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Looking Back

Armenian Emigrants, Nationalism and Modern Turkey

Looking Back cover

Looking Back Armenian Emigrants, Nationalism and Modern Turkey

Quantity
Pre-order. Available Feb 19 2026
$103.50 RRP $115.00 Website price saving $11.50 (10%)

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Description

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

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

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction


Chapter 1: Talking about the Violent Past

State Violence and Imagining the Nation
1915: “The Heavy Sound of Silence” and Remembering
Weaving the Past with the Present

Chapter 2: Encounters with the State

The Myriad Ways of Pursuing Turkification: The State's Lens
Experiencing and Making Sense of “Hot Nationalism”
Serving the Nation: Military Service, Citizenship and Being a Minority
Further Encounters with the State and “Nation Talk”

Chapter 3: Education, Nationalist Politics, and Minority Lives
(Re)Designing the Educational Domain: The State's Lens
Life Chances and Managing Institutional Hurdles
Biography, History, and Unearthing the Past
Sociability and Discrimination: Interactions with Friends and Teachers

Chapter 4: Remembering Places, and People

Remembering Places: Life in Istanbul
Remembering Summers on the Princes' Islands
Interactions Across the Ethnoreligious Divide

Chapter 5: Encounters with Strangers

Speaking Turkish and Regulating Surnames: The State's Lens
Speaking Turkish at the “Right Places” and the “Right Way”
“Living with One's Name”: Strategies and Practices in Everyday Interactions

Conclusion
References
Index

Product details

Published Feb 19 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 192
ISBN 9780755654666
Imprint I.B. Tauris
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series Contemporary Turkey
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Yesim Bayar

Yesim Bayar is Associate Professor in the Departme…

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