“Our Sacred Native Land”: Armenian Roots Tourism in Eastern Turkey

This article explores how Armenian roots tourists carve a “sacred native land” out of eastern Turkey through their journeys. It addresses the question of how they imagine and inhabit different understandings of homeland, sacredness, and nativeness while traversing several heritage sites that represe...

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Bibliografske podrobnosti
izdano v:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/eac,
Glavni avtor: Korkmaz, Ayşenur
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Jezik:Anglais
Izdano: Études arméniennes contemporaines 2021
Teme:
Online dostop:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Opis
Izvleček:This article explores how Armenian roots tourists carve a “sacred native land” out of eastern Turkey through their journeys. It addresses the question of how they imagine and inhabit different understandings of homeland, sacredness, and nativeness while traversing several heritage sites that represent the lost homeland “Ergir”, including Armenian churches and monasteries, battlefields and graveyards, natural landmarks, and ancestral homes. Now ground zero of contestation, these sites are transformed into a sacred realm by Armenian roots tourists through a set of narratives and rituals, which often mobilize origin stories, religious myths, and interpretations of violence and destruction in eastern Turkey.