NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript and are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was scanned as received. pg297 This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI DIASPORIC REPRESENTATIONS: A STUDY OF CIRCASSIAN AND ARMENIAN IDENTITIES IN GREATER SYRIA by Kari S. Neely A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Near Eastern Studies) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Kevork B. Bardakjian, Chair Professor Anton Shammas Associate Professor Carol Bardenstein Associate Professor Andrew J. Shryock UMI Number: 3305049 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3305049 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 © KariS.Neely 2008 For Nico Sevan, who made this difficult but also necessary. If any one thing made me connect to these authors and their works it was looking at you, my child, and thinking about theirs; lost, orphaned, emaciated, murdered. I wish for you perpetual happiness and that you may never know loss. 11 Acknowledgements Kevork Bardakjian: Thank you for being honest and direct. Your support made all the difference. Valerie Anishchenkova: a trusted and willing advisor whose thoughtful insight and calming voice influenced my writing and my mood. Bryce Adams: for enduring still unknown tribulations expanding his knowledge of horses and opera for my benefit and whose own knowledge on marginal subjects continues to be a source of motivation, inspiration, and argumentation. Brad: for always being there Ara Sanjian: a fount of Armenian knowledge that I endlessly tapped. Gerald Papasian: Armenian operas expert, thanks for his personal insight. Levon Abrahamian: thanks for a fascinating chat about rabiz music and lectures in Yerevan that I was fortunate to attend. Jaimoukha: a helpful advisor in all things Circassian. Thank you for providing the world your knowledge. Gerard Libaridian, Sako, Carol, Hrant Dink: for not being afraid of the truth Jonathan Rodgers: the best Middle Eastern librarian and search expert Allen, Raji, Carol, Helen, Layla, CJ, and Deb: for support Raji: for unswerving belief in me when I had my doubts Khaled: for loving your mother tongue and hating your accent John: you remind me that it's the moment that matters, and I now like the moment All my students: for helping me remember its all about learning in Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgments iii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: Villains and Enemies: Constructing the Self through 27 Others Chapter Three: Religious Diasporic Representations: Genocide and 61 Profanation Chapter Four: Hijras: Horses Die and Accordions Wail 132 Chapter Five: Spectacular Embeddings: Armenian Operatic 209 Performance Chapter Six: Repatriation: The Dream Frustrated 249 Chapter Seven: Conclusions 287 References 298 IV Chapter One Introduction There are Cossacks in the holy lands who torment Muslims lulled to sleep on the melodic sounds of the accordion. Church bells ring near a small shop in Aleppo where a man rolls falafel and mint in a nearly transparent piece of lavash after writing his brother an "inch bes es?" at the local internet cafe. The territorial location of ethnicity has broken down all over the globe, not just in major urban centers such as London and New York but in the countries of Greater Syria, too. It is neither a recent development nor only the product of elective immigration. Instead, the region has been an ethnic mosaic since the time it was carved up into mandates after WWI. Separated by tremendous distance, the worlds of the Caucasus and Southern Anatolia are intimately connected to Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria because of the presence of two diasporas; Circassians and Armenians. Both groups were forced from their distant homelands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries due to protracted wars between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. After genocides and displacement, the Circassians and then the Armenians found themselves living among Arabs in a predominantly Muslim society that treated its citizens according to a classification system based on religion; the millet system of the Ottoman Empire. This project began as an attempt to understand the position of minorities within the region of Greater Syria where an Arab and Muslim population forms the normative 1 culture. Armenians were the first group selected for inclusion because of my knowledge of Western Armenian and my interest in Christian groups within the Middle East. Armenians are a unique subset of the larger Christian body as they constitute a diasporic group with no claims of indigeniety to the region. Unlike the majority of Christians within Greater Syria1 who define themselves as Arabs, the diasporic Armenians do not share the same national histories with their host communities. How, then, did the Armenians come to reside in Greater Syria? A brief overview of Armenian history is in order to situate this study of Armenian diaspora within the larger frame of Armenian history. Homeland to Genocide to Greater Syria: A Brief History of the Armenian Dispersion The history of Armenians is deep, rich, complicated, tragic, and formally exists outside of Greater Syria until the mass emigration of refugees from the Ottoman Empire were driven into the Eastern Syrian desert at Deir Zor in 1915. According to traditional Armenian history, 301 AD marks the start of the Christian Armenian nation under the leadership of Trdat III. In 451 AD Armenians break away from the Universal Church over a debate on Christology resulting in the formation of their own, national church with its own dogma and a unique Armenian language liturgy. As a national church, the 1 The scope of this dissertation is limited to Greater Syria as defined as the region now composed of the nations Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. While there are Circassians and Armenians located within Israel/Palestine, their literary production is scant and not included within this study as they are not writing against the same social/cultural backdrop of a normative Arab/Muslim population but rather a Jewish cultural context. 2 New historical research estimates the true conversion to have happened around 314 AD. Establishing the date of 301 allows Armenians to make the claim of being the first nation to convert to Christianity. 2 Armenian Orthodox Apostolic Church maintains a separate and distinctive identity that has safeguarded Armenia from incorporation into larger Christian bodies such as the Byzantine Empire. From this point in the fifth century, Armenian national history and religious history blend within the territorial space of the "homeland" of Armenia. Depending on the map imagined, this homeland comprises portion of the territories stretching from the southern Caucasus encompassed by the modern Republic of Armenia today and into the region of Eastern Anatolia currently occupied by Turkey. Additionally, the Southeastern region of Turkey known as Cilicia that encompasses the territory bounded in the north by the Taurus Mountains and the South along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea extending inland to the modern border of Syria around, but not including, Aleppo has been populated with Armenians from around the beginning of the 11 century when the Kingdom of Cilicia, also known as Little Armenia, saw the flourishing of a Western Armenian culture that, due to the geographical distance from the Armenian Plain, would continue to develop as a separate and unique culture. From the Medieval period, the differences between Western and Eastern Armenias and Armenians continued to crystallize, embodied in divergent dialects, orthographies, and cultural traits influenced by empires and different cultural milieus. In the 19th century the cultural centers of Armenian culture fell outside of the space typically thought of as part of the historic homeland of Armenia. In the East, Tiflis with imperial Russia as its social influence was the cultural and intellectual center. In the West, Constantinople under the Ottoman Empire was the creative and political center for Western Armenians. The political situation of the Western Armenians was thought and was proved to be more tenuous than that of Eastern Armenians. As early as 1860 with 3 the Christian massacres in Lebanon and Damascus, the plight of Christians within the Empire became grave. The massacres were not aimed at the Armenians but the Ottomans showed little concern about the violence committed against their Christian subjects. Decades later, the Hamidian or Armenian massacres of 1895-1897 were specifically directed towards the Armenians living in the Eastern provinces and are said to be the result of Abdul Hamid's policy of pan-Islamism. After the successful coup of the Young Turks against Abdul Hamid supported by Armenians, a counter-coup in 1909 briefly reestablished the Sultan and a massacre of Armenians occurred in Adana, thought to be an act of retribution against "disloyal" Armenian subjects. By this point, the predicament of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire had drawn international attention. But it was too late. Armenians once again became the target of the Ottoman state apparatus as the Empire crumbled under the military pressures of World War I. Seeking a means to justify what would come to be known as the first genocide of the 20th century, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) pointed to the Eastern Armenians residing and fighting in Russian forces against the Ottomans as a subversive force influencing Armenians in Eastern Anatolia and throughout the Empire.