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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2022
In thinking about the prompt for this forum—on the ways in which Armenia and Armenians sit within Middle East studies and the ways in which they are often occluded from the sights of Middle East studies—what comes to mind is the critical necessity for internationalism and solidarity. This might at first seem only tangentially or indirectly relevant to the object of investigation here; after all, we are talking about geography, history, and facts. However, I think that it is relevant to how (as in with what sense, orientation, and from what perspective) we approach the question of scholarly regional belonging. Like any topic of intellectual inquiry, how we imagine and define regions has implications on what we find in those regions: the sites of importance and focus; the connections between different groups, persons, and events; and the scope of investigations. Internationalism and solidarity as frameworks for understanding Armenia and Armenians as a part of the Middle East orient us to the region by way of connections to the various peoples of that region with a political and ideological commitment to the well-being of all peoples there and everywhere. Many of the commentaries in this forum focus on the marginalization of particular minorities in Middle East Studies (Armenians, Copts, and Assyrians in this forum, and we also could think about the marginalization of Kurds and other minoritized populations in the region).1 This in itself is a critical and necessary point of departure. I would like to approach the question from another angle, however. How might we think about this problem from the other side? How does Armenian studies see itself in connection with Middle East studies? Here, although I recognize that Armenian studies is a changing field and is not monolithic, with various differences between the field as it developed in Europe and the United States and that which developed in the Republic of Armenia, there are a few continuities that I would like to problematize and imagine differently. What might the future of Armenian studies be if it were made through politically committed questions, articulations, and collaborations? How might this produce a (different) sense of belonging to Middle East studies?
1 Soleimani, Kamal and Mohammadpour, Ahmad, “Can Non-Persians Speak? The Sovereign's Narration of ‘Iranian Identity,’” Ethnicities 19, no. 5 (2019): 925–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Harootunian, Harry D., “Postcoloniality's Unconscious/Area Studies’ Desire,” Postcolonial Studies 2, no. 2 (1999): 127–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Said, Edward, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 2014)Google Scholar.
3 Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Brattleboro, VT: Echo Point, 2020).
4 Peter Balakian, Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 145.
5 P. Farmer and Nicole Gastineau, “Rethinking Health and Human Rights: Time for a Paradigm Shift,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 30 (2002): 655–66; A. Azoulay, “Palestine as Symptom, Palestine as Hope: Revising Human Rights Discourse,” Critical Inquiry 40 (2014): 332–64.
6 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).
7 Sebouh David Aslanian, “From ‘Autonomous’ to ‘Interactive’ Histories: World History's Challenge to Armenian Studies,” in An Armenian Mediterranean, ed. Kathryn Babayan and Michael Pifer (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 81–125.
8 Razmik Panossian, “Post-Soviet Armenia: Nationalism and Its (Dis)Contents,” in After Independence: Making and Protecting the Nation in Postcolonial and Postcommunist States, ed. L. W. Barrington (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2006), 225; Gayane Ayvazyan, “Orva Lureri Qnnarkum” (On public education and Armenian studies), Epress.am, 22 July 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NB8XP5u25c&t=1s.
9 Ayvazyan, “Orva Lureri Qnnarkum.”
10 Aslanian, “From ‘Autonomous’ to ‘Interactive’ Histories.”
11 Radhika Desai, “Introduction: From the Neoclassical Diversion to Geopolitical Economy,” in Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy, ed. Radhika Desai (Bingley, UK: Emerald Group, 2015), 10–43.
12 “Yerevan Claims Turkish Jet Downed Armenia Plane as Fighting with Azerbaijan Forces Intensify,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 29 September 2020, https://www.rferl.org/a/fighting-continues-over-disputed-nagorno-karabakh-amid-international-calls-for-restraint/30863700.html; Ece Toksabay, “Turkish Arms Sales to Azerbaijan Surged before Nagorno-Karabakh Fighting,” Reuters, 14 October 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-armenia-azerbaijan-turkey-arms/turkish-arms-sales-to-azerbaijan-surged-before-nagorno-karabakh-fighting-idUSKBN26Z237; Ed Butler, “The Syrian Mercenaries Used as ‘Cannon Fodder’ in Nagorno-Karabakh,” BBC News, 10 December 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55238803.
13 Avaktov Vladimir Alekseevich, “Neo-Ottomanism as a Key Doctrine of Modern Turkey,” Communication and Public Diplomacy 1, no. 1 (2018): 80–88.
14 Nvard Hovhannisyan and Ramil Ayyub, “Armenia Recalls Ambassador to Israel over Arms Sales to Azerbaijan,” Reuters, 1 October 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-armenia-azerbaijan-israel/armenia-recalls-ambassador-to-israel-over-arms-sales-to-azerbaijan-idUSKBN26M76L.
15 Nareg Kuyumjian, “Don't Water It Down: The Role of Water Security in the Armenia-Azerbaijan War,” Eurasianet, 22 December 2021, https://eurasianet.org/perspectives-dont-water-it-down-the-role-of-water-security-in-the-armenia-azerbaijan-war; Simon Maghakyan, “Putin's Isn't the Only Regime Leveraging Fossil Fuels for Aggression,” Time, 4 April 2022, https://time.com/6163908/nagorno-karabakh-gas-crisis.
16 Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–40.
17 Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, [1963] 2004).
18 Simon Maghakyan, “Can Islamic Shrines’ Connection to Armenians Transform Azerbaijani Politics of Erasure?” Hyperallergic, 28 February 2021, https://hyperallergic.com/618339/can-islamic-shrines-connection-to-armenians-transform-azerbaijani-politics-of-erasure.
19 Elizabeth A. Povinelli, “The Will to Be Otherwise/The Effort of Endurance.” South Atlantic Quarterly 111, no. 3 (2012): 453–57.
20 See, for instance, Merrill Singer and Arachu Castro's “critical perspective” on anthropologists’ relation to health policy; “Anthropology and Health Policy: A Critical Perspective,” in Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination, ed. Castro, Arachu and Singer, Merrill (Lanham, MD: Altamira Press, 2004), xi–xxGoogle Scholar. The state, as many anthropologists argue, is not necessarily a structure with the objective of fixing problems, but often the source and cause of violence. See Farmer and Gastineau, “Rethinking”; and Simpson, Audra, “The Sovereignty of Critique,” South Atlantic Quarterly 119, no. 4 (2020): 685–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.