do so. They stated that they were more eager to attend
certain events, communal gatherings, church choirs or theater groups
that they thought could keep the cultural sharing vibrant. That is why
when I asked them about their motives, they answered with the words “If
not us, then who?” referring to their responsibilities as inalienable members
of the Armenian community.
We see an example of this conundrum in its starkest form in the postgenocide
context. In the aftermath of the war, the women who could
found their way to the capital as survivors of the genocide and sought
43 Citation from the interview I conducted with a history teacher in March bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
88a
support from Bolsahay relief societies had to yield to the demands of the
Armenian authorities and relief institutions in their disempowered state
(Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. 8:). Although some of these women did not want
to give birth or mother babies that conceived during their captivity as a
result of rape by their enemy, Armenian authorities and institutions
viewed all children, regardless of how they were conceived, as the future
of the Armenian nation and accepted them as the hope for repair as a
nation (Ekmekçioğlu, 89Sr, p. 8:). The bodies that symbolized the hope
for repair, remembrance and revenge to Bolsahays, had completely different
meanings for women who had been kidnapped during the war (Ekmekçioğlu,
89Sr, p. 8:). However, as the welfare of the nation predominated
personal preferences, in this case the basic personal well-being,
individuals were seen as those that can be sacri1iced for the larger goal.
For that matter, often we do not even hear the stories of these people
while their voices were submerged or they were pushed aside as mis1its.
In that regard, Ekmekçioğlu (89Sr) adds that the stories of those women
even would not have been written about, if feminists had not covered
their stories or included them in their memoirs (p. 8:).
In another context, with her research Yumul (Sjj8) attracts attention
to the social audit mechanism among Armenians, and states that jm.m%
of her interviewees expressed that they strongly felt the social audit of
the community, where having a good reputation highly matters to the
members of the community to play along desirable codes of behavior
(Özdoğan et. al., 899j, p. :r:). In the context of the Armenian schools, it
is the teachers and school principals who had to face the strictest form of
this social audit mechanism while they are under the scrutiny of both the
parents and the school administrators, in addition to being audited professionally.
The teachers who are known as being critical to the status quo are not
always welcomed by boards of the foundations, albeit their professional
success. There are cases in which teachers were dismissed from their
teaching positions because of their critical temperaments. The names
and incidents of those teachers came up during the interviews as an exHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
88r
ample of execution and enforcement power of authorities. Arbitrary discharge
from teaching and administrative positions in the schools are regarded
as recurring incidents and clearly stated as such by my participants.
Not only from Armenian teachers hired by their school
administrations, I also heard from teachers appointed by the Ministry of
National Education that termination of contracts and displacement were
not individual cases for teachers working on a contract-base. Particular
school foundations were notorious in the regard that they did not hesitate
to dismiss teachers when they saw those teachers challenged the status
quo. As these incidents found media coverage in community newspapers,
they drew attention of the Armenian public and even in some
occasions required the involvement of different actors, including as high
as the Patriarchate.44 In the next chapter, where I will talk about the
power and in1luence of Armenian notables, I will also cover how these
processes are governed.
In this context, constituents of the schools are not only in a power
structure encompassed by the state as I described in the previous chapter
but also being a member of the Armenian community composed of familial
relationships they also stay under the constant scrutiny of this overprotective
family. Having said that, I will underline what Oran expresses;
as Armenians protect their minority sub-identity against the supra-identity
of the state, it is also vital that they have the opportunity to keep their
individual identities free from the oppression of the minority sub-identity
(Oran, 899^, p. ^9).
Acknowledging their contradictory character I describe the schools
as a part of the public sphere with reference to the preponderance of the
44 To look up some of these incidents that found media coverage, please see “Pangaltı Lisesi’nde
Bir Garip İşten Çıkarma” (Agos Newspaper, O^ June bfOP),
(http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/OcP^\/pangalti-lisesinde-bir-garip-isten-cikarma);
“Satenik Nişan: Önce istifamı istediler, sonra da görevime son verdiler” (Agos Newspaper,
OP May bfbf), (http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/blf\b/satenik-nisan-onceistifami-
istediler-sonra-da-gorevime-son-verdiler); “Esayan'da iki eğitmenin görevine
son verilmesi tepki yarattı” (Agos Newspaper, OP May bfbf),
(http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/blf\O/esayan-da-iki-egitmenin-gorevine-sonverilmesi-
tepki-yaratti).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
88m
state narrative on the one hand, and on the other I describe them as
spaces of familial culture where the relations of the private sphere is sustained
mainly by collaborative networks and solidarity. In that regard, I
argue that it is not possible to draw absolute lines separating private and
public spheres as familial culture is embodied in the schools that are a
part of a communal space standing between the individual and the state;
rather, they accommodate characteristics of both private and public by
having an idiosyncratic liminality and that is why a speci1ic form of governmentality.
In the following chapters, I will talk more about the speci1ic
characteristics of the space in which Armenian schools reside.

88j
%
Rethinking Armenian Schools in Intersecting Fields of
Power
hile I was writing my dissertation in 8989, an incident came to the
fore and heated up the discussions around the legitimacy of the
authority of the boards of the community foundations and the intensity
of their involvement in the educational affairs. Although the incident was
not regarded as so unique to the context, it was a vantage point to revive
the disagreements regarding the legitimacy of the boards over educational
preferences.
It started in May 8989, when the board of the Beyoğlu Holy Trinity
Church1 Foundation abruptly dismissed the principals of the Esayan
School -one being the principal of the primary and secondary part and
the other being of the high school part. In order to show her frustration
and give a context to the event, one of the principals later explained that
for a while ago the board asked her to resign, and since she did not even
consider quitting her job, she declined their request (Agos, Sr May 8989).
Failing on getting what they wanted, the board developed another solution
to meet their wish and noti1ied the principals about the decision not
to renew their contracts for the coming education year. As this news cir-
1 Պէյօղլու Սուրբ Երրորդութիւն Եկեղեցի [Beyoğlu Surp Yerrortutyun Yegeğetsi]
W
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8:9
culated in the school and among the teachers, it swiftly created controversy
and the situation escalated exponentially in social media. The students,
alumni, teachers and many members of the community challenged
the decision on the grounds that it lacked a fairground of judgment. In
order to demonstrate their solidarity with the principals and their dissidence
towards the decision, they raised their voices against the decision
by different means. One of their methods was to pen a public statement.
Expressing their distress and perplexity towards the outcome and sharing
their solidarity messages with the principals, in this public statement
they stressed on the lack of the accountability of the board members:
“In an environment where the articles of the regulation on the
elections and responsibilities of the community foundations’
boards are annulled and new ones are not introduced yet, the
board of the foundation which has only two members left has to
explain to the whole community the root causes lying under the
radical decision about our school.”2 (Bolsohays News, Sr May
8989a)
With the rapid escalation of events and the involvement of all constituents
of the school, the Patriarchate promptly saw a need to intervene
into the situation. With this manner, while the Patriarch described the
incident as unacceptable, he wrote a letter directly addressed to the chair
and informed the board about the necessity to review their decision (Türkiye
Ermenileri Patrikliği, S June 8989). In his letter, the Patriarch Sahak
Maşalyan of Istanbul3 also reminded present communal priorities in the
area of education and questioned the legitimacy of the preponderance of
those who were not experts on educational matters in the 1irst place.
Here, to give the gist of his latter, I will share an excerpt from it:
2 "Cemaat vakıWlarının yönetim kurullarının seçim ve görevlerine ilişkin yönetmelik
hükümlerinin ilga edildiği ve yeni hükümlerin henüz düzenlenmediği bir ortamda
sadece iki üyesi kalmış olan bir yönetim kurulunun, okulumuz hakkında almış olduğu
bu radikal kararın altında yatan sebepleri tüm topluma açıklaması gerekir.”
3 Պատրիարք Սահակ Բ. Պոլսեցի Մաշալեան
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8:S
“Even though it is just formality, disregarding the labor of those
who serve for education with an attitude that is essentially inappropriate
not only tarnished their honor but also the community’s.
No one has the right to treat those who serve for education
in this way. In the current conditions where expert opinions and
discussions particularly with large turn-outs are highly regarded,
how much value can the decisions of those who are not knowledgeable
enough about the harmony of the education system create?
The Esayan School is not personally-owned. We want to emphasize
that it is not a personally-owned store and de1initely not
a workplace. Hence, this historic educational nest gives to no one
the right to run its administrational and educational matters like
a personally-owned workplace.”4 (Bolsohays News, Sr May 8989b)
As a response to such a public debacle, the chair of the board also
thought that it would be appropriate to explain themselves by a public
statement. In his statement, he brie1ly mentioned the reasons behind this
decision and argued that the principals were dismissed based on their
weak performance evaluation results in the following words:
“The decision of not renewing Ms. Satenik’s contract is completely
based on facts. It is unacceptable to accuse or imply that there is
any personal gain or interest lying under this outcome. There are
certain drawbacks and problems in our school whose ultimate
purpose is to prepare our youngsters for the future. Ignoring these
4 “Resmiyet görüntüsünde olsa dahi, özünde yakışıksız bir tavırla bu değerli öğretim hizmetlilerinin
emeklerini yok saymak sadece onların değil. Cemaatin de onurunu
zedelemiştir. Eğitim hizmetlilerimiz hakkında bu tarz davranışta bulunmaya kimsenin
hakkı yoktur, çünkü eğitim hizmetlileri kolay yetişmiyor. Uzmanların Wikirlerine ve özellikle
geniş katılımlı müzakerelere önem verildiği günümüz şartlarında, eğitim sisteminin
düzenihakkında bilgi sahibi olmayan kişilerin bu tarz kararlar oluşturmaları ne derece
değer ifade edebilir? Esayan Okulu bireysel bir okul değildir. Özellikle de altını
çizmek isteriz ki bireysel bir dükkân veya bir işyeri asla değildir. Dolayısıyla bu tarihi
eğitim yuvası, yönetimi ve eğitim sistemi hakkında bireysel işyerlerini yönetir tarzda
yaklaşma hakkı kimseye verilmemiştir.”
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8:8
problems is a betrayal to our youngsters. The fact that Ms. Satenik
has performed this profession for years or the relationships that
she has built up her entire life do not overshadow the fact that our
school's academic success has declined over the years.”5 (Western
Armenia and Western Armenians Research Center, 88 May 8989)
Putting the criteria for this professional evaluation or the competence
of the persons who did this evaluation aside, the words of the chair did
not quite resonate with the parties involved that his words were not
enough to tranquilize the public. In the following days and months, the
event has proceeded further with multiplying consequences and rami-
1ied the public opinion. Nevertheless, it is worth clarifying that businessas-
usual is not interrupted by this event as it is a quotidian part of the
educational sphere to begin with. Although the disputes 1lamed the ire
of certain segments of the public, their ardent position did not bring any
short term solution to the motley array of challenges in the administration
of educational matters.
As this incident was representative in unraveling certain patterns and
bottlenecks in the educational space, it also underscored the importance
of unpacking the complexity of communal relations for understanding
the multilayered texture of governing the Armenian schools. Analyzing
and telling the story of the Armenian schools in Turkey, one of my goals
came to capture the schools in a way cognizant of variegated aspects of
its milieu as comprehensively and yet nuanced as possible. Thereby, my
readers would not be oblivious of different layers shaping the milieu that
the schools reside in. With this objective, this chapter is shaped around
5 “Satenik Hanım’ın sözleşmesinin yenilenmemesi tamamıyla verilere dayalı alınmış bir
karardır. Bu sonucun altında herhangi bir kişisel çıkarın ya da menfaatin bulunduğunu
itham ya da ima etmek kabul edilemez. Yegâne amacı gençlerimizi geleceğe hazırlamak
olan okulumuzda bariz eksiklikler ve problemler bulunmaktadır. Bu sorunları
görmezden gelmek, geleceğin anahtarı olan gençlerimize ihanet etmektir. Satenik
Hanım’ın bu mesleği yıllardır yerine getiriyor olması veya hayatı boyunca bireylerle kurmuş
olduğu ilişkiler, okulumuzun akademik başarısının yıllar içerisinde ne kadar zayı
Wlamış olduğu gerçeğinin üzerini örtmemekte.”
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8::
the questions of what the administration of the Armenian schools tells us
about the schools and even more broadly how power performs in the
schools as the notables in1luence the educational 1ield by their involvement.
With these objectives, this chapter avoids a potential misjudgment of
portraying the Armenian community as monolithic, which is a common
misunderstanding among people in the larger Turkish society who have
the propensity to see constituents of the Armenian community as sharing
similar viewpoints, if not the same. Dismantling the edi1ice of the Armenian
community does not quite fall within the scope of my research. However,
in order to decipher the relations within and around the schools, I
believe it is my obligation to unriddle the opaqueness of the Armenian
community on this particular matter and to construe certain disagreements,
factions or con1licts to be able to adequately include the diversity
of perspectives of my interlocutors. Having said that, the purpose of this
chapter is not to accentuate a disunity within the Armenian community;
rather, to foreground different layers and nuances emanating from the
existence of a motley array of actors to unravel vigorous characteristics
of the schools from past to present.
On that note, this chapter is an addition to the former chapter as it
aims to add certain dynamics that are left out in the former discussion. In
the previous chapter, I delineated the relations among diverse constituents
of the Armenian schools by using a family allegory and discussed a
myriad of aspects of this familial culture. Employing a family allegory was
in that sense very helpful to present a broader picture while underscoring
certain different aspects inherent to this familial culture. However,
describing close-knit relations with reference to a familial culture was
not yet quite suf1icient to unravel communal dynamics or in1luences of
certain individuals on the administration of the schools. I contend that
understanding the circumstances of the Armenian schools requires the
contribution of more 1inely-tuned analyses including touching upon
larger issues than merely school affairs. This chapter is written with the
purpose of addressing this need. Although my intention is not to give a
thorough review of the Armenian institutions as a dispute about prior
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8:^
discovery is not a part of the intention of this chapter, I cannot completely
refrain from touching these subjects if I want to unravel as many issues
as possible regarding the Armenian schools. Therefore, I articulate some
themes that ostensibly fall beyond the scope of studying the Armenian
schools but in practice entail palpable rami1ications for their operation
and sustainability. Thereby, the primary purpose of this chapter is to add
another layer to my previous discussion and break down the dynamics at
play within this familial culture even further.
During my 1ieldwork, especially teachers and principals among my interviewees
foregrounded the importance of capturing individual in1luences
of communal 1igures on the present practice and future prospects
of the schools. They underlined the signi1icance to understand the impact
and operation of the foundation boards, administrative networks as well
as communal dynamics. Their input taught me that the dynamics shaping
the communal edi1ice cannot be treated as an exclusive subject. Rather,
these dynamics encompass the schools in many aspects from their quotidian
practices to more structural matters. During those meetings, when
we talked about what the schools signi1ied in the operation of power, the
schools were frequently portrayed as epicenters of the communal politics
since they performed as access points for communal 1igures or notables
of the community to procure symbolic power or amplify their good reputation.
Throughout the chapter, I exhibit that paying attention to different
perspectives within the Armenian community matters, because communal
politics have straightforward repercussions for the schools. While nuancing
the family allegory, this chapter aims to uncover elements and factors
impacting the administration of the Armenian schools and unriddle
certain factions within the community shaping the education environment.
Building on my 1ieldwork notes, I scrutinize communal dynamics,
the practice of the Armenian community foundations and their boards
with the purpose of capturing the milieu engul1ing the schools as thoroughly
and subtly as possible. With the objective of portraying the habitus
around the schools through narratives of my participants, in this
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8:a
chapter I also foreground the signi1icance of visiting the historical backdrop
of the formation of the foundational boards to grasp the conditions
entailing the current context.
As I probed on decision-making processes of the foundation boards
regarding educational affairs and asked further questions about their impact
on Armenian cultural sustainability, the notables or board members
were frequently described as the bourgeois class or elites who carved out
new spaces for neoliberal precepts where their economic gains could
also be multiplied. The predominant narrative among my participants
was to see them as intermediaries between the state and the Armenian
community as they conveyed the educational agenda of the government
into the Armenian schools and even kept the schools in line with the developments
that the neoliberal transformation would request.
As I argue that these notables reproduce new forms of governing in
accordance with neoliberal precepts by participating in the governing of
the institutions consolidating these precepts, unraveling the milieu of the
Armenian schools should be more nuanced. Contrary to the popular belief,
I suggest not to see the board members of the Armenian community
foundations simply as intermediaries between the Turkish state and the
Armenian community or state agents keeping the political agenda of the
state in the Armenian community intact. Although I acknowledge that
they contribute to the reproduction of governmentality within the Armenian
community or within the Armenian schools in particular by internalizing
the precepts of the nation state and neoliberalism and promoting
these precepts in the schools by their involvement in educational
affairs, I rather prefer to see them as a social force who produce this space
as a power 1ield by reproducing a parallel discourse to the state similar
to the Armenian notables of the former century.
I contend that we can explain the acts and preferences of the board
members and notables of the community by elucidating them as a social
force; a term which allows us to acknowledge their weight in the operation
of power without added connotations and to construe them with
their rather amorphous characteristics. In order to pinpoint those amorphous
characteristics, I suggest that capturing the role of the notables in
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8:r
circulating power in the Armenian schools requires to see their in1luence
as a continuity of the past and a rupture from it. It is the continuity of the
past because the formation of communal institutions and processes back
in the Ottoman Empire elicited the historical role of these notables. It is
a rupture from the past because centralization reforms with the establishment
of the Republic of Turkey crippled certain communal practices,
gradually abolished communal institutions and thereby empowered the
notables as a social force over communal decisions. Their social force was
even further consolidated with the whirlwind of changes after the introduction
of neoliberalism as the meaning of education started to be associated
with competition that could only be ensured by af1luence of 1inancial
resources. While visiting both past and present of the administrative
networks of the Armenian schools, this chapter unravels how notables as
a social force participate in governing the schools as their involvement in
educational affairs undergirds the consolidation of neoliberal precepts.
In that regard, as my chapter title implies, the theoretical framework
of this chapter owes a great deal to Bourdieu (Sjjka, Sjjkb) in comprehending
the ways the economic 1ield and the educational 1ield intertwine
in the Armenian community as the economic capital of the notables provide
them the means to be involved in the educational 1ield by the board
seats of the school foundations. As a reading of Bourdieu’s theory, this
example demonstrates the intertwinement of these two 1ields at a
smaller scale where interactions of people are more salient and institutions
operate at their own rhythm and resources. We see the overlap of
the economic 1ield and educational 1ield in the Armenian community
through board memberships on the one hand, and the overlap of the governmental
1ield and communal 1ield through the adoption of neoliberal
precepts in education on the other. I argue that it is possible to decipher
the very role of the Armenian notables in governing the schools by probing
communal resources and cultural processes. While visiting the past
and present of these schools I will show that by maintaining a structure
in which the notables are integral parts for the perseverance of the Armenian
institutions, cultural practices actually preserve the hierarchies
of domination where wishes of these notables almost always prevail, or
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8:m
have prevailed so far. With the maintenance of cultural practices, Armenian
notables 1ind themselves in an integral position, the lack of which
can jeopardize the very existence of the Armenian institutions. In what
follows as I spell out the processes of how voluntary work as board memberships
turn into political leadership shaping the conditions of the Armenian
schools, social struggles within the Armenian community will become
more apparent and comprehensible.
Throughout the chapter, 1irst I will explain why we need more nuanced
perspectives in this context to address the collective impact of certain
individuals over the educational sphere. In order to clarify the dynamics
of this narrative, I will unriddle the current administrative edi1ice
of the schools by thoroughly visiting the backdrop of the historical formation
of the foundation boards as the administrational institutions of
the schools. Later, along with some concrete instances and narratives I
will elucidate how board members and other personal 1igures as a social
force in1luence educational matters and further play a role in the consolidation
of the state effect by promoting its values in this particular context.
§ W.Q Revisiting the Communal Field
During my 1ieldwork, a social group of people, which I will prefer to refer
as notables throughout the chapter borrowing the term from my interviewees,
were described as the bourgeoisie who sought the ways of pursuing
their class interests in the Armenian community by either maintaining
the malfunctioning status quo in educational affairs or
proliferating principles of neoliberal education in the Armenian schools.
The notables were referred to by my participants and pointed out in the
public discourse as potent and in1luential within the Armenian community
especially through their network of relationships. They designate the
structure of community affairs and have social leadership in community
politics. This common narrative is based on the fact that these notables
owe their say and in1luence on communal affairs mainly to their material
wealth. In that sense, material wealth is perceived as having a signi1icant
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8:k
role for notables of the community to participate in the foundational
boards, to take part in school administrations, or to intervene in school
affairs by different means. It provides the means for the maintenance of
their in1luence and impact over decisions regarding the schools and for
their favorable positions to be further consolidated. While their material
wealth is perceived as conducive to their political clout, these people are
also regarded as highly signi1icant in promoting acquiescence in governing
the foundations and schools.
In that sense, education or the Armenian schools in particular are
portrayed as the means through which the notables carve out spaces for
their political clout or personal satisfaction while they also attain communal
prestige and consent of their audience by their roles as bene1iciaries.
Especially during our one-to-one interviews, the notables were referred
to with respect to their interference to educational affairs. They
are known to emphasize the need for promoting values to produce new
subjectivities in line with neoliberal precepts and sustaining codes of
Turkish nationalism already deeply rooted in the education system and
curriculum, instead of challenging them in the communal 1ield. I have to
say, although these narratives do not address all board members of the
community foundations or bene1iciaries who are eager to contribute to
the schools, the leverage of these notables over communal affairs are frequently
mentioned during our interviews based on the fact that their in-
1luence is accepted as a signi1icant force in the educational 1ield. In order
to be able to paint a rather comprehensive picture and be faithful to the
veracity of the social world of the schools, in addition to elucidating the
narratives around these notables, I will also try to unpack their subtle
differences from the others throughout the chapter.
Discussing the educational space in a similar vein, in his study on Palestinian
students in Israel, Makkawi (899k) argues that the formal education
system aims at manipulating national identity among Palestinians
and molding students in a way that they do not challenge the status quo
(899k, p. 8k). In that framework, the formal education system is regarded
as the instrument of the ruling class to pursue domination over minorities.
My 1ieldwork shows that Makkawi’s argument can also be suggestive
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8:j
in understanding the educational space surrounding the Armenian
schools. The education system in Turkey is also viewed as the means
through which the state ideology and cultural domination over minorities
prevail. However, I argue that analyzing the phenomenon predominantly
from institutional mechanisms such as the formal education system,
state curricula or textbooks does not provide a looking glass to
capture the dynamics of communal and cultural practices shaping the edi
1ice of the schools today. For similar reasons, the existing scholarship on
the educational milieu of Armenians falls short to comprehend the totality
of the picture as certain sets of social relations such as the place of
Armenian notables in governing the Armenian schools are disregarded
in such a framework.6
Based on my research, I suggest that arguments that accept the notables
as state agents are not quite suf1icient to include communal dynamics
in schooling. Instead, these arguments settle on an understanding
which views society and state as two separately operating entities. Acknowledging
a unidirectional impact running from the state to the Armenian
community disregards communal politics. I contend that the arguments
which center the concept of a rei1ied state are not successful
enough to regard the nuances in the communal 1ield. There are not binary
oppositions of victim and perpetrator, society and state, individual or
community but rather an interwoven network of relationships. These relationships
tone up each other as power in1iltrates into quotidian practices
of the Armenian institutions. I aim to highlight the nuances which
carry weight in this particular context and understand how power performs
in the Armenian community. That is why I renounce the arguments
6 Here, it is worth mentioning Kırılmaz’s MA thesis (bfOl) which problematizes the forms
of patrimonial governance of the Assyrian community. He argues that as opposed to the
state’s attempt to govern minority subjectivities, the community leaders reproduce a
“threatening outside” discourse which becomes a technology of governmentality for the
community (Kırılmaz, bfOl). Whereas his work challenges the monolithic and static representations
of Assyrian community, it strenuously takes power relations within the
community into account.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8^9
regarding the notables as the intermediaries between the Armenian community
and the state. Instead, I argue that discussing Armenian notables
with respect to their moral and social leadership in constructing a particular
system of values within the community requires scrutinizing social
roots of their in1luence. That is why rather than seeing the notables as
intermediaries, I prefer to describe them as a social force who struggles
to shape the educational 1ield by the use of their economic or political
capital.
I suggest looking at the spaces of power outside as much as within the
Armenian community. With the lenses Bourdieu offers, throughout the
chapter I underscore the signi1icance of exploring how cultural resources,
processes, and institutions hold individuals and groups in competitive
and self-perpetuating hierarchies of domination (Swartz, Sjjm, p.
r). He argues that unraveling hierarchies of domination requires to look
at the ways how cultural socialization places individuals within competitive
status hierarchies, how actors struggle and pursue strategies to
achieve their interests, and in doing so how they unwittingly reproduce
the social strati1ication order (Swartz, Sjjm, p. r, m). Following these questions,
this chapter discusses the ways cultural socialization around the
community foundations creates status hierarchies within the Armenian
community and thereby certain Armenian notables have leverage over
educational affairs of the community.
Borrowing Bourdieu’s framework (Sjjka, Sjjkb), I argue to see the
governmental 1ield and communal 1ield together as they act in coordination
as power 1ields. I contend that discussing the set of social relations
and their historical formation within the community can reveal the Armenian
community as a 1ield of power where different actors struggle for
their legitimacy in eminence. Instead of using the terminology of a dominant
class, conceptualizing this space as Bourdieu suggests as a 1ield of
power would offer the lenses to help us understand not only the relations
of power in the Armenian schools but also the historical formation of the
communal 1ield. As I unpack these status hierarchies, I also intend to remind
that the communal 1ield as a 1ield of power does not appear out of
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8^S
thin air but has roots in the past and still holds residues of this past. Despite
their differences, the notables of the Armenian community are reminiscent
of the amiras of the past century as they both represent the entanglement
of the economic capital in the educational 1ield.
Based on Bourdieu’s work, Wacquant foregrounds that the real object
of analysis is not individuals, classes of individuals or institutions but the
space of positions (Sjj:, p. 8S). Instead of focusing on a dominant class,
analyzing the relations of power by the notion of a 1ield of power let us
comprehend different forms of power and their opposing struggles subsisting
simultaneously (Wacquant, Sjj:, p. 88). As much as variegated
forms of capital are incorporated into the recipe of domination, unpacking
social relations by the concept of 1ield of power allow us to reckon
their different tenets of legitimacy (Bourdieu, Sjjka, p. xi). Bourdieu describes
the 1ield of power as a gaming space in which agents and institutions
possessing various kinds of capital compete over dominant positions
in their 1ields and structurally determine the relations of power
(Sjjka, p. 8r^). It is a space of relations where agents with different kinds
of capital struggle for the domination of the corresponding 1ield (Bourdieu,
Sjjkb, p. :^).
As those agents struggle to prevail in their 1ields, they also invest their
capital in other 1ields. Domination requires wielding several forms of capital
simultaneously to operate effectively and to justify itself (Wacquant,
Sjj:, p. 8a). Like the economic capital can be converted into cultural capital
by the purchase of artworks (Wacquant, Sjj:, p. 8:), the economic
1ield integrates with the cultural 1ield. That is why Bourdieu further explains
that the genesis of the state can only be understood through the
notion of the uni1ication of different kinds of 1ields taking into consideration
certain practices and representations (Sjjkb, p. ::). The framework
that Bourdieu offers is richly suggestive in unpacking the Armenian communal
1ield as the administration of the Armenian schools stands at the
intersection of economic, political and educational 1ields of power. In this
particular context, the Armenian schools can be discussed as a space of
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8^8
relations of power where the economic 1ield is incorporated into the educational
1ield through the conversion of the economic capital of the notables
into an educational and symbolic capital.
The Armenian schools are also illustrative of the coexistence of the
governmental and communal 1ields. As aforementioned, Armenian notables
are frequently depicted as having a role in promoting the precepts of
neoliberalism and maintaining the status quo. In the former chapter I already
shared some examples of the boards’ attitudes towards dissident
voices in the schools for the sake of preserving the status quo. They use
certain measures for silencing discordant voices by discharging those
teachers or, as in the example I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter,
they do not renew the contracts of those teachers and administrators
who do not necessarily promote the values favorable for the board members.
The board members are often regarded prioritizing marketable qualities
over pedagogical preferences as they pave the way for the acceleration
of the neoliberalization of the schools by introducing performance
evaluations based on competitive measures of neoliberal education, prioritizing
foreign language education that might add value to students in
the job markets or investing in methods to step up strategies for central
exam preparations. All these measures are implemented to ensure the
durability of the schools while they struggle to survive in a setting where
private educational institutions overwhelm the educational space with
their new standards. These acts irrevocably transform the schools in line
with the demands of the neoliberal era oftentimes at the expense of their
basic tenets and cultural practices. The notables through their board
memberships are mostly ardent supporters of updating the schools with
certain changes which can equip their students with most competitive
qualities and thereby contribute to their embodiment of new neoliberal
subjectivities. They see the schools as marketable products which need
to attract the attention and support of the parents who have a tendency
to gravitate towards private schools.
That is why I also suggest that unpacking communal politics points
out how governmentality performs in an educational sphere as aspects
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8^:
of the sovereign power and governmentality coexist and consolidate one
another as I thoroughly discussed in Chapter :. While ruminating the political
clout of certain communal 1igures, the administrative operation of
the foundations or communal politics, the examples this chapter offers
serve the purpose of analyzing the ways power operates and circulates
within the Armenian community. In that sense, this chapter also adds another
dimension to my previous argument back in Chapter : in that it
contributes to understanding the operation of power by incorporating
aspects of communal politics into the argument on governing the Armenian
schools. It shows how governmentality performs as precepts of neoliberal
education are increasingly incorporated into the Armenian
schools on the grounds of their durability and progressiveness. For this
reason, I articulate that the Armenian schools stand at the intersection of
the governmental and the communal 1ields as it is in1luenced by the educational
system of the former and political-economic practices of the latter.
In that regard, Bourdieu’s work is illuminating since he depicts the
state not only “out there” in the guise of bureaucracies, authorities, institutions
or spectacles but also “in here” engraved in the ways we feel,
think, talk or judge (Sjjka, p. xviii). We construct the social world around
us by the categories inculcated in us via our education as the school is the
most robust conduit of the state (Bourdieu, Sjjka, p. xviii).
On a secondary note, regarding the portrayal of the notables by my
participants, I elucidate that Navaro-Yashin’s take on “public life” is also
suggestive in grasping the communal politics in governing the schools
(8998). As she explains how the state is produced through quotidian discussions
in public life, she offers a powerful vantage point to understand
how the public discussion regarding the role of notables in governing the
schools re-rei1ies the state in a variety of appearances. Her account of
public life as a category offers ways of scrutinizing the political in its
many transmogri1ied forms (8998, p. :). She carves out a new space to see
multiple metamorphoses of the state instead of merely scrutinizing it in
its rationalized and institutional forms (8998, p. :).
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8^^
Navaro-Yashin pays regard to the enduring repressive power of state
organs; however, she also underscores the fact that the means of enforcement
of the state do not seem to be suf1icient to keep the idea of the Turkish
state alive (8998, p. S:8). Rather, bearing in mind Foucault’s understanding
of power that addresses a simultaneous attempt to productively
practice power, she argues to see the image of the Turkish state as rei1ied
with independent support of spheres of society (8998, p. S:8). As she delineates
the domains of state and society in a “changing enmeshed relationship”,
she argues that the state as a material reality would not have
suf1icient effect, unless it is reproduced in everyday practices of the society
(8998, p. S:a).
Her work underscores the signi1icance to paying attention to 1leeting
and intangible forms of the political, because she argues that although
the state is deconstructed by the public discourse, incessant quotidian
practices reproduce, regenerate and re-reify the state and redress it in a
variety of garbs in our daily lives (8998, p. ^). Building on her insights, in
what follows by presenting some excerpts from my 1ieldwork I show that
the public discourse on the Armenian notables, as they weigh in the educational
sphere, regards the state as a rationalized entity separate from
the society. However, different from her take, I will not portray the articulation
of the state fantasy but modestly only focus on the interpretations
of my participants and foreground how in governing the Armenian
schools, the potency of the state effect is buttressed by narratives seeing
the notables as the hand of the bourgeois performing in the Armenian
community.
§ W.T Leveraging in Educational Affairs
As I thoroughly explained earlier in Chapter S, the present edi1ice of the
Armenian institutions and the schools functioning under the rubric of
their individual foundations greatly originated in the Ottoman Empire. I
already spelled out the historical backdrop of the establishment of the
schools and the reasons why they were landed outside the public education
system with the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. However,
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8^a
for the purposes of this chapter, I will probe a little further on the role of
different actors and platforms in the maintenance of the schools from
past to present and elaborate on the rami1ications of the altering political
context on the Armenian schools. I believe delving into the role of the
amiras in the maintenance of the schools is particularly signi1icant based
on my frequent encounters in the public discourse to the comparison between
amiras and notables.
The socio-political changes of the Sjth century marked a period in the
Armenian community as they elicited decoupling of secular and religious
matters of the Armenian population. There had been a series of developments
introduced with the objective of administering secular affairs of
the community. Moreover, the Sjth century not only marked a momentous
turning point for the modus operandi of Armenian communal affairs
as certain reforms pertinent to quotidian practices of non-Muslim populations
were introduced, but they also entailed the educational sphere to
be transmogri1ied with secular ideas of the era and redesigned it irrevocably.
The legal con1iguration of the communal space furthered political
shifts for the Armenian community as the maintenance of the schools
ceased to be supported almost entirely by individual contributions of the
notables of the era, or as widely known as the amiras. With this recon1iguration,
the Armenian schools were secularized particularly after the
emergence of the Supreme Civil Council in Sk^m and the rami1ication of
the Armenian Constitution in Skr:. The institutionalization of secular affairs
begot the secularization of curricula and introduction of Western
style education in the Armenian schools, while these two processes almost
concurrently burgeoned and undergirded each other.
Until their secularization in the Sjth century, Armenian schools were
funded and managed by the amiras of the Armenian community (Somel,
899a, p. j:). In his unparalleled work on Armenian Amira Class of Istanbul
(Sjk9), Barsoumian describes amiras as wealthy members of the Armenian
grandee class, who were in charge of corporal matters of the Armenian
community in the Ottoman Empire while they hold powerful
managerial positions in state institutions and had close connections with
the palace (p. km). In a similar vein, Karpat (Sjm:) portrays amiras as the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8^r
upper class of Armenians who had signi1icant roles in 1inance as they
sided with Ottoman bureaucracy sometimes even at the expense of their
own people (p.kj). Although in the public discourse largely money-lenders
were referred to as amiras, this term was also used to address persons
working for the palace due to their expertise, technical knowledge
of jewelry, commerce, architecture or industry (Özdoğan et. al, 899j, p.
SSk, SSj). With their proximity to the Ottoman bureaucracy, amiras were
often viewed as surpassing the lines of demarcation of the millet system.
While keeping their privileged status within the Armenian community,
they were not simple dhimmi subjects of the sultan; they had a special
position within the Ottoman ruling class and were entrenched externally
in the Ottoman governing system (Barsoumian, Sjk9, p. r^, S:k).
In order to elaborate on amiras’ rather sui generis role, Barsoumian
depicts them as intermediaries, since they facilitated matters between
the sultan and his Armenian subjects (Sjk9, p. ^k). With their special status,
they perpetuated their power and position in the system as powerbrokers
and conservative defenders of the status quo (Barsoumian, Sjk9,
p. ^k). Their political legacy alludes to a conservative mentality and a
blind loyalty to authority, and that is why while providing leadership in
educational, cultural and economic spheres of the Armenian community,
they refrained any steps which might jeopardize their interests and status
(Barsoumian, Sjk9, p. 8S:, 8S^).
Due to their special position, amiras had considerable leverage over
communal affairs until the dissolution of their power in the second half
of the Sjth century. Representing the wealthy and conservative segment
of Bolsahays, amiras constituted a form of oligarchy which was even
stronger than the power of the patriarchs at the beginning of the Sjth
century (Özdoğan et.al, 899j, p. SSk). However, being identi1ied in good
measures with the Ottoman bureaucracy or sultanate did not grant them
any political power. Amiras lacked political power in the Ottoman ruling
class; and yet they found ample opportunities to exercise power in the
Armenian community by means of their economic superiority (Barsoumian,
Sjk9, p. S:j).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8^m
Their economic power furnished them with the means to build their
social status and political power in the Armenian community (Barsoumian,
Sjk9, p. rm). Since the Armenian central administration body
was quite limited, it was subjected to the audit of Armenian 1inance aristocracy
constituted predominantly by amiras (Kevorkian and Paboudjian,
89S8, p. S8). Amiras presided over the national life of the Armenian
community and even prevailed over the patriarchate by their leverage
over communal affairs (Barsoumian, Sjk9, p. S^9). With their personal
proximity to higher-ranking ecclesiasts or to the Sublime Porte, which
was the authorizer of patriarch elections, amiras even had a sway in designating
elections of the patriarch (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. S8).
Even so, the most common usage of their economic power was their donations
of large amounts for philanthropic and charitable purposes (Barsoumian,
Sjk9, p. S^S). While these donations paved the way for their preponderance
in communal matters, they also bestowed on the amiras an
image of reputable benefactors. The 1ield of education received its share
from these philanthropic deeds as initial funds for the construction of the
schools were granted and contributions for their operational expenses
were paid on a regular basis (Barsoumian, Sjk9, p. S^k).
However, the emergence of a new generation who received education
in the West and were inculcated with democratic principles paved the
way for developments that would shake the Armenian community at its
core and challenged the monopoly of power accumulated in the hands of
the notables of the community (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. S8).
Not only they forced amiras to resign in Sk^S, but they also facilitated the
means for a dynamic network of press to burgeon and for education to
be modernized (Kevorkian and Paboudjian, 89S8, p. S8). They liberalized
the publication policy which was constantly dominated by the clergy. The
new prospects of the publication policy brought in revolutionary ideas
for the refashioning of Armenian language and culture while they supported
the vernacular Armenian language as opposed to ecclesial classical
Armenian, krapar. As a continuation of this modernization process,
the introduction of the Supreme Civil Council in Sk^m led a newly-wealthy
group of craftsmen and artisans to emerge and become a part of decisionHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8^k
making processes in communal affairs. In Ska:, this process was followed
by the launch of the Education Council under the rubric of the Supreme
Civil Council with the signi1icant roles of the new generation in the design
of these councils.
Barsoumian argues that the demur of amiras to the subservience to
patriarchal sovereignty as well as their in1luence in educational affairs
came to an end in the Ska9s (Sjk9, p. Sr^). In addition to internal dynamics
of the Armenian community, the altering context with the legal recon1iguration
of the Ottoman Empire as a result of a series of reforms brought
inevitable changes in the administration of the Armenian community and
secularized it. Notwithstanding, like in other areas of the empire, neither
the secularization process nor legal reforms were welcomed by the
power-holders of the Armenian community, because these developments
destabilized the existing hierarchy and undermined the control of religious
leaders over their communities by enabling the participation of lay
members in communal governance (Göçek, 89Sa, p. jj).
Quotidian educational matters that were formerly managed by individual
fervor and involvement of amiras came under the regulation of
communal entities; and therefore, their administration was gradually
standardized. The Education Council undertook the responsibility to 1inance
and inspect educational institutions, ameliorate professional development
and living conditions of teachers, prepare educational materials
and support cultural affairs of the community (Somel, 899m). Later,
the rati1ication of the Armenian constitution in Skr: pieced together
these objectives as the in1luence of amiras over community affairs was
interrupted extensively with the legal con1iguration introducing cohesiveness
into the communal domain (Bebiroğlu, 899k, p. S8a). With these
developments, civil matters ceased to be under the direct control of
amiras and were largely extricated from the direct involvement of powerholders.
7
7 After the Lausanne Treaty, the Supreme Civil Council was de facto abolished, and ceased
to exist until O[cl. In O[cl during the governance of the Democrat Party, the state warARMENIAN
SCHOOLS
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Notwithstanding, the legal con1iguration of the communal domain did
not last long. Initially with the Lausanne Treaty and gradually with altering
agendas of governments, communal institutions lost their authority
and the administration of Armenian foundations were once again redressed
with irregularity. During these changes, the educational sphere
was one of the spaces where the shifts of power were dramatically apparent
as these processes brought palpable repercussions for the
schools. As long as the institutional framework regulating the schools at
the communal level dissolved and the schools were encompassed with a
state similar to their former circumstances, they became exposed to individual
in1luences, unpredictability and improvisation.
After the abolishment of the Supreme Civil Council in SjrS, secular
matters, of which educational matters took a large share, were divided
among foundational administrations and started to be managed separately
in accordance with the domain and zone of authority of each foundation.
Moreover, in line with secular principles of the new republic, the
patriarchate was left without a legal entity to rule over secular matters,
and did not take part in quotidian practices unless his involvement was
vehemently needed due to his canonical status over the community. Deteriorating
health conditions of the former Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan of
Istanbul8, which brought his mandatory retirement in 899k only worsened
this situation and perpetuated the precarious climate until the elections.
Thereby, the lack of regulatory and democratic institutions paved
the way for the notables of the community to 1ill the power vacuum once
again. These conditions left some of the Armenian schools bereft not only
of the security of 1inancial resources but also of the procedures that endorsed
merit and competence at various levels of schooling.
ranted permission for the formation of a Central Board of Trustees, which would centrally
manage common properties of the Armenian community by means of elected
trustees of the community. However, this initiative as well was interrupted by the O[Pf
military coup d’etat and dissolved by the order of Istanbul’s military governor
(Özdoğan, et. al, bff[, p. bb[).
8 Պատրիարք Մեսրոպ Բ. Պոլսեցի Մութաֆեան
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8a9
In order to address problems pertinent to daily practices of the community
and to 1ill the power vacuum stemming from the lack of an overarching
institution, Inter-foundational Solidarity and Communication
Platform (VADİP) was formed by a civil initiative in 899k. This platform,
albeit not so straightforward, bore important promises for the sustainability
of the schools. Before anything else, it built up hopes for the schools
which had to rely upon rudimentary measures or sporadic donations for
their survival. The initial objective of the platform was to bring chairs of
foundations together and create a common denominator through which
civil matters of the community could be discussed and resolved. However,
the platform could not deliver what was desired initially, and meetings
were interrupted due to personal disagreements of its members.9
During my one-to-one interviews, I could 1ind the opportunity to ask
a couple of my participants, who were either involved with the platform
or meticulously followed up the news regarding it, about their perceptions
towards the platform. As she is familiar with the processes of communal
affairs, one of my participants contributed to the discussion from
a particular perspective that I think is worth mentioning here. She delineated
the initiative as an attempt to 1ill the vacuum of authority especially
after the diagnosis of the Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan of Istanbul10 with
Alzheimer's disease in 899k. The absence of an acting religious leader did
not only put the patriarchate in an uncertain position, but also left community
matters without an umpire whose suggestions were regarded as
binding until then, because of his religious authority over the community
along with his charismatic character. As she elucidated, this situation was
not only instrumentalized by some board members as an opportunity to
consolidate their power but also forti1ied their places in their seats and
gave them the right to manage properties of the Armenian community
without any interference. She poignantly put the situation into following
words:
9 The platform changed its name into the Turkey Armenian Foundations Union by the
meeting held on March, b bfbf. See http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/b\P[l/ermenivaki
Wlar-birligi-toplandi-dikran-gulmezgil-b-baskan-oldu
10 Պատրիարք Մեսրոպ Բ. Պոլսեցի Մութաֆեան
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8aS
“After Mutafyan was diagnosed, a vacuum of authority emerged,
and they [board members] took advantage of that situation. During
the time when the patriarch election cannot be held, nor the
elections for the foundations, and the former board members kept
their seats. Thereby, they made use of the process.”11
Keeping up with the news in newspapers and on social media on communal
affairs, I encountered certain comments that were at odds with
deeds of the platform. These critical voices were based on the similar reasons
that bred a nurturing soil for volatility and irregularity to sprout up
in the 1irst place. The general view of these comments was that the platform
could not address communal issues inclusively and that their methods
were precarious. The platform has frequently been criticized also by
its own members because of its lack of regulation and code of conduct.
Thus, the efforts to 1ill the gap stemming from the absence of a regulatory
entity could not bring viable solutions to long-lasting problems of the Armenian
schools. On the contrary, the foundations and their schools were
forced to abide in an ambiguous state hanging in limbo between political
agendas of governments.
During our conversations, some of my interviewees foregrounded
these topics as signi1icant issues to grasp the current context of the
schools, and more importantly they addressed the fact that these matters
consistently found coverage in newspapers and social media platforms
particularly covering Armenian communal affairs. Thereby, with their
guidance I could 1ind the details of noteworthy examples, and further followed
up the processes and their rami1ications extended over time. Probing
communal matters helped me forge links with educational and communal
matters even further. Keeping abreast of the news regularly also
led me to see the subject from a larger angle and to reckon with motives
bearing repercussions for the schools. In one of these pieces focused on
recurrent problems of the platform, I found an interview with the chair
11 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former board member in November bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8a8
of a foundation whose name came up during my interviews quite a number
of times. The following excerpt from an interview with him, who was
also a member the platform at the time, neatly sums up some of the troublesome
patterns:
“You cannot get a result or advantage of VADİP (Inter-foundational
Solidarity and Communication Platform) with this state
structure and in current conditions. Alas, people spend time there.
Well, is VADİP a necessary platform? Yes, of course. But it has to
have a code of conduct, regulation and sanction power, it has to be
on legal grounds. VADİP meetings do not exceed conversations,
decisions are not implemented, cannot be implemented. Why? Because
there is no sanction power, those who wish, implement the
decision; those who do not want to, do not. I don’t want to be included
in such a platform. “12 (Agos, 89 September 89Sm)
In what follows, it is essential to bear in mind that the relevant articles
of the Law on Foundations on the election process and requirements of
board members of community foundations were abolished in 89S:.13 The
elections for board members in the community foundations were not
12 “Bu ülke yapısıyla ve bugünkü şartlarla VADİP’ten netice alamaz, faydalanamazsınız.
Yazık, insanlar orada zaman geçiriyorlar. Peki, VADİP olması gereken bir oluşum mu?
Evet, tabii ki öyle. Ama bir tüzüğü, yönetmeliği ve yaptırım gücü olması, yasal bir temele
oturması lazım. VADİP’te konuşulanlar sohbet toplantısının ötesine geçmiyor, alınan
kararlar uygulanmıyor, uygulanamıyor. Neden? Çünkü bir yaptırımı yok; işine gelen
vakıf kararı uyguluyor, işine gelmeyen uygulamıyor. Ben böyle bir oluşumda yer almak
istemiyorum.” Despite his statement of not wanting to be on the platform, Dikran Gülmezgil
later became the vice president of the platform in bfbf. See
http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/N@OPC/ermeni-vakiflar-birligi-toplandi-dikran-gulmezgil-N-
baskan-oldu
13 Regulation on the Amendment on the Regulation on Foundations (published on OfWicial
Gazette, No:bdc\\, O[ January bfO\). By these amendments, the third section and articles
b[, \f, \O, \b, \\, regarding the election of the board members of community foundations,
of the Regulation on Foundations (published on OfWicial Gazette, No: b^fOf, b^ September
bffd) were abolished.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8a:
held until a new regulation.14 This legal deadlock impeded board members
of the community foundations to be replaced by new members and
helped current ones consolidate their power even further. Laki Vingas
who was the Minority Foundations’ Representative at the Council of
Foundations15 at the time of the interview summarized the situation in
an interview held in 89S^ as such:
“‘The Regulation on the Elections of Minority Foundations’ is not
still issued. The lack of a regulation creates serious distress for the
foundations. There are foundations that have been working understaffed
because their board members have resigned; there are
board members who have to maintain their responsibilities although
their incumbency is already due, because the election could
not be held; there are boards which continue to work by taking
advantage of the opportunity resulted from the lack of a regulation.
Controversial elections cannot be renewed. Meanwhile,
large-budgeted projects are approved, lease agreements valid
through many years are landed, and substantial properties of the
foundations are sold.”16 (Freedom of Belief Initiative, 88 July 89S^)
It goes without saying that the suspension of the board elections
brought forth critical repercussions for the schools as the accountability
14 Finally on Od June bfbb the Regulation on the Elections of Community Foundations was
issued and published in OfWicial Gazette No: \Od^f on Od June bfbb. The Regulation addresses
basic tenets of how the elections for boards of community foundations are held.
15 “VakıWlar Meclisi” is the highest decision making body of the General Directorate of
Foundations (VakıWlar Genel Müdürlüğü). The council is composed of Oc members one
of which represents the community foundations also known as minority foundations.
See Law on Foundations No. c^\^ (OfWicial Gazette, b^/fb/bffd, No. bPdff).
16 “Azınlık vakıWların yönetim kurulu seçimlerini düzenleyen ‘Azınlık VakıWları Seçim Yönetmeliği’
halen yayımlanmış değil. Yönetmeliğin çıkarılmaması vakıWlarda ciddi sıkıntılar
doğuruyor. Yöneticileri istifa ettiği için yetersiz sayıyla çalışan vakıWlar; görev süresi dolan,
ancak seçim yapılmadığı için göreve devam etmek zorunda kalan yöneticiler; yönetmelik
boşluğunun yarattığı fırsattan yararlanarak göreve devam eden yönetimler var.
Tartışmalı seçimler yenilenemiyor. Bu arada büyük projelere imzalar atılıyor, uzun
yıllara yayılan kira sözleşmeleri yapılıyor, önemli vakıf mülkleri satılıyor.”
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8a^
of the board members ceased to be of importance without their electoral
concerns. More importantly as a result of this situation, since the size of
the boards plunged, fewer people weighed in school affairs and their
wishes prevailed whether or not they were pedagogically competent or
their views were convenient to the larger educational objectives.
§ W.U Notables as a Social Force
I intend to unpack some palpable conditions and describe the board
members in a more nuanced way so that my argument does not fall into
the pitfalls of portraying a very diverse group of people as homogenous.
The board members of the foundations and the notables of today’s Armenian
community are frequently likened to the amiras of the Ottoman Empire
by the public discourse. As much as their similarities, I also intend to
unravel their differences. In addition to addressing the notables as a social
force to make sense of the current context in a more nuanced way, my
examples also show the ways how the notables reproduce the new forms
of governing through quotidian practices.
In what follows, it is essential to bear in mind that the social force and
leverage of the notables over the community stem from certain structural
factors, which also create the apt conditions for the governing of the Armenian
schools by keeping them in an ambiguous state. The conditions
endorse this social force. Like I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter
referring to Navaro-Yashin's study, the narratives of my participants reify
and redress the state in the garb of the notables. While they address the
state as a rational wholesome entity and the notables as its loyal actors,
they depict the notables of the community as a hegemonic power.
In the present context, the boards of the community foundations are
largely, but not always homogeneously, constituted by property owners,
business people, shopkeepers, artisans or social and religious notables of
the Armenian community, who land on their seats typically because of
their public familiarity or their economic power in different scales and
forms. My interviews reveal that the political leadership of the community
is largely perceived as concentrated at the hands of a small group of
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8aa
notables whose in1luence constitutes an important part of these boards.
My 1indings also disclose the view that the compositions of these boards
and the politics around these community foundations to a large extent
bear on some momentous rami1ications for the schools. Therefore, the
educational sphere is exhibited as a space that is refashioned in accordance
with the mandate of these notables.
Coupling personal ambitions of notables with educational decisions
is one of the recurrent motives in my interviews. For those notables, taking
a seat in the boards of the community foundations is seen as a practical
way to establish a good reputation within the community particularly
because of the communal leverage and political clout these memberships
have to offer. Within a similar framework, in their work on identities of
the Armenians in Turkey, Karabetian and Balian also foreground the role
of the middle-aged men in the betterment of the Armenian community
since these people invest their spare time to improve the conditions and
raise the attendance in the Armenian schools and organize receptions,
dinners and cultural activities as bene1iciaries (899S, p. a98).
In order to give some 1lesh to the appeal of these board seats, these
voluntary positions should be taken into consideration with zones of in-
1luence that they offer. Beyond being a spare time activity, these seats
procure for board members some sort of legitimacy to have the authority
in the administrative and 1inancial matters of the foundations they serve
for. Since there are no central or umbrella institutions monitoring the
foundations or setting some standards for them, the boards are the highest
in rank in managing civil matters of their foundations and 1inal decision-
makers for their schools. If the foundation in question is a wealthy
foundation with various properties and resources, decisions over 1inancial
matters, investments to be made or promises to be given are multiplied
considerably. In other words, as the wealth of the foundation scales
up, so does the zone of in1luence and the reputation in the community.
What is more, these seats pay off the investment made into them not
only because they grant the authority of monitoring all matters or deciding
on future prospects, but also because they bestow a public prestige
on those people who are ardent and vigorous enough to undertake some
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8ar
role for the larger well-being of the community. With their increasing involvement,
their reputation within the community further establishes
them as political 1igures deciding the larger prospects of the community.
Although these decisions seem minor adjustments at the scale of one institution,
they shape inner dynamics of the community and eventually
designate its resilience within the larger context of Turkey.
One of the manifestations of this pattern that I could point to in the
educational sphere is the involvement of these boards into the employment
processes of the schools. As the boards have the 1inal say to hire and
dismiss teachers or administrative of1icers, some of them are not timid to
see the teachers as their staff. That is why in cases when the standpoint
or temperament of the teachers are frowned upon, their places are regarded
as most renounceable. Needless to say that the elimination of certain
voices from the educational space based on personal preferences instead
of merit or competency brings about broader consequences for
schooling, especially when this leads to intellectual resources sustaining
cultural encounters to be left out. Thereby, the schooling promotes a certain
understanding in which even the cultural identity is molded into a
desired form as it is whittled down into some essence not everyone in
that community can relate to.
For similar reasons, albeit the charm of the involvement in decisionmaking
processes among certain groups, taking part in these communal
affairs are not quite popular especially among the youth. Karabetian and
Balian explain the absence of the youth in social settings with reference
to certain indicators of assimilation tendencies such as dissatisfaction
with in-group members, stronger af1iliation to Turkish or global-human
identities, assimilationist policies of the Turkish government, cohort effects
or some combinations of all of these factors (8998, p. a98). Spending
some time with the young generation and even having thorough conversations
with a couple of high school students, my 1ieldwork lines up with
their 1indings. However, in these interviews the dissatisfaction of the
young generation with in-group members prevailed over other reasons.
I have met high school students and new graduates who invested their
time in creating awareness for Armenian cultural heritage and who were
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8am
eager to talk about the current predicaments of the sustainability of Armenian
culture and language. I believe one of my most candid interviews
was with two high school students who were generous enough to spend
their spare time on a summer day afternoon with me explaining the
themes that I should have paid attention to in order to understand the
dynamics of the educational sphere which made things trickier than they
seemed. During our conversation as much as they shared the incentives
of their personal involvement with cultural gatherings and events, they
also explained the reasons for their frustration with the modus operandi
of the administrative frameworks and practices. In that sense, they particularly
underscored their lack of trust not only in the practices governing
the schools but also approaches to various issues that bore repercussions
for the sustainability of Armenian culture or communal well-being.
In their comprehensive work on the Armenians of Turkey, Özdoğan et
al. also include a part on the lack of inclusiveness in the Armenian civil
society. They explain this disinterestedness as a re1lection of the larger
political culture of Turkey, in which people show limited interest in civil
society (899j, p. 8kS). They further emphasize that this situation also signi
1ies the membership composition of the boards changing only slightly
throughout time along with the restricted involvement of women and the
youth, and their lack of their representation (899j, p. 8kS). In that regard,
they underscore rather structural conditions which undergird the current
edi1ice of the community foundations. Beside the ways that the Armenian
schools are kept in abeyance, here I want to add the conditions of
how in this context the tenuous domain of the regulations applying to the
community foundations endorse the power of the few while thwarting
inclusiveness.
As I mentioned earlier in this chapter, the relevant section of the Regulation
of Foundations17 used to oversee the election processes of the
17 See Regulation on Foundations (OfWicial Gazette, b^ September bffd, No. b^fOf). The
foundations that were founded after the establishment of the Turkish Republic are not
subjected to the regulations administering their election processes. Although the ReguHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8ak
community foundations; however, with the abolishment of these articles
in 89S: the elections were on hold for a long while. Examining the relevant
articles of the regulation allows one to comprehend the bureaucratic process
of the board elections of the community foundations at least in general
terms. However, these written regulations do not say much about the
practice and dynamics of these processes. In order to unravel the practice
and possible repercussions of these processes, I readjusted my 1ieldwork
in a way to include these topics during my interviews that eventually
opened a whole new dimension in my analyses. As regards, all the information
that I share here was obtained during my interviews with legal
experts, unless otherwise is speci1ied. Only after the interviews, I checked
the relevant regulations and added them here for reference. Additionally,
in order to show some notable cases with palpable details, I followed the
guidance of my interlocutors who steered me into publicly known examples
published in various means of the media.
The Armenian churches and foundations are open to all members and
non-members of the community. Moreover, these institutions are the
common property of the Armenians in Turkey. That is why all Armenians
are eligible to enjoy and bene1it from all the benevolences that these institutions
have to offer or perform. However, the boards of the community
foundations are elected exclusively by members of their polling district
and this rule bears some repercussions both for the election and
sustainability of their boards.18 As an instance to the practice of this regulation,
Özdoğan et al. underscore the fact that in the districts where the
number of candidates are low in number, this situation sometimes leads
lation on the Foundations addresses certain issues such as the rules for their establishment,
audit, accounting, their elections are not regulated by a document written by a
central institution. This regulation is one of the signiWicant features which differ the
community foundations from the others, and again one of the reasons why they are
called as such in the Wirst place.
18 According to polling district regulations, a polling district is a church district; meaning
that the registered members of the church fall into the polling district of the church. See
Regulation on Foundations Article b[ (OfWicial Gazette, No. b^fOf, b^ September bffd).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8aj
incapable or incompetent candidates to be elected as a result of insuf1icient
number of candidates to choose from (899j, p. 8k:). Whereas this
aspect was one of the predicaments of the situation raised during my
meetings, by giving some examples that made coverage in the newspapers
my participants also explained further repercussions of the situation
and diversi1ied the examples.
One of the signi1icant repercussions of this condition is, as Özdoğan
et al. (899j) underscore, the limited number of candidates applying to
these positions. Since there are not enough volunteers to create competition,
sometimes the candidates are automatically elected. This situation
inevitably leads all matters to be decided single-handedly by a few members
without any discordance. I believe the case of Beyoğlu Holy Trinity
Church I referred to at the very beginning of the chapter is a very good
example to this situation as its foundation has only two board members
left to rule over all civil matters of the foundation and the institutions
performing under its umbrella. During my 1ieldwork, Beyoğlu Holy Trinity
Church was raised many times as an example to illustrate how the demerits
of the communal administrative structure cause problems particularly
for the schools. The points that were accentuated by my
participants vary from the mismanagement of the foundation, to the lack
of checks and balances in its administration or to their reluctance to contribute
to the other schools and distribute their revenues among other
communal institutions albeit their large share of properties and ample
income. In that regard, the example that I told at the very beginning of
the chapter is a little bit more speci1ic than that as it instantiated how the
notables mold the educational 1ield by their almost completely individual
decisions. I do not purport to tell all the supervening events not to cloud
my main point with particulars. I believe that this incident par excellence
embodies the accounts I foreground earlier and gives them some 1lesh.
Not only in the case of Holy Trinity Church Foundation, but in the administration
of many other community foundations the annulment of articles
regarding the elections and management of community foundations
have brought about various issues that required improvised
measures to address their bottlenecks. However, during my interviews as
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8r9
much as these legal deadlocks, the leverage of the board members stemming
largely from irregularity, volatility and unpredictability of the structure
was often raised as a pressing issue. Even further, some of my participants
strongly believe that the state of abeyance is used as an
opportunity by an array of notables to further consolidate their already
established in1luence. As well as these notables are perceived to be in
good measures with the government, their contribution to the status quo
or conditions endorsing it are regarded as their preference.19
I talked to many people who were in one way or another involved with
communal politics or participated in the administration of various tasks
in the foundations. Most of the time I felt that my interviewees did not
share their sincere thoughts and concerns when I wanted to delve into
dynamics of the foundations that they were involved with. Instead, they
mostly told what was appropriate to say at the time. As I understood, the
main reasons for their reluctance stemmed from the fact that they were
teachers or administrators who did want to walk into a territory that
might jeopardize their jobs or simply they just did not want to open up to
an outsider who would misunderstand their angle or criticism. On the
other hand, I also had interviewees whom I knew long before I started to
conduct my 1ieldwork, and that is why I developed more open and candid
relationships with them. These interviewees among others included
some very opinionated persons who were not hesitant to express their
19 In spite of this account as largely expressed by my participants, in October bfbO four
(Karagözyan, Getronagan, Tıbrevank and Kalfayan) of Wive national institutions (Hink
Hasdadutyun) of the Armenian community heralded their attempt to reinstitute the
elections for foundational boards. The General Directorate for Foundations terminated
this attempt with correspondence reminding that the foundations could not hold elections
but their current boards could appoint new members. After the visit of Toros Alcan,
the chair of Surp Haç Tıbrevank Armenian High School Foundation, to the interior
minister Süleyman Soylu, the board of these four foundations made a public statement
and said that three foundations decided to choose their new board members by negotiation,
whereas Surp Haç Tıbrevank Armenian High School Foundation decided to take
legal action for its democratic rights. (See Agos, b\ October bfbO, Retrieved from
http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/bP\Ol/dort-vakiftan-secim-aciklamasi on bc October
bfbO).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8rS
account or even pin down some names. As I talked to one of these participants
thoroughly about the subject, as formerly being one of the board
members herself she pointed out growing networks of nepotism ingrained
especially by the lack of elections and described this situation as:
“It is a very prestigious thing to be a board member of a foundation
which is 1inancially well-off. That is why [the board members
of these foundations] do not want the elections for the foundations
to be held. Rather, they can assign whomever they want to
the [opening seat of the board], which most of the time either their
son or their acquaintance. It is a state of complete lack of authority,
and they make use of it.”20
As I discussed thoroughly in Chapter :, the lack of certain regulations
keeps the Armenian schools in abeyance and this ambiguity becomes a
practical instrument in governing the minority schools. This ambiguity
also allows governmentality to coexist with the sovereign power of the
state. That is why instead of paying attention merely to the state as a sovereign
power, I suggest scrutinizing power relations within and around
the Armenian schools by grasping how governmentality performs within
the Armenian community. In that sense, the public narratives help us unravel
how governmentality performs as the notables act as a social force
on this matter. I believe visiting a piece on the role of the notables from
Raf1i Bedrosyan, who writes weekly on Asbarez on many diverse topics
regarding Armenians all over the world, is revealing for my discussion:
“The Patriarchate has the right to exert moral authority over the
charitable foundations. Instead, the charitable foundation leaders,
who are supposed to run the affairs of the Armenian churches,
schools, and hospitals on behalf of the Armenian community, conduct
themselves as the head of individual empires, not accountable
to anyone. Some charitable foundations are quite wealthy as
they have substantial revenues and income from signi1icant real
20 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former board member in November bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8r8
estate holdings, while others are only reliant on individual donations
or fundraising dinners. The “haves” are supposed to help the
“have-nots,” but this can only be done by having a strong and in-
1luential Patriarch, arbitrating among the charitable foundations
and distributing the wealth for the common good of the entire
community. But, at present, the directors of the wealthy foundations
keep the revenues to themselves and spend it as they see it
1it. Although they are supposed to be elected, the Turkish government
has not allowed elections for Armenian charitable foundations
for many years, and these individuals rule their empires,
with no accountability.” (Asbarez, Sa October 89Sj)
It is essential to remind here that this commentary was written before
the election of Sahak Maşalyan as the Patriarch in December 89Sj and in
a state when the Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan was not in charge because
of his medical condition. While considering Bedrosyan’s emphasis on the
ways how the vacuum of authority causes the notables to expand their
in1luence, we can also read from his comments that the state does not
need to control all areas since the ambiguity it sustains by different
means already intensi1ies the conditions to keep the status quo. One of
my participants whom I just quoted above con1irms Bedrosyan’s perspective
in the sense that she accentuates these board members as reproducers
of the status quo as they engage in communal affairs by means of
their economic power:
“Board members are persons who strongly internalized the status
quo. If you have enough money, then you can have a say in these
boards, and have power.”21
In similar narratives that I encountered during my 1ieldwork, the
board members were often described as the promoters of the status quo,
because it was largely believed that the source of their economic and political
power actually lay in this very status quo. They were criticized not
only because they ran the foundations as their individual workplaces, but
21 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former board member in November bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8r:
also because they further consolidated their power by both cultivating
the conditions that left the schools destitute to their involvement and
eliminating any alternative voices which might jeopardize their position
or the larger status quo where they perpetuated a tradition of bumpy and
burdensome relations with the government. During our meetings, those
participants also reminded me of the accounts on the media that frequently
conferred about the current edi1ice of the community. In the
weekly newspaper Agos, Pakrat Estukyan shared his thoughts and analysis
on the subject by emphasizing the fact that these board members in
question kept their benevolent positions thanks to their economic capital,
which they could sustain through their infamously known relations
with the government in the 1irst place:
“The amira class of the past is today replaced by those who own
the title “bankers”. Just like their ancestors, the amiras, they maintain
the informal wealth of today’s sultans and their proponents,
entourage, when their heads are in the lion’s mouth. Keeping the
1inancial resources of the community under their own control,
they make the life [of the community] destitute for their ‘benevolence’.”
22 (Agos Newspaper, S9 December 89Sj)
Estukyan underpins the comparison between the amiras of the Ottoman
Empire and current board members by stressing the fact their concerns
to sustain their economic privilege exceed their concerns and responsibility
for their community. The board members, like the amiras,
were depicted as the promoters of the sovereign power of either their
22 This piece was written in a context when the election for the patriarch was believed to
be manipulated by some who were thought to have close relations with the government.
In this regard as well, these board members were compared with amiras who were infamously
known for their sway over the patriarchate. “Günümüzde geçmişin amiralar
sınıfını bu kez ‘banker’ sıfatını taşıyanlar sürdürüyorlar. Onlar da tıpkı ataları olan
amiralar gibi, günümüz sultanlarının ve onların taraf, etraWlarının kayıt dışı servetlerini,
kelleleri koltukta bir şekilde yürütüyorlar. Toplumun tüm gelir kaynaklarını kontrolleri
altında tutarak, yaşamı kendi ‘hayırseverlik’lerine muhtaç hale getiriyorlar.”
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8r^
sultans or their governments while they enjoyed their political power
over their community. Not only in Estukyan’s narrative, but also in my
1ield study the board members were delineated as leveraging in educational
affairs to build their political power within the community, if not
reinforce it.
Although the comparison speaks to some facts, it is essential here to
bear in mind that the political existence of the board members, or any
other member of the community for that matter, is not limited by the demarcations
of the Armenian community. Unlike the amiras, they are political
subjects beyond the Armenian community as they can participate
and take important roles in political parties. That is why I argue that
reading the political involvement of the notables with respect to their
proximity to a sovereign power is not suf1iciently suggestive to grasp the
nuances at play as it also disregards those who actually make use of their
political involvement for the betterment of the community and to bring
viable solutions to its educational predicaments. Rather, I maintain these
notables in question should be regarded as embodying new forms of governing
and promoting new neoliberal subjectivities as they reproduce a
discourse where governmentality performs. Furthermore, the board
members that are referred to in the narratives with regard to their good
measures in the state are limited only to a few persons. Apart from this
small array of people, a large group of the board members is viewed as
rather parochial and even criticized for being so because they fail to have
a larger educational perspective to address challenges and demands of
the schools. This parochialism as well is raised during our meetings as
detrimental to cultural sustainability because the notables can be easily
caught up with personal motives or secondary topics rather than focusing
on larger educational and pedagogical needs of the schools.
On the other hand, the note we can take away from Estukyan or from
other similar perspectives like his should be that: these notables reinforce
their prominent and even privileged positions by perpetuating the
need for their 1inancial presence in the sustainability of the schools. I already
raised this issue when I talked about how the ambiguous state of
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8ra
the schools further escalated their 1inancial insecurity as they increasingly
depend on individual endowments for their survival. The lack of institutions
regulating civil matters of the community leads the boards to
manage all 1inancial resources of their foundations and take all decisions
regarding them. While for wealthy foundations this means that the board
members enjoy their good reputation and prestige within the community
that come with opportunities that they can generously offer thanks to
this wealth, for those which do not have sources of recurring revenues
the situation seems rather challenging. On such an occasion, the latter
depends on the support of bene1iciaries since there is no shared budget
constituted by 1inancial revenues of all foundations that can collectively
address recurring 1inancial needs of all schools.
In other words, while wealthy foundations can provide desired 1inancial
resources for competitive educational and extracurricular opportunities
for their schools, those who lack a sustainable income have to
struggle for the survival of their schools. The lack of a shared budget or a
central budget results in some schools destined to be 1inancially and by
implication educationally challenged. That is why while some schools can
afford to make education free of charge for all of their students, provide
extracurricular opportunities, support student clubs or hire native
speakers of foreign language teachers, other schools have second
thoughts about improving their physical conditions or opening up space
for their incoming students.
As the board members have the 1inal decision over 1inancial incomes,
in practice participating in a shared budget is also up to their decision.
The boards of wealthy foundations have been reluctant so far in distributing
their excessive income among other foundations or giving up on
their privilege for that matter. That is why the future of the schools which
do not have recurring revenues is left onto the hands of a few philanthropists
who occasionally make endowments in annual fundraising events.
In the piece that I took from Estukyan’s commentary or in the below excerpts,
the aforementioned schools’ destitution for benevolence refers to
these conditions.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8rr
As our conversations went deeper during our meetings, one of my
participants also reminded me that these wealthy foundations also happen
to offer inter-foundational donations, which they occasionally give to
less advantaged foundations as a leverage. I believe Dikran Gülmezgil’s
comment, who is the chair of Karagözyan Foundation, is very helpful here
in re1lecting certain dynamics on the matter:
“Wealthy foundations do not approve the formula for ‘shared
pool’, because it means that their spending will be kept in control.
This may not suit their book. Some foundations make donations
to the foundations they like, and not to those that they don’t like.
There is not any kind of principle; the decision is up to the chair
of the foundation. I believe that there has to be a shared budget,
but to make it happen everyone has to believe in it, has to agree
on the terms. Unless the idea of “I have the power, I have the empire
under my control” is surpassed, a shared budget cannot be
ensured.”23 (Agos Newspaper, 89 September 89Sm)
Having 1inancial resources to subsidize more disadvantaged schools
on a myriad of occasions, large budgets of the wealthy foundations become
the source for spheres of their in1luence. Even more signi1icantly,
since there is no code of conduct regulating the 1low of those funds or
standards to follow, these redistribution processes are performed sporadically
based on individual preferences rather than standardized and
calculated procedures. As well as the decisions to participate in a shared
budget, the decisions to make sporadic donations also usually result in
controversy.
During our conversations on this matter, many of my participants referred
to the take of the Surp Pırgiç Hospital Foundation’s board to give
23 “Varlıklı vakıWlar ‘ortak havuz’ formülünü kabul etmezler, çünkü harcamalar belli bir
disiplin altında yapılacak. Bu onların işine gelmeyebilir. Bazı vakıWlar istediğine verip,
istediğine vermiyor. Belli bir prensip yok, karar vakıf başkanının iki dudağının
arasında... Ben ortak havuzun olması gerektiğine inanıyorum ama olması için buna herkesin
inanması, o havuzun şartlarını kabullenmesi lazım. ‘Güç bende, imparatorluk
bende’ mantığı aşılmadığı sürece bu havuz kurulamaz.”
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8rm
discussions some 1lesh. They argued that this example illustrated the
links between economic and political power in the community. In order
to be more speci1ic, quite a number of my participants attracted my attention
to the below example when during a public speech the chair of
the Surp Pırgiç Hospital Foundation gave his suggestions to 1ind a permanent
solution to 1inancial troubles of some schools. Accentuating the low
number of students of the Esayan School, he advised to shut down the
Esayan School and divide its students between Feriköy Elementary and
Secondary School and Getronagan High School. With the money saved,
they could 1inancially contribute to the Feriköy and Getronagan schools:
“Today, Feriköy School has Sa9 students. Excuse me because I give
names, but friends always say the harshest truth. Today, the big
Esayan School has Skk students. Years ago, it used to be S999 [students].
Now, let me talk about the ^ million liras worth saving. [I
suggest that] the pupils of Esayan School go to Merametçiyan
(Feriköy) School, Getronagan High School to merge with Esayan
High School. Here is the ^ million liras worth saving. Do this, and
come to me; [the foundation of] the hospital will give you 8.a million
liras [of 1inancial support] every year. Give and take; without
giving [anything] you cannot take [something].”24 (Agos Newspaper,
Sj June 89Sk)
Although there had been no palpable initiative to form a shared
budget to secure steady funds for the schools in need so far, during my
1ield work I heard that there had been some discussion going on the subject
for a while. The election of the new Patriarch of Constantinople of
Sahak II Maşalyan in late 89Sj heralded some changes for the course of
communal affairs. In May 8989, the Patriarchate announced that they
24 “Bugün Feriköy Okulu’nda Ocf öğrenci var. İsim veriyorum, kusura bakmayın, dost acı
söyler, bugün koskocaman Esayan’da Odd öğrenci var. Yıllar önce Esayan’ın öğrenci sayısı
Offf’di. Şimdi l milyon TL’lik tasarruftan bahsedeyim. Esayan’ın ilkokulu Feriköy Merametçiyan
Okulu’na gitsin, Getronagan Lisesi Esayan Lisesi’yle birleşsin, alın size l milyon
TL’lik tasarruf. Yapın bunu, gelin, hastane size her yıl b,c milyon TL verecek. Verin,
alın, vermeden alamazsınız.”
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8rk
were in the process of initiating a study group in coordination with the
Armenian Foundations Union to address recurring 1inancial problems of
the schools -Kumkapı, Samatya, Feriköy and Topkapı schools in particular
whose 1inancial troubles got even further intensi1ied with the COVID-
Sj pandemic (Agos Newspaper, Sa May 8989).
According to the public statement shared by the Patriarchate, with experts
and benefactors the objective of the study group was to develop solutions
based on the 1inancial reports provided by each foundation. I order
to address predicaments stemming from the lack of inadequate
1inancial resources or administrative drawbacks, the study group initiated
the establishment of the Joint Commission for the Management of
the Schools “under the auspices of Patriarchate, under the chairmanship
of the Patriarch and within the framework of the Armenian Foundations
Union” (Bolsohays News, : July 898S). The Joint Commission is designed
with the involvement of the chairs of school foundations as equal and full
members who have the right to vote, and two observer members one of
which is from the Patriarchate and the other is from Surp Pırgiç Hospital
Foundation who have the right to give an opinion but not the right to vote
(Agos Newspaper, 8 July 898S). This autonomous joint commission is expected
to administer and supervise mutual topics among the schools, and
to form working groups when needed.
The perspective of board members becomes crucial for the sustainability
and management of the schools. As the boards oversee decisionmaking
processes regarding the schools, they determine the factors of
the strategic direction or prospects of the schools they are responsible
for. These decision-making processes pertain to a myriad of topics, such
as the medium of instruction, extracurricular activities, the choice of secondary
languages or the teachers to be hired. These decisions even shape
the student composition of these schools. On this matter, teachers and
principals sometimes even see the strategic direction of board members
as inimical to their educational and pedagogical envisagement. Educators
criticize notables and board members on their intense involvement
in educational affairs. These critiques vary in their motives. The parochial
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8rj
perspectives of the board members are viewed as menacing to educational
prospects. They are criticized for their commitment to neoliberal
precepts instead of prioritizing more pedagogical needs of the schools or
for their pursuit of personal interests and well-being.
Due to their authority over the schools, the board members were depicted
as weighing their political agendas in education. During my oneto-
one interviews, this perspective was raised many times as a serious
drawback for schooling. One of my participants who was working in one
of the schools at the time of our interview presented his concerns in a
larger perspective before giving speci1ic examples. He portrayed the educational
sphere as a playground for the notables to impose their political
agendas. He articulated the schools as spaces which were politicized
for the second time by the notables - 1irst time being political epicenters
of the state:
“Just like how the state politicizes education and makes use of it,
the Armenian capitalist class politicizes education in the same
way. They use it as an instrument to consolidate their power
[within the community].”25
I conclude that the dissatisfaction with the boards mainly stems from
their management methods. As I explained in the earlier chapters, although
the Armenian schools are named as private, they are actually not
pro1it-making institutions. Administering these schools as business enterprises
attracts criticism of, I can say, many people. My participants see
the schools as bearers of Armenian culture and language. When the
school foundations focus on pro1it-maximization, their viewpoint is not
always welcomed by educators. Educational priorities do not line up well
with goals of pro1it-maximization. This reasoning also puts the boards in
competition with each other. While they strive to present their schools as
prestigious as possible to attract more students, they miss their actual
educational needs and let secondary goals take over their educational
prospects. In order to present these perspectives accurately, I picked two
25 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former student in November bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8m9
pieces. The 1irst one was written by the journalist Aris Nalcı in his blog.
The second one was from my interview with a former teacher. It is indelible
how both of these quotations point out similar concerns that they
think problematic in the current context, although they are spelled out in
different contexts and as an answer to disparate questions:
“Since chairs of the foundations are also the holders of large capital,
money has come to assume a central position in areas such as
identity and education [of the Armenian community].... As long as
holders of those large capitals, who unfortunately approach the
Armenian schools as if it [education] is mere business, keep managing
our foundations and treating the schools as their companies,
a grim end seems imminent for us all.”26 (Aris Nalcı, Sk May
89Sk)
“Because there are boards [of foundations] who regard schools as
businesses [instead of educational institutions]. Since they consider
schools as places that should generate pro1it, parents become
customers. So, parents as customers make the best of this
situation. They express their thoughts on every matter. When
teachers are not responsive enough about their requests, parents
can walk over them and go straight to the principal [to enforce
their requests]. Boards are in competition with one another. They
do not want other schools to succeed. They want only their school
to ride high.”27
Having authority over the management of the schools, wishes of the
board members almost always prevail. They are eager to redesign the
schools in accordance with their point of view and readjust educational
approaches. When I was conducting my 1ieldwork in 89Sj, I witnessed a
26 “Paranın başkanlarının aynı zamanda VAKIF BAŞKANLARI olduğundan beri paranın
sözü kimlikte, eğitimde geçer oldu…..Ne yazık ki Ermeni okullarına şirket gözü ile
yakaşan PARAnın Patronları vakıWlarımıza da başkanlık yaptıkça okullara da kendi sahip
oldukları şirketler gibi bakmaları kaçınılmaz sonumuzu hazırlıyor.”
27 Citation from the interview I conducted with a primary school teacher in November
bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8mS
manifest instance of this situation when a chair of a respected foundation,
Bedros Şirinoğlu, questioned the modus operandi of one of the
highly esteemed schools, Getronagan High School, and accused the school
by the words “They raise militants.” in a public statement (Agos newspaper,
89 September 89Sj). Reading his words, it is clear that Şirinoğlu does
not applaud the educational standpoint of Getronagan High School. As
many of my participants put it, he also does not appreciate diverse perspectives
burgeoning in the school. When my participants narrated the
event, they expressed their frustration and resentment towards Şirinoğlu,
who tried to undermine the school’s reputation as a chair of one
of the Armenian foundations. His defamation sparked a public debacle
and received reprimand messages from certain intellectuals of the community.
One of these messages came from Garo Paylan, who was responsible
with the administration of the Yeşilköy School in previous years and
was a member of the parliament at the time of the incident:
“History will remember Şirinoğlu as a mere puppet in our community;
a mere puppet of a centralized government that de1ies
variegated opinions. I reprimand him!” 28 (Bianet, Sr September
89Sj).
Although later Şirinoğlu explained that his words were completely
misunderstood and misdirected, his words were received as spurious. To
the public eye, the incident was an example of the impact of politics on
educational institutions. When wishes of the boards are not ful1illed, they
do not refrain from discrediting educational institutions to change public
opinion and to consolidate their leverage over education. As education is
viewed as the epicenter of community politics through which the ‘desired’
Armenian citizen is produced and Armenian identity is shaped in a
certain way, the notables are not timid to construct their own spheres of
28 In original: "Şirinoğlu, farklı düşüncelere saygı duymayan merkezi iktidarın, bizim toplumdaki
kötü kuklası olarak tarihe geçecektir. Kınıyorum!"
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8m8
power to govern these processes. In those instances, ambiguity is intentionally
promoted to open rooms for maneuver so that the network of
interests can be sustained in the status quo.
Within the same discussion, the participants brought up a myriad of
con1licts that have direct in1luence on the schools. In my one-to-one interviews,
the discussion around suspended teachers stood out as interviewees
wanted to foreground the patterns shaping educational con1igurations.
Mainly as a result of a lack of sophisticated professional training
networks and Armenian language departments in the universities in Turkey,
the schools had dif1iculty in 1inding and educating a new generation
of Armenian language teachers who were comprehensively language
competent. Notwithstanding, some teachers who were competent, welleducated
and met the criteria were suspended in the past years from
their teaching positions because of their ideological views, future envisagement
or attempts to redesign ways of how things were done in the
educational 1ield. We see that dissident teachers are regarded as un1it to
their teaching positions because of their progressive views vis-a-vis the
status quo.
While talking about these teachers, one of my interviewees foregrounded
the progressiveness and left-wing perspectives of these teachers
as reasons for their discharge:
“There are many teachers whose contracts were terminated, who
were transferred to other schools. There are teachers who are
quali1ied in Armenian [language], but not hired because they are
leftists.”29
He further explained that there was a certain image that teachers
were expected to preserve during their contracts. It is not very much appreciated
when these teachers are involved in community politics or
raise their voices of criticism against ingrained praxis. In our meetings,
those who witnessed these suspension processes emphasized that teachers
were suspended from their positions not because of their merit-
29 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former student in November bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
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based inadequacy but as a result of personal disagreements with the
boards.30 In fact, even a former board member put the situation similarly
with the following words:
“[Board members] do not want the opponents to the status quo
[to work in their schools]. They exclude the persons who can have
a great contribution.”31
These comments take us back to an earlier discussion that I mentioned
previously in this chapter. They unravel the root causes of why
young generations are reluctant to work in community schools or participate
in their administration. My interviews with high school students
and recent graduates reveal that younger generations do not get involved
with communal affairs, because most of them do not feel welcomed during
these processes. Communal politics are not very inclusive towards
new voices. As I further probed the reasons for their dissatisfaction with
communal dynamics, they frequently described the overall atmosphere
as conservative and anti-democratic. The participant that I quoted above
added the comment below, when I asked him about the reluctance of the
youth in participating in communal affairs:
“Both teachers and administrators are conservative; they do not
want younger generations to be included and talk [about the issues
regarding the Armenian schools or the community]. That is
why they block left wing people. They try to maintain anti-democratic,
authoritarian, submissive culture. On the other hand, the
30 To see some examples of suspended teachers and the discussion around the issue please
see the following examples which also found coverage in the media: Agos Newspaper.
(O^ June bfOP). Pangaltı Lisesi’nde bir garip işten çıkarma. Retrieved from
(http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/OcP^\/pangalti-lisesinde-bir-garip-isten-cikarma)
on b\ July bfbf. Agos Newspaper. (OP May bfbf). Esayan’da iki eğitmenin görevine son
verilmesi tepki yarattı. Retrieved from
(http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/blf\O/esayan-da-iki-egitmenin-gorevine-sonverilmesi-
tepki-yaratti) on b\ July bfbf.
31 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former board member in November bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8m^
young generation does not struggle [for change]. They need to
manifest themselves somehow.”32
There is a motley array of reasons from communal interactions to 1inancial
troubles which result in the promotion of the notables as a social
force in the educational sphere. However, I argue that reading the in1luence
of these notables as the cultural hegemony of the bourgeois class
does not help to grasp communal dynamics governing the schools. I argue
that as much as these reasons, the governmentality of the communal
space gravely matters. As the narratives of my participants emphasize the
loyalty of the notables to the status quo, they portray the notables as the
embodiment of the state in the context of the Armenian schools. I contend
that so long as the public discourse reinvents the social in1luence of these
notables, the educational and communal 1ields will be the spaces where
power operates. The discourse my participants embody reproduce the
image of these notables. It redresses the state in the Armenian educational
sphere. A narrative that portrays the notables as state agents actually
re-rei1ies the state and redresses it in the garb of the notables involved
with educational affairs.
32 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former student in November bfO[.
8ma
&
Relocating Armenian Identity in Spatiality and Temporality
designed this chapter as a 1inal step to give a panoramic look to the
context of Armenian schools and intended to touch upon a key subject
that I left unaddressed until now. In order to illuminate engul1ing conditions
of the Armenian schools, I unpacked the dynamics around the
schools at the state and community levels in relation to one another in
the previous chapters and pinpointed the potential impossibility to keep
demarcations between these spheres of interaction, simply because the
ambience of each sphere could not be interpreted without the other.
When visiting the schools and talking to people to unravel the interactions,
networks of solidarity or articulations of shared values, one of my
aims was to discover the spaces that may speak to resistance in different
forms in the terrain of Armenian schools. The family allegory I used in
Chapter ^ to describe the cultural and social unity serves for this aim. As
much as the efforts to sustain Armenian cultural heritage with a survival
instinct, that allegory implies the ways the community sees itself as a
whole, sometimes at the expense of individual preferences. This chapter
aims to expand this argument by adding another dimension to the framework
by accumulating discussions and comments during my research regarding
the sustainability of Armenian cultural life within the edi1ice of
I
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8mr
the schools the way it was interpreted at intra-communal and individual
levels.
By this chapter, I intend to share the responses of my participants
when I asked them the role and in1luence of the Armenian schools in sustaining
Armenian culture and language as opposed to the principles promoted
by a nationalist agenda to be instilled through the education system
in Turkey. As a result of the considerable amount of time allocated in
my 1ieldwork and one-to-one interviews about the impact and contribution
of the Armenian schools to Armenian identity and its rearticulation,
it was imperative to write a chapter regarding the prevailing contemporary
take on Armenian identity and the way this identity was essentialized
or contrariwise refashioned with respect to the exigencies and contingencies
of the era. Based on the conversations focusing on the
perseverance of Armenian culture, this chapter describes the stalemates
as well as the tenacity of Armenian identity with respect to current sociopolitical
climate. In that regard, the objective of this chapter is to unriddle
rather tacit processes of identity and self-meaning formation in the realm
of education on a daily basis, while naming speci1ic challenges that the
schools experience in this regard. That is why while demystifying a subculture
rebuf1ing cultural domination of Turko-Islamic values by means
of its cultural institutions, solidarity networks, or willingness to sustain
values de1ining the identity, I focus on the impacts of a subculture on students
as they have concerns stemming from more current and contemporary
socio-economic dynamics.
In his work unpacking the educational sphere in the latest periods of
the Ottoman Empire, Fortna (899a) disapproves the perspective that sees
education as an instrument to an agenda as if the schools execute a uniform
and mechanical function towards this end, and interprets this perspective
as reductionist since it fails to see complex texture of interactions
and reactions (p. 8m). Schools cannot produce uniform students;
that is why students need to be considered not as a group but as individuals
whose reactions to the materials and atmosphere they experience
tend to vary (Fortna, 899a, p. 8m). Similarly, in his work on resistance in
education, based on Bourdieu and Passeron’s analysis (Sjmm, Sjmj), Giroux
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8mm
(Sjk:) foregrounds that dominant ideologies are not simply transmitted
and practiced in schools; rather they are often met with resistance by students,
teachers or parents (p. jS). When applying theories of social production
that see the schools as the reproducers of social formations and
social sites for the construction of subjectivities and dispositions (p. mk),
Giroux remarks on an overemphasis on domination that may lead to ignoring
contradictions and forms of resistance as its concepts mystify how
people resist, escape or change the weight of the conditions (p. kr). In
order to understand the role of schools in the reproduction of class and
gender relationships, he recommends employing approaches focusing on
the cultural 1ield of the school as it mediates the complex interplay between
reproduction and resistance (p. kr).
Accentuating the diversity of perceptions and attitudes of students
towards the same variable, Martinez (899r, p. S:r) reminds the possibility
of multiple readings by referring to Apple (8999, p. ak) who warns us
not to assume “what is in the text is actually taught or what is taught is
actually learned” because as much as teachers who mediate and transform
text material when they interpret it in their classrooms, students
perceive these materials in their particular schemas of thought that are
shaped by their own classed, raced, religious or gendered biographies. In
that regard, Apple sees a need to foreground the fact that students or
teachers are not empty vessels into which knowledge is poured; rather
they accept, interpret or reject what counts as legitimate knowledge
(8999, p. ak). Armenian schools also accommodate these contradictions:
as they embody dominant ideologies, they also exhibit fragments and integrate
escape strategies into their operation. Although performances of
students and teachers to exhibit the schools serving for a uniform and
mechanical function is a part of their quotidian practices, their perceptions
and attitudes might differ from these performances. Like Parla’s
(89Sj) description of the routine acts of the Jews in Turkey who have to
enact a “performative citizenship” (Silverstein, 899^) in a setting de1ines
belonging in ethno-racial and religious terms, with the terms of acquiescence
imposed on themselves, teachers and students are called upon to
manifest their allegiance to Turko-Islamic values in publicly visible ways
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8mk
(p. 89). The most explicit example of this is to make students answer
questions of the Turkish history section of the central exams in a particular
way to demonstrate their allegiance to the narrative nourishing the
image of a sovereign power.
However, while students and teachers perform their public transcripts
in their classrooms, the silencing that convoys public transcripts
does not necessarily avert possibilities for resistance (Kelley, Sjj:; Scott,
Sjj9). Resistance may exhibit itself in many diverse ways in the context
of the schools in which the code of conduct, the physical arrangement of
the schools, the curricula, school textbooks and even the wording of the
content of the classes are centrally regulated. Forms of resistance might
perform within the same conceptual system of the regime, and most of
the time they do (Wedeen, Sjjj, p. S:9). Students and teachers complying
with the rules of the game and following the state curricula without nullifying
the narrative, at least publicly, does not necessarily mean that the
content and discourse are received with good grace.
That is why as much as presenting the interpretations of culture and
identity, my attempt includes foregrounding the existence of “hidden
transcripts” referring to ‘discourse[s] that takes place "offstage," beyond
direct observation by power holders’ as opposed to a “public transcript”
performed in the presence of the dominant (Scott, Sjj9, p. ^). For my example,
while the public transcript refers to practices performed in line
with the modus operandi of the national education system as well as the
policies and rules of the Ministry of National Education, the hidden transcript
consists of offstage comments, practices and interpretations that
either con1irm or contradict with this public transcript within the context
of the schools. As an outsider researcher, I am well aware that it is not
possible for me to fully unpack these offstage speeches and reactions as
I cannot really be a part of these speeches. However, by unraveling the
ways teachers, administrators or parents conceptualize Armenian identity
and the challenges that Armenian culture experience today, I contend
that “[t]he dominant never controls the stage absolutely” (Scott, Sjj9, p.
^). The hidden transcript impacts the ways Armenian culture and identity
is preserved today.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8mj
Then, the invisible interaction in the classrooms or more broadly in
the context of the schools brings to mind the question of whether we
could read these acts of endurance as speaking to a subaltern culture
which leads to conceptions of the world speci1ic to the Armenian community
in Turkey to prosper. Spivak refuses to use the term “subaltern”
to de1ine anything postcolonial or belongs to an ethnic minority; according
to her the subaltern earns its meaning in the sheer heterogeneity of
decolonized spaces (89S9, p. ra). Yet, subaltern cultures are not immune
to dominant elements; they contain cultural forms engendering their
own subjection (Apple and Buras, 899r, p. 8:) or in Butler’s terminology
their “constitutive outside” (Sjj:). In order to grasp the confrontation of
subaltern cultures with the dominant discourse, perhaps Gramsci’s description
of subaltern culture can be explanatory to make sense of the
interactions of students with centrally prepared curricula and one-size-
1its-all regulations. In her reading of Gramsci on the basic character of
subaltern culture, Crehan (8998) describes subaltern culture with an emphasis
on being on the defensive. Gramsci describes subaltern culture as
having its own conceptions of the world but inherently fragmented, incoherent
and contradictory in the sum of these conceptions, and therefore
fails to generate effective, authentically transformative social and political
movements (Crehan, 8998, p. S98). In their book that offers lenses to
capture a more nuanced understanding of limits and possibilities for subaltern
communities speaking and acting in the educational sphere, Apple
and Buras (899r) wax particularly poetic achievements on bringing a
speci1ic focus on the spaces which subaltern communities create to reassert
their own perceived identities, cultures or histories (p. 88). Taking
my inspiration from them, I am intrigued to embrace a rather broader
theoretical framework in telling the particulars of the space created to
sustain Armenian identity, culture and history. In that regard, in line with
the Apple and Buras’ (899r) aim, I exhibit the effects of self-meaning formation
in rearticulating conventional policies, practices or tendencies.
Ruminating aspects that could constitute sameness, Douglas (Sjkr)
contends that the idea of similarity and resemblance is conferred and
1ixed by social interactions facilitated by institutions (p. a:) In order to
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8k9
grasp the atmosphere in Armenian schools as a subculture and discuss
the elements whether it could be counted as subaltern, we need to understand
how in this particular context people compose their self-meaning
based on shared values and similarity especially as opposed to a exclusionary
discourse in the education system. I contend that by looking
at the ways Armenian identity and constituents are articulated, it is possible
not only to grasp certain characteristics of a subaltern culture, but
also to dissolve Armenian identity as a full-grown, given entity. Like
Douglas argues, I focus on social interactions facilitated by the schools
that foreground and de1ine resemblance as a glue holding the identity intact.
I contend that unpacking the currents of Armenian identity will
make the reader understand the dynamics of this particular cultural
space through which conceptions of the world inherent to the Armenian
community can be sustained or the reasons why they fail to.
In order to explain collective behavior, Durkheim (89S9) suggests that
people do not share a common feeling because they are designed by a
pre-established harmony, but because certain factors stimulate them to
collectively act towards the same direction (p. :a). I suggest that this line
of thinking is also conducive to interpret collective ways Armenian identity
is imagined. If we want to understand Armenian cultural space, we
need to reckon external and internal factors shaping the collectiveness of
this space. Rather than regarding Armenian identity based on an essential
core from which its constituents emerge from, we need to ruminate
variegated combinations of factors to elucidate identity in its context and
historicity which might reveal collective ways of thinking.
In that sense, Nichanian proposes a poetic framework to understand
the impact of the collective trauma on the modes of thought of Armenians
and how the shared and narrated memories of the genocide become so
inherent to Armenian identity past and present (899:). In explaining how
collective murder impacts the collective psyche of the victims, Nichanian
(899:) underscores the interdiction of mourning as a crucial factor when
comprehending the modalities and illusions of the political action of Armenians
(p. S99). Additionally, Kazanjian and Nichanian accentuate how
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8kS
the remembrance of the past becomes catastrophic itself among Armenians,
as the act of remembering repeats the denial of catastrophic events
by naming and codifying them in positive law and positivist history (899:,
p. S:9). The trauma of the past and interdiction of mourning of this past
stay as de1initive components of Armenian identity and shape the modes
of thought in the Armenian community. Remembering the past conveys a
cultural-political meaning as it bears signi1icance for the social coherence
of the survivors (Miller and Miller, Sjj:; Hovannisian, Sjjk; Shirinian,
Sjjk; Tuğal, 899S). On its speci1ic role in the reproduction of Armenian
identity, Tuğal (899S) frames the recollection of violent past events with
reference to its role to imagine the sense of collectivity (p. S:m, S:k).
Similarly, Bilal (899m) emphasizes that the silencing emerged by discontinuities
and disruptions in memory becomes very signi1icant in understanding
the formation of Armenian identities because it creates a
new form of subjectivity belonging to a displaced memory rather than
belonging to a place (p. r9). As the silencing elicits interrupted, incomplete
and fragmented histories of the subaltern and leaves the stories bereft
of a context, the articulation of these stories becomes impossible in
the public sphere and shapes Armenian identity with fragments and interruptions
while the meaning of these histories is ripped away (Bilal,
899m, p. ka). Trying to regain what is silenced and rebuild their fragmented
histories, aware of the knowledge of loss Armenians situate
themselves within the socio-political context in Turkey to create forms of
their new subjectivities (Bilal, 899m, p. k9).
I argue that Nichanian’s (899:) and Bilal’s (899m) arguments offer successful
starting points to establish the theoretical framework of this
chapter. As my 1ieldwork shows how students, teachers or parents engage
with a particular conception of the world in the schools, their comments
or interpretations unravel the way their self-meaning and their educational
expectations are infused with collective trauma and the
interdiction of mourning. However, I also acknowledge that explaining
Armenian identity and culture with respect to its past is not suf1icient to
paint the full picture. Armenian cultural sustainability is not exempt from
paradigm shifts in the global context. As the surrounding conditions shift
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8k8
as a result of economic, political and social reworking of the global and
domestic settings, Armenian identity and culture does not stay steady
like an inanimate historical artifact, exhibited as a remnant of a distant
past. Rather, the Armenian identity morphs in accordance with the climate.
Whereas it continues to bear the gravity of collective imaginations,
the manifestations of meaning alter in its present context.
In her take on liberal multiculturalism, Anthias criticizes over-celebrating
cultures as these cultures are presented in little boxes as stereotyped
and 1ixed (8998, p. 8mr). As one of the instances to this over-celebration,
over the past years Turkey has witnessed a revival of ethnic
cultures by fetishizing them as a showcase of the cultural heritage of Turkey,
detached from their context and relevance (Bilal, 899m, p. mk). This
understanding tends to see cultures as objects composed of a uni1ied
body of symbols and meanings to be described; however, as Clifford suggests
our representations and explanations should acknowledge cultures
as contested, temporal and emergent (Sjkr, p. Sj). With this in mind, I
describe the interpretations of Armenian culture and identity of my participants
pinpointing the multivalent edi1ice of this culture and its relationality
to historical and political context. Suf1ice to say that within the
volume of one chapter, my intention can only stay as an attempt, and restricting
this larger subject by the topic of the Armenian schools in Turkey
would underestimate its perviousness to various layers and subjects.
However, I still suggest that it is my responsibility to present the discussions
about Armenian identity as comprehensive as possible to undergird
the depiction of the context the Armenian schools reside in.
Based on the framework of our conversations that center around Armenian
identity and culture in the educational sphere, my initial aim with
this chapter is to unravel commonly held unredeemable constituents of
Armenian identity and culture and show that these constituents are challenged
by prevailing precepts of the era. My main approach to understanding
Armenian culture and identity pays regard to a signi1icant point
and evinces Armenian identity not as an essentialized or ahistorical entity
but underscores characteristics to read it in a speci1ic temporality, if
not in the multitude of temporalities. That is why as much as the socioARMENIAN
SCHOOLS
8k:
political context that de1ines Armenian identity and cements it in a speci
1ic way with a strong respect to trauma and mourning, I additionally
recapitulate the currents that recast Armenian identity in its era and undermine
the sustainability of Armenian cultural production as well as its
heritage.
As regards, the novelty of this chapter ruminating Armenian culture
is not to give a thorough description of the Armenian identity but to reveal
the futility of this effort since Armenian culture and identity is not a
constant reality to be discovered. Rather, I want to elucidate that identity
and culture are contested by recent economic transformations of the
global world and challenged by educational neoliberalization. While explaining
Armenian identity with reference to a particular space and temporality,
this chapter focuses on narratives about fragments within identity
and culture, while the schools undertake the mission to sustain
Armenian cultural heritage and production despite its fragments. In
Chapter ^, I discussed the signi1icance of reading the dilemmas of Armenian
cultural sustainability within the current context and in relation to
the neoliberalization of education, thoroughly describing the educational
atmosphere in Turkey, and how this climate had an impact on the preferences
of parents. In certain ways, this chapter repeats what I said before
but it also covers how this educational climate in Turkey re1lects on the
way people understand identity and culture. By this chapter I add another
layer, another perspective to the former discussion by conveying
interpretations around identity, culture and history in depth as these interpretations
are altered signi1icantly by the requirements the educational
realm breeds.
In this manner, I take what Parla and Özgül (89Sr) suggest, when they
argue that the national boundaries of the Turkish public space are de-
1ined by the continuance of ethnic privilege, which resulted among other
things from the Armenian genocide and policies of exclusion and regulation
of Armenian difference (p. r8:), and I turn it upside down. I contend
that collective imaginations of the Armenian public space are not detached
from the construction of the Turkish national public as these pubHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
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lic spaces speak to each other. The components of the social totality actively
mold the currents of the Armenian public as it is rede1ined with
reference to its surrounding. Furthermore, Parla and Özgül (89Sr) maintain
that a critique of current citizenship practices demands a recognition
of the continuing existence of ethnic privilege and foundational violence
against ethnic minorities; otherwise, it is bound to be restricted with a
critique of neoliberal authoritarianism (p. r^^). I emphasize a similar
need to regard these factors in combination in unpacking citizenship
practices towards Armenians. I argue that the predicaments of Armenian
culture can only be understood both with the recognition of foundational
violence against Armenians and with neoliberal education policies which
veil dissolution processes of cultural identities in global marketing.
Grasping the relationality of Armenian identity and culture to the current
context, it is helpful to remember that transformations are shifting
our modern identities (Hall, Sjj8, p. 8m^). The postmodern subject is not
a 1ixed, essential or permanent; rather, it forms and transforms incessantly
in relation to the ways we are created and represented in cultural
systems that embrace us (Hall, Sjkm cited in Hall, Sjj8, p. 8mm). The new
subject subsumes different identities at different times, which are not
necessarily uni1ied around a coherent self; rather the new subject may
carry contradictory identities pulling in different directions (Hall, Sjj8, p.
8mm). Cultural 1lows and global consumerism create new possibilities for
the sense of shared identities as these identities amass as consumers for
the same goods, services, messages or images who are actually far distant
from each other in time and space (Hall, Sjj8, p. :98). The mediation of
social life by global marketing and communication systems results in
subjectivities to detach from their speci1ic times, places, histories and traditions
as subjectivities become free 1loating above those (Hall, Sjj8, p.
:9:). In order to emphasize the break with preceding conditions, Harvey
describes this phenomenon as “a never-ending process of internal ruptures
and fragmentations within itself” (Sjkj, p. S8).
Türem explains that as competition becomes a signi1icant part of the
operation of neoliberalism, our social lives circulate around the intimate
connection of two layers; individual subjectivities and macro economy
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
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(89Sr, p. ::). While neoliberalism burgeons as an art of government that
orchestrates several societal institutions together, the economic organization
of society molds new individual subject positions (Türem, 89Sr, p.
^9). Suf1ice to say that the sustainability of cultural identities is impacted
by this neoliberal transformation and challenged by competitive subjectivities.
That is why my participants interpret and describe Armenian cultural
identity blended with values inherent to neoliberalism and in a way
incorporating the components of both cultural identity and competitive
individual subjectivities into their articulations. I contend that Armenian
identity and culture stumbles as it struggles to endure against the prevailing
trends of postmodern social life and to identify itself more and
more with particular spaces and temporalities associated with Armenian
cultural heritage. The narratives of my participants display this conundrum
very meticulously. In this sense, this chapter does not fall far from
previous discussions and embraces a similar perspective in the fourth
chapter unriddling how prevailing precepts of neoliberal era play a transformative
role in Armenian educational life.
When ruminating nationalist imaginations of the postcolonial world,
Chatterjee criticizes the account regarding postcolonial nationalism as a
mimicry of the already available forms in the West and perpetual consumers
of their modernity, and he openly asks whether our imaginations
also remain forever colonized (Sjj:, p. a). Are knowledge and culture in
a dialectical relationship with power in which we cannot conceive or generate
any form of knowledge without the intervention of the latter (Chatterjee,
Sjjr, p. ::)? Based on the framework Chatterjee offers, a secondary
question we ask within this discussion should be the following: when
self-meaning is reimagined and regenerated as a response to the social
life mediated by the blend of Turko-Islamic and neoliberal precepts while
keeping its endeavor to preserve the Armenian language and commonly
held values that reify Armenian culture, is it really possible or realistic to
pursue a third alternative way in between these conceptions? In other
words, and more speci1ic to my research subject: could Armenian identity
and culture deliver different envisagement of itself when this new art
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8kr
of government makes its decomposition into global marketable subjectivities
ineluctable? Beyond doubt, these questions are perhaps too openended
and challenging to respond to. However, I ask the reader to keep
these questions in mind when reading this chapter because what I do
throughout this chapter is to tell the story of these envisagement when
describing Armenian identity and culture with its continuities and disruptions
in the era of neoliberal education. When sharing their perceptions
towards Armenian culture, my participants as well re1lect this double
bind.
In order to duly present my 1ieldwork discussions regarding Armenian
identity and culture, I divide the subject into three overlapping episodes.
First, I discuss the context in which Armenian identity and culture
is regarded as gradually vanishing in the postmodern era. Second, I unravel
the conundrum of how Armenian identity and culture are challenged
and even displaced in the education system while it tries to sustain
its commonly-held components within the abstract space of the
schools. In the light of these discussions explaining the ways of how selfmeaning
is reimagined in this particular context, I further ask whether
these conceptions can be read within the discussion of subaltern. In the
third part of the chapter, I evince how language, religion and space become
inherent to Armenian identity and culture and why these themes
are focused on as they cement Armenian identity and culture as a composite
entity.
§ \.Q Vanishing Culture, Displaced Identity
In her insightful piece, Bilal (899m) argues that Armenians’ emphasis on
their historical roots in Turkey when articulating Armenian identity is
actually a form of everyday resistance against their invisibility in the public
sphere (p. aj). As their existence and cultural heritage are not regarded
as suf1icient for their public visibility, Armenians often see the
need to rearticulate their identity and culture with respect to their history
(Bilal, 899m, p. aj). The tenets of belonging are strongly associated
with a distant past reminiscence of which are framed in a way to prove
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8km
Armenian existence. This tendency is further reinforced by surrounding
socio-political conditions and eventually Armenian culture boils down to
mere traditions and customs to be preserved. This situation leads the
presentation of Armenian identity to be restrained more or less within
the demarcations of a distant past rather than to be interpreted as a vivid
concept reproduced in accordance to the altering dynamics of its surrounding
which is shared and cherished within the Armenian community
on a daily basis with the facilitation of cultural institutions among which
schools have a signi1icant share. Bilal describes this phenomenon as the
replacement of cultural production by the past, its re1lection, its learning
or its commemoration as in the process of time there was nothing left to
produce about Armenian culture (899m, p. k8).
When I was in one of the high schools as a part of my 1ieldwork, my
path crossed with a vice principal who worked several years in different
Armenian schools as a Turkish culture teacher and later an administrator
appointed by the Ministry of National Education. During our not so short
conversation, I asked him more about his take on the current articulation
and experiences of Armenian identity in the schools. Not so surprisingly
his comments somewhat were in line with what Bilal (899m) remarked
before. He accentuated the historical and cultural elements of the Ottoman
past which Armenian identity and culture was based on in its articulation.
According to this understanding, Armenian culture was built not
in today but in the past with references to considerable acts of participation
in various areas of the production of Ottoman cultural heritage and
legacy. He regarded this collective memory that held Armenian culture
intact as a momentous constituent keeping Armenians together around
a sense of historical awareness. Performing at variegated levels, this
sense of historical awareness is generated by remembering the irreplaceable
role and capacity of Armenians in the production of Ottoman artifacts
and architecture, narrating their determination in literary movements,
maintaining their entrepreneurships in arts and crafts or sharing
the stories of a common past including memoirs taking place at the time
of the mass massacres. This collective historical awareness is also forti-
1ied by the withdrawal of Armenians from certain domains of the public
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8kk
realm as a result of the isolation they are drawn into by the socio-political
context. As he sees it, with the means of social media becoming more and
more widespread, the oral history practices of the former generations are
now replaced by communication networks, email groups or Facebook
groups composed by people from different cities, countries, regions or
age groups. Although through these new means Armenian folklore could
1ind alternative ways to be relayed in different contexts, these practices
are not very common among the younger generations who are often regarded
as detached from their local cultures and cultural roots. That is
why as an external observer, he interprets the sense of Armenian culture
as diminishing among younger generations as he witnesses the comingin
of younger students every education year slightly different from the
earlier generation in terms of their priorities, and he depicts this process
in these simple words: “Armenian culture used to live in the memories of
people; now even in the memories it does not exist.’”1
This state of focusing on a steady past rips off Armenian identity from
its current context and leaves it bereft of temporality. In this sense, the
paucity of Armenian cultural production does not only result in the vitality
of the culture to vanish but in many respects displace it from the social
relations that can re-conceptualize it in accordance to the contingencies
of the era, and cement it as a folklore apart from speci1ic experiences and
geography (Bilal, 899m, p. k8). The memories of the violent past or collective
act of remembering does not only build strong bridges between Armenian
identity and its past, but also unpacking meanings in the past in-
1luences the way people articulate and understand their current
standing. In that sense, it is important to note that in its impact on Armenian
identity the collective trauma of the genocide is not taken into consideration
only as a past event. Rather, it is also the current repercussions
which makes considering it more relevant in this subject. During my
1ieldwork, my participants often regarded the emotional weight of collective
trauma as de1initive to the identity. Since the trauma in1iltrates into
daily life practices, it becomes cross-cutting regarding the sustainability
1 Citation from the interview I conducted with a vice principal in April bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8kj
of cultural existence of Armenians. For similar reasons, they also interpreted
the paucity of Armenian cultural production as resulting in the
fragility of Armenian culture against the overwhelming impact of popular
culture. Thereby, our conversations focusing on Armenian identity most
of the time were restricted within the boundaries of a binary form. The
way my participants put it; Armenian identity either can exist by its ties
to the past or it is bound to be dissolved within popular culture.
In her work on the post-genocide Turkey, Suciyan (89Sa) conceptualizes
the continuation of genocide on daily basis by illustrating the habitus
of post-genocide Turkey, and unravels the ways the denialist policies impact
the conceptualization of history by the Armenian community. In the
context of the schools, in a way we see the educational aspect of this habitus
when the silencing of the violent past and cultural heritage becomes
almost palpable in Turkish culture classes. In these classes the obliteration
of Armenian past and cultural heritage embodied in a shape of large
elephant sits in the classrooms of which everyone is aware but no one
enunciates. In that regard, when ruminating the current dynamics of the
Armenian identity, it is crucial to comprehend how various practices including
the silencing which is inherent to the educational system in Turkey
impact the psyche of students and the ways they engage with the representations
of Armenian culture and history.
In one of the extracurricular activities I participated as an observant,
when discussing one of the books students read about the Syrian war and
displacement of people, I found an opportunity to understand the perspective
of the students and their take on the feeling of displacement and
dispossession. As the memoirs shared in the book center around the real
life experiences of Armenians experiencing violence, forced migration,
displacement or hate crimes during the latest Syrian war, students could
easily relate to these stories by referencing their family stories taken
place at the end of the Sjth century or at the beginning of the 89th century.
Despite the violent past and the uneasiness penetrated into their
daily life through these past experiences, they expressed their willingness
to stay in their homeland or at least to come back after a couple
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8j9
years spent abroad for education. Maybe the most poignant comment of
this conversation was the moment when one of the students said that:
“Their experiences are analogous to ours. Just like us, they have to
hide their identities in the places they seek refuge. We also have
the need to hide ourselves.”2
Although I indubitably acknowledge the social and political setting of
the post-genocide Turkey has a considerable impact on the current articulation
of Armenian identity, further scrutinizing the ways of dealing
with the past was not one of my objectives when conducting my research.
As I already said at the beginning of this chapter, presenting a comprehensive
description of the factors and reasons generating Armenian identity
and describing the identity comprehensively are beyond the scope of
this chapter. My purpose in remarking these points could only stem from
the need to highlight the multiplicity of the factors undermining Armenian
cultural production and empowerment today or elements affecting
expressions of Armenian identity so that the educational atmosphere can
be duly portrayed. Therefore, during my 1ieldwork, dealing with the silencing
and denial of the past did not directly become a part of my research
when trying to understand the means and spaces of empowerment
that could sustain Armenian culture and identity. One of these
reasons has to do with the acknowledgment of the fact that these kinds
of questions are very broad questions to be answered in a couple of short
sentences. I would never intend to take this conversation lightly. It often
takes a thorough analysis to understand how people deal with their past
in a context where practices of silencing and denial are not only intrinsic
to the of1icial state discourse but also in1iltrated into societal dynamics
and ways social interactions perform.
Suf1ice to say that a couple of instances that I listened to during my
1ieldwork or one-to-one interviews with students and teachers cannot
spell out the hidden transcript in the way I described earlier in this chapter,
but I argue that these instances address the existence of discourses
2 Citation from a student during my class participation in March bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8jS
taking place off stage outside classrooms and that is why pinpoint the
aspects impacting the articulation of Armenian identity which struggles
to position itself in a turbulent society.3 Although Armenians have never
left their homelands, the feeling of displacement is prevalent in everyday
life, since discontinuities of their history, memory and cultural belonging
make them the historical ‘other’ of the Turkish national identity (Bilal,
899m, p. ak). This ambivalent state of belonging and feeling of displacement
at the same time create a void in the identity. A considerable part of
the Turkish culture teachers working in the schools that I visited see the
vanishing of Armenian culture to bring certain rami1ications for cultural
belonging of students. Students sit on the fence as their cultural belonging
swings between Armenian and Turkish cultural practices.
Addressing similar currents from another perspective, teachers and
administrators currently working in the schools identi1ied this situation
by rather more tangible examples. Reiterating in different contexts, they
recapitulated their concerns for the Western Armenian language with its
declaration as an endangered language by UNESCO in 89S9, and for the
sustainability of the schools as they came up against challenges of 1inancial
instability and diminishing number of students over the years. It goes
without saying that these concerns are not mutually exclusive, and the
root causes of both are regarded as patterns stemming from a gradual
erosion in language and culture. When I asked them to elaborate further
on their concerns, teachers described the context by giving similar examples
from quotidian practices in the schools.
However, it is important to note that having similar challenges, the
schools vary in cultural awareness and approaches to cultural matters
since school-cultures prioritize disparate qualities in their education
methods. For the teachers who work in different schools at the same
3 As I could read some of the signiWiers of cultural codes during my extensive Wieldwork, I
am aware of the impact of affective registers on the reproduction of identity. I acknowledge
that a discussion on hidden transcripts, cultural codes and affective registers
as well as the conceptualization of the safe space refer to affect theory. Since it would
require a completely different theoretical framework to have such a discussion in this
context, I have not address or try to frame those affective registers.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8j8
time, the diversity of approaches can be more salient to observe as they
can compare instances and tendencies of students on a daily basis. When
expressing her apprehension about the vitality of the Armenian language,
one of these teachers who was working in two high schools at the
time of my 1ieldwork also emphasized the situation in certain schools to
be more worrisome as it usually took more time for those students to develop
a sense of belonging or to master the Armenian language. On the
other hand, she underscored that these were not individual problems;
rather, there was an ongoing critical issue about the Armenian language
as its transmission was disrupted by the multiplicity of factors. As an outcome
of this situation, students do not prefer to talk in Armenian unless
they are encouraged to do so. With the church-going practices diminishing,
churches cease to be social meeting spaces where people can speak
Armenian more often. Since religious holidays that used to be traditionally
celebrated in large families are replaced by vacations, people spend
less time in large family networks in which customs and family rituals are
practiced. Younger generations can now only decreasingly cherish the joy
of chatting with their grandparents in Armenian who are 1luent and willing
to speak in Armenian, as the intensity of speaking in Armenian
plunges over the years and over generations.
However, the scene is not so grim with the schools struggling to make
up for de1iciencies by playing the role of families, social networks, meeting
points, life-long educational centers or professional networks in accordance
with the needs of their students and teachers. As I described
the contribution of the schools in the lives of students and teachers in
Chapter ^, this endeavor is often all-encompassing as it is demanding,
trying to ful1ill different expectations and areas of social life. In order to
take over the place of the families in which cultural transmission is regarded
rather weak in comparison to other families, the schools step in
to arrange the celebration of holidays and other cultural events appreciating
Armenian cultural and religious heritage or to simply introduce
some concepts for cultural and literary awareness. Since the composition
of the schools differ, as much as the success of the schools in this respect,
what they understand by culture may also greatly vary. For instance; in
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8j:
her comparison of the two schools, the teacher in the former example
complained about the school culture of not prioritizing speaking Armenian
which eventually led students to fully switch to Turkish and their
cultural ties to weaken.
Focusing similarly on the Armenian language as a moribund element
of cultural sustainability, another teacher explained the dissolution of Armenian
cultural practices by the vanishing of the Armenian language in
public as well as private spaces. According to her perspective the shortterm
reasons of the downfall in the language can be explicated by the reluctance
or lack of skills to speak in Armenian at home as a result of the
busy schedules and pressure of daily life, the professional mediocrity of
teachers because of the lack of professional resources that I explained in
earlier chapters, the absence of Armenian schools outside Istanbul, the
loss of cultural accumulation and practices of older generations and most
importantly the metamorphosis in the mindsets of parents and children.
This rupture, she furthered, made itself even more evident years after
SjSa which marked the intensi1ication of cultural destruction and became
the subject of today’s discussion when Turkey engaged with the global
trends of neoliberalization process with the introduction of its principles
in the Sjk9s. After the Sjk9s, Armenians, who were already timid to express
their identity and withdrawn in the public space as a result of the
social dynamics of the post-genocide setting, started to be assimilated
into a Turkish mass culture. Especially younger Armenians entered into
new spaces in which their economic integration to the new neoliberal
economic order was complemented by the relinquishment of cultural
values. Unlike their parents, this younger generation was dissolved in the
larger Turkish society particularly as a result of the condensation of market
values in the public spaces with the introduction of the policies of the
Justice and Development Party coming to power in 8998. Although certain
political developments introduced spaces of public visibility at different
levels, these processes could not decelerate the dissolution of Armenian
culture as a result of the alteration of social life patterns. During
its integration to the new economic order, Armenian social life was in the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8j^
lurch in creating new spaces of popular culture that could accompany
these new social life habits.
While Armenian culture lingered in generating its popular culture,
the cultural ties of younger generations waned by the penetration of popular
culture and its trends. In such a context, the schools were heralded
as the most powerful and perhaps even the only means that could sustain
Armenian culture and its patterns of thought, but to no avail. A similar
description of the situation was made by a Turkish history teacher working
in a high school, who foregrounded the fact that not only Armenians
but now students in general were assimilated into popular culture at the
expense of their local cultures. This tide revealed itself in the context of
Armenian culture as the reluctance of students towards mastering in and
speaking Armenian. In order to understand the perspective of students
on this matter, I asked a couple of high school students about their take
on the issue and how they interpreted the cultural ties of students to their
identity and language. However, it was not easy for me to approach students
and ask their opinions on this matter as they were not really interested
in talking to me about the maintenance of cultural practices. In fact,
my meeting with a high school student and a fresh graduate of another
high school unpacked some of the 1iner points of this matter as they expressed
their disappointment towards the apathy of their fellow classmates
concerning the viability of Armenian cultural practices, way of
thinking or language. While criticizing the conditions undermining
healthy passages of cultural transmission and general propensities of
students, they portrayed the meanings of being Istanbulite Armenians
with an avid glint in their eyes and expressed their desire to preserve cultural
heritage by getting involved in variegated activities towards this
purpose.
§ \.T Impacts of Nationalist Education
As much as the signi1icance of individual or communal efforts to keep
cultural values intact as opposed to global identities of the new economic
order, by sharing their experiences and challenges during our meeting
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8ja
the students underlined the constraints of national education towards
different cultural identities. In order to comprehend the reasons for reluctance
to advance Armenian language skills, it is imperative to pay attention
to historically shaped Turko-Islamic precepts in the national education
system and the way these values are instilled through schools.
Nationalist education interrupts the comprehensiveness of Armenian
cultural heritage and history by abstracting it from its context. Not only
Armenian history is not taught in the curricula, but also Armenian cultural
heritage cannot be part of the Turkish literature classes, albeit the
contribution of renowned Armenian intellectuals and authors to Turkish
literature. In that regard, I argue that the approach of the nationalist curriculum
towards Armenians affects not only the articulation of Armenian
identity, but also the relationality of students to Armenian identity.
Analyzing the ways how institutions channel our perceptions into
forms that are compatible with themselves, Douglas (Sjkr) contends that
institutions 1ix processes that are inherently dynamic with the purpose
of controlling individual memories (p. SS8). In order to eliminate experiences
incompatible with their righteous image and highlight events complementary
to themselves, institutions provide certain categories of
thought, set the terms for self-knowledge and 1ix identities (Douglas,
Sjkr, p. SS8). Reminiscent of her description, the Ministry of National Education
by means of its centrally prepared curriculum tells when it is acceptable
and appropriate to be Armenian (see Martinez, 899r for a similar
example). The curriculum aspires to inculcate students with a Turkish
nationalist fervor by molding them with certain categories of thought and
setting the demarcations of their self-knowledge. In her seminal work on
the construction of militarism and gender in education in the incipient
stages of the Turkish Republic, Altınay (899^) paints a comprehensive
picture of the relationality of the schools to the myth of military-nation.
Referring to publications of the Ministry of Education and of Culture, she
depicts the ways republican education was invented as an instrument to
raise nationalist citizens (p. m9). Re1lecting on the nationalist recipe in a
rather more speci1ic context, Bilal (899m) deciphers the current nationalHÜLYA
DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
8jr
ist identity politics in Turkey as a disruption in Armenians’ ties with cultural
heritage and reads it in association with silencing mechanisms that
lead to a feeling of displacement at home (p. aa).
As much as Armenians want to preserve their cultural distinction
concealed in communal and private spheres against external interventions,
the communal spaces, or the mid-sides as Ekmekçioğlu describes
(89Sr), are not free from state interference and are open to in1luence and
control of state institutions. By the presence of Turkish culture teachers
and administrators appointed by the Ministry of National Education, the
state has been able to exhibit its image in the Armenian schools. In Turkey,
students generally regard textbooks as an important source of information
as they have dif1iculties in using scienti1ic sources for acquiring
information and questioning the knowledge offered by textbooks
(Özmen, 89S8, p. ^j). In the textbooks, the overarching nationalist narrative
marginalizes non-Turkish and non-Muslim people while coding them
as minorities outside a homogenous national identity. The dominant narrative
of Turkish history schoolbooks is an antagonistic narrative building
an ‘us’ and ‘the others’ dichotomy, and promoting non-Turkish and
non-Muslim nations and ethnicities as a threat and enemy to the Turkish
nation (Akpınar, 89Sj, p. 8^).
In order to have a sense of the in1luence of a nationalist curriculum
on students and their psychological state, it was very helpful to have conversations
with Turkish culture teachers about their perceptions or tools
to handle the delicacies of the situation in their classrooms and also with
the permission of school headmasters to participate in those classes as
an observer sitting back corner of the classroom and taking notes in silence.
Suf1ice to say that it was not a joyful experience as it made me look
like an auditor, even an examiner pondering the competency of teachers
or students on this exact matter. However, trying to understand the ways
Armenian identity is compromised by a prevalent nationalist discourse
promoted in school textbooks, I could pay attention to nuances that could
reveal the impact of the curriculum and its content on the students and
even on the teachers.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8jm
When I was trying to understand the dynamics of having the Turkish
culture teachers in the Armenian schools, the teaching moments for me
were during the times when I attended the classes and asked the Turkish
culture teachers about their experiences and feelings of being in an Armenian
school. As I was curious to see remnants of the encounters with
the national narrative in the Armenian schools, I was also timid to ask
about how the students and teachers tackled the national narrative that
was exclusionary by design. The school principals and teachers to a large
extent were very open, understanding and welcoming about my questions;
they tried to answer me candidly and narrate their daily predicaments.
Nevertheless, I also experienced certain moments during which
especially the Turkish culture teachers or vice principals approached my
questions with suspicion. Considering the works and articles produced
in Turkey portraying the minority schools as detrimental to the national
security, it did not perplex me the way people reacted protectively not to
be misunderstood on any occasion, although it was bewildering that
these reservations were mainly expressed by the Turkish culture teachers.
As I explained my research and talked more about why I asked these
questions, these reservations were eliminated considerably and we
talked more about the ordinary course of the classes.
I asked the Turkish culture teachers the reasons why they preferred
to apply for an Armenian school. They explained those reasons mainly as;
the Armenian schools are teacher-friendly environments in comparison
to Turkish public schools in which con1licts between teachers and administrators
are common, the number of holidays is higher in comparison to
Turkish public schools, mobbing by the school administrators is very unlikely
in the Armenian schools, student populations of the schools are
lower in number, and hostility and destructive competition among teachers
are nearly absent. As most of the Turkish culture teachers I talked to
during my research accentuated their ethnic or religious identities or described
themselves as leftists, they explained that having these identities
they preferred to work in an Armenian school, because their former exHÜLYA
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periences in Turkish public schools were challenging and emotionally destructive,
where disciplinary mechanism were easily applied with political
motives.
As I mentioned in the earlier chapters, the classes were dominated by
the stress stemming from the central examination pressure and teachers
did not have much room to have an open discussion on the subject matters;
they rather focused on covering the exam content as comprehensively
as possible. During our conversations, while Turkish culture teachers
agreed on the ubiquity of the propensity to abide by the central
curriculum in their teaching methods, they additionally remarked on the
fact that criticism towards the discourse of the curriculum or the accuracy
of the content did not 1ind its way into ^9-min long classes. These
teachers argued that while erasing the memory of Armenian cultural heritage
or contorting the veracity of Armenian history were prevalent characteristics
of the national curriculum, students often approached the curriculum
with disesteem since they were very familiar with this narrative
and had a predilection to negate the righteousness of the discourse in its
totality and to procure it somewhere outside that conversation taking
place in the classroom. In other words, students do not bother to eliminate
pieces of contestation in the state narrative since the content only
refers to an instrumental meaning which can help them to move forward
on their studies.
However, these patterns of behavior should not mean that the discourse
promoted by the national curriculum have no impact on the ways
Armenian identity and culture are articulated. Turkish history teachers
openly pinned down the frustration stemming from the state narrative
and discourse especially regarding the violence which installed cornerstones
of the Turkish Republic and de1ined the conditions Armenian socio-
political life was built on today. In those moments, the bantering tone
of students' comments might give way to quite somber voices by the unabated
color of the nationalist discourse. When students see that Armenian
cultural heritage or history cannot 1ind any place in history and literature
schoolbooks which are devoted to the vaunted glory of Turkish
or Islamic artifacts and literary works, this milieu affects the emotional
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
8jj
state as a part of which the sense of belonging is shaped in a certain way.
When deliberation is not attainable in the classrooms, it creates its own
designated places to be unfolded. Since it cannot become a part of daily
life taking place in the public sphere, it cannot be discussed or shared
explicitly without censorship, it creates its own sacred and safe places to
be revealed in the private spheres, which is why, in a way, it is incarcerated
in the private spheres of con1identiality.
In the Armenian schools or in many other schools in Turkey for that
matter, the public transcript, the open and observable interaction between
subordinates and power holders, does not depict the whole story
about power relations in the classrooms; rather, the students and families
told me that it was through hidden transcripts taking place off stage beyond
the direct reach of power-holders how they shared their understanding
of the past and current events (Scott, Sjj9, p. 8, ^). That is why
family narratives of the genocide as well as daily strategies to deal with
the current socio-political context of Turkey are reserved for the private
sphere, where debate, exchange of opinions and experiences are
shrouded within the safe borders of households or intimate groups
where the involvement of the state is regarded absent. Needless to say
that the examples given, the feelings shared cannot be representative of
all students attending the Armenian schools. These examples can only be
the windows opening to short moments shared in the classrooms. Nevertheless,
these incidents signal the pedagogic troubles of teaching a centrally
prepared curriculum in every school in Turkey despite the cultural
diversity of its students.
Although they are obliged to cover the topics in their curriculums following
rules and practices of the centralized education system that is
monitored by the Ministry of National Education, the Turkish culture
teachers expressed dif1iculties they had when they covered controversial
topics during classes and the strategies they developed during those
times. Being provided with this antagonistic nationalist discourse in the
curriculum of Turkish history as well as literature classes, a considerable
majority of the Turkish culture teachers I interviewed told me that they
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:99
found it very challenging in an Armenian school to cover these topics presenting
non-Muslim communities hostile and violent to the national security
of the Republic. When I asked the ways they dealt with the narrative
presenting Armenians as detrimental to the national integrity and
security, the Turkish history teachers told me that they tried to 1ind
smoother ways to cover the topics without offending the students, or that
they skipped certain topics knowing that discussing the subjects with a
Turkish nationalist emphasis would be pedagogically problematic for the
students. They also expressed certain mechanisms they developed to
cover these topics without marginalizing their students. In their words,
the teachers “try to stretch the curriculum as much as they can” while
remaining loosely faithful to the general framework and presenting additional
points and perspectives to remind the possibility of a rather comprehensive
narrative. I shared some excerpts from our interviews below
exemplifying the methods and mechanisms that the Turkish culture
teachers developed to deal with the discourse and content of the teaching
materials:
Although in social science and Turkish language classes, we [as
teachers] remind our students that the of1icial history narrative
might not be accurate, there might be gaps and differences [between
the of1icial history narrative and] what really happened in
the past, the students might see different things [from what we
told them] in their schoolbooks and test books. In the central exams
a question about the Genocide is put with an option below
saying that the Genocide did not occur and the students are expected
to choose that option as the correct answer. We, [as Turkish
culture teachers working in the Armenian schools] try to eliminate
texts in the curriculums that have Islamist and nationalist
discourses. However, it is important to remind here that these curricula
do not only draw reactions in the minority schools, but in
the Kurdish cities of eastern Anatolia and in the Black Sea region
as well. Here, [in the Armenian schools] since the students know
very well the fact that the of1icial history is not accurate, they do
not feel the urge to struggle with it. Sometimes when I act very
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:9S
incredulously and talk about it, the students tell me that they already
know [that the of1icial history narrative is very biased] and
ask me to calm down. In that regard, we can say that the students
are well-aware and knowledgeable.”4
“In the history classes, I do not bypass the curriculum; however,
the students know that this is our syllabus and not everything
written in the schoolbook is correct. This [how you deal with this
situation] all depends on the attitude of the teacher; when the students
know you as a person it does not turn into a problem. In this
sense, the schools suggesting the [Turkish culture] teachers to be
appointed to their schools eased the situation.”5
“Sometimes, the students act very reluctant or have dif1iculty in
learning topics of Islamic history. [At those times], I try to go
through these topics rather loosely. In the kth grade, when we talk
about the Genocide, they get sad. That is why I do not fully cover
the syllabus.”6
Within the same context, I also asked the history teachers their feelings
about teaching history from a Turkish nationalist perspective in an
Armenian school. Most of the Turkish history teachers as predominantly
having Kurdish, Alawite, Arab identities or coming from leftwing backgrounds
were already critical of the discourse and perspective the
schoolbooks had. They emphasized the absurdity of forcing a unilateral
4 Citation from an interview I conducted with a Turkish literature teacher working in a
primary school in May bfO[.
5 Citation from an interview I conducted with a Turkish history teacher working in a high
school in April bfO[.
6 Citation from an interview I conducted with a social science teacher working in a primary
school in March bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:98
narrative for reading the past especially in an Armenian school, while attracting
attention to the fact that in different places of Turkey people with
various identities also experienced the same problems and suffered from
this very centralized mindset.
I found out that especially in the high schools where the students
were old enough to develop a critical understanding to interpret events
around themselves, the strongest defense mechanism in these kinds of
situations was to have a silent pact between the teacher and students
during which the history teacher covered the subject from the perspective
presented in the schoolbook but the students knew that the teacher
did not necessarily agree with neither the discourse nor the narrative
used in the books. Since students are familiar with the narrative and
know the fact that teachers have to cover assigned topics of the curriculum,
both sides play their parts while acknowledging the fact that the
content is almost mythical and does not re1lect different parties comprehensively
or authentically for that matter. I name this silent pact as accommodating
endurance7; whereas the message desired by the state is
delivered, it clashes with standpoints and interpretations of the students
“hiddenly” (Scott, Sjj9) and dissolves into repetitive meaningless words.
Even though in the public sphere the students and the teachers comply
with the rules of the power holders, in this case predominantly the Ministry
of National Education, this does not necessarily mean that they do
not embrace certain forms of endurance or a subculture. When I talked
to some of the high school students outside of their classrooms and
schools, they candidly explained that they refrained from expressing how
they elaborated the positions presented to them as facts.
In order to explain why I name this situation as “accommodating endurance”,
let me give a couple of examples. During my visits to schools, as
I mentioned before some of the Turkish culture teachers also welcomed
me to their classes to help me see their point of view and relate to the
7 In her work on contemporary Syria, Wedeen (O[[[) talks about a similar situation. She
argues that although public spectacles are seen as phony by both who orchestrate them
and who consume them, citizens show compliance to the regime through enforced participation
as if they glorify their leader (O[[[, p. P).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:9:
students. In those classes, the teaching of the class was never interrupted,
the classes were perfectly held as it was desired by the Ministry of Education
or other relevant authorities, and the schoolbooks that were provided
by the Ministry of National Education were the only teaching material
of the lessons. In that regard, the teachers and students were
accommodating and yielded to the rules and practices of the Ministry. On
the other hand, the narrative that was delivered by the teachers as of1icers
of the state encountered with endurance as they were not quite welcomed
by the students. I made this interpretation by listening to murmuring
or huf1ing sounds that the students made as a response to what
was told to them during these classes, although I have to say that this
does not mean that it is a common practice, rather in some classrooms
there might be no reactions from the students at all. However, by hinging
on my interviews outside of the classrooms I still argue that the students
and also even the teachers endure against this national narrative by not
letting it slip into their mental schemes or by discrediting it with silence.
One of the classes that I got the opportunity to listen to was a Turkish
literature class held in a high school. Later when I talked to the teacher
after the class, I also learned that she applied to the Armenian school that
she was working at that moment following her reluctant appointment
into an imam and preacher school. She shared some of the daily predicaments
and tension with the administration and how her daily life became
dif1icult because of the undemocratic environment of the imam and
preacher school. In the class that I attended, the subject of the lesson was
ideologies which impacted literary works of the time period. While explaining
certain ideologies of the period, she was also giving an account
of the historical context in which these ideologies emerged. When she explained
the concepts of capitalism and nationalism while giving a context,
it came to the SjSa events. After very brie1ly touching upon the subject,
she said “you know what it is” and continued with the topic of the class.
She acknowledged her students and their perspective in that regard, but
yet covered the topic as it was. Without any hesitation in how to maneuver
the topic or insisting on a rigid state narrative, she just in a way
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:9^
greeted the common understanding that they shared in the classroom,
and to me this was what made it a moment of endurance.
In the Turkish culture classes that I participated in as a listener, I encountered
many examples where the teachers implicitly acknowledged
the fact that the history was written from a certain perspective promoting
a homogenous national identity. In a similar manner in another class
I participated as an observer, the subject of the lesson was the Treaty of
Berlin signed in Skmk which is usually depicted in the schoolbooks as the
treaty through which the Armenian Question was fabricated and used as
a leverage by the great powers of the time to interfere with domestic affairs
of the empire. In this context, the teacher explained the way Armenians
were presented in the schoolbook; that they tried to undermine the
integrity of the empire by fabricating delusional claims. However, at both
ends this narrative was adopted very poorly, and regarded as lacking integrity
and plausibility. In fact, as I observe, forcing a national narrative
to be shared in history classes creates a contrary impact. By replacing
scienti1ic historiography with the fabrication of national myths, the national
narrative loses its credibility and accountability in the eyes of all
parties. And maybe that is why after presenting the national narrative on
the subject, the teacher suggested an academic book for the students who
were genuinely interested in reading and learning history.
As being absent in their Turkish history or literature books, the students
voiced that the Armenian existence in Anatolia was overlooked and
removed from the narratives of the Turkish history textbooks. Although
they would like to learn more about Armenian history and culture, and
connect with their heritage in the Ottoman Empire, the curriculum does
not embody political and social history of Armenians, important Armenian
intellectual or professional 1igures, or Armenian kingdoms held
sway in Anatolia which is now portrayed as the historical homeland of
the Turks. Bilal attracts attention to the fact that in an age when the political
language of difference is promoted, the Armenian history not being
studied in the Armenian schools as it is misrepresented as pernicious,
gives the students intellectual tools to criticize hegemonic identity politics
of Turkey (899r, p. k9).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:9a
“While trying to regain what has been stolen from them, while
building up fragmented knowledge about Armenians in Anatolia,
they situate themselves within a knowledge of loss and become
aware of the political contexts that de1ine Armenian identity in
Turkey.” (Bilal, 899r, p. k9)
In recent years, in order to present alternative viewpoints and introduce
critical approaches to reading and writing social history, in some
schools that I visited they explained that they either participated or organized
certain extra-curricular activities to create a ground for alternative
history education. An example of these activities is the projects that
were developed and conducted by the History Foundation since 89S: under
the title of “The youth writes history” in which the students from different
schools came together and participated in the workshops to discuss
and rewrite historical events from different perspectives8. Among
the participants of these projects, there was also one Armenian high
school. During these visits, I also encountered that the schools introduced
bits and pieces of Armenian intellectual history and some historical
1igures thanks to their extra-curricular activities of theater clubs or
events organized for important days such as Women’s Day. However,
those alternative means of reading history could only be possible by the
individual initiatives of teachers, which is why they can only be counted
as exceptions that do not alter the larger atmosphere of history education.
On the other hand, in Turkish literature classes, the interactions with
the curriculum are slightly different than the emotional weight manifested
in Turkish history classes. With a strong emphasis on the Turkish-
Islamic character of the Republic, literary history is taught in a way to
catapult this identity by generating a narrative focusing almost solely on
the works of authors identi1ied with their Muslim or Turkish identities.
8 For a list of the projects that have been conducted since bfO\ by the History Foundation
in the area of education, you can visit the website of the History Foundation:
https://www.tarihvakWi.org.tr/projeler/tarih-egitimi-ve-alternatif-egitim-materyalleri/
\d.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:9r
According to their statements, as much as the students, the teachers are
also not comfortable with the design of the syllabi or the objective of the
curriculum embodied in the schoolbooks. With the purpose of rendering
the classrooms friendlier, the Turkish literature teachers I conversed
with expressed their effort to tone the Turkish and Islamic emphasis
down to their understanding. Despite these efforts, the strong emphasis
on Turko-Islamic identity of the Republic alienates students and escalates
the conditions to undermine the Armenian sense of belonging by
decoupling it from its context.
In such a narrative, Armenian literati, authors or intellectuals are not
even mentioned in the textbooks despite their indelible contribution in
introducing ideological movements through translation and scholarly debates
or in composing 1irst Turkish literary works of the era. Although
Armenian literature and its context are addressed in a way to become the
subject of Armenian language and literature classes, these Turkish literature
teachers underscore that the failure to include Armenian cultural
and literary heritage into the curriculum which is supposed to tell the
literary history of the Republic and the Ottoman Empire discloses the political
agenda of the national education in a certain manner. That is why
despite their restricted latitude, Turkish literature teachers often try to
depict a rather broader picture of the literary periods including Armenian
authors and intellectuals. Apart from that, the insistence on teaching
literary works of the Islamic period creates other unanticipated troubles
for teachers. Since the students are usually not familiar with the terminology,
concepts, events, dates, idioms or even names that can help them
to make sense of the piece they work on in the Islamic period, the teachers
1ind themselves in a position to explain certain concepts and values
integral to Islamic thinking, which they are neither competent nor willing
to do.
The Turkish literature teachers expressed that they shared similar
thoughts and feelings with their Turkish history teacher colleagues when
explaining the context of literary works. With reference to literary works
of the national literature in particular, they stated that they had similar
predicaments in reaching out to the students because the discourse in
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:9m
the schoolbooks was exclusionary for non-Turkish identities who were
poignantly presented as betrayers or completely absent in the intellectual
history of the Ottoman Empire and later the Turkish Republic. In order
to 1ill the gap in the syllabi of Turkish literature classes which contain
topics from divan literature, Su1i literature or literary periods under the
in1luence of movements of nationalism or Islam and to open spaces
through which students can connect to Armenian cultural heritage and
cherish it through literary works, Turkish literature teachers do not refrain
from adding anecdotes to give a sense of the literary and intellectual
setting of the era they cover during their class hours.
As an instance, a high school Turkish literature teacher gave the example
of Akabi Hikayesi which was written in Armenian alphabet by Vartan
Paşa as the 1irst Turkish novel in SkaS, 89 years earlier than Şemsettin
Sâmi’s Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat which was written in SkmS and acknowledged
as the 1irst Turkish novel.9 The fact that the syllabi do not pay regard
to the diversity in faith and ethnicity leads students to interact with
a curriculum which does not subsume pieces of their background and introduces
concepts that are outside their categories of thought. It is safe
to assume that this pattern can be observed in many other schools and is
not peculiar to the educational climate of the Armenian schools. However,
I argue that it becomes more palpable and easier to pin down in the context
of the Armenian schools as the composition of the classrooms is relatively
more homogeneous and examples are notable by number.
While the regulations of the Ministry of National Education and
school curricula restrict the proper ambit to discuss Armenian cultural
heritage and history, the narrative and its boundaries de1ine Armenian
identity and culture in a speci1ic way. In the last twenty years with the
Justice and Development Party embracing a neo-Ottomanist approach, its
9 Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat is presented as the Wirst Turkish novel by a word play; instead
of building the phrase the Wirst novel written in Turkish language, it was formulated as
the Wirst novel that was Turkish. The recognition of Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat as the Wirst
Turkish novel disregards the afWluence of other literary works written in Turkish before
Od^O with regards to different factors based on the alphabet used or the way they were
published.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:9k
emphasis as the heir of the Ottoman Empire elicited a discourse gravitating
towards a multiculturalist image. In this presentation, as Armenian
culture is portrayed as an image aggrandizing the multicultural painting
of the Ottoman past, it becomes exposed to a different kind of discrimination,
and this situation generates a narrative in the wider society picturing
the Armenian community as an endangered species, an ornament
decontextualized from its historicity. It is perceived as an object to be discovered
and even conquered because of its exotic nature. As a way of discrimination,
seeing Armenians as an exotic, unusual, interesting object is
not uncommon, something brought from faraway lands and presented to
the public in its scarcity (Özdoğan and Kılıçdağı, 89SS, p. :9). In addition
to the endeavor to be a part of a grandiose past, this perspective tends to
see Armenians as a unidimensional entity composed of only one attribution
lacking any other depth, character, capacity or identity. As the sovereign
power that is historically constructed based on Turko-Islamists precepts
encloses Armenians in a con1ined identity, this sovereign power is
perpetuated by perceptions that Armenians have a common established
idea about everything as a community. This is one of the reasons why on
almost every occasion Armenians receive questions regarding their perceptions
of the past and present, and thereby the discriminatory language
of the larger society entails Armenians to withdraw from public
spaces and to be more reticent about becoming expressive in different
venues.
In understanding the rami1ications of the exclusionary narrative in
the context of the schools, we need to unpack the ways Armenian identity
is articulated. In that regard, as much as seeing the schools in which the
state narrative circulates, visiting them as publicly acknowledged places
for cultural empowerment and sustainability and even more importantly
at the intersection of these matters will be helpful to grasp their role in
the community. In order to depict this binary aspect of the schools, Ekmekçioğlu
(89Sr) stresses on the distinctive rhythm of living and being in
the schools as they are legally and traditionally warranted to teach Armenian
language, literature or music maintaining identity and recovering
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:9j
Armenianness, despite all the drawbacks they experience (p. S8a). In order
to unpack this distinctiveness, by using a family allegory to talk about
solidarity networks in the earlier chapters, I accentuated the signi1icance
of the schools in the community in preserving Armenian cultural heritage.
Continuing on the same subject here, I would like to highlight how
these dynamics in1luence the conceptualization of identity in this particular
context while the schools maintain their role for the community, despite
the fact that this role is compromised by state curricula or sorts of
regulations on a daily basis.
§ \.U Language, Religion, Space in Making Armenian Identity
Throughout my chapters, many times I have mentioned different layers
of why and how Armenian identity and cultural identity is compromised.
Within these discussions, as much as daily predicaments and perpetuated
conditions, I mentioned the endeavor to preserve the socio-cultural
space bearing cultural codes, customs or social relationality especially
around cultural institutions. In order to give a comprehensive picture of
the environment of the schools, my 1ield study demonstrated that it was
also imperative to look at the ways people engage with certain components
of cultural sustainability and on which terms they de1ined these
components. In that regard, it is signi1icant to remember that the schools
are not museums exhibiting the vanishing pieces of Armenian culture
while developing strategies to preserve the sense of social unity. As I already
discussed in the previous chapters, the Armenian schools are not
deployed somewhere outside the altering dynamics of the educational
sphere. Being a part of it, these schools are very well impacted by current
developments; and thereby, the texture and particularity of this cultural
space are compromised by these dynamics. In the articulation of Armenian
identity during my interviews, our discussions were centered predominantly
around themes of language, religion and space and how people
engage with the Armenian identity on these themes. Sharing these
conversations in this chapter I prefer to center my discussion based on
these frameworks.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:S9
D.!.# Language
In our conversations about the concerns for the sustainability of the cultural
space, language was frequently mentioned as a fundamental constituent,
and that is why the concerns regarding cultural awareness were
frequently linked together with the vanishing of the Western Armenian
language in daily life. Part of their expertise and experiences, Armenian
language teachers had a lot to say about this subject as they not only undertook
the role to equip their students with the tools and means that
could cultivate a passion and understanding for mastering the Armenian
language, but they were also the observers par excellence of these processes.
The comments of an experienced Armenian language teacher sum
up the role of the schools in this regard: “The schools contribute to culture
by teaching the language”10. On the other hand, teachers approach
language education not as a mere acquisition of language competency.
Addressing it from a larger perspective, teachers see language education
as a stage to equip students with a certain level of knowledge about Armenian
language and culture in a dynamic context molded by social and
practical impacts. In literature classes, they put emphasis on the context
while teaching real life stories of authors and poets. In order to emphasize
the importance of learning Armenian, a primary school principal
spelled out that they informed students about cultural heritage, production
and legacy so that Armenian language could be appreciated by students
as it pertained to the past as much as the present.
Despite their efforts to teach Armenian literary works in a comprehensive
framework, the intensity of the classes and the emphasis on literature
have deteriorated over the years. Comparing present tendencies
with their own experiences from school years, teachers explained that
day by day the Armenian language was cramped within the con1ines of
everyday conversation and its image as a literary language melted away.
Therefore, Armenian language and literature classes are designed in a
way to teach the language or to polish 1luency rather than aggrandizing
10 Citation from an interview I conducted with an Armenian language and literature
teacher working in a high school in May bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:SS
the knowledge of literature or amplifying the sophistication of students
in that matter. In Armenian language education, the tendencies, approaches
and strategies of the schools differ from each other in accordance
to their objectives, composition of students or competencies of
teachers. For example, in one of the primary schools I visited, the principal
put the objective of the school as to teach all classes in Armenian in
the 1irst ^ years to polish the competency in language and imbue students
with values, approaches and modes of thought intrinsic to Armenian culture
while students got familiar with new terminologies. After these ^
years, the language of instruction shifts to Turkish, particularly because
of the fear of parents and students of falling behind in central exam preparations.
In other schools I visited, I witnessed different practices and approaches;
while the overall tendency in primary schools is to have fully
Turkish curricula putting Armenian language and literature classes
aside, there are also primary schools embracing hybrid approaches or
ones that persist to maintain their curriculum in Armenian as much and
as long as possible in the educational development of students when the
circumstances allow.
In high schools, the situation is not any different. The classes, except
for Armenian language, literature or religious knowledge and ethics, are
held in Turkish following Turkish curricula unless the particular teacher
of the class decides to teach the class in Armenian by their personal determination.
In total of 1ive high schools, one of the schools stands out
among others with its emphasis given on keeping Armenian curricula. As
this school is often mentioned in reference to its endeavor to incubate an
enduring interest in Armenian cultural heritage, the school administration
makes a great effort to keep the curriculum Armenian during freshmen
and sophomore years. However, in practice this effort does not always
lead to success as a result of various factors including the dif1iculty
to 1ind 1luent teachers in Armenian for subject matter classes or challenges
to keep students engaged and eager. In those cases, teachers or
administration tend to develop hybrid approaches such as providing consecutive
Turkish translations, speaking blended Armenian and Turkish
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:S8
or giving materials in Turkish but holding the class in Armenian. Teachers’
encouragement of speaking Armenian outside classes and in the free
time of students underpins these approaches. Teachers illustrate their
decisiveness in preserving or extending the venues to speak Armenian by
their tenacity to stick to Armenian unless otherwise is essential. In order
to describe the overall tendencies, one of these teachers expressed her
concerns about cultural erosion in younger generations. In the way she
saw it, most of the students paid no mind about the sustainability of Armenian
identity or culture. However, thanks to the school principal’s
stance on this matter teachers could insist on continuing to hold their
classes in Armenian despite the dissident voices on the side of parents.
With the support of the school administration, she could teach all of her
classes in Armenian at every level of education in the high school. This
determination sometimes stirs up backlash among parents who see Armenian
curricula as an unnecessary challenge that might be relinquished
for a more competitive education. In that sense, she underscored the dif-
1iculty to perpetuate the practice of Armenian culture and language. She
explained that parents and students were reluctant to see that a successful
language education demanded adoption of that language and its cultural
values in all areas of education and everyday life.
Working in another high school with a different composition of students
and teachers, another teacher explained the limited space the Armenian
language took in daily life in a similar manner. She as well accentuated
the diminishing signi1icance and worth of the Armenian language
in the social life with respect to the deterioration of the practical value of
the language as it ceased to be regarded as an applicable instrument to
various areas of social life. She furthered that cultural awareness of students
has crumbled in comparison to her generation, since they did not
see language practice as a momentous component of cultural heritage
any more. As opposed to her school years when it did not even cross her
mind not to express herself in Armenian within the con1ines of the school
based on common practice and customs, now students rarely prefer to
speak Armenian among friends unless they are asked to.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:S:
While some teachers put meaningful effort to motivate language practice
in the social life, some others contribute to language education by
providing extracurricular Armenian language classes to students who
have dif1iculty in expressing themselves in Armenian and mostly who
could not have language education because of their physical distance to
schools or family’s preference to enroll the student to an Armenian
school at a later age. These extracurricular classes are often regarded as
necessary, because the diversity of language pro1iciency surfaces as one
of the factors undermining teaching the classes in Armenian. Having students
in their classrooms without competency in language, teachers are
obliged to hold the classes in Turkish to be able to address all their students.
Together with the paucity or lack of usage of Armenian at family
settings and disinterestedness to practice Armenian in the social life usually
result in the Armenian language to become a secondary language to
be taught in the schools.
Students coming outside Istanbul usually constitute the majority of
these students who face challenges in expressing themselves in Armenian.
These students do not have any access to Armenian schools in their
home cities and can only start their language acquisition at later ages or
later stages in their school years. In these cases, the socio-economic background
of the student is most of the time considered as momentous in
attaining language competency or developing a sense of belonging. In the
schools in which the majority of their students come from socio-economically
disadvantaged backgrounds, the underprivileged status of the family
was frequently accentuated as a reason for students’ weak ties to their
cultural heritage or for their lower extent of cultural awareness. Especially
in the boarding schools, the abundance of students who were not
familiar with customs and traditions, who have not seen any Armenian
newspaper before or who were not aware even of the most renowned
authors was mentioned by teachers. During my visits, one of the places
in which I heard this correlation to be articulated was one of the boarding
schools providing education at the elementary and middle school levels
and accepted students from the countryside and from families who could
barely afford education for their children. The vice principal of the school
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:S^
depicted the overall state of their students as substantially oblivious towards
cultural customs and practices. Most of the students did not have
Armenian language skills. In order to emphasize the limited access to
venues where the Armenian language can be practiced, he gave an example
from students who came to study from other cities. He mentioned
that there was a large family in Adıyaman, and they sent their children to
the boarding school in Istanbul so that the students could learn Armenian
and connect to the Armenian community. These students are sent to
study in an Armenian school at later ages, usually after the ^th grade
when they are more ready to study in a boarding school away from their
parents. Since they do not learn Armenian until that age, it becomes impracticable
to have Armenian curricula or teach classes in Armenian in
their classrooms. However, as other teachers highlighted, a more signi1icant
challenge stems from the fact that these students are destitute of the
social environment and family setting in which they can establish cultural
values or language skills acquired in the school. In that regard, the urban
and rural divide or the socio-economic composition of families have a direct
in1luence on the way language and culture is approached in the classrooms.
In Chapter ^, I unpacked the complexity of these processes and
the coping mechanisms of the schools to handle the processes gracefully
and inclusively addressing different needs of their students. That is why
I argue that the cultural practices in the schools or spaces of cultural belonging
cannot be detached from rather more intimate relations taking
place in familial settings.
On the other hand, despite their different backgrounds, students have
a rather common understanding that there is no environment where Armenian
language skills seem to be meaningful to have. Since learning the
Armenian language does not 1it well into future prospects, students
might have certain reservations about going to an Armenian school. The
paucity of social viability of the language gets language sustainability into
a vicious circle. In such an atmosphere, the schools not only lose the incentives
to teach Armenian curricula as the Armenian language is accepted
as a moribund language, but they are also challenged as cultural
spaces having dif1iculty in 1inding 1luent Armenian speaker teachers to
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:Sa
serve their objective of teaching Armenian language as one of their priorities.
I could tell that the schools still regard Armenian language education
as their distinguishing feature. When I asked my participants their
elaborations about the overall objectives of the schools, teachers often
described the raison d’étre of the schools as the transference of language
to younger people. Expressing their frustration in that matter, these
teachers also acknowledged the fact that the schools could not ful1ill this
objective any further. The rupture between the past and present or between
Istanbul and other Anatolian cities surfaced when they pinpointed
patterns of crippling this objective.
In our conversations about the linguistic ruptures between generations,
teachers with different backgrounds described people who were
born roughly between the years Sja9-Sjr9 as the lost generation emphasizing
their lower language pro1iciency in Armenian. To their view, the
transference of mother tongue was interrupted by the post-genocide environment
in Turkey as people hid their identities, preferred not to speak
Armenian in public spaces or gradually refrained from attending Armenian
schools to blend in with the Turkish identity. Even though the parents
of the Sja9-Sjr9-born generation had a brilliant command and
knowledge of the Armenian language, whether intentionally or not they
refrained from transferring Armenian as a mother tongue to their children
because of the hostile political context towards ethnic and religious
minorities in Turkey. The analysis of these teachers on the impediments
of the transference of the Armenian language to younger generations was
not based on scienti1ic studies or surveys. However, based on their observations,
experiences and perceptions, teachers whose ages were within
the :9-^9 age range accentuated the language pro1iciency of their grandparents
as opposed to their parents who were not so successful in either
embracing Armenian as their mother tongue or providing a learning environment
for their children because of the need to hide their identity as
a result of the trauma or fear they had experienced. Instantiating this argument,
especially younger teachers who were born after the Sjm9s referred
to the linguistic and cultural rupture as the reasons eliciting their
lack of language competency.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:Sr
All of these factors I have been bringing up beget a shift in conceptions
of the world and modes of thought of students or of the larger Armenian
community. Since for some teachers and students the schools are the only
places where they can speak Armenian, sometimes their vocabulary remains
restricted with the nature of the conversation that can be held in a
context of a school. Some of the high school students I talked to expressed
gratitude towards their teachers who worked hard to undergird cultural
sustainability by the means of language education and to galvanize their
students to embody Armenian cultural heritage, but to no avail. A former
Armenian language teacher described this as follows to capture the disposition
of students:
“When the cluster in which students speak Armenian is too tight
for the outside world, they tend to break off with Armenian. The
Armenian language is left as the language of the church; cannot
make its way to conversational, daily language. On the other hand,
even in the church Armenian fell into disuse. Sermons are held in
Turkish so that people can understand. There is no Armenian resource
for young adult literature, and no momentum to meet this
need.”11
The most palpable reason for this tide refers to the education environment
I illustrated in Chapter : when unpacking the ways how neoliberalization
of education impacted education patterns in the Armenian
schools. Especially Armenian language and literature teachers foregrounded
the wind that the central exams brought to their classrooms.
They argued that without the pressure of central exams, the circumstances
that the Armenian language faced would be a lot different than
today’s. In fact, in addition to the factors constraining the Armenian language
into the con1ines of Armenian literature or ethics classes, one of
these teachers working in a high school foregrounded the alteration in
the conceptions of the world of students. She stated that the culture and
11 Citation from the interview I conducted with a former Armenian language and literature
teacher in August bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:Sm
subjectivities were molded by the synthesis of Turkish curricula and neoliberal
education system in the following words:
“The classes used to be held in Armenian in the past. Now, all classes
are taught in Turkish because of the central exams, because of
the Turkish textbooks sent by the Ministry of National Education.
Only in Armenian language and ethics classes the medium of instruction
stayed in Armenian. Armenian has become a secondary,
even tertiary language. But more importantly, the culture of the
younger generations has changed. They do not speak Armenian
anymore.”12
In the same vein, while construing the rami1ications of the competitive
educational environment on cultural sustainability in the context of
the Armenian schools, the headmaster of an elementary and middle
school underscored the transformation of students’ prevailing perspectives.
He said that
“Students do not think in Armenian any more. New concepts
sometimes do not translate to Armenian. And their worries and
concerns in life overshadow [the concerns for] the Armenian language.”
13
Economic, political and social reworking of the global and domestic
settings transformed the ways students engage with their language and
identity. The Armenian language could not be integrated into the operation
of popular culture. A high school principal reads this atmosphere by
an uneasiness of both students and teachers in expressing themselves in
Armenian; they do not prefer to articulate themselves in their social settings
in Armenian. A vice principal of another high school seconded this
argument by underlining the fact that as Turkish culture became very intrinsic
to students’ mode of thought and their practices, they lost their
12 Citation from the interview I conducted with an Armenian language and literature
teacher working in a high school in December bfOd.
13 Citation from the interview I conducted with an elementary and middle school principal
in April bfO[.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:Sk
connection and ties to the Armenian language. Based on the perceptions
of my participants, I argue that Armenian language and culture gradually
melt in the overall aura of the secular time. The nuances and particulars
of Armenian culture, like the other cultural identities for that matter, 1lattened
and eventually lique1ied in the mundane details of the general public.
The haze of the epoch, neoliberalism, consumer culture or social interactions
which dominate our everyday lives reproduce us on a bidimensional,
dull plane surface. The mundane details of the global identities
smoothly take over the scene and leave little room for other possibilities.
This simpli1ication fractionally and slowly dissolves diverse cultures
in a majority culture, and Armenian culture is not exempt from
these processes. In fact, considering the socio-cultural context of Turkey
it is perhaps the most fragile.
D.!.7 Religion
While it is regarded that the weight of the Armenian language has
waned as a complementary feature of Armenian identity, the emphasis
on religious difference in the self-meaning has not deteriorated. As a matter
of fact, with the Armenian language plunging as a descriptive characteristic
of Armenian identity, religious belonging became more palpable
to de1ine the demarcations of this identity. The stress on early Christian
roots has always been a part of the ethnic pride for Armenians, and
churches maintain their importance by procuring the cultural space in
which religious traditions, cultural practices or social connection are preserved
(Manoogian et al., 899m, p. ak9). Moreover, religious belonging
contributes to the construction of identity in diverse ways. In their research
on the role of Armenian women in the survival of the Armenian
community, Komşuoğlu and Örs (899j) capture the nuances of the articulation
of religious difference in the de1inition of identity. Religious difference
is not only described as a cultural code signi1icant in daily practice
but also as a political and ideological code momentous in the
construction of “us” while de1ining “others” (Komşuoğlu and Örs, 899j, p.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:Sj
::S). In this sense, Orthodox Christianity (Armenian Apostolicism)14 is
one of the means to designate cultural and communal boundaries and
create a conceptual space of communal belonging to maintain the Armenian
identity within a context where the hegemony on Turko-Islamic values
prevail (Komşuoğlu and Örs, 899j, p. ::8). Similarly, in her interpretation
of Hayganush Mark’s take on the role of religion in selfpreservation
in the post-genocide context, Ekmekçioğlu (89Sr) recounts
the church as a marker of difference which unites Armenians as one, and
the act of churchgoing as a “diasporic moment” while religious traditions,
ceremonies and architecture help Armenians imagine a temporal continuity
connecting them from past and present alike (p.S98).
In parallel to these former studies, the interviews with my participants
also revealed that religious identity was a momentous part of the
de1inition of Armenian identity among students or teachers since it was
often regarded as the only concrete difference through which Armenians
established the boundaries of their cultural space. I suggest that the reasons
why religion continues to be a signi1icant aspect of Armenian identity
whereas the Armenian language is relinquished for practical reasons
can be found in the inertia of religion. Religious identities do not bear any
cost in the integration to global identities; on the contrary, these identities
most of the time avail for building a certain sense of belonging in faraway
lands. However, I contend that the most salient reason why religion
does not lose its emphasis in Armenian identity stems from the fact that
it ensures an effortless way towards communal belonging. It is a constant
which is unconditionally there. I talked about the emphasis on religion in
the ways Armenian identity was articulated thoroughly to one of my participants
who was an intellectual and had translations from Armenian to
14 Although Catholic and Protestant Armenians are also part of the Armenian community
in Turkey, Armenian identity is deWined with respect to Orthodox Christianity (Armenian
Apostolicism), which is the national church of Armenians. As the majority of Armenians
in Turkey are Apostolic, O\ out of the OP Armenian schools are managed by
church foundations that function under the spiritual oversight of the Armenian Patriarchate
of Turkey. That is why my participants, working and studying in one of these O\
schools, refer to Armenian Apostolicism when they say religious identity.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:89
Turkish. According to her, as the knowledge, expertise and familiarity
with Armenian cultural heritage melted away, Armenians leaned towards
their religious difference to 1ill this hiatus in their identity. As Armenianness
lost its meaning, it started to be taken as equal to Christianity. The
fact that Armenians are one of the 1irst populations to choose Christianity
as the state religion and that they have a national church consolidates the
place of religion in identity. Religion as a concept is very powerful in connecting
Armenians to one another. Since ethnic and religious identity are
blended together very well, Armenianness cannot be regarded as separate
from Christianity or more speci1ically from Armenian Apostolicism.
This account was repeated many times during my 1ieldwork including by
Turkish culture teachers who perceived religion as a salient segment of
Armenian communal belonging. A high school vice principal who worked
in different Armenian schools throughout his career contended that
while the students de1ined themselves as Armenian, their de1inition of
Armenian identity was mainly based on religion. Conceptually they had a
connection to the church but this connection should be read as a commitment
to their identity. In a similar manner, a high school Turkish language
and literature teacher put it:
“I think as a result of the assimilation most of the students lost
their cultural identities. But, although most of these students are
not religious, it is the religion that keeps them together. Based on
religious unity, they feel close to each other, feel safe.”15
Although the schools are categorically secular and have no objective
of inculcating the youth with religious knowledge, religion does not cease
to be a part of Armenian culture. The link between identity and religion
as a representation stays within the boundaries of the school. This representation
is further reinforced in the schools by small details. As a requirement
of curricula prepared centrally by the Ministry of National Education,
in each level of education Religious Culture and Knowledge of
15 Citation from the interview I conducted with a Turkish language and literature teacher
working in a high school in March bfO[.
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:8S
Ethics classes are part of the curriculum. Whereas in Turkish public
schools, these classes are focused on teaching the history of Islam, Islamic
values and practices, in the Armenian schools the syllabi are designed
in a similar way similarly to teach the religious culture, history,
canons and practice of Orthodox Christianity or Catholicism depending
on the school. Since there are no educational departments in the universities
to produce graduates that can teach these classes, the common
practice is to assign Armenian language and literature teachers to Religious
Culture and Knowledge of Ethics classes. As these teachers remarked,
this situation accelerated the perception among students that
religion was intrinsic to Armenian language and culture. This perception
is even further reinforced with the physical arrangement of the schools.
Since the schools are located within the same compound with a church,
the cultural and educational space is also visually engaged with the
church. They are often seen as two peas in a pod.
Furthermore, as much as sustaining its role in the construction of
identity and setting boundaries of communal belonging, like schools, religion
also maintains its function to draw people together in an Armenian
architecture where people can reproduce cultural codes and speak Armenian.
Although teachers often refer to their students as having weaker
ties to the church, they acknowledge the role of churches in the sustainability
of cultural identity. Even people who consider themselves as not
religious do not categorically dissociate themselves from the church.
They still participate in cultural activities such as being a part of a church
choir or attending concerts, and this is also the case for high school students.
A young high school graduate explained to me that although he
was not interested in religious practices, he gladly wanted to be part of
these events not only because they were great communal spaces to have
fun but also, they were conducive to cultural sustainability:
“I used to go church choir practice regularly every Friday. I really
liked it because it both gave me an excuse to go out every Friday
night, and we were doing music there and it was really fun. But the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:88
main reason was because I thought that if I didn’t do this, didn’t
go there, who would go and maintain this?”16
The physical edi1ice of the church gives people a sense of cultural belonging,
it speaks to cultural sustainability. That is why sharing the same
physical space with schools, churches actually complement the abstract
boundaries of cultural belonging because it forges the links between Armenian
identity and space.
D.!.! Space
Armenian identity’s relation with space is very particular because Armenian
culture is restrained within the space of its cultural institutions.
In order to foreground the absence of vitality of Armenian cultural practices
in public spaces as a result of Turkey's identity politics, Bilal (899m)
portrays Armenian culture as only living within the con1ines of the Armenian
community in Istanbul (p. j9). In such a context, special events and
festivities become the few spaces where Armenian cultural practices and
identity can be found by young Armenians who are often left without the
means to reproduce Armenian culture (Bilal, 899m, p. j9). Having the considerable
majority of the Armenian population17, with all schools and :a
out of ^S functioning churches, Istanbul almost always stands at the center
of events and festivals, and establishes itself as the cultural space of
the Armenian community. The meaning of this space weighs in Armenian
identity. In her work focusing on the lullabies and other stories about being
an Armenian in Turkey, Bilal (899r) focuses on the impact of space on
creating memory. Moreover, in her later work unraveling the perception
of Istanbul as a home for Armenians, she underscores the ties of Armenians
to the place as it signi1ies centuries-long Armenian presence in Istan-
16 Citation from the interview I conducted with a fresh high school graduate in August
bfO[.
17 With the migration to abroad and to Istanbul continued until only a few families left
behind in Anatolia, no schools and only a few churches and cultural institutions could
function in Anatolia (Bilal, bff^, p. c^).
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:8:
bul (Bilal, 899m). Having Armenian institutions in Istanbul like the Patriarchate,
churches, schools, hospitals, cultural associations, choirs, folk
dance groups in addition to various buildings of Ottoman architecture
that were built by Armenian architects, Armenian cultural heritage and
presence in Istanbul contributes to the feeling of belonging to the place
(Bilal, 899m, p. ar).
With the soaring of migration from Anatolia to Istanbul over the
years, Armenian presence and cultural sustainability has been almost exclusively
identi1ied with Istanbul, albeit the historical existence of Armenian
cultural heritage spread throughout Anatolia. As the boundaries of
cultural space overlap with Istanbul, Armenians predominantly preserve
social and cultural life within the city. When choosing among universities
in Turkey, most of the time Istanbul appears as the most popular option,
and sometimes even only, as students do not prefer to drift apart from
their community. In addition to the ties to the city, the Armenian population
in Istanbul is concentrated in the neighborhoods where schools and
churches function as the cultural centers of the community. In that sense,
even by their physical presence the schools as much as the churches hold
Armenians together where people could sustain social life in a space
where communal belonging is embodied.
In the teacher lounges in one of the high schools, I was talking to a
high school math teacher about the students who came from Anatolia to
Istanbul to study. At some point, she brought up the difference in cultural
practices between Istanbul and Anatolian cities based on a signi1icant
distinction between these two contexts. Having churches and schools in
Istanbul to support the cultural life, she expressed her gratitude in celebrating
holidays and practicing customs and traditions thanks to the cultural
space that the city had to offer. It is imperative to say that this situation
also reinforces the spatialization of Armenian culture by
associating it with particular spaces and preserving it within the boundaries
of semi-private spaces of the schools. It is often regarded among
teachers that the transmission of cultural heritage and the sense of communal
belonging through generations thrives on the schools. With the
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:8^
schools standing at the center of cultural mobility, they keep the communal
life intact. Whereas the schools struggle to persevere as bearers of
Armenian culture, they are also reminders that Armenian culture is restrained
within particular spaces.
The schools as physical buildings are a statement in itself. They are
tangible markers of Armenian culture; a way for Armenians to say “we
are here, we have been here”. As a representation of Armenian culture
and existence, this image surfaces two different perspectives. While the
visibility of schools is a way to substantiate Armenian culture on a daily
basis to everyone who cares to see them, this visibility makes them open
targets of hate crime. Whenever hate crimes towards Armenians soar the
schools are assaulted in different forms of physical damage or most common
expressions of hate speech written on their walls. That is why people
I talked to during my 1ieldwork coming from different backgrounds
expressed diverse opinions on the matter. Although in recent years for
the Armenian community overall it has become more noteworthy to be
visible and knowable to the larger society, the wariness in being within
the sight has not withered away. As opposed to those who prefer to highlight
Armenian schools and churches as visible markers of Armenian heritage
and existence, the number of people who lean towards keeping
these buildings under a veil of concealment to be safe is not to be underestimated.
In addition to being symbols of Armenian existence as a facade, especially
for their students the schools are windows opening to an Armenian
world. Nothing but by the means of the architecture of the school, students
conceptually enter into Armenianness. First and foremost, the
school mounts next to an Armenian church, designed in a way to re1lect
Armenian cultural codes, has a high ceiling, decorations on the walls,
names of its founders on it, and old scripts showing which year it was
constructed. The pin boards in school buildings and classrooms are decorated
with photographs and biographies of Armenian scientists, writers
or intellectuals with information in Armenian. They signify a conceptual
space that students can emotionally engage with. Even though students
are not competent or do not feel con1ident enough to speak Armenian,
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:8a
the space helps them connect to a deep-rooted Armenian past. The
schools provide the venue in which students get acquainted with a particular
conception of the world that is inherent to the Armenian identity.
Thereby, they establish their cultural and identity awareness in the past
and bring this past into the present to engage with Armenian identity.
The attachment of students to the past is one of the reasons why students
pay homage to spaces of Armenian existence. Some of the students I
talked to during my 1ieldwork expressed their emotional attachment to
the space. As I already brought this up in Chapter ^, they spelled out that
even though they go abroad for their education, they would like to return
to Turkey to settle down in order to preserve Armenian cultural heritage
and protect tangible culture (see Bilal 899m). It goes without saying that
future prospects and intentions of students alter throughout their education
and careers; however, their comments re1lect their attachment to the
space.
The sustainability and perseverance of culture can be found in the
mundane details embedded in the educational 1ield. That is why as opposed
to nationalist policies or overwhelming in1luence of neoliberal lifestyles,
the relevance of spaces of Armenian culture does not expire. I contend
that as much as the Armenian schools endure as representations in
which solidarity, identity, language, religion, and culture form an assemblage
to perpetuate a space of communal belonging, Armenian culture
can convey alternative envisagements in the new epoch. Despite the socio-
political climate encircling the schools, the Armenian educational
habitus does not cease to offer collective imaginations of culture. I suggest
that this is what makes it possible to imagine the schools as spaces
in between, mediating the complex interplay between reproduction and
resistance in a communal setting.

:8m
'
Conclusion
he overall objective of this study was to unveil the extended story of
the Armenian schools in Turkey and duly locate them in their current
context. With that purpose, as much as examining the governing of
the schools under the neoliberal yoke of educational currents in Turkey,
the perspective of the study suggested embracing a rather comprehensive
approach in order to portray the terrain of the schools in their historicity
and relationality. The edi1ice spawning the Armenian schools was
characterized with numerous factors impacting the ways how the schools
acted as spaces of solidarity and cultural sustainability for the larger Armenian
community. Throughout the chapters I showed that the schools
were the embodiment of cultural apprehensions, communal politics, vicissitudes
of the socio-political climate, networks of solidarity and means
of cultural empowerment. I also argued that the schools were signi1icant
markers to grasp contemporary conundrums deep-rooted in the Armenian
community in Turkey. Thereby, unfolding their present milieu, I contended
that they mirrored new technologies of governing at a smaller
scale by the educational tide socio-economic changes invoked.
In addition to their communal responsibility, I portrayed the Armenian
schools bearing the brunt of centrally prepared curricula of the national
education system and the pressure of the neoliberal educational
T
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
:8k
wind. Thereby, I examined the double-sided nature of the schools by depicting
them within a habitus of education. Through the lenses of this
habitus, I analyzed communally ingrained patterns and perceptions
which eventually shaped the functioning of the schools at different levels.
In this vein, unlike previous studies this study did not solely focus on administrative,
bureaucratic or regulatory processes that restricted and de-
1ined the governing of the schools within the limits of state apparatuses,
but challenged these arguments by studying the relation of the schools to
their surrounding atmosphere more profoundly and pinpointed the need
to foreground the dialogue among different actors and spheres in the Armenian
educational 1ield. I insisted that this story was in need of telling
because the educational habitus of the Armenian community exhibited
key focal points to grasp recurring themes, con1licts, and predicaments
deep-rooted in history that were now inherent to the edi1ice of the Armenian
community in Turkey. I suggested that with the perspective I employed
not only the educational sphere but also the complexity of the social
context of Turkey could be addressed. The study of the Armenian
schools reminded us of the fact that the viability of cultural diversity
should be sought in multilayered and cross-cutting themes expanding
throughout different spheres of political, economic and social life. In that
regard, the theoretical framework of this study carves out new spaces to
discuss not only the cultural or educational rights of Armenians in Turkey,
but also provides a larger framework to revisit minority studies, citizenships
practices or democratic demands with reference to the social
dynamics of our time.
With that objective I started presenting this study with a concise description
of the historical formation and transformation of the schools as
they were restructured with reference to the educational refashioning of
the modernization process. Throughout the second chapter, while I composed
the remodeling of the schools within the tide of global political developments,
I elucidated the background story of how the present status
of the schools was engineered in the course of their history. Whereas the
overall objective of this second chapter was to tell the historical backdrop
of the schools, it also served a crucial aim and showed that some of the
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:8j
bottlenecks of the existing precarious status of the schools were rooted
in their past. As much as underlining the signi1icance of examining the
historical context engul1ing the Armenian schools as a necessary component
to grasp their current dilemmas, I also emphasized that this perspective
was not suf1icient to see the larger framework the schools resided
in. We needed to capture the exigencies and contingencies of the
era and discuss the schools in their larger habitus. The second chapter
endorsed what I articulated in the introduction and later reiterated in the
following chapters, that one of the motives of this study was to analyze
the schools in their particular time and space. Therefore, it underscored
the fact that the schools were responsive to recent developments and
were in fact substantially impacted by the neoliberal shift in the educational
realm, the demise of cultural diversity amidst the af1luence of popular
expressions of a global identity or new technologies of governing.
In order to locate the Armenian schools in the larger national education
system and to further unravel their status, in the third chapter I examined
the governing of the Armenian schools in consideration of the
transformation of the mentality of governance and recon1igurations of
power in the age of neoliberalism. In doing so, I challenged the image of
an all-encompassing repressive state which was presumed to have comprehensive
decision-making processes in order to meticulously regulate
the minority schools. Thereby, I refused to land on arguments which saw
a straightforward relationship between the nation state and the Armenian
schools. I contended that despite its image, the Turkish state did not
calculate every detail regarding the Armenian schools. Instead, I preferred
to use the term “meandering state” to address the state apparatus
whose discourses and actions meandered with reforms, improvements
and ambiguities. The perpetuation of this meandering state, I further argued,
referred to multiple ways of governing and subsumed both forms
of sovereign power and governmentality, precision and ambiguity, continuity
and rupture. While the sovereign power that was historically constructed
on Turko-Islamic precepts employed new mechanisms performing
through legal ambiguity, it also paired with disciplinary technologies
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
::9
of governmentality as they penetrated into quotidian practices of the
schools and transformed how people thought and behaved.
In the fourth chapter, I explained the other side of the medallion and
spelled out how the Armenian schools contributed to the empowering
networks that helped the ways Armenian culture and identity endure. I
foregrounded that scrutinizing the Armenian schools did not only address
how communal places provided paramount means to sustain the
existence of conceptual spaces of communal belonging, but also, they
contributed to the resilience of this conceptual space while the regime
tried to eliminate community-based social structures standing on the
way of engineering a direct link from the individual to the nation state. I
discussed how the governmentality of this communal space performed
in its particular ways. I described this space with reference to a familial
culture because it was reminiscent of familial relations and forms of intimacy.
In this manner, as much as unpacking networks of solidarity, the
chapter challenged the opacity of the boundaries of private and communal
spheres and questioned the ways power performed in a family-like
atmosphere.
With the purpose of 1illing the gaps between two stories told in chapter
three and four, chapter a focused on intra-communal governing mechanisms,
administrative networks and the operation of the foundation
boards since these aspects impacted the functioning of the schools in
many respects from their quotidian practices to structural matters. By
discussing communal dynamics, my objective was to present different
layers and variegated aspects of the edi1ice engul1ing the schools and tell
the story as subtly and as comprehensively as possible. Nuancing the
family allegory that I used in the former chapter, this chapter probed the
ways the notables of the community in1luenced the educational 1ield by
their involvement. I showed that their involvement in educational affairs
often undergirded the consolidation of neoliberal precepts as well as the
state effect in the Armenian educational 1ield.
For the comprehensiveness of the larger study, in the 1inal chapter I
illuminated contemporary articulations of Armenian identity and culture
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
::S
in the current socio-political context of Turkey. As I analyzed the sustainability
of Armenian cultural life within the edi1ice of the schools the way
it was interpreted at intra-communal and individual levels, I drew attention
to the existence of discourses, comments, practices and interpretations
taking place off-stage that either con1irmed or contradicted with
the public transcript within the schools. Deciphering the ways teachers,
administrators or parents conceptualized Armenian identity and the
challenges that Armenian culture experienced in this particular setting, I
remarked how self-meaning morphed in accordance with paradigm
shifts in the domestic and global contexts as much as it was molded by
the collective trauma of the past. As regards, my objective in this 1inal
chapter was to underscore that Armenian identity was not a constant reality.
Rather, I suggested grasping Armenian culture and identity with reference
to its spatiality and temporality, since its main constituents were
recurrently challenged by prevailing precepts of the era.
Reiterating my initial research question here once again, in a couple
of sentences I would like to recapitulate what the chapters explaining the
habitus of education have already discussed previously. The larger objective
of this research was to bring answers to the question of to what extent
the Armenian schools in Turkey served as spaces of cultural empowerment,
solidarity and cultural sustainability in providing the means and
a particular conception of world for the Armenian community, despite
the fact that the nationalist and centralized education system in Turkey
marginalized Armenian culture and disposed the schools at the periphery
of the education system on a rule of exceptions. My 1ieldwork showed
that the answer to this question was multilayered and required to look at
an assemblage of multiple factors in the economic, political and social
terrain of Turkey. By my analysis, I contend that the space in which Armenian
culture abides, if not blossoms, how people conceive the world,
how they behave, think or speak is not fully surrounded, engirdled or encompassed
by the nation state or it is not completely enmeshed within
the dominant discourse. It is indeed possible to locate terrains of empowerment,
resistance or endurance. I argue that by playing a role in the perpetuation
of this educational habitus, the Armenian schools contribute to
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
::8
safeguarding the sense of latitude which allows sustaining Armenian culture
and identity. The schools have a signi1icant share in the reproduction
and reconceptualization of these processes.
Furthermore, the line of thinking in answering my research question
highlights a meaningful inference in that it demonstrates that the challenges
which Armenian cultural sustainability faces today is not so
straightforward. I conclude that one of the most suggestive takeaways
from this analysis is that it proposes to question straightforward or linear
links between events, actors or processes to read the larger picture. The
challenges and predicaments that the Armenian schools or the Armenian
educational sphere experience cannot be sought within the bare boundaries
of state institutions. This line of thinking also applies to other studies
trying to unpack meaning in social life. In that regard, this study offers
a new perspective for minority studies as its approach highlights the signi
1icance of grasping social and cultural aspects and relations including
precarious and complex domains.
The interplay between reproduction and resistance does not always
appear in con1licting ways. Sometimes these processes are observed in
ambiguous ways blended to each other. I contend that with new conceptions
of the world, what we understand by governing also changes. I do
not see the processes of empowerment, solidarity, sustainability, exclusion,
assimilation or dominance as opposed to each other. In this manner,
the lenses that the habitus of education offers help us see the complexity,
multivalence and circularity of the phenomena which de1ine and construct
the space of the Armenian schools. With that objective, the perspective
I employ throughout the text suggests to juxtapose these processes
and read them simultaneously. This perspective, I contend,
underscores the essentiality to interpret multipartite, manifold, active,
engaged and malleable characteristics of the educational 1ield of the Armenian
schools. That is why it refuses to see Armenian educational and
cultural life as a stable essentialized entity. As much as the schools address
daily activities, encounters or relations of people, the factors that
can portray them should be pursued in regular details of state of affairs.
Instead of discussing the Armenian schools in compartmentalized topics
ARMENIAN SCHOOLS
:::
of discussion, which is usually categorized under minority studies, this
study suggests reading the subject within broader frameworks which can
re1lect the expansiveness of paradigm shifts. As this analysis highlights
the extent neoliberalism and the schemas of thought it introduced are
embedded in various spheres of life, it offers a meaningful departure
point to capture how power performs in this particular time and space.
The study highlights the fact that cultural sustainability of local cultures
is challenged by the social reworking of neoliberalism and global
marketing practices. In this age, sustainability is a cross-cutting trending
topic on the agenda of not only academic and research institutions but
also non-governmental organizations, businesses, states or intergovernmental
institutions. The discussions regarding cultural sustainability become
more relevant and signi1icant in understanding the future of local
cultures that strive to endure in a dominant majority culture or against
the social recon1igurations of the new era.
Having said that, one of the novelties of this research is to identify the
paucity of perspectives that see Armenian studies relational to challenges
that neoliberalism, globalization or governmentalization bring for
this particular context. We need to discuss the factors that impact how
and to what extent Armenian cultural practices and heritage survive in
the future and how Armenian cultural sustainability can be reconceptualized
in the light of these developments. This research has already unveiled
the intensity of the interaction between cultural sustainability and
economic globalization at the small scale of the Armenian schools. It also
underlines the need to ruminate and pursue aspects which would de1ine
the future of Armenian culture on a larger scale. The implication of this
study highlights the need to analyze the ways Armenian culture and identity
is reimagined by different actors in the Armenian community. It indicates
the need to discuss the topics I referred to within the educational
1ield in a larger framework so that the predicaments that Armenian culture
encountered today would be comprehensively analyzed. Understanding
Armenian cultural sustainability demands the expansion of the
range of study and visiting other spaces of cultural production.
HÜLYA DELİHÜSEYİNOĞLU
::^
Writ large this story tells us that our conceptual lenses need to be remodeled
in a way to grasp the veracity of contemporary challenges and
capture the sophistication of daily life. There is a need to reconstruct, reframe
and renarrate currents of socio-political structure and socio-cultural
life. The issues that I raised throughout the chapters to describe the
milieu of the Armenian schools actually resonate in different settings in
a similar way. Therefore, the theoretical framework I used can be adopted
in various areas in order to address the intersections of economic, political
and social 1ields. Throughout the chapters, I showed that society,
community and individuals act in harmonious ways and their power dynamics
interact with each other. The lenses we are equipped with should
also see the 1luidity between these levels of analysis.
::a

::m
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